‘Lashawan Qwadash’: One Of The Craziest Beliefs Of The Black Hebrew Israelites
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(OPINION) Among a host of crazy Black Hebrew Israelite beliefs, one of the most bizarre is the idea that they have preserved the real pronunciation of the Hebrew language, which they call Lashawan Qwadash. This is similar to claiming that Pig Latin is the true form of English or that William Shakespeare was famous for shaking a spear. It is that patently and blatantly absurd.
In their completely made-up version of Hebrew — which they say was given by revelation to one of their early leaders — the Hebrew name for Jesus becomes Yahawashi, and “shalom” becomes “shalawam.”
The truth be told, Yahawashi is no more a Hebrew name than Toyota is a German car brand, and shalawam is no more a Hebrew word than is shazam.
The reason this matters (and is even worthy of being mentioned) is that these Black Hebrew Israelites claim to be the original Israelites, the true Jews. Yet they absolutely butcher the Hebrew language and display a fundamental ignorance of Hebrew orthography and morphology. This alone undermines their claims to authenticity.
As I have said many times before, no one is disputing that there are Black Jews, along with and Hispanic Jews and White Jews and Asian Jews, and so on. The issue is the unique, fictional claims of the Black Hebrew Israelites, claims fueled by intense racial hatred.
In stark contrast, the real Jewish people have preserved the Hebrew Scriptures and Hebrew language through the centuries, with the primary divergences being matters of dialect and custom.
This is of special interest to me, since my bachelor’s degree was earned in Hebrew language and both my master’s and doctorate were in Near Eastern languages and literatures. All the more, then, does the ridiculous, impossible nature of Lashawan Qwadash shout to me from the rooftops.
To summarize, if the pronunciation of Lashawan Qwadash is true, then every speaker of every Semitic language today, including the entire Arabic speaking world, along with every speaker of Tigre and Amharic in Africa, every speaker of Aramaic, every Israeli (including Arab Israelis), every Assyrian Christian, is mispronouncing their language as well, since similar grammatical and morphological and phonetic principles apply across these languages.
If the pronunciation of Lashawan Qwadash is accurate, then every ancient Semitic inscription, in particular every Babylonian and Assyrian inscription, which contain explicit vocalization, is in error.
In short, Lashawan Qwadash violates every grammatical, morphological and phonetic principle of every Semitic language recorded in any recognized grammatical text and lexicon because it is a complete myth created by a Hebrew Israelite who did not really know Hebrew.
Lashawan Qwadash makes biblical texts completely unintelligible — such as the explanation for the name Reuben in Gen 29:32, based on “see a son” — and is proven wrong by the Septuagint’s and other ancient versions’ transcription of certain Hebrew names and by the New Testament’s transcription of Hebrew names in Greek, such as the names of the 12 Tribes in Revelation 7. In other words, we have ancient Greek transcriptions of Hebrew names and words in the Septuagint and the New Testament confirming our understanding of the language and further exposing the linguistic bankruptcy of Lashawan Qwadash.
In short, either the pronunciation of Lashawan Qwadash is right — in which case the whole world is wrong, all ancient history is wrong, all Semitic speakers in world history and to this day are wrong, every Semitic name on every map and every name of every Hebrew city and town (such as Bethlehem or Jerusalem) is wrong, all ancient versions of the Bible are wrong, the New Testament itself is wrong, and all Semitic scholars throughout history and until today are wrong — or Lashawan Qwadash is wrong.
To repeat: this throws all claims of Black Hebrew Israelite authenticity out the window.
To give one specific example, Lashawan Qwadash fails to understand that the Hebrew letter “waw” also known as “vav,” commonly functions as a vowel letter — in Latin, a “mater lectionis.” This is similar to the English letter w, which can function as a normal consonant, as in the word “water,” or as a vowel letter, as in the word “town,” where it modifies the pronunciation of the o.
So, in the Hebrew word for “language, tongue,” which is “lashon” — spelled l-sh-w-n in Hebrew and pronounced with a long o, as in the word “phone” — Lashawan Qwadash misunderstands the w, thinking it is a normal consonant, hence the made-up word lashawan. This is identical to the Lashawan Qwadash error of converting “shalom” into “shalawam.”
Instead, we know for a fact — by comparison with other Semitic languages such as Arabic and Aramaic, and based on the morphological principle of what is known as the Canaanite shift — that the w is a vowel letter here, pronounced as o, and that the word is pronounced “lashon.” The same principle applies to the word “shalom.”
Sadly, this made-up version of Hebrew only reinforces the internal solidarity of the cult members, since they speak the same language and regard those who speak real Hebrew as the impostors. How diabolically clever!
Hopefully, though those in this destructive cult who are serious about pursuing truth will be led to repentance and freedom. May the Lord hasten their redemption!
Dr. Michael L. Brown, who has a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, is founder and president of AskDrBrown Ministries and host of the nationally syndicated daily talk radio show “The Line of Fire.” He’s served as a visiting or adjunct professor at seven leading seminaries and has written more than 40 books. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is a recognized leader in Jewish apologetics. His Twitter handle is @drmichaellbrown.