Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 7/8/06, JAMES CHRISTIAN READ wrote:
> Yitzhak wrote:
>  It is therefore significant that
> the word tehom is used as a proper name in the right place (before
> division of the seas).
> END QUOTE
>
> JCR: I think this is an overstatement that may well be
> quite a lot less significant than to imply a direct
> relation with the tiamat myth. There is nothing in
> the context whatsoever which personifies tehom and the
> sense is very much of a thing rather than a being.
>
> The very phrase ' The earth was formless and void, and
> darkness was over the surface of the deep' seems, in
> my mind, to recall only thoughts of lifeless matter
> that are yet to be prepared for the arrival of life.

The thing that you seem to be overlooking is that your
translation adds a "the" that is not present in the Hebrew
text.  This would be equivalent to you writing in English,
"The earth was formless and void and darkness was over
the surface of Deep."  Or "Abyss," or "Ocean."  It is used
as a proper name.  The use of this specific word, as a
proper name like this, at this place of the Creation story,
just appears to be too coincidental.

> Could it be that Tiamat was merely named after the
> physical entity represented and the hebrew makes use
> of the normal word tehom with no regard for whether
> other cultures use a cognate of this word to refer
> to their mythical Tiamat? I am certainly aware of
> clear examples in the tanak where ba'al is used in a
> sense clearly distinct from any association with the
> foreign god ba'al and used only as a normal word to
> express a relation husband/master.

Of course Tiamat was named for the natural force (water/sea)
that it represented.  Just like Yam in the Canaanite pantheon
is named for the ocean/sea, or like Hadad is perhaps named
for thunder.  The Bible doesn't come out and say, "and
darkness was upon the face of Tehom, you know, that
Canaanite or Babylonian goddess, and the Divine Wind was
hovering above the waters."  But it's just very suspicious that
Tehom is used in the way it is used and that the word Tehom
is mentioned rather than other words.  And yes, the waters are
divided independently of Tehom's mention.  They appear on the
second day, while Tehom is in the background to the first day.
But that still doesn't explain why Tehom is named as a proper
name (no definite article = "h" prefix).  It's possible to suggest
that a pagan cosmogony was used as the basis for the Genesis
1 cosmogony, with some of the more problematic references
being removed

Joel Stucki wrote:
> Insightful post Yitzhak. One other point that you did not delve into
> is that in Enuma Elish Tiamat is defeated and divided in two with one
> half of her becoming the sky and the other half the sea, just as the
> waters of Genesis. Even if you believe a general Semitic root is
> responsible for the similarity of the two words rather than a direct
> allusion, you still have to account for these other similarities in
> the story.

My argument there was that it's possible to conceive not just of a
general Semitic root, but of a general Semitic cosmogony that spoke
of the Waters being defeated and divided.  In the Canaanite pantheon,
apparently Yam takes the place of Tehom in the fight, with Baal fighting
and defeating Yam, while the Babylonian myth speaks of Marduk
(identified with Bel) defeating Tehom.  Still, the allusion to Tehom
remains in Genesis.

> When you also look at comparisons of the six days of creation vs the
> six generations of gods and the seventh cycle of rest, the order
> things were created in, etc. It seems too similar to think there is
> not a direct connection between them.

While I was not directly and immediately aware of this example (I think
I read about it in the context of Russell Gmirkin's discussions of the
Greek origin of the Pentateuch), it is this type of thing that I suggested
when I spoke of cultural influences that can still influence the story
without being directly visible with directly borrowed elements.

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com