“You Are Redeemed”: Understanding Reggie White’s Last Message in Hebrew and Aramaic
Introduction:
Perhaps one of the biggest ironies to this story about how a traditional Christian preacher got into Hebraic Roots at the end of his life is how close in physical proximity this NFL great “Minister of Defense” actually lived to me. White had long been a mainstay of the Philadelphia Eagles and lived in the suburbs where I spent most of my life growing up. However, White’s interest in Hebrew had taken root long after he had moved to Green Bay to close out his career with the Packers. Had I had a chance to meet this great man in his latter years, I believe he would have been astonished at the idea that the original Aramaic New Testament that he seemed to have been on the trail of had in fact survived intact. His Hebrew studies in Tanakh with Nehemia Gordon clearly were putting him squarely in my direction, and I regret that I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person.
I surely would have cherished the opportunity to, for example, teach him the Lord’s Prayer exactly as it was first said and pointed out poetic and ironic cleverness that revealed Y’shua’s dry sense of humor and which has been lost in translation for two millennia. I truly also wish, of course, that he had lived to see the Aramaic English New Testament which would have connected many of the individual “dots” that Reggie was clearly looking at. Well, what’s done is done I suppose and there is no going back. But at least I can comment on his last vision now and perhaps bring some new insights as to its meaning.
A Dream in Hebrew
As his family members document in the widely viewed film, Reggie had undertaken massive Hebrew training from Nehemia Gordon in the last three years of his life. Just before his death, he had a dream of seeing a treasure with a Hebrew message that he promptly wrote down with Hebrew letters and vowel pointing. Reproducing the letters only, it read this way:
Reggie understood the message to roughly translate into, “you are redeemed”. In this understanding he was correct, but there is much more to this short phrase than the pshat or plain reading. The key word, pedooy is rendered this way in the Webster’s New World Hebrew-English Dictionary by Hayim Baltsam, p. 333:
pedooy/pedooyah - adj. redeemed, ransomed.
As an adjective, this is describing Reggie’s soul, or nefesh in Hebrew. This word for “soul” also means “life, life force” and encompasses emotions, personality and memory, or all things that distinguish one human from another in an emotional-spiritual context. To have a “redeemed nefesh” is a powerful message of hope indeed and one that directly goes back to the Aramaic dialect spoken by Y’shua himself nearly two thousand years ago. We will get into that aspect in greater detail however a little later on.
The rest of the sentence is simply saying that literally redemption has come near to his soul, but the ransoming aspect is also extremely interesting as well. Another way to look at the phrase might also be, “the redemption of your life/soul has approached/come near/is upon you.” If that is the right interpretation, this is also a premonition of his physical death as well as a promise regarding his eternal life.
Tracking the Word in Tanakh
Here is the Strong’s entry for this critical word:
The NAS Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
Strong’s Number: 6299
Original Word : 
Word Origin: A primitive root
Transliterated Word: Padah
TDNT Entry: TWOT – 1734
Phonetic Spelling: paw-daw’
Parts of Speech: Verb
Definition
- to ransom, redeem, rescue, deliver
- (Qal) to ransom
- (Niphal) to be ransomed
- (Hiphil) to allow one to be ransomed
- (Hophal) redeemed
NAS Word Usage – Total: 59
any means redeem 1, ransom 4, ransomed 7, redeem 24,
redeemed 18, redeems 1, redemption price 1, rescued 1, surely
redeem 1, way been redeemed 1
NAS Verse Count (Times mentioned in book)
Exodus – 4
Leviticus – 3
Numbers – 6
Deuteronomy – 6
1 Samuel – 1
2 Samuel – 2
1 Kings – 1
1 Chronicles – 1
Nehemiah – 1
Job – 3
Psalms – 13
Isaiah – 4
Jeremiah – 2
Hosea – 2
Micah – 1
Zechariah – 1
Total 51
The Hebrew lexicon is Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon; this is keyed to the
“Theological Word Book of the Old Testament.” These files are considered public domain
Now let’s see where this word actually appears:
‘It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD
killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the
firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to YHWH males, the first offspring of
every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ (hdp: padah)-Exodus
13:115 (NAS)
So here we see the firstborn of animals are sacrificed to redeem, die in the place of, the
firstborn of men who are consecrated to YHWH! Let’s see some more examples:
‘Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another
man, but who has in no way been redeemed ‘ (hdp: padah) nor given her
freedom, there shall be punishment ; they shall not, however, be put to death,
because she was not free.-Leviticus 19:20 (NAS)
Here we see another application, a synonym for the Hebrew word ga’al which deals with
redeeming a woman like Ruth from a kind of servitude. In that sense, to be “redeemed”
means to be set free. In Mr. White’s case, I can only imagine this means being set free
from this physical world but also from the bounds of iniquity condemning us. Such an
idea is also confirmed here:
‘Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed (hdp: padah), O YHWH,
and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’
And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them.-Deuteronomy 21:8 (NAS)
However this word appears the most frequently in Tehillim (Psalms), which is where the
full force of its meaning is most apparent:
Redeem (: padah) Israel, O Elohim, out of all his troubles.-Psalm 25:22
(NAS)
No man can by any means redeem (padah) his brother Or give to Elohim a
ransom for him…But Elohim will redeem (padah) my soul from the power
of Sheol, for He will receive me. Selah.-Psalm 49:7, 15 (NAS)
But by far the most powerful use of redeem/ransom is here:
Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O YHWH, Elohim
of truth.-Psalm 31:5 (NAS)
If this sounds familiar it should:
And Y’shua cried out with a loud voice and said, “My Father, into Your
Hands I place my spirit!” He said this and it was finished.-Luke 23:46 (AENT)
And this is a perfect transition to our next topic!
Tracking the Word in the Aramaic Renewed Covenant Peshitta Text
Before I do the above, let me show you something in NT Greek:
NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon
Strong’s Number: 3875
Original Word: parakletoß
Word Origin: a root word
Transliterated Word : Parakletos
TDNT Entry – 5:800,782
Phonetic Spelling : par-ak’-lay-tos
Parts of Speech: Noun Masculine
Definition
- 1. summoned, called to one’s side, esp. called to one’s aid
- a. one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate
- b. one who pleads another’s cause with one, an intercessor
- 2. of Christ in his exaltation at God’s right hand, pleading with God the Father for the pardon of our sins
- c. in the widest sense, a helper, succourer, aider, assistant
- 3. of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom
NAS Word Usage – Total: 5
Advocate 1, Helper 4
Since this important Greek word only appears five times in the NT, let’s just show all of
them:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (parakletoß -par-
ak’-lay-tos ), that He may be with you forever ; “But the Helper (parakletoß -
par-ak’-lay-tos ), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will
teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. –John
14:16, 26 (NAS)
“But the Helper (parakletoß -par-ak’-lay-tos ), the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all that I said to you.-John 15:26 (NAS)
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go
away, the Helper (parakletoß -par-ak’-lay-tos ) will not come to you; but if I
go, I will send Him to you.-John 16:7 (NAS)
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if
anyone sins, we have an Advocate (parakletoß -par-ak’-lay-tos ) with the
Father, Y’shua the Messiah the righteous.-1 John 2:1 (NAS)
Now notice that in the first four instances, the Ruach haKodesh is called this word, but in
the last one in 1 John 2:1 it is Y’shua? This is because we have one Advocate/Redeemer
under heaven, and that is YHWH. YHWH’s Son gives affirmation to the Father
(meaning “YHWH is salvation”) and the Ruach haKodesh is another title for YHWH
Himself (Psalm 51:1-11, Isaiah 63:1-11)!
However my main reason for bringing this up is that this phrase, unknown to almost
every Western Bible scholar I am aware of, is actually a loan word from Aramaic:
Lexicon
Word Number: 17214
Meaning: Saviour
Pronunciation: (Eastern) P’aRuOQaA
(Western) P’oRuOQoA
Part of Speech: Noun
Gender: Masculine
Number: Singular
State: Emphatic
Suffix Number: Singular
Lexeme Form: PEAL
So in Aramaic, paraklaytos is actually paroqa which has this general meaning: For today is born to you in the city of Dawid the Savior (0qwrp – paroqa) who is Master YHWH, the Mashiyach.-Luke 2:11 (AENT)
This again proves my point, it is YHWH alone who saves, it is YHWH alone who is our
Savior (Isaiah 43:5) and He chose His Son Y’shua for the job, as “Life Giver”, meaning
eternal life, which is the real meaning of this word. In fact, this word is actually the
Aramaic cognate—the exact match—to padah which was in Reggie White’s dream in the
first place! He is not just set free from sin and death, but this is done through his (and
our) sole Mediator and Redeemer, Y’shua our Master.
One Final Point
But there is yet one more Aramaic meaning to Reggie White’s vision that must be addressed. In order to get from paroqa to paraklaytos, the most likely route is through two Aramaic words.
Paroqa as a verb can mean “to save from/prevent/rescue away”.
And then there is our final word:
Lexicon
Word Number: 11094
Meaning: curse
Pronunciation: (Eastern) LaO+aT,aA
(Western) LaO+oT,oA
Part of Speech: Noun
Gender: FeminineNumber: Plural
State: Emphatic
Suffix Number: Singular
Lexeme Form: PEAL
Laaotaa as a noun means “curse” as you see.
Put them together and you have Paroqa + Laaotaa = HE WHO ENDS THE
CURSE.
By ending the curse of death without redemption, we see the full extent of Reggie
White’s vision from the Paroqa (Savior) himself who actually ended the curse! What was
true then for Reggie’s salvation at the end of his life is equally true for us, if we embrace
Torah and follow YHWH’s Redeemer, Y’shua our Mashiyach.
