About

Makor is the Hebrew word for a source of water such as a fountain or natural spring. Makor Hebrew Foundation is dedicated to uncovering the Hebrew sources of the Jewish and Christian faiths. The Tanakh (“Old Testament”), the Bible of the Jews, was revealed by God in Hebrew to the prophets of ancient Israel. Much of the Christian Scriptures, the New Testament, were originally written in Hebrew or based on Hebrew sources. The early Church Father Papias reported in the 2nd Century:

Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and everyone translated it as he was able.

The founder of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, once said:

The Hebrew language is the best language of all, with the richest vocabulary… If I were younger I would want to learn this language, because no one can really understand the Scriptures without it. For although the New Testament is written in Greek, it is full of hebraisms and Hebrew expressions. It has therefore been aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the Greeks from the stream that flows from it, and the Latins from a downstream puddle.

By comparing the Hebrew “source” to a “spring” of water Martin Luther was alluding the Hebrew word Makor which signifies both a source and a spring. He was also drawing on the metaphor used thousands of years earlier in the prophecy of Jeremiah:

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain (makor) of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns-broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)

The purpose of Makor Hebrew Foundation is to bring Jews and Christians together in an exploration of the Hebrew makor of their respective faiths. The language of the prophets of ancient Israel is not just another language, it is Lashon Ha-Kodesh, the holy tongue. God used the Hebrew language when he called the Universe into existence and before the Tower of Babel all mankind spoke the Hebrew language. The prophet Zephaniah foretells a time when the curse of Babel will be lifted and all mankind shall once again be united by the Hebrew language:

For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of Yehovah, to serve Him with one accord. (Zeph 3:9)