The Title “Reverend” of Christian Clergymen Is Unknown to Elohiym!

The writer

A couple of years ago, I found myself as part of a panel of three holding a discussion on radio on an issue related to Christianity. Incidentally, I was the only panelist who was obviously unqualified because of my faith in the Towrah, to be addressed as “Reverend”—a title borne by both other panelists, all because it is the penchant of all Christian clergymen to do everything in their power to be so addressed!

And so, whenever the host of the program, who also bore the title Reverend, made a slip to address me as one, he would quickly apologize to me for the slip; but then, it was obvious he meant his apologies to go to his colleagues for hurting their feelings in, apparently, unintentionally raising me to their status without me meriting it!! Well, this behavior of the host never irked me one little bit; for, what good is in the title “Reverend”, if there exists any at all, as I was later led to realize in my reflections on this title??

Recently, that experience on radio came to my memory strongly and caused me to start thinking and asking myself what at all is in this title “Reverend” that Christian clergymen love to be addressed by it and would even get very angry with anyone who fails, particularly in public, to give them what they suppose is their due respect in being so introduced and or addressed??

Well, I am no student of history and I am not interested in going back in time to dig into the ancient ways of Christians to know when the practice of addressing their clergymen by the title “Reverend” first came into being!!

So then, failing to be aided by history to learn any truth, if there be any truth in this word at all, about the origin and value or relevance of this title to mankind’s salvation, I chose to start my study of the word “Reverend” from and with The New Strong’s Expanded Exhausted Concordance of The Bible (TNSECOTB) (Red-Letter Edition), a book written by James Strong, LL.D, S.T.D., of most blessed memory, which is one of the best and most detailed bible-based lexicons ever made and has been in usage by Christians and bible students for close to two centuries.

Now, anyone who looks up the word reverend in TNSECOTB would find out, as I was shocked to find, that there exists only one single entry of this word in this entire concordance! So then, for all the popularity that has been generated and also characterizes the word today, its rarity in this great book by Dr. Strong was very shocking to me!

For, what it means is that the word reverend appears in the entire English Bible only once; and this is only in Psalm 111:9! It also means that all we can understand about the title Reverend can only be obtained from the context in which the word “reverend” is couched in Psalm 111:9! Now, therefore, understanding the meaning of this word cannot be an easy task, as I started thinking seriously about why the title reverend is so much in vogue among Christian clergymen!

As is commonly known, the English Bible in which the word reverend is found in its “Old Testament” section must be a translation from a Greek word in the Greek Old Testament called the Septuagint version, which was itself originally translated from the Ivrit (Hebrew??) Tanakh. Now, from the Septuagint came the Latin Vulgate and from the Vulgate came all versions of the English Bible!

So then, to get the actual and true meaning of the English word reverend found in the English Bible, as the Creator intends for His creation to know and understand in and by His original word revealed in Ivrit, one must go backwards to do a study of the Ivrit word of and in the Towrah that was translated as reverend by English translators of the Septuagint (and or the Latin Vulgate that is derived from the Septuagint).

Now, the Ivrit word translated reverend in the English Bible is yare (pronounced yaw-ray) according to Strong’s No. 3372 of TNSECOTB. This Strong’s No. 3372 then goes on to describe yare as being a verb with its meaning being—to fear; (moral), to revere; (causative), to frighten:—affright, be or make afraid, dread (or dreadful), (put in) fear (fearful, fearfully, or fearing), (be had in) reverence.

Thus, yare as a verb means: to fear, to respect, to revere, to be afraid, to be awesome, to be feared, to make afraid, to frighten!

It must be stated that throughout the Ivrit Tanakh, anywhere the word yare is found, it functions as a verb and never does it reveal itself as being a noun or even an adjective! This we must note well and constantly bear in mind in order to avoid the folly of translators of yesteryears, who, by their translation of yare in Psalm 111:9, caused yare to become for them, and an unquestioning mankind after them, the English title reverend.

Now, typically, in Tehillim (Psalms??) 111:9 and in many other places in the Tanakh, yare is used in the context of a holy man’s fear, respect, rarely as reverence, etc., of the Creator, Yahuwah Elohiym; and NEVER in fear, respect or reverence of a human being or person, no matter what that person’s standing socially or spiritually may be!

It must thus be understood that, according to the revelation of the Tanakh, no human being has ever been described by the word yare; and this fact must be obvious, since yare has neither an adjectival connotation nor can it ever be deemed to be a noun!!

So, then, in the English rendering of Mishle (Proverbs??) 1:7, yare is the word rendered as fear in that verse and was thus supposed to stand as “The fear of Elohiym is the beginning of wisdom” without mentioning the now defunct word “God”, according to the latest KJV, —the Restored Name King James Version Bible (RNKJVB) of 1999—that has the word “God” expunged from it.

In all the many other places in the Old Testament of the English Bible where the word fear is found, it has always been translated from the Ivrit word “yare” and this fear is always used in the expression of a man’s heart to his Maker.

When we read reverend in Psalm 111:9, we see the reason why this word is used there. So then, let us quote this entire verse here for easy reference, in order to get its meaning and value: “He sent redemption unto His people: He commanded His covenant forever: holy and reverend is His name” (KJV).

If the English translation of the Ivrit Tanakh were to be true and acceptable, then, it would have been correct to suppose that a new English name has been given or assigned to the Most High One by Reverend as stated in Psalm 111:9. But no English translation of the Ivrit Tanakh is acceptable by the Most High One, since He never mandated or supervised any such translations of His holy Ivrit word!

And so, to ascribe the Goy (Gentile) word Reverend as a name or even as a title to the Most High One is to force upon Him an unholy non-Ivrit word of the Goyim (Gentiles)! This, obviously, must be offensive to Him!

And this offence to the Most High One is the curse brought about by all translations of His Ivrit word into languages of the Goyim upon those who accept and believe these translations hook, line and sinker as being the word of Yahuwah Elohiym that came out of His mouth, verbatim, in these languages of the Goyim.

The twisting of the Ivrit verb yare to become a noun or an adjective in the English Reverend by translators is one case in point where untruth, evil thoughts and acts, and a display of the folly in human minds, are seen to manifest in the work of translators of the Ivrit word of Yahuwah Elohiym into Goyim languages.

Even if it were correct and proper to assign the word reverend in description of the name of the Most High One, it would be because of His power to save mankind from sin and Satan, and of His commitment and ability to keep covenants with mankind as Psalm 111:9 tells us.

And if so, which mortal is able to fit into the shoes of Yahuwah Elohiym to bring salvation to mankind and superintend over the covenants He makes with mankind, in order to qualify to also be called Reverend, if the Creator even ever accepted this title at all?? Sadly, after Christian clergymen have been fooled by translators in their evolution of the Goy word reverend, Christian clergymen have taken this foolery of darker days of mankind’s past to higher heights, in and by creating superlatives from Reverend to Right Reverend, Very Reverend, Most Reverend, etc., to voraciously tag themselves by these man-made titles that are of no relevance to Yahuwah Elohiym!! Oh! What killer ignorance!!

Note that no superlatives exist with Yahuwah Elohiym, since He exists in absolute and perfect attributes and does not “grow” from good to better and to best!! Now, where in humility, Yahuwah Elohiym may accept to be called Reverend, mortal Christian clergymen lacking such “humility” of Yahuwah Elohiym are not satisfied or happy with same but must draw upon themselves the false airs of importance and a so-called spiritual advancement and stature, in and by demanding that they be addressed in the superlatives of the word reverend of the above paragraph!

In all of this, what was to be a verb in and by the Ivrit word yare has been twisted by translators to become an English noun and or the adjective reverend! Even as mankind has stuck to this deception of reverend in place of yare, resulting from the shoddy work done by translators, this has led Christian clergymen to rate themselves higher than the Creator in giving to themselves these fake superlatives titles to reverend which they hold with so much relish.

In conclusion, it must be taught that the Goy title Reverend never originated from Yahuwah Elohiym since He speaks, teaches, and instructs in only Ivrit and never in any one of the languages of Earth; in particular, English!! So then, Yahuwah Elohiym does not accord any of his true and genuine servants the title Reverend, not to talk of any of the superlatives to reverend as titles to them!

And so, it may well be that anyone infatuated with and by the title Reverend may never have been called to serve Yahuwah Elohiym and His kingdom and may not even be known to and by Him in the first place!!

Is anyone cautioned and warned in and by this short article of mine?? I just hope so!!

Shalawam!
PS: Should readers of this article and any of my articles published in this column have serious questions or suggestions, they may contact me via e-mail by clicking on “Contact” on the Home Page of my website, http://sbprabooks.com/BongleBapuohyele You may also want to purchase a copy of my book—Beware of This False Doctrine: Of Reciting the Sinners' Prayer for Salvation—via the same web address so, together, we walk the narrow way to the presence of Elohiym. Shalawam!