HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENGRAVER – RISHA’ רישא Resh Yod Shin Aleph

Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In modern English, an author is one who writes books and a writer is one who writes not only books but other things than books such as articles for the news media, magazines, and blogs. To use the word author in the context of Hebrews 12:2 is antiquated and misleading. The word in Greek is archegos which means a founder or a leader. The founder of an organization or business is often its leader so the word in Greek really carries the idea of the originator. This is consistent with the Aramaic word used which is risha which comes from the same root as rosh which means the head or the leader and originator. But it is also related to the word rish which is a word for an engraver.

Our faith comes from Jesus who is the founder and originator of our faith which has been engraved into us. I once read something written by a rabbi that really changed my perspective about faith. He said that faith is not obtained it is revealed. This is very consistent with not only Hebrews 12:2 but Ephesians 2:8 which tells us we are saved by faith which is a gift of God. In the Greek syntax as well as the Aramaic what this saying is that faith is a gift from God. We don’t have to work it up or build it up, we need to simply reveal what is already there.

We have the story of Peter who was in a boat during a storm and looked out through the storm and saw Jesus walking on the water. Peter asked Jesus if he could also walk on the water and come to Him. The passage does not say why he would not wait for Jesus to come to him, especially if that was obviously Jesus’s destination. Perhaps Peter thought if Jesus could walk on water there was no reason he could not do the same. I am certain that was a part of it, but I think he was just so happy to see Jesus he wanted to be the first to get that hug. So he jumped over the side of the boat and started off to Jesus walking on the water thinking only of that big hug. Suddenly it dawned on him what he was doing and he started to sink. He obviously made it within reaching distance of Jesus before his faith diminished as Jesus was able to reach out and grab him. Jesus then said: “Oh ye of little faith.”

Little faith? I would have been like the rest of the disciples and just waited for Jesus to arrive. If Peter’s faith was little then my faith can’t even be seen under a microscope. Jesus was not saying, “Peter, Peter, what am I going to do with you, you have such little faith and after all the things I have taught you and you observed. You’re hopeless Peter, absolutely hopeless.” But consider this, Peter had enough faith to jump over the side of the boat and start walking on water. I mean that took a whole bunches of faith to pull that off. The word little in Aramaic is z’or which means to diminish, to reduce in size. What Jesus said was: “Peter, you reduced your faith.”

Recently, I wrote about a Classical Hebrew word qlippah which means a shell. It is used by the Jews to describe a shell one builds around their heart. You see when God created us he stuffed our hearts with all the faith we would ever need. The problem is that we build a shell around hearts and that shell develops very quickly.

I was watching a series on the National Geographic channel about the Inuits who live above the Arctic circle. They would go fishing when it is like 30 below zero. They would chop a hole in the ice on a lake, scoop out the frozen slush and quickly throw a baited hook into the water. I say quickly because within minutes because it was so cold that the water quickly turned back into slush and froze back into ice. When it cames time to check the finishing line they needed to re chop the ice and scoop out the slushy frozen water. This was a constant battle that they fight to catch fish. Peter had a similar problem called qlippah. When he saw Jesus he chopped away all that ice or qlippah around his heart to reveal the faith that was stored inside of him. Yet, when took his eyes off of Jesus and saw the waves, the churning water from the storm, he got to thinking; “OMG! I’m walking on water, you can’t do that.” Immediately that ice that qlippah started to form around his heart, his faith began to z’or diminish and he began to sink.

You see, Peter had all the faith he needed. Jesus is the archegos in Greek or the risha in Aramaic, the originator of our faith. He rish, engraved that faith into us. We have all the faith we need to be engraved into us by God Himself when He created us. We do not have work it up like an old fashion hand pump.

Many Christians have the idea that faith is like pumping water from a well. In a way that is true, Our hearts are a reservoir of faith that needs to be drawn out. However, we don’t pump it out by closing our eyes and saying ten times, “I believe, I believe.” We simply have to do what Peter did and that was to ignore the obvious and keep his eyes on Jesus. By focusing on Jesus, that is whatever we do we do as unto Him, we keep that ice from forming around our hearts covering our faith and as Peter proved, it can form very quickly when you take your eyes off of Jesus. But it can also be chopped away very quickly when you put your eyes upon him and imagine that hug you will get from Him.

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