Many are asking if Hamas is in the Bible. Is this an omen or sign? Some even suggest futuristic consequences or prophetic signs and wonders related to Hamas and the modern Israel nation. Well, yes, Hamas is in the Bible, but perhaps not in the way you may expect. Also, let’s hope history repeats itself and Hamas is ended.
“Hamas,” the Arabic terrorist group acronym moniker of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), is also a chilling homophone in the Bible: violence.
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Genesis 6:11 says, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence [Hamas: lit. חָמָס (ḥāmās)].”
The Hebrew word ḥāmās is a noun meaning an act of aggression, but especially involving physical contact. Hamas was founded in 1987; however, the biblical word “ḥāmās” or “violence” reaches back to the earliest chapters of Genesis and is one of the significant reasons for the flood.
And Hamas terrorism is certainly delivering on their name. Let us pray God sends the same judgment as he did in Genesis 6 to rid the world of this evil. No quarter should be given to an extremist movement celebrating child execution, preteen wives, destruction of antiquities, crimes against humanity, genocide, terror-tweeting, torture, social media radicalization, amputations, and slavery all in the “name of Allah.”
In the days of Noah, God saw the earth was filled with violence (ḥāmās), so he sent a flood, “for the earth is filled with violence (ḥāmās) through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13).
Hamas, used as both a noun and verb, appear 67 times in the Bible. More specifically, the word ḥāmās in the Old Testament is used almost always in connection with sinful violence. It does not refer to the violence of natural catastrophes. It is often a descriptor for extreme wickedness.
Members of Hamas want to annihilate Israel. In view of what the Bible says about ḥāmās, their end is sure. They will be destroyed. In response, let us pray the prayer of David: “He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from [ḥāmās] violent men you rescued me” (Psalm 18:47–48).
Ḥamas in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic
While the terrorist organization’s name is actually an acronym, it is well chosen and the group is living up to the ancient meaning of its name — violence and wrong.
This real Arabic word, meaning “zeal,” meant much more a long time ago. It derives from the same root as the Hebrew and Aramaic word ḥāmās, which means “violence” or “wrong.” The tragic irony is that the terrorist organization of today is living up to the original meaning of the organization’s name.
The Hebrew verb is חָמַס ḥāmas, meaning “to do violence,” “to wrong;” the noun is חָמָס ḥāmās, meaning “violence,” or “wrong.” In the Hebrew Bible the verb occurs seven times, e.g., “her priests have done violence [חָמְסוּ] to my law” (Ezekiel 22:26). In the Hebrew Bible the noun occurs more than 50 times, e.g., “the earth was filled with violence [חָמָס]” (Genesis 6:11, 13 and F. Brown, with S. R. Driver and C. A. Briggs, “A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament” BDB 329).
In later rabbinic literature the noun חָמָס ḥāmās can also mean “extortion” and the verb “to seize violently.” (M. Jastrow, “A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature,” 2 vols. (London: Putnam, 1895–1903) 1:478).
The Aramaic has the same word, only spelled slightly differently: חֲמַס ḥămas. It means the same as the Hebrew. (M. Sokoloff, “A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period” (Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University, 1990) 206; Jastrow, 1:478.)
The Arabic verb is cognate to the older Hebrew and Aramaic. The Arabic حماس ḥamās usually means “to be hard,” “strict,” or “rigorous.” See BDB 329. In contemporary Arabic the noun is understood to mean “zeal” or “strength,” but its orignal meaning of “violence” remains. The important point is that the word itself – both noun and verb – is cognate to the Hebrew and Aramaic word. The Arabic ḥamās is from the same root.
Author’s Note: Lexicology and etymology are ever-evolving and spellings of words slowly change over centuries. Israelis hear the word “violence” in the Arabic word hamas because in Hebrew ḥamās means violence. The two words are not exactly the same, but Hamas’ violent behavior lives up to the Hebrew sound-alike word.
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Jeremiah J. Johnston, Ph.D. is a New Testament scholar, president of the Christian Thinkers Society, Pastor of Apologetics and Cultural Engagement at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas and author of several books, including his latest, “Body of Proof: The 7 Best Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus—and Why It Matters Today.”
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