Page 126 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
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CHAPTER 6 THE PURPOSE OF LIFE 105
CHAPTER 6
6.2.3 “Work,” “Angle,” “Messenger”: Integration
As in the previous example (section 6.1), we encounter once again a bizarre coin-
cidence that needs some elaboration. While it is explainable why “a messenger”
and “an angel” are the same word in Hebrew (given the biblical mission of angels
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as messengers), the interrelationship with “work” (melachah) seems out of place.
Let us be reminded that specifying forbidden “work”s for Shabbat implies that
these are our duty on other days of the week, as explicitly stated at the end of the

story of the creation: “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because
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in it he ceased all his work [melachah ] that God had created to do” (Gen. 2:3;
author’s translation).
Read it again carefully. Here the Bible describes not the creation of the world,
but the creation of work. Furthermore, this work has been created for the purpose
of executing it (“created to do”). The mathematical precision in biblical language
is at its peak. How can this phrase be explained?
We have earlier related to the fact that in the Hebrew language, as well as in
Jewish mysticism, there is distinction between the worlds of creating, forming,
and doing (or making). This is particularly outstanding in the story of creation,

in the first two chapters of Genesis. God has created “the Heaven and the Earth,”
then he has done “the sky” and “the dry land”—which he called, respectively, just
“Heaven” and “Earth” (without “the”). However, with respect to man and woman,
he either created (Gen. 1:27), or formed (Gen. 2:7) them. And then, “And by the
seventh day God ended his work which he had done” (Gen. 2:2), and “These are
the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day
that the Lord God made earth and heaven” (Gen. 2:4; author’s translation). In the
same verse, there appear “the Heaven” and “the Earth,” which were created, and
“Earth” and “Heaven,” which were made. And on the seventh day God has ended
his work, which he had done. No word about ending creation. These differences
would have been taken lightly, were it not for the high mathematical precision of
biblical discourse, as this was demonstrated in an earlier section (section 1.3).
The prophet Isaiah makes the distinction between the three worlds of creating,
forming, and doing very explicit: “Everyone that is called by my name: for I have
created him for my glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him” (Isa. 43:7).
The relationship between “work,” “messenger,” and “angel” (according to the
biblical Hebrew) now seems clear:

“We have come here, to this world, as messengers, in order to do certain
work. This work to be done is part of creation. In that sense, we are no dif-
ferent from angels, who also have each a certain mission—certain work to
be done!”