‘Lashawan Qwadash’: One of the craziest beliefs of the Black Hebrew Israelite cult
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 (allegedly given by revelation to one of their early leaders), the Hebrew name for Jesus becomes Yahawashi (seriously), and “shalom” becomes “shalawam” (I kid you not).
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.
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The reason this matters (and is even worthy of being mentioned) is that these BHI’s 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, etc. The issue is the unique, fictional claims of the BHI’s, 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 Ph.D. were in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. All the more, then, does the ridiculous, impossible nature of Lashawan Qwadash (henceforth LQ) shout to me from the rooftops.
To summarize, if the pronunciation of LQ is true (which is it not), 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 LQ is accurate (which it is not), then every ancient Semitic inscription, in particular every Babylonian and Assyrian inscription, which contains explicit vocalization, is in error.
In short, LQ violates every grammatical and 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.
LQ 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 LQ.
In short, either the pronunciation of LQ is right (which is it not), 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, all Semitic scholars throughout history and until today are wrong, or LQ is wrong (which it is).
To repeat: this throws all claims of BHI authenticity out the window.
To give one specific example, LQ 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”), LQ misunderstands the w, thinking it is a normal consonant, hence the made-up word lashawan. (This is identical to the LQ 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.) So much for BHI authenticity!
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 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 Brown(www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Revival Or We Die: A Great Awakening Is Our Only Hope. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
