![]() There is a bad theology out there that has become prominent and it deals with the word את (Et). What is the word “Et”? People think it contains mystical meaning about the Messiah because for one it is not translated and two it is made up of the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So they automatically relate it to the Greek “Alpha and Omega” thinking that when you see the את in your internlinear it is speaking of the Messiah. This is just horrible theology and let me show why. First of all, the את is an object pointer showing which noun is receiving the action. Take for instance Genesis 1:1 which reads: בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ (Beresheet Bara Elohim Et HaShamayim v’et HaAretz) Now the action here is the word בָּרָא (Bara) which means “to create”. Now did the בְּרֵאשִׁית (beginning) create אֱלֹהִים (Elohim)? No that is ridiculous. So and את is there to show it is Elohim doing the creating by pointing to the word HaShamayim through the Et. Now we also have a second Et in this verse with the word וְאֵת (v’et) and the ו signifies “and” and then it has the את to show that הָאָרֶץ (the earth) was ALSO created by Elohim. Without the Et you don’t know what created what. It could be that the beginning created Elohim or that HaShamayim created the beginning or HaAretz created Elohim etc. The את is simply a grammatical pointer nothing more. In fact when Yeshua is said to be the first and the last in the gospels and the New Testament The Hebrew is Rishon v’Acharon. And the Aramaic is Rishoni w’Achraya never does it say את. |
The Blog
Theological Insights from Rabbi Eved Banah the North American Rebbe of Ani Judaism Archives
July 2020
|