Jots & Tittles

Introduction

Jots & Tittles

Welcome back everyone to this episode of Torah Today Ministries, and we are beginning a series today called The Hebrew Key. It’s been my experience that so many problematic passages and verses in both the Hebrew and Greek scriptures can be unlocked and explained if we have the Hebrew key — if we understand the Hebrew of the language, or a particular word or setting — and it makes everything so much clearer.

So I don’t know of any better place to start this series than with the passage in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, beginning with verse 17 — verses 17 and 18.

Now if you are older like myself, you were probably raised on the King James Version — it was about the only game in town when I was a kid. And so many of the passages I’ve memorized and learned are in the King James. And that is where we get this expression we’re going to look at today.

Not One Jot or Tittle

In verse 17, Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) says:

Think not that I came to destroy the law — and of course we know that is the Torah (תּוֹרָה) that he’s speaking of — or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. — Matthew 5:17–18 (KJV)

So the question is: what is a jot, and what is a tittle? What is Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) referring to in this passage?

If you’re not familiar with the King James, then your translation may say something like the New American Standard, which words verse 18 this way:

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law — from the Torah (תּוֹרָה) — until all is accomplished. — Matthew 5:18 (NASB)

So the two words we’re looking at in Greek are the words iota — and the word keraia (κεραία) — which is the one translated “stroke” here, or “tittle” in the King James. In Greek it reads: yota hen hai mia keraia — “not one iota” — hen means one — hai means “or” — and then mia also means one — keraia means “stroke” or “tittle.”

What Is the Jot? — Yud (י)

So let’s look at these two words — iota and the word keraia. Iota is a word that’s made its way into English. I know many times my mother would refer to something small and she would say something like, “I cleaned up my purse and there was not one iota of dust in it,” or “I cleaned up every speck and every iota of something in the house.” And that comes from this Greek word iota.

What is iota? Well, if we look at the Greek alphabet you’ll see the letters here in order — from alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta — and then the ninth letter is the letter iota. And you’ll notice that by far it is the smallest of the letters of the Greek alphabet. So when the New American Standard talks about “the smallest letter,” it’s referring to the iota.

Now I put it in red just so you could see it and stand apart from the rest of the letters. But of course when Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) was giving the Sermon on the Mount, he was not speaking in Greek. He did not use the word iota — he would have been speaking in Hebrew or possibly Aramaic. So he would have used the Hebrew equivalent of iota.

And in Hebrew, the Hebrew equivalent is the letter yud (י). Now Hebrew reads from right to left, so we start with aleph, bet, gimel, dalet, hey, vav, zayin, khet, tet — and then we come to the tenth letter, which is the letter yud (י). And once again, you can see that by far it is the smallest of all the 22 Hebrew letters.

So when he was giving the sermon, he would have said: “I’m not going to remove one yud — not one yud will pass from the Torah (תּוֹרָה) till all is fulfilled.” And the Greek translators translated that to the Greek equivalent of yud, which is iota.

Okay — so that’s what a jot is. And the King James word “jot” comes from the word yota, because my understanding is that back in the early 1600s, late 1500s, in the days of King James, the J was pronounced like a letter Y — a yah. So he would have said “a yota,” not “a jot.”

What Is the Tittle? — taggin (תָּגִים)

So let’s go back to our word keraia — this word for “tittle.” Now what I want to do before we move to the next slide is I want you to look at the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet — that’s the letter zayin (ז). It is a tall straight letter with a very short cross piece at the top. That’s the letter Z. And you’ll see why we’re going to draw our attention to that in just a moment.

Tittles are actually words we use in English today, though we don’t use them that much. But when we put a dot over an i or a dot over a j, those dots are technically called tittles — they are little markings, diacritical marks, that we use in English. And the tittles that Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) would have been referring to are the decorations that are found on a number of Hebrew letters in the Torah scroll.

Here I have a sampling of Hebrew letters, and as you look at them you can see these decorations — these are the tittles. Now they’re not called tittles in Hebrew — they’re called taggin, which I believe is an Aramaic word. And a taggin is a small stroke, a small decoration. They’re sometimes called “thorns” because they look like little thorns stuck into the tops of the letters. And this is what Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is referring to when he says that not one iota — not the smallest letter, the yud (י) — or even the decorations on the letters would pass away from the Torah till all is fulfilled.

Now if you look at one of these taggin, one of these decorations, closely, you’ll notice that it looks like the letter zayin (ז) — it looks like a zayin is stuck on top of the letters. And what is interesting about this is that the letter zayin is said to picture a two-edged sword — a two-edged weapon of some sort. In fact, the name of this letter — the name zayin — means “weapon.” The handle would be this part at the top, and then the blade coming down — the two-edged blade. So we can think of these letters with the taggin, the decorations, as being letters that have little weapons attached to them.

Psalm 91 — The Missing Zayin (ז)

Now the reason I’m bringing this out is that I find it fascinating that Psalm 91 is a psalm that is used when rabbis — and this has been the case throughout the millennia — when rabbis are performing an exorcism, they will always read Psalm 91. It’s one of my favorite psalms. It’s a powerful psalm. Let me read just the first few verses for you:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to Adonai (אֲדֹנָי), “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. — Psalm 91:1–6

And then the psalm goes on — I read six verses there; there are 16 total in the psalm. And you can see why this would be a powerful psalm to read if someone is being oppressed by a demonic spirit. It affirms to them that God can protect them — God is not going to allow the spirit to damage them. And so we try to get the person to read this and acknowledge the truth of these verses and the things that are stated here in this magnificent song.

Now here’s an interesting thing about this song. I’ve printed it out here with a script typical of what you would find in a scroll. And if you go through — you will not find a single letter zayin (ז) anywhere in the psalm.

Now you’d think that a psalm that is being used as a weapon against the enemy and against the demonic would be filled with the letter zayin, which means “weapon.” But there’s not a zayin to be found. Now zayin is a very common letter — it’s found throughout the Torah and the Prophets and the Writings. But this particular psalm — 16 verses — not a single zayin. That would be like writing 16 sentences without ever using the letter T or the letter E.

So the rabbis explain that in this psalm you don’t see the weapons — you don’t see the zayins. But the little decorations on top of the letters — there they are — the little zayins that decorate the letters. In this psalm, in this passage of scripture, the weapons are spiritual. They’re not pronounced as we read the psalm, but they are the decorations on top of the letters. And when we read the psalm, the weapons are released into the spiritual realm — because they don’t exist here in the physical realm. There’s not a zayin anywhere in the song.

So I find that a beautiful thought — and I think a very powerful one as well. In my mind, I don’t doubt that when this psalm was penned, the author was not even aware that he’d left the zayin out of the psalm. There’s not a zayin anywhere — because God had many weapons attached to the letters. And when we read this psalm in faith, those weapons are released into the spiritual realm to do battle for us.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little insight into jots and tittles. And so the next time you come across the verse in Matthew 5, it’ll mean more to you now. And you’ll always remember the power of Psalm 91. So God bless — I’ll see you next time as we continue our studies in the Hebrew Key. Shalom (שָׁלוֹם).

Teaching Material

Hebrew Word Studies

Yud (י) — The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the smallest of all 22 letters. The Hebrew equivalent of Greek iota — what Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) was actually saying when he said “not one jot.” Suspended above the baseline and considered the most spiritual of all the Hebrew letters; the first letter of God’s name (yud-hey-vav-hey, יהוה). The English King James word “jot” derives from yota — the J was pronounced like a Y in the early 1600s. — Strong’s H3068 (first letter of YHVH) · Hebrew4Christians: The Letter Yud

taggin (תָּגִים) / Tag (תָּג) — “Crowns, decorations, tittles”; the small ornamental strokes attached to the tops of certain Hebrew letters in a Torah scroll. Called “thorns” because of their spiked appearance. The Greek word keraia (κεραία) in Matthew 5:18. Each tag resembles a tiny zayin (ז) — a tiny weapon — attached to the letter. In Psalm 91, the hidden zayins in the taggin carry the weapons that are released into the spiritual realm when the psalm is read in faith. 

Zayin (ז) — The seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet; its name means “weapon” or “sword.” The letter pictures a two-edged sword — handle at the top, double blade below. Every tag (tittle) on a Hebrew letter is shaped like a zayin. Remarkably absent from all 16 verses of Psalm 91 — yet present in hidden form as the taggin on each letter. The weapons in that psalm are not physical — they are spiritual, released through faithful reading. — Hebrew4Christians: The Letter Zayin

Torah (תּוֹרָה) — “Instruction, teaching, law”; what Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) declared would not pass away — not the smallest letter (yud), not even the decorative strokes (taggin) — until all is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18). Every letter, every decoration is placed by God with purpose and meaning. — Strong’s H8451

Iota (ι) — The ninth and smallest letter of the Greek alphabet; the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew yud (י). When Yeshua spoke of “one jot,” he would have said yud in Hebrew — the Greek translators rendered it iota. The word has passed into English (“not one iota”) carrying its original sense of the smallest possible thing. — Blue Letter Bible: Greek Iota

Keraia (κεραία) — “Horn, projection, tittle, stroke”; Greek for the ornamental marks on Hebrew letters — the taggin. Translated “tittle” in the King James and “stroke” in the NASB. These tiny marks are the hidden zayin-shaped weapons embedded in the text of Psalm 91. — Blue Letter Bible: Greek Keraia

Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness, well-being.” — Strong’s H7965

Scripture References

Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway

• Matthew 5:17–18 — “Not one jot (yud) or one tittle (tag) will pass from the Torah” — Yeshua’s declaration of the permanence of every letter and decoration in God’s word
• Psalm 91 — The psalm with no zayin anywhere in its 16 verses; used throughout Jewish history in the context of spiritual warfare; the weapons are hidden in the taggin on the letters
• Hebrews 4:12 — “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” — the zayin (weapon/sword) nature of God’s word; the hidden weapons in the tittles
• Ephesians 6:17 — “The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” — the spiritual weapon carried in every letter and decoration of the Torah
• Deuteronomy 4:2 — “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it” — the inviolable integrity of every letter and stroke of Torah
• Isaiah 40:8 — “The word of our God will stand forever” — the eternal permanence of Torah, including its yuds and taggin

External References & Further Study

• The Letter Yud — Hebrew4Christians — The smallest Hebrew letter: its spiritual significance, role as the first letter of God’s name, and the “jot” of Matthew 5:18
• The Letter Zayin — Hebrew4Christians — “Weapon, sword”; the letter whose shape is the model for every tag (tittle) on Torah scroll letters
• Psalm 91 in Jewish Liturgy — Sefaria — Hebrew text of Psalm 91 with commentaries; its use in protection, spiritual warfare, and rabbinic tradition
• Iota — Blue Letter Bible Greek Lexicon G2503 — Greek lexicon entry for iota as used in Matthew 5:18
• Keraia — Blue Letter Bible Greek Lexicon G2762 — Greek lexicon entry for keraia — the tittle or stroke of Matthew 5:18
• The Hebrew Alphabet — Hebrew4Christians — Overview of all 22 Hebrew letters, their names, numerical values, and meanings
• Torah Today Ministries — Home of The Hebrew Key and other Torah-centered teachings