Yod - One very Significant Letter     
by Lois Tverberg & Bruce Okkema                   

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.“  Matthew 5:18 NAS

If you grew up hearing the King James Version of the Bible read, you would have heard the above passage with the words '... not one jot or one tittle ... ". Perhaps you learned that this was some type of punctuation mark equivalent to our English apostrophe. The "jot" that Jesus was referring to was the Hebrew letter "yod". It is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, just a half a line long. It looks like this:- like a small capital “L” rotated 180°. Furthermore, in what we translate “tittle” or “stroke of a pen”, Jesus was referring to “the thorn of the yod” which is just the small curve at the top of the letter, a slight embellishment on the yod. In our rendering of it above, when written with a bit of a flair it looks like a ram's horn - a shofar.

So what Jesus was saying was, not the smallest letter or even a decoration on the letter will disappear. This is actually a well-known Hebrew expression, "lo yod v'lo kotso shel yod" which is, "not a yod or a thorn of a yod", meaning "not the most insignificant or unimportant thing".

What was Jesus saying by this? This is a difficult question, with a long answer. But briefly put, He was affirming the sanctity of God's word to His people, that His coming was to bring the scriptures to their fulfillment, not to undermine them. While the Torah taught the people to live the life the way God wanted, Jesus would give them eternal life by repentance and trust in Him, the Torah incarnate.

For in depth discussion of Matthew 5:17 see our Bible Corner Article, week #15, "Love is the Fulfillment of the Law" or Jerusalem Perspective, "'Destroy the Law", by David Bivin. (premium content membership required)