A Linguistic Curiosity

There are at least 136 different language groups which are grouped by noticeable and provable similarities in grammar, sound, vocabulary, word order, and the ways in which they express ideas.  The number of known languages exceeds 7000.  All the languages within a particular language group are believed to have been derived from a common ancestor language.

Arabic and Hebrew are sister Semitic languages.  The modern Semitic languages are spoken by at least 470 million worldwide and include Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Aramaic, Tigrinya, Syriac, Ge’ez, Maltese, South Arabian. Mahri, Soqriti, Tigre, Inor, Soddo, Harari, Sebat bet Gurage.  Ancient Semitic languages include Akkadian, Phoenician, Ugaritic, Himyaritic, Amorite, and Canaanite.

It is unreasonable to read more into what I am about to show you than that it is merely a linguistic curiosity of dissimilar vocabulary within a language group.  It is though, very odd.

This (חֲמַ֤ס) is the Old Testament word “hamas” which means “violence.”  An example of its use is in Habbakuk 2:17.

The name of the Islamic fundamentalist activist organization, Hamas, is an acronym derived from the Arabic name of the organization, حركة المقاومة الاسلامية (Harakat al-Muqāwama al-Islāmiyya).  The name is "Islamic Resistance Movement". Hamas was founded in 1987 with the aim of liberating Palestine from Israeli occupation and establishing an Islamic state which would include what is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.  They now say they would accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 pre-war Israeli borders, provided that Palestinian refugees would have the right to return to Israel if they wished and that East Jerusalem would be the new nation's capital.

The actual Arabic word “hamas” means devotion, enthusiasm, fire, or zeal.