Page 119 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
98 98 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW

First, unlike “water,” which does not have a singular form in Hebrew, “life” is
plural, but its root also appears in the singular. The latter, however, is used in a
somewhat different sense than the common usage of “life.” In Hebrew, the singular
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is either chai (masculine) or chaiyah (feminine). However, their meanings are
different. The former is in fact an adjective, meaning “living”. It is changed into
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a noun by preceding it with the word “all” (kol). Kol chai is used to mean
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assembly of all living creatures. By contrast, chaiyah is a noun, meaning, simply,
“animal” or “beast.”
Examples:
• “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all
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living” (em kol chai, Gen. 3:20).
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• “From all the living” (mi-kol ha-chai, Gen. 6:19);
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• “and all the animals” (ve-kol ha-chaiyah, Gen. 7:14);
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The plural of chaiyah is chaiot, while chai, as alluded to earlier, never
appears as a noun on its own, only as an adjective (meaning “living”).
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Let us investigate chayim (life) as a noun.
The structure of the word is reminiscent of (and in fact not different from)
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that of yadayim (hands), which has a singular form of yad. Thus, chayim
in Hebrew implies “double” in a symmetrical way. From a biblical standpoint,

this is not so far-fetched as it first sounds. There are several incidents in the Bible
in which God calls upon a biblical hero, calling him by name twice, and then
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answered by “Here I am [hineni ],” occasionally also twice.
Consider a few examples (later we will relate to how these verses are interpreted
in Jewish tradition):
• Abraham: “And the Angel of the Lord called upon him from heaven,
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and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, ‘Here I am [hineni ]’” (Gen.
22:11).
• Jacob: “And God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said,
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Jacob, Jacob. And he said, ‘Here I am [hineni ]’” (Gen. 46:2).
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• Moses: “God called unto him out of the midst of the Bush [hasneh ],
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and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, ‘Here I am [hineni ]’” (Exod.
3:4).
:
• Samuel “And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times,
Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant is lis-
tening” (1 Sam. 3:10). Note that as it is related in the Bible, God had