Sons From Stones
Welcome back everyone to Torah Today Ministries as we continue our series called The Hebrew Key. And this week, in episode six, we look at a teaching that I call “Sons from Stones.” And we’re going to be focusing in on a new Hebrew word. And the Hebrew word you can see there is even (אֶבֶן). And yes, that’s where we get the man’s name Evan.
So let’s get right into it.
I want to introduce you first of all to a word that you probably already know. And that’s the word av (אָב), which means “father.” It’s the word spelled with aleph-bet (אב) — the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And av (אָב) means “father.” That is where we get the term Abba (אַבָּא), which is like the word “Daddy.” And we often hear Jewish children — Hebrew-speaking children — refer to their father as Abba (אַבָּא).
Now, this letter here — this second letter, bet (ב) — can be pronounced with a “V” sound or with a “B” sound. And in this word, it’s with a “V” sound — av (אָב). But in the word even (אֶבֶן), it’s pronounced with a “B” sound. So don’t let that throw you.
So av (אָב) means “father.” And I think it’s interesting that the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet — aleph (א) and bet (ב) — spell the word “father.” Because, after all, doesn’t everything proceed from the Father? And so it’s appropriate that the alphabet begin with this word: aleph-bet (אב) — av (אָב) — father.
And here’s another word that you probably also know. And that’s the word ben (בֵּן), which means “son.” And here we see the bet (ב) pronounced with a “B” sound — ben (בֵּן), “son.”
If you recall the story — when Rachel (רָחֵל) gave birth to Joseph’s younger brother, she named him Ben-Oni (בֶּן אוֹנִי) — “son of my sorrow.” But Jacob said, “No, we’re going to name him Ben-Yamin (בִּנְיָמִין)” — or Benjamin — “son of the right hand.”
Ben (בֵּן) means “son.” And so whenever you see a name or a place that begins with “Ben,” you know it means “son.” In fact, the movie “Ben-Hur” means “son of Hur.”
Now, an interesting thing happens when we take the word for “father” — av (אָב) — and the word for “son” — ben (בֵּן) — and combine them.
And here you see that we can take the word av (אָב) at the top, ben (בֵּן) at the bottom, and then when we combine them, we have aleph-bet-nun (אבן). And that spells the word even (אֶבֶן) — “rock, stone.”
Father plus son makes the word even (אֶבֶן) — “rock.”
Now, the reason this is significant is because of a passage in Romans where Paul is quoting Isaiah 8:14. Here’s the passage from Romans. It says of the Jewish people — the generation of Paul’s day:
They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written — and here he quotes Isaiah 8:14 — “Behold, I am laying in Zion (צִיּוֹן) a stone of stumbling and a rock (even / אֶבֶן) of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” — Romans 9:33
So this rock — the stone — is an even (אֶבֶן). And this even (אֶבֶן), of course, is referring to Mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ), our Messiah Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ).
Why was Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) such a rock of offense? Why was he a stone of stumbling? And this word here for “stone” is a different word from the word even (אֶבֶן) used here — this is tzur (צוּר). And this is even (אֶבֶן).
Why was Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) such a rock of offense? It’s because he claimed that he — the Son (ben / בֵּן) — and the Father (av / אָב) — were one. This was offensive to the leaders of Paul’s day, of Yeshua’s time, and even today with many Jewish theologians. The fact that this one who came two thousand years ago, claiming to be the Messiah — and who, of course, I believe, and I hope you believe and know as the Messiah — that he claimed to be one with the Father. This caused great stumbling, because it’s something that simply cannot be understood.
And don’t think that we need to understand how this can be. There are many things we are called upon to believe and embrace. We’re not asked to understand, because they’re just too wonderful. And they’re too far beyond our ability to understand. And this is one of those things.
Now I want to take and build on this and go to Matthew 3:9. Matthew 3:9 is when the people were praising Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). They were singing a Messianic psalm in his honor, which means they believed him to be the Messiah. And he accepted that praise as such. And further on, we find that the Pharisees became very upset with him because he claimed to be one with the Father.
And so Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) says to them:
“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones (avanim / אֲבָנִים) to raise up children (banim / בָּנִים) for Abraham.” — Matthew 3:9
Now, whenever you see the term “children of Abraham” or “children of Israel,” it’s always b’nei Avraham (בְּנֵי אַבְרָהָם) or b’nei Yisrael (בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל) — the sons of Abraham, the sons of Israel. But b’nei (בְּנֵי) just stands in for “children,” whether they’re male or female.
And here below, we have the Delitzsch Gospels translation. It says: “from the stones — the rocks” — and there you can see that word even (אֶבֶן) — aleph, bet, nun.
Now, I’m going to pause for just a second. You may say, “Well wait a minute, that letter nun (נ) there doesn’t look like the one in the previous word.” Nun (נ) is one of these five letters — there are five of them in the Hebrew alphabet — and they change shape when they are at the end of a word. The letter nun (נ) is normally written like this — it’s got a heavy part up at the top, it’s kind of written like this. And when it appears at the end of a word, it changes shape. It becomes elongated — like this: ן. So here we see nun (נ) in its original form, whereas in the word ben (בֵּן) and even (אֶבֶן), we saw it at the end of a word, and it becomes long, elongated, and vertical.
So “from the rocks (avanim / אֲבָנִים), Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) — God — is able to raise up banim (בָּנִים) — sons.”
Words that end in “-im” or “-ot” are plural. “-im” is the masculine plural, “-ot” is the feminine plural. So ben (בֵּן), “son,” being masculine — its ending would be “-im“: banim (בָּנִים).
Now — do you see what’s going on here? He says he can raise up banim (בָּנִים) — sons — for Abraham. If you look at this word for “sons” — banim (בָּנִים) — it is found inside this word avanim (אֲבָנִים), which means “stones” or “rocks.”
And so sure enough, linguistically, looking at the spellings — out of avanim (אֲבָנִים), “stones,” we find the word banim (בָּנִים), “sons.” The word “sons” is inside the Hebrew word for “stones.”
So Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is making a play on words. And this is something that is not at all obvious in our English translations. But in the Hebrew, it’s extremely obvious.
So he makes his play on the words: out of the avanim (אֲבָנִים) — the stones — God can raise up the banim (בָּנִים) — the sons. And you find many things in the Hebrew where there are plays on words that only reveal themselves in the Hebrew. And this is one I find fascinating.
And it makes me wonder — when the people who were listening to Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) heard him say this, did they catch it right away? I imagine they did. And it was a brilliant insight — that out of an even (אֶבֶן), God can make a ben (בֵּן) — a son. And out of avanim (אֲבָנִים) — stones — he can make banim (בָּנִים) — sons.
So I hope you find this as interesting as I do. It’s a very short teaching, but it’s another example of the beauty of the Hebrew language and how it makes the scriptures come alive. So I’ll see you next time as we meet again to look more into The Hebrew Key. Thank you for joining us. Shalom (שָׁלוֹם). Thank you.
Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway
אב (av) = “father”
בן (ben) = “son”
אב + בן = אבן
אבן (Evan) = “rock”
Romans 9:32-33 … They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written [Isaiah 8:14], “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
Matthew 3:9 “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stonesto raise up children for Abraham.”
… מִן הָאֲבָנִים הָאֵלֶּה יָכוֹל הָאֱלֹהִים לְהָקִים בָּנִים לְאַבְרָהָם׃
אבנים = “stones”
בנים = “sons”
REFERENCES:
Isaiah 8:14 And He will become a sanctuary and a rock of offense and a stone of stumbling to both houses of Israel …
1 Peter 2:7-8 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” [Psalm 118:22] and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” [Isaiah 8:14] …
