HEBREW WORD STUDY – GRACE

HEBREW WORD STUDY – GRACE – CHANAN חננ 

Ephesians  2:8:  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:”

Genesis 6: 8: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

I believe we all know that grace means unmerited favor. In Greek, the word for grace is charis which means favor, freely given or extended,  always leaning toward. In the Aramaic the word is taybutha which has the idea of favor and goodness. In Talmudic literature, it is used as a sign of recognition.  Let’s hold that thought “a sign of recognition” and go to the Hebrew.

In Genesis 6:8 the Hebrew word for grace is given in its Semitic root which is just two letters. It is the word chen  Cheth Nun.  I believe the Semitic root is used to make a play on the word Noah which is chen spelled backward Nun Cheth – Noach which means rest.  The root word for grace is often given as Cheth Nun Nun which means favor.  But Jewish rabbis will challenge this and say the Hebrew triliteral root is Cheth, Nun, Hei.  This means to encamp and set up tents.   I believe the use of the Semitic root indicates that both Hebrew roots were intended to be used. 

It is not enough to say Noah found favor in the eyes of God.  What does that really mean?  How did he find favor in the eyes of God?  Well, the wordplay off of Noah tells us, he found grace or favor in God by resting in God doing nothing.   Paul clearly tells us that we are saved by grace, not by our works.  We are saved by just resting in God doing nothing but applying faith.  Even the word itself shows this. The Cheth is a bonding or forming an intimate relationship with God and the Nun tells us that this is done by faith.  We cannot earn it, or work for it, it is a gift, donon in the Greek.

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Still, that doesn’t show us how Noah found this grace.  But when we go to the very Semitic origin of chen as an encampment and/or pitching tents we get an idea.  In ancient times as it is today encampments were a family thing.  The Bedouins groups were tribes or families and they would travel as a family.  There is safety in numbers and so they would travel in a large family group and set up camp.  They would pitch their tents in a large circle, setting up a wall surrounding the families.  No one was allowed to enter their encampment because they did not trust anyone outside their family. The only way to find refuge in an encampment would be to show you were a member of the family.  This tradition even follows throughout the world.  There have been many cowboy movies made where a white man was allowed to live with a tribe of Indians, but only if he became a “blood brother” so the old Western movies taught me.  Nonetheless, this was a practice that one could find refuge in a Bedouin camp only if he becomes a member of the family.

Grace is unmerited favor, God extending to everyone the privilege to become a member of His family by being born again through the shed blood of His Son Jesus. Just as a person has to prove worthy of becoming a member of a tribe to find rest in that tribe or family, we are born again or become worthy of becoming a member of God’s family and finding rest in the safety of the encampment by only believing that God’s Son shed His blood for us, it is by faith and it is a gift a donon that we receive for no other reason than God loves us.  There is one other definition of chen and even charis other than grace, it is acceptance. 

We are approaching the camp of God and request to enter the safety of that encampment.  God simply says: “You have to be my child to enter. You must prove worthy.”  Then God’s Son Jesus steps forward and say: “This child is worthy because I died for this person.”  The Jesus turns to you and says: “Do you want to be a child of God and enter our encampment?”  Now it is up to you, either say yes or no.