Prophetic Language?
Take for instance this verse from the story of the Flood, “the land was filled with violence.” The Hebrew word for “violence” here is Hamas (חמאס)! Today, Hamas is the name of a terrorist organization that indeed fills our land with violence. But who could have known it at that time? And yet, here it is, right before our eyes – the word that meant “violence” long before the violent Hamas came into existence.
Virus or Plague?
Another example is connected directly to today’s reality. Coronavirus in Hebrew is Negif Korona - negif (נגיף) meaning “virus”. The word negif is of course the main word we hear on the news these days. If you know Biblical Hebrew, however, you would recognize a very frightening root in this word: negef, or magefa (מגפה) – the Biblical words that mean “plague, pestilence”. Why do the words “virus” and “plague” have the same root in Hebrew?
Discover the Hebrew connection
In Modern Hebrew, many new words were derived from existing biblical roots. For some (prophetic?) reason, the word “virus” was derived from the word “plague” – although, at that time, nobody thought of a virus as a deadly plague. Today, the connection between these words is obvious.
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