No offense, but if you can’t read their alphabet, you are illiterate. So here’s a quick fix.
By now you’ve likely learned the bible wasn’t originally written in English. (Although good luck informing
The bible was written in three
The Old Testament was written in what we call Biblical Hebrew—the older parts in Early Biblical Hebrew, and the Aramaic-influenced later parts in Later Biblical Hebrew. A few chapters were written in Aramaic, the language of the Babylonian Empire—the language Daniel put some of his visions into. After the Jews returned from Babylon, that’s what they spoke, and that’s what Jesus spoke, as demonstrated by the few direct quotes we have of him in the New Testament. As for the NT, it’s in a form of Alexandrian Greek we call Koine Greek, a term which comes from the word
And I know; most of my readers don’t know these languages. I learned them in seminary, ’cause I wanted to know how to read the original texts of the bible. I wanted to read it unfiltered by a translator. Not that most translators don’t know what they’re doing; not that most English translations aren’t well done. They are. But if I’m gonna seriously study bible, I still wanna read the original, and go through the process of translation myself. That’s
In so doing, I often need to talk about the original-language words. So I convert ’em into our alphabet so you can kinda read them. It’s called
Mark 5.41-42 KWL - 41 He gripped the child’s hand and told her, “Talítha kum” (which is translated, “Get up, I say”)
- 42 and the girl instantly got up, and was walking around—she was 12 years old.
- They were amazed and ecstatic.
—turning the original
Until recently I’ve transliterated everything on this blog, and left the original Hebrew and Greek out. ’Cause foreign languages intimidate certain people. Throw some Hebrew-alphabet words on a page, and people flinch: “Oh no, he’s writing in Hebrew! I can’t possibly read that. I can’t possibly read anything he’s written; he’ll get too technical for me.” I know; to many of you this sounds ridiculous. But I assure you people really do get that way. And I didn’t wanna alienate readers.
I’ve lately come to realize in so doing, I’m accommodating people’s irrational fears. And shouldn’t. Such fears are wholly inappropriate for Christians. If foreign languages freak you out, you need to get over it. Need to. It ruins your ability to share Jesus with foreigners—and with anybody who has compassion for foreigners. You know, like Jesus,
But I’ve received comments from people who aren’t sure I’m transliterating properly. Fr’instance
Well, everybody they know is doing it wrong. Modern Greek speakers pronounce it
True, ancient Hebrew and Greek is not modern Hebrew and Greek. Doesn’t matter. Today’s native speakers have the pronunciation way closer than Americans do. And for the most part Americans aren’t even trying to get the pronunciation right. They’re just repeating the way they heard other Christians and scholars say it. They’re following the crowd. Even if they learned how to pronounce these languages properly in seminary; even if they grew up in Israel or Greece! That’s just how corrupting peer pressure can be.
I strive for accuracy. So should we all. So I’ll include my transliteration scheme here, for transparency’s sake. And of course you can compare it with your favorite Greek or Hebrew dictionaries… including the mangled way they sometimes pronounce these words, which likewise bear no relation to how native speakers properly do it.
Transliterating Greek.
Since I tend to quote the New Testament more often than the Old, I tend to explain Greek words more often than Hebrew. So let’s start with Greek.
People often transliterate Greek following an older customary system. It’s why β tends to be converted into B; after all, don’t they look alike? But the letter’s pronounced
Desiderus Erasmus, the medieval scholar who put together the Textus Receptus, tends to get blamed for that customary system. Many biblical Greek professors claim they’re following “Erasmean pronunciation,” and Erasmus’s system. But to me they look far too much like they’re mimicking the way their own American professors pronounced (or mispronounced) everything. In any event I’m still following modern Greek, not Erasmus. (He likewise converted β’s into B’s.)
Every so often you’re gonna find people convert η into H, or ω into W. It has nothing to do with pronunciation: It’s because Apple created a font back in the 1980s called Symbol, and if you wanted to type an η you had to type H—and some people still think the letters are related. They’re not. Greek has sounds in their alphabet which we don’t represent by single letters, and vice-versa.
So here’s how I convert their alphabet to ours.
(And just a reminder: All the vowels are pronounced like Spanish, French, Italian, and pretty much every language but English. An I isn’t pronounced like pie, but pizza.)
| GREEK | NAME | ENGLISH | SOUND (IPA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Α α | álfa | a | |
| αι | e | ||
| αυ | af, av | ||
| Β β | víta | v | |
| Γ γ | ghámma | y, gh | |
| γγ | ngh | ||
| γκ | ngh | ||
| γχ | nkh | ||
| γξ | nx | ||
| Δ δ | délta | d | |
| Ε ε | épsilon | e | |
| ει | i | ||
| ευ | ef, ev | ||
| Ζ ζ | zíta | z | |
| Η η | íta | i | |
| Θ θ | thíta | th | |
| Ι ι | yóta | i, y | |
| ιη | yi | ||
| Κ κ | káppa | k | |
| Λ λ | lámda | l | |
| Μ μ | mi | m | |
| μβ | m | ||
| Ν ν | ni | n | |
| ντ | d | ||
| Ξ ξ | xi | x | |
| Ο ο | ómikron | o | |
| oυ | u | ||
| Π π | pi | p | |
| πν | n | ||
| Ρ ρ | ro | r | |
| Σ σ c ς | sígma | s | |
| Τ τ | tav | t | |
| Υ υ | ýpsilon | y | |
| Φ φ | fi | f | |
| Χ χ | hi | h, kh | |
| Ψ ψ | psi | ps | |
| Ω ω | oméga | o | |
Transliterating Hebrew.
The “Hebrew alphabet” is really the Aramaic alphabet. (Yep, Hebrew and Aramaic used the same alphabet; same as Latin and English. Or used to; neo-Aramaic has a new alphabet.) The original Hebrew alphabet, usually called “paleo Hebrew,” looked a bit different—but you’re not gonna find it in Hebrew-language bibles. Just ancient inscriptions, and sometimes on Israeli sheqels. Don’t worry about it.
There’s a myth Hebrew is nothing but consonants. Nope. Like our letter Y, sometimes they’re vowels. But because Hebrew was a dead language for nearly 24 centuries, the Masoretes (the folks who made copies of the bible throughout the middle ages) added
| HEBREW | NAME | ENGLISH | SOUND (IPA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| א | álef | (glottal open) | whichever vowel is indicated by the niqqúd |
| ב | vet | v | |
| בּ | bet | b | |
| ג | gímel | g, gh | |
| ד | dálet | d | |
| ה | he | h, a | |
| ו | vav | v, w | |
| וֹ | hólam vav | o | |
| וּ | šúruk vav | u | |
| ז | záyin | z | |
| ח | khet | kh | |
| ט | tet | t | |
| י | yod | y, i | |
| ך כ | kaf | k | |
| ךּ כּ | khaf | kh | |
| ל | lámed | l | |
| ם מ | mem | m | |
| ן נ | nun | n | |
| ס | sámekh | c | |
| ע | áyin | (glottal stop) | whichever vowel is indicated by the niqqúd |
| ף פ | pe | p | |
| ףּ פּ | fe | f | |
| ץ צ | chádi | ch | |
| ק | qof | q | |
| ר | reš | r | |
| שׁ | š | šin | |
| שׂ | s | sin | |
| ת | tav, taf | t, th | |
| ְo | shva | e | |
| ִo | híriq | i | |
| ֵo | chérë | e | |
| ֶo | segól | e | |
| ַo | patákh | a | |
| ָo | kamáts | a, o | |
| ֹo | hólam | o | |
| ֻo | kubúch | u |
Some Hebrew letters have a dot, or
Accents work the same way they do in Spanish, or other languages where they actually bother to use the accents: That’s the syllable you emphasize. (English occasionally ignores this rule, and uses accents to indicate non-silent E’s.)
And if there are two vowels right next to one another which you’re meant to pronounce separately (like in “Hawaii”) sometimes I use an umlaut (like in “noël”) and sometimes an H, because you know how English-speakers tend to ignore umlauts.
Any deviations I make from this system are either mistakes on my part, or because native speakers pronounce it way differently than it’s spelled. You know, like English speakers occasionally do. It happens.
