Our Father / אבינו - ’abhinu

André H. Roosma
10 June 2012

Jesus (Yashu‘ah) taught His disciples – and via them us also – to address God as our Father Who art in heaven’. Those two words our Father are just one word in Hebrew: אבינו - ’abhinu [pronounced as: ’avinoo]. This is a remarkable word, for it contains all three of the most original vowels from the Semitic languages (the a, i and u), and actually does not need additional vowel signs to be pronounced well. One could say that it belongs to basic language. Even small children can pronounce it already early and - a little later - can learn to write it relatively easy.

And I discovered another most remarkable thing about this special word. In the oldest, pictographic, Biblical script1 it was written as: alp: ox head; firstbaitu: tent/house; familyyad: arm with open hand; often: 'he gives'nun: sprouting seed; life, offspringwawu: tent pin; attachment, security.
This can be read (right to left):
alp: ox head; firstbaitu: tent/house; family - ’abh (’alp-baitu) - the first of the house, the founder of the family: Father.
yad: arm with open hand; often: 'he gives' - i (yad) - He gives.
nun: sprouting seed; life, offspring - n (nun) - seed; life, offspring, children.
wawu: tent pin; attachment, security - u (wawu) - attachment, security.

So, implicitly this one first word of the Our Father prayer already contains the message that God gives life and secure attachment to us, as His children. To me, this adds an extra dimension to the prayer that Jesus taught us. For you too?


There can be no nature without spirit,
   no world without Torah,
   no brotherhood without a Father,
   no humanity without attachment to God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel2

Hallelu YaH !


Notes

1 More information on the old pictographic Bible script, as referred to here, in the Hallelu-YaH Draft Research Report: ‘The Written Language of Abraham, Moses and David – A study of the pictographic roots and basic notions in the underlying fabric of the earliest Biblical script.pdf document, a living document by André H. Roosma, 1st English version: 18 April 2011 (1st Dutch original: January 2011).
See also:
André H. Roosma, ‘The Original Aleph-Beth, Hallelu-YaH brief web-article, 14 Jan. 2012.
2 Source: Abraham Joshua Heschel, ‘The Meaning of This Hour’, lecture at a conference of Quaker leaders in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, March 1938; extended and published in 1943. Included posthumously (by Samuel H. Dresner - Ed.) in: I Asked For Wonder – A Spiritual Anthology, Crossroad, 1983; ISBN: 978 0824505424; p. 128; and as such cited in: ‘The Bloods of Your Brother’, blog by Skip Moen, 22 May 2011.

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