For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Romans 8:15
The first word of the Hebrew language is אב (Av, Father). It is first in the alphabetical sense, coming first in any Hebrew dictionary. It is cognate to the Aramaic Abba, which was transliterated (as opposed to translated) in the verse above from Romans.
Meaning of Av (Father)
In general, Av signifies the idea of the founder, author, source or origin of something. No more fitting word could be set as the fountainhead of the aleph-bet. Like the Bible itself, the aleph-bet begins in the beginning, and it bears the title of its Author, God.
Being composed of an Aleph and a Bet, it encodes the ultimate purpose of the Aleph-bet. It was designed to guide us to our Aleph Bet – Av – our heavenly Father. This is the wisdom of the divine. It is the alphabet created by the everlasting God, the Alpha and Omega, the Aleph and Tav, to reveal Himself to us. Glory to God in the highest!
Luke 2:13-15
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Yet there is more. Analyzing the symbolic force of the elements of word Av yields a deeper meaning of the design:
אב (Av, Father) = א (Aleph, Leader/Guide) & ב (Beyt, House)
Until recent times, the obvious implications of this simple analysis would have met little or no opposition. The timeless teaching is that the Father is the Head of the House. It is encoded in the intrinsic structure of the Hebrew language.
The idea of the Father as the Leader of the House applies equally to the natural as to the spiritual. Just as the heavenly Father rules the House of Faith, so the earthly father, made in the image of God, should rule his own house, as it is written, "A bishop then must be ... one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)"
The Meaning of Aleph
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28
The name Aleph relates to a number of Hebrew words, such as ox, tame, teach, guide, chief, ruler, and thousand. Though this set may appear somewhat diverse at first glance, these ideas actually cohere quite compactly. The natural object that gave rise to Aleph's name is the ox, which also gave rise to the modern form of the Latin letter A, which is an inverted hieroglyph of the head of an ox. While certainly the root of Aleph’s name, this is by no means the primary meaning of the root as revealed by Scripture and the Hebrew language, especially in light of aleph, in the sense of ox, occurring but twice in the Old Testament. A much more significant word, which itself gave rise to aleph as the word for ox, is alluph , meaning tame, docile, or trained to bear a yoke. Rabbi Ginsburgh, in his explanation of the Aleph’s inner meaning1, takes up this image and explains that the modern shape of Aleph "pictures the yoke of the ox" symbolizing the "yoke of heaven" that we take upon ourselves when we sincerely submit to the leadership and teaching of God. This familiar similitude reflects the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, cited above.
These words of Christ echo the etymology of the Aleph's name. Domesticating an ox is a special case of the more general concept of teaching, and just as one who cooks is called a cook, so alluph denotes both the act of teaching and the one who teaches. Thus, a teacher, leader, or guide is also called alluph, and this word is used by the Jews to refer to Rabbis who have attained great knowledge of the Torah. God applied it to Himself when he called Israel to return unto Him, asking "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide (alluph) of my youth?"
The leadership of the father, as head of a family or tribe, is one of the primary uses of alluph in the Bible. In Zechariah, this word is translated thrice as governor. The greatest density of alluph occurs in Genesis where thirty-two "dukes of Edom" are listed, duke being a Middle English word derived from the Latin dux, denoting a leader, ruler, or commander. This root appears in many English words such as induce (to lead on, urge), produce (bring forth for display, exhibit), and seduce (to lead astray). Most modern versions of the Bible translate alluph in these verses as chief, an exception being the NRSV which translates it as clan because the ruler of the clan or tribe was also called the ruler of thousands. This accords with the division of the people established by Moses when he "chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens." Here, as everywhere else in the Old Testament, the word translated as thousands is (elephim), the plural of (eleph, a thousand.)
Jesus refered to Himself as being the aleph and the tav.
In the Hebrew (av) spells father and (ben) spells son. If the two words are combined so that they share the same beit(2nd letter of aleph-bet),you get (eh-vhen) which spells stone. Father and Son come together to become "stone". "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Romans 9:31-33
Psalm 118:22
The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
