Is Hamas in the Bible?

Shortly after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, several Christian teachers began teaching that the name of the organization Hamas is found in the Bible. One passage is Genesis 6:11:

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. (ESV)

The Hebrew word for “violence” here is ḥāmās (חמס). It can be spelt in English as “Hamas”. Based on this, it is claimed that this passage is somehow significant regarding the organization Hamas.

In reality, this “insight” only makes sense in English. After all, it relies on the similarity between an English spelling of the Hebrew word ḥāmās and the English name of the organization, Hamas. It would not make sense in Hebrew.

The name of the organization “Hamas” (حماس) is actually an Arabic acronym which is spelt with four Arabic letters: ḥā, mīm, ālif, and sīn. The official spelling of the name “Hamas” in Hebrew is formed by converting these four Arabic letters into their equivalent Hebrew letters:

חמאס (spelt ḥēṯ-mēm-ʾālep̄-sāmeḵ).

This word does not appear at all in the Hebrew text of the Jewish Scriptures. Rather, the Hebrew word for “violence” in Genesis 6:11 is

חמס (spelt ḥēṯ-mēm-sāmeḵ).

As can be observed, these two words are different, as there is a difference of one letter. This difference might not seem significant to a person who does not know Hebrew. However, in Hebrew, one letter often makes a great difference!