Abstract
Founding father John Adams wrote to J. H. Tiffany in March of 1819: "Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society." The importance of words and their associated meanings was not lost on the Hebrews or on other people in the ancient Near East (and by inference for all those for whom words matter greatly). Jews, Christians and Moslems have always been known as people of the Book.