Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear James,

TWOT, Volume II, tohu, article by Ronald F. Youngblood, refers to a book by W.
H. Griffith Thomas, Genesis - A Devotional Commentary, page 29 in which he
refers to the phrase, "without form and void," (formless and empty) as a
hendiadys and is used to preserve something of the Hebrew phrase. It also
provides a nice literary structure to the chapter as it shows that the first
three days record that the "heavens and earth receiving their "form" while the
last three days show the filling-up of their emptiness. The article then
discusses the relationship of Genesis 1:2 to Isaiah 45:18.

En Xristwi,

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.apu.ac.uk>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 12:48 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] bara vs' bero in Genesis 1:1


> Yitzhak wrote:
> *tiha:m; "sea"; Akk. tamtum, tia:mat, Arab taham "land sloping down by the
> sea", tiha:mat "(geographical name for a coastal plain)"; Heb thom; Sy
> thoma (loanword); Ug taha:matu
> END QUOTE
>
> JCR: Thanks for showing how they could be cognates. My
> difficulty lied in accounting for the 'h' of tehom and
> you seem to have adequately done so and shown similar
> patterns which I have omitted in my reply for brevities
> sake. I can now see what you were saying.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> What do you think?
>
> James C. Read
> UK
>
>
>
> lation with the tiamat myth. There is nothing in
> the context whatsoever which personifies tehom and the
> sense is very mu
>
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