Page 132 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 7 UNITY, UNITY, ALL AROUND
CHAPTER 7 UNITY, UNITY, ALL AROUND 111
Thus, energy (force) and space (spatial coordinates realized by direction), are
united by a single short el. 3
The unifying of energy (“force”) and spatial dimensions (“toward”) in a single
3
Hebrew word, el, bizarre though as it may look, seems to constitute yet another
example of design in the Hebrew language.

7.4 The Unity of All Time Tenses
Biblical Hebrew has a special mode for describing events that have occurred,
and those that have not yet. This unique biblical pattern of speech would look
extremely bizarre to a naive reader. In fact, not knowing that this pattern exists
would, to the ignorant reader, distort the sense of the read.
The Bible’s special way of conveying the time tense of verbs employed to
describe events has no parallel in any other language. The secret and key for this
special pattern of recounting time tense is the letter used for conjunction, namely,
the letter vav (pronounced “waw” in English). The regular function of this letter,

when used as a prefix for a given word, is to serve as the conjunction “and” in
English. However, in the Bible it serves a double purpose: To connect words and
sentences, but also to connect future with past, and past with future. In other
words, the letter converts the time direction of a verb, and as such it is named: the
“conversive vav .” A verb in the past tense, preceded by the conversive vav, implies
the future, and vice versa.
To understand this particular function, let us first describe what the letter vav

stands for.
Vav is the sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, having the numerical value of
six. The letter name is written by two vavs, and pronounced “vav.” However, the
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word vav has an additional meaning, which is its most common use: “hook.”
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The vav is simply that which connects. It is written ו as just that: a hook. Faithful
to this function, the letter vav is used as a conjunctive vav. A Hebrew speaker
just has to add the letter vav in front of a word to mean “and”—life could not be
simpler.
Yet, as explained earlier, this letter also connects future to past and past to future.
This is the special pattern of speech used throughout the Bible. Explanations for
this special pattern are scarce, although it is possible to formulate one. Before

doing that, let us observe how the conversive vav works.
To describe future events, the Bible uses verbs in the past tense, preceded by the
conversive vav . The latter converts these verbs into a future tense. The opposite
direction is also utilized: to a verb in the future tense a conversive vav is attached
as prefix to imply an event in the past.