"Knowledge" in Hebrew Thought
By Sandra Aviv
In modern thought, “knowing” is often about information. We know things when we can define them, measure them, or explain them. Knowledge is stored in the realm of the factual and analytical mind.
But in the Hebrew Bible, yada (יָדַע), “to know,” carries a much more comprehensive definition. For the ancient Israelites, knowledge was not simply the grasp of facts but the experience of relationship. To yada something or someone is to encounter them deeply, and to be shaped by that connection.
When Scripture says that “Adam knew (יָדַע; yada) Eve his wife, and she conceived” (Genesis 4:1), it speaks not of cognition but of intimacy; a union that joins lives, not just thoughts. The same verb appears when God says to Moses, “I have known you by name” (Exodus 33:17). God’s knowledge here is not awareness from afar; it is personal recognition, covenantal closeness, and divine favor.
In the prophets, this idea deepens. Hosea, lamenting Israel’s unfaithfulness, records God’s words: “I desire covenantal loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge (דַעַת; daʿat) of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). Here, knowledge is not theology but relationship, an ongoing awareness of God’s presence that leads to faithfulness in action.
Likewise, Jeremiah foretells a day when this kind of knowledge will become universal: “They shall all know (יֵדְעוּ; yedu) Me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:34). This promise envisions not a world of scholars, but a world of intimacy in which every human heart is connected to God directly, without mediation or distance.
Even in wisdom literature, yada bridges intellect and devotion. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (דָּעַת; da'at)” (Proverbs 1:7), not because wisdom despises understanding, but because true knowledge begins with awe, humility, and moral consciousness before the Creator.
In the New Testament, this same Hebrew worldview echoes in Greek. When Jesus says, “I know My sheep, and My sheep know Me” (John 10:14), He uses γινώσκω (ginōskō), the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew yada. The word that John employs indicates an active, lived knowing that describes relationship, trust, and mutual recognition, not mere data.
This deep, relational view of yada also shaped rabbinic thought. The Talmud links daʿat with understanding and discernment: “If there is knowledge, there is discernment; if there is no knowledge, how can there be discernment?” In that same context, the rabbis discuss the blessing Atah chonen la’adam daʿat (“You graciously bestow knowledge upon humanity”), explaining that it opens the weekday prayers because true understanding is the foundation of all prayer. Without daʿat, there can be no genuine communion with God. For the rabbis, true knowing was not intellectual mastery but the union of heart and mind in faithful living.
To know God, in the biblical sense, is to walk with Him, to listen, obey, struggle, and love. Along with acquiring knowledge about God, the Bible encourages its readers to enter a living knowledge of God. In that encounter, the distance between intellect and faith disappears. To yada is to be transformed—not by what we understand, but by Whom we meet.
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