HOW THE NAME ERVERH (EWE) BECAME HEBREW
As I pointed out in a previous article, the proper pronunciation of the name of my people is Erverh and not Ewe. Erverh is also the proper name of our ancestors, the ancient Israelites. The ancient Israelites were NEVER called Jews or Hebrews. How these names came about is what I will explain now.
Most people assume the ancient Israelites were called Jews. It may be surprising to people to find the literal word ‘Jew’ is not in the entire original text of the Bible. There is no name like that in either the Old or the New Testaments. The original Hebrew of the Old Testament uses the word ‘Yehudim’, meaning ‘Judahite’. The original Greek of the New Testament uses the word ‘Ioudaios,’ meaning ‘Judean.’ Earlier translations kept these original names. Unfortunately, the word ‘Jew’ has replaced them in recent times.
In fact, the mere fact that certain people identify by the name “Jew,” shows they are not direct descendants of the ancient Israelites. This is because the direct descendants of the ancient Israelites retained the name of their ancestors, which was Erverh (corrupted as Ewe).
The name, “Hebrew,” on the other hand is the English translation of the name pronounced Erverh. The Israelites wrote their name in Hebrew with symbols that are represented the letters “IVRI” in English. IVRI is pronounced Erverh. You can check this by doing a Google search on IVRI.
HOW IVRI (ERVERH) BECAME HEBREW
A direct translation of the name of the Israelites would read IVRI (pronounced Êrverh). However, in time, this true name of the Israelites took a backseat. What replaced the name of the Israelites is a great departure from the truth. To make matters worse, the name Hebrew comes from a double translation from the original name. Let me explain what I mean by all of that.
The name ‘Hebrew,’ is the English translation of the name pronounced Erverh from Latin. That means the first translation of the name of the Israelites into Latin was the first step. This first step dropped and lost the proper pronunciation of Erverh. With the proper pronunciation lost in translation, in came the second step, which is the new Latin name’s translation into what we have now in English as Hebrew.
The following is how it all unfolded. From the time of Abraham until the time of Jesus Christ, the world knew the Israelites as Erverh. In fact, Jesus and all his apostles were Erverh. This name became lost after the death of Christ, two thousand years ago, when the Roman Empire ruled the Middle East.
Around the time of Christ, Judea the home of the Israelites became a province of the Roman Empire. The national language of the Roman Empire was Latin; therefore, all the literature people wrote and read was in Latin. Available Books not originally written in Latin were all translated into it. Included in these translations were the Hebrew Scriptures. The name IVRI pronounced Erverh translated into Latin became, 'Hebraicus.' This name Hebraicus, as you can see yourself, is nowhere near the pronunciation of Erverh.
Some years later the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. He subsequently changed the religion of the entire Empire to Christianity – the birth of Christendom. For the next thousand years, Latin was the dominant language in Christendom and the Latin translation of the Bible was the de-facto book. If you did not read Latin, you did not know what you were missing. Salvation was in the Latin book.
The reformation in Europe, led by Martin Luther changed the status quo. Before then, only the small-educated minority who read Latin knew of what was in the scriptures. After the reformation, translation of the Bible began in other European languages including English. This opened up an unprecedented access to Bible information to anyone who could read his or her local language.
However, there was a problem. All these translations were from the Latin version instead of the original language.
Therefore, instead of using the original name IVRI (Erverh), the translated Latin name Hebraicus carried into the European languages, which included English. The name “Hebrew,” is the result of translating the Latin “Hebraicus,” into English. Thus, the name, "Hebrew" is the result of a double translation of the original name Erverh.
Had the translation been from the original texts with the name that is represented by the English letters IVRI (Erverh), you’d never have heard the name Hebrew. Instead the proper name Erverh is what people will know as the name of the Israelites.
So there you have it! The proper pronunciation in the native language of the ancient Israelites’ designation, commonly known, as “Hebrew” in English is “IVRI” pronounced Erverh (erH-VerH).
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ROBERT BARKER