Page 66 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 2 CASES OF DESIGN IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 2 CASES OF DESIGN IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 45 45

A coincidence?

Let us repeat the same for midday and day:

“Midday” / “Day” = 345 / 56 = 6.1607 hours

The mean of these two coincidentally close figures (6.1429 and 6.1607) is

6.1518, implying that there is a delay of 60x0.1518 = 9.1 minutes in the mean
transit time of the sun through the meridian. It is left for astronomers to figure

out whether this number, with its deviation from 6, carries any significance.
Design in the Hebrew language?

Evening + Night versus Morning + Day
Modern-day usage of the concept “day” relates to a time period that spans twenty-
four hours—namely, starts at midnight, 0:00 am, and ends the next midnight, at
12:00 pm.
By contrast, in Jewish tradition, the “day” starts in the preceding evening, at
sunset, or when three stars have been observed in the sky. This follows from the
repeated phrase in Genesis (chapter 1): “And there was evening and there was
morning [X] day,” where X stands for one, second, …, sixth. (Refer for example
to Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23).
In another sense, “day” implies in everyday parlance daylight time as opposed
to darkness time, which we call “night.” These senses for the words “day” and
“night” apply both in English and in Hebrew. In fact, they are supported by a
verse in Genesis: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night”
(Gen. 1:5).
56
55
In modern Hebrew, “evening” is erev and “morning” is boker. Both words
have linguistic contents that can be easily explained. The former has the same root
57
as “mixture.” The root for mixing is A.R.B (to mix is le-arev). A derivative of this
word is used, for example, to describe the mixture of non-Israelite nationalities
58
who escorted the Israelites, on their exodus from Egypt. They are called erev rav:
58
“And a mixed multitude [erev rav ] went up also with them” (Exod. 12:38). One
55
can easily understand why evening is erev: in darkness, everything seems mixed
together.
56
In a similar vein, the word for morning, boker, may well be linguistically
explained, because this word has, as its root, the letters B.K.R, which in Hebrew
59
gives rise to the verb “to control” (le-vaker). This also makes sense: as one mixes
55
everything together during dark hours (erev), everything is under control during
56
daytime (boker). Both words seem to entertain the same logic, which confers