Page 228 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 14 IN THE BEGINNING …
CHAPTER 14 IN THE BEGINNING … 207
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The reason that we refer to the modern usage of tohu va-vohu as somewhat
twisted is because uniformity was there at the beginning, but chaos was not.
The latter implies increasing entropy ; the former, minimum entropy. Chaos
does not imply uniformity—rather, the opposite. Uniformity in the distribu-

tion of energy and matter at the big bang and shortly thereafter is the source
of all forms and structure in the universe. It is the phase of existence of the
universe when the overall entropy of the universe was at its minimal level.
Chaos, on the other hand, is associated with increased entropy. Thus, the toho
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va-vohu of Genesis is diametrically opposite to that which is implied by the
modern usage of these words.
2. Earlier, we addressed a tendency found in the Bible to take a certain word and
render it an ultimate embodiment of a concept. Thus, the “womb” becomes
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the epitome for “mercy” (refer to subsection 2.1.1), and shamayim (sky),
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the plural of “there” (sham), is the epitome of that which is absolutely inac-
cessible (“the ultimate there, which can never become here,” at least from an
ancient-times perspective–—refer to section 5.2).
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In a similar vein, the Bible relates to tohu and bohu as the ultimate descrip-
tion of a state devoid of any patterns and structures. Shadal, an acronym for
a renowned Jewish interpreter of the Bible (Shmuel David Lutzato , who lived
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in Europe in the nineteenth century), writes this about tohu va-vohu: “The

context of these words is desolate wilderness, because in Aramaic ‘Taha and
Baha’ relates to astonishment, as they said in Bereshit Raba (B, A): ‘And that
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slave was sitting being “Tohae and Bohae ”’ (present tense), meaning, being
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bewildered. And also in the language of the Assyrians, “Etbahbah ” means
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“becoming bored,” and “Boahbah ” relates to wonder and bewilderment.”
14.3 Summary of Main Points

• The story of creation, as given in Genesis, relates to the creation of “the
heaven” (no qualification) and “the earth,” which is qualified as “without

form and contents.”
• The created heaven and Earth are different from those made by God.
The latter are not “the heaven” and “the earth,” but rather “sky” and “dry
land,” respectively, named by the Divine as “Heaven” and “Earth” (no

definite article); This would lead one to deduce that the created Earth
refers to the universe, while the made Earth refers to the common usage
of this word today.