Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

Hi Ian,

Ah, one of our many lurkers!  Good to hear from you!  What can we do to
encourage folks to post?  I would think that this list could have several
times the traffic it does and thereby be several times the value it is to
its members.

Re: _tohu vabohu_
Although your outline of the six creation days may be fine, and it might
therefore be nice if _tohu vabohu_ would cooperate by meaning "chaos and
emptiness," your outline hardly provides a solid contextual footing for
semantically distinguishing between _tohu_ and _bohu_.  

Sincerely,
Bryan

----------
> From: Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
> To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Re: Fox's first two days
> Date: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 10:59 PM

> >> >> 2  when the earth was wild and waste,
> >> 
Hutcheson:
> >> Though poetic, doesn't the "waste" take away from the meaning here?

> [..]Rocine:
> >
> >first, about the phrase's meaning:  compare Isa 34:11 where it is
predicted
> >that the judgment in Zion, symbolized by the plumbline and its bob will
be
> >turned to _tohu vabohu_ when the holy mount becomes the habitation of
> >unclean creatures.   apparently _bohu_ does not necessitate literal
> >emptiness as much as absence of order or rule.  How about this for _tohu
> >vabohu_: "purposeless and patternless"?  _tohu vabohu_ seems to be an
> >expression of utter, hopeless confusion.  After all, the greater the
> >confusion in Gen 1:2, the greater the glory of the Lord in overcoming it
by
> >His omni-creativity.
> 
> My understanding of the creation here is that there are two series of
three
> days:
> 
>    Forming                  Filling
> 
> 1  Day & night           4  Sun, moon & stars
> 
> 2  Sky & sea             5  Birds & fish
> 
> 3  Land & vegetation     6  Animals & man
> 
> The first series deals with the tohu reducing the chaos to order, the
other,
> filling the corresponding void. It would seem that the expression tohu
> vabohu was explicitly used to point to the structure imposed on the
creation.
> 
<snip>
> Ian
> 
> (Heading back to obscurity)


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)