HEBREW WORD STUDY – TRUTH – ‘EMIT  אמת  

John 14:6:  “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 4:24 Jesus said; “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”  

I remember I met someone whose doctrine didn’t quite line up with mine.  For whatever reason, this person felt I had to just line up exactly as she believed.  She pointed to a passage in Scripture and said; “Look at this, this is truth.”  Those are very powerful words and then to point to the Bible and say those words, well that really has a profound effect.   My only problem was that I interpreted the passage much differently than she did. I wasn’t questioning whether the Word of God was truth, I was just questioning as to whose interpretation was truth.  You see in 21^st Century English truth is a verified, indisputable fact.  Is that what Jesus meant when He said he was the truth, he was the indisputable fact?  When we worship God we are to worship the indisputable fact?   The fact of what?  His existence, His spoken words?   I thought we take all that by faith. We cannot prove the existence of God or the factual nature of His words.  We can be barely sure of our own existence.  Desecrates summed up that the only real absolute or truth was: “Cogito ero sum”  I think therefore I am.   The only thing he could be absolutely sure of was that he was thinking about this matter of truth.

No doubt the existence of God and His words are wrapped up in our 21^st Century definition of truth but this is only a part of the definition of truth in Hebrew and Aramaic.  For instance in John 4:24 Jesus said; “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”  The word truth in Aramaic here is sharira and in Hebrew, it is ‘emit which means genuineness, authentic and sincere.  So we worship God in sincerity and authentically.  In other words no phony yippees or whoopee’s.  Some people find it necessary to shout whoopee to show they really have the Spirit, but that whoopee many times, not always, tends to ring phony and it’s annoying. These words also mean faithfulness and stability.  So when we worship God in truth we worship Him in sincerity and genuineness. When Jesus says He is the truth He is telling us that there will be peace and stability as well as faithfulness from Him and the assurance that when He makes a promise He will keep that promise.  All that pretty well encompasses the idea of an indisputable fact from us and from God.  Our words to Him during worship and praise are to be indisputable, no hidden agendas and all Words from Jesus are indisputable, you can take it to the bank.

If you look closely at the word truth in Hebrew you find it is spelled Aleph, Mem, and Taw.  Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and Taw is the final letter. God’s words to us are as sure as a beginning and an end just as our praise to him is to be as sincere as beginning to end.  Truth exists from beginning to end.  Not only that, the Mem is in the exact middle of the Alphabet so all truth is unchanging on its journey from beginning to end. Truth – ‘emit and sharira will not change from beginning to end.