Page 38 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 17 17

not be), it is our feeling that one should first have a good feeling for the precision
with which the Bible presents its stories and claims. Experiencing this precision
with some good examples would inevitably equip the reader with some sense of
the seriousness of the coincidences presented later in the book. Whatever conclu-
sions a reader may then derive from the coincidences, he or she would, at the very
least, base his or her judgment on an educated understanding of the nonrandom
use of words and phrases in biblical text.
A second reason for the introduction of these examples of biblical-text preci-
sion is to let the reader simply enjoy the implementation of a modern concept,
hyperlinks, in biblical text. A hyperlink in a given text is an underlined word, or
phrase, that appears on the computer screen, which, when activated by a click
on the mouse, takes one to another place in the text (or to another Web site),
where the selected phrase is explained, or some further relevant information is
given. A network of hyperlinks of course needs to preserve a very high degree of
consistency.
Such consistency is prevalent in biblical text to a surprisingly high degree. This
implies that when a word, or a phrase, is used in one place in the Bible, it would
most probably retain the exact same sense in all other places where it appears,
irrespective of the general context where it is used. It is as though biblical phrases
are interconnected by an underlying network of hyperlinks that ensures that con-
sistency is well preserved.

1.3.1 The Donkey (Ass) in the Bible

The donkey in the Bible has a very special place. This sounds ridiculous, yet it
is true. One can easily realize this by reading various entries in the Bible where a
donkey is addressed. Mentioning of the donkey in all these cases appears so trivial,

so insignificant and out of place, that one may be tempted to reach either of two
possible conclusions: that the Bible contains third-rate text, or that the concept
of “donkey” bears special symbolism that must be explored prior to dismissing
biblical text as badly written narrative.
From a thorough scanning of all places where a donkey is addressed, one may
not avoid the conclusion that the latter is the true interpretation of “donkey” in
the Bible: this animal, and riding it, symbolizes something unique. But what sym-
bol does it stand for?
The essential clue is provided by the name of a donkey in the Hebrew language.
We may recall that in the book of Genesis, God has given an assignment to Adam:

“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every
bird of the air; and brought them to the man to see what he would call them: and
whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. And the man