Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

This pastor translated Biden’s name to Hebrew. He won’t like his own Hebrew name.

Every so often, fringe Christian figures look to Hebrew to impute Satanic inspiration. Sometimes, it backfires tremendously.

One-upping this woman who slammed Monster energy drinks with the sign of the beast, right-wing pastor Perry Stone has translated President Joe Biden’s name into Hebrew. When you break it down — eliding some vowels and looking into roots and the biblical story of Jacob’s son Dan — Stone said, it means “Alas, Judgment.”

It seems like in Stone’s mind this reflects Biden’s executive orders and “contentious” passage of laws, more than the Final Judgment many Christians anticipate.

Now, translating English to an unrelated language group and trying to divine meaning from it is something of a fool’s errand. But let’s play at Stone’s game. After all, he said that he consulted with an “actual Hebrew scholar.”

What that unnamed scholar didn’t tell Stone is what his own name means when it’s transliterated. Thankfully, there’s Twitter for that.

Perry’s first name is easy. In Hebrew it means “fruit,” which is a nice enough name. Good work, Mr. and Mrs. Stone. Though, if we move to the surname we have something a bit less felicitous.

In Hebrew you’d spell that Sin-Tet-Nun. It’s the same spelling as “Satan.”

So actually, the name could mean “Fruit of Satan.”

But don’t get too hung up on that, Pastor. The good news is that none of this translating back and forth really means much. If you are still stuck on this unwelcome fact, though, remember that Biden’s actual given name is “Joseph” (the aforementioned Dan’s brother) which, more or less, means “to add” or “increase.”

So maybe Biden will add, or increase, judgment — not of the doomsday variety — to his office. Judgment can mean “the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions.”

Languages are fun!

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture reporter. Ha can be reached at [email protected].

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.