קרא

Qera means study or investigate.

This word is often ignored or conflated and used interchangeably with shem, with disastrous results.

The traditional interpretation of Genesis 2:19-20 is an example of this:

And formed Yahweh God out of the ground every beast of the field and every bird of the air and He brought [them] to Adam to see what he would call And whatever called Adam [each] creature living that [was] its name - So gave Adam names to all livestock and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field but for Adam not was found a helper suitable

The traditional English interpretation contains no mention at all of any studying, despite the fact that 'qera' appears three times within this short passage:

A direct transliteration using traditional meanings of the contested words yields only gibberish:

“sculpted Jehovah The Elohim from all Adam living in the hills with all the birds of the heavens arrived to Adam look what name. all named Adam souls living name. Name Adam name all beasts birds of the heavens all life in the hills Adam not found help with”

A lot of interpretation has been added to the raw text, in order to arrive at the traditional interpretation.

If we go back to the original words: 'itzer ihoah elohim men adem kel hi shedah at kel oyop shemim ba al adem araha omah qera kel asher qera adem nepesh hi hia shem qera adem shem kel behamah oyop shemim kel hi shedah adem la ametza yezer neged'

A more literal translation from the Hebrew yields the following:

sculpted Ihoh The Alehim from all humans living in the hills with all the birds. The Legendary Ones arrived to human looked what studied. all studied human souls living characteristics studied human characteristics all beasts birds. The legendary ones all living in the hills humans not found help with¹⁾

This transliteration is raw and no words have been altered from the Hebrew root. Though the full meaning is not immediately obvious, it is a vastly different take on the story we think we know.

This passage provides an excellent opportunity to compare several words at once, in a well-known context.

The words in question here are Adam, Shem, Shemim, qera, adam

examine Genesis 4:26

Check Gen 26 connection to mayim

The ancient Hebrew phrase קרא את שמ (qera et shem) can be literally translated as “study the characteristics”.

This phrase is very important in terms of the overall theme of the opening chapters of Genesis, as well as in certain critical instances relating to certain characters within the narrative.

The phrase occurs twice in Genesis 4:26 in reference to Ihoh

Prior to this the phrase occurs in Genesis 4:17 and 4:25. It also appears in Gen 5:2, 5:3, 5:29, 11:9, 12:8, 12:18, 13:4, 16:11, 16:13, 16:15, 17:5, 17:15, 17:19, and on and on.

Gen 3:20 contains a variant phrase qera adam shem

In fact, the vast majority of instances of the word 'qera' occur within the phrase including shem. The noticable exceptions to this rule are the three instances of qera in the first chapter of Genesis.

1. Genesis 1:5
   • קרא אלהימ אור יומ חשכ קרא לילה אהיה ערב אהיה בקר יומ אהד
   • qera elohim avar yowm hoshek qera layla ahyah ereb ahyah boqer yowm ehad
   • studied The Elohim light cycle darkness studied night are evening are morning cycle one
2. Genesis 1:8
   • קרא אלהימ רקיע שמימ אהיה ערב אהיה בקר יומ שני
   • qera elohim raqi shemim ahyah ereb ahyah boqer yowm sheni
   • studied The Elohim structure The Legendary Ones are evening are morning cycle second
3. Genesis 1:10
   • קרא אלהימ יבשה ארצ מקוה מימ קרא מימ אראה אלהימ כי טוב
   • qera elohim yibsheh Aretz miqveh mayim qera mayim arah elohim ki towb
   • studied The Elohim the land Earth hope The Mayim studied The Mayim looked The Elohim caused improvement