Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

One of the more interesting themes I try to examine in my new Genesis commentary is the complicated issue of God and chaos. This is the first of several articles that takes issue with some of the leading exegetes of our time. Enjoy, and please send me your feedback.

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1:2 וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ– the earth was a formless void – The 10^th century Jewish grammarian and theologian, Saadia Gaon, astutely observes that neither the existence of wind or water precede the creation of the heavens and the earth; rather, both these forces are only subsequent to the earth’s creation, which consists of the elements earth, water, and wind.[1] He further contends that intratextual passages from the Tanakh also bear this point out: “For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind. . . .” (Amos 4:13); and “The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed” (Psa. 95:5); and finally, “Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created” (Ps. 148:4-5).[2] Saadia’s point supports what we just mentioned in our notes on Genesis 1:1.

Scholars often assume the biblical idea of תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ is the Hebraic equivalent of the Greek notion of “chaos” (from the Greek Χάος). However, this translation only begs the issue: What exactly is meant by the Greek term “chaos”? How was chaos originally used in the ancient Greek texts? Did its definition change over time, and if it did, how? Historically, chaos first appears in Hesiod’s Theogony (ca. 850 B.C.E.); its original meaning simply meant “chasm” or “gaping void.”[3] For Hesiod, Chaos is the progenitor of the primeval deities: Gaia (Earth), Tartarus, Erebus (Darkness), and Nyx (Night). From Chaos emerged the worlds of the gods, the earth, and humankind.[4] When Hesiod wrote his work, he drew upon earlier mythical sources; his essential view of Chaos was unquestionably critical, for the Titans personified the surging and undisciplined passion of the earth’s primordial condition, which ultimately had to be violently defeated by Zeus, the god responsible for establishing the stability and universality of the Olympian order.

For the Roman poet Ovid, chaos is a confused and formless mass from which the Maker of the Cosmos fabricated the ordered universe.^[5] As later Hellenistic thought developed, chaos eventually became specifically associated with the notion of primordial matter, e.g., either with water[6], or with primordial time[7] and the netherworld.[8] In the Gnostic[9] literature, chaos takes on a more philosophical meaning, and is bound up with darkness, shadow, and non-being.[10] The presence of chaos is dispelled only by the power of “Pistis Sophia,” who is the “Spirit of Wisdom.”[11]

The mythical association of Greek mythology does not fit with the biblical cosmogony of the universe. The תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ of Genesis 1:2 hardly resembles the Greek idea of “chaos,” or for that matter, the Latin “Nihil.” Cultural and mythical concepts do not always translate from one language to the other, nor do they always have an equivalent parallel. The biblical writer does not say the world was a disorderly chaos and confused mass, but simply that it was not yet ready to be inhabited by humankind. At the beginning of creation, the earth was nothing more than a barren wasteland—a world desolate of life.[12]

According to the biblical imagination, YHWH is Creator and Author of good and evil,יוֹצֵר אוֹר וּבוֹרֵא חֹשֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם וּבוֹרֵא רָע אֲנִי יְהוָה עֹשֶׂה כָל־אֵלֶּה “I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things” (Isa. 45:7). This verse is a complete rejection of the Zoroastrian belief that the universe is governed by two opposing principles, the power of light and the power of darkness.[13] In Isaiah’s monistic vision, there is no duality whatsoever. YHWH is the sole Creator of opposites—there is no ontological state that exists apart from God’s sovereignty—even evil and chaos serve God’s creative purpose. Lastly, the Book of Job also echoes this same sentiment, גַּם אֶת־הַטּוֹב נְקַבֵּל מֵאֵת הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֶת־הָרָע לֹא נְקַבֵּל “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). The destructive forces alluded to in Isaiah 45:7 all fulfill an important purpose in the overall grand scheme of history and nature.

In Arabic tīh can mean “wilderness” and “empty place.” The semantic fields of other Semitic languages seem to bear this out as well. In Ugaritic thw denotes a “wasteland,” or “wilderness.” This pattern occurs elsewhere in the Tanakh; every instance where either תֹהוּ (töºhû) or בֹּהוּ (böºhû) appears it almost always refers to a barren tract of land.[14] This land may have been barren to begin with (as seen here in the creation story), or else it might have become a wasteland as a result of war, natural disaster, or as an act of divine retribution (Isa. 34:11). A biblical text must first be properly understood in terms of its language and context before advancing any kind of theological or metaphysical speculative interpretation. When exegesis fails to adhere to this simple principle, the speculative reading being advanced lacks a solid foundation.

Among early Christian exegetes, Martin Luther appears to have a far better grasp of the nature of תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ than did many of his postmodern counterparts:

• A wider significance attaches to the Hebrew words תֹהוּ (töºhû) andבֹּהוּ than can be reproduced in translation. Yet they are used frequently in the Holy Scripture.תֹהוּ is employed in the sense of “nothing,” so that the earth is a בֹּהוּ, which so far as it itself is concerned, is empty, where there are no roads, no separate localities, no hills, no valleys, no grass, no herbs, no animals, and no men. Such indeed was the first appearance of the unfinished earth; for since mire was mixed with the water, it was not possible to observe the distinctive marks which are observable now, after it has been finished. Thus Isaiah, in the chapter where he threatens the earth with desolation, says (34:11): “There will be stretched over it the line תֹהוּ and the plummet בֹּהוּ,” i.e., the earth will be laid waste to such an extent that neither human beings nor beasts of burden will remain, and the houses will be laid waste and everything thrown into confusion and disorder. This is how Jerusalem was later laid waste by the Romans, and Rome by the Goths, to such an extent that the traces of the very famous ancient city cannot be pointed out. You now see the earth standing out above the waters, the heaven adorned with stars, the fields with trees, the cities with houses, etc.; but when all these are removed and thrown together into a shapeless mass—what then results Moses calls תֹּהוּ and בֹּהוּ.[15]

One last thought: תֹהוּ וָבֹהו is the Torah’s first example of how the biblical writer(s) takes pleasure in expressing alliteration[16] and rhyming. Later in this chapter we find another similar type of alliteration: פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ (Pürû ûrübû ûmil´û), “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill. . .” (Gen. 1:22). Indeed, there are many other examples of this type of rhythmic pattern scattered throughout the Pentateuch and the Tanakh.[18]

Marvin Wilson calls attention to an insight by historian of Near Eastern cultures and languages, Cyrus Herzl Gordon (1908-2001), who fondly refers to this particular type of alliteration as possessing a “boogie-woogie” construction. The reader will recall that boogie-woogie is a style of blues music characterized by an up-tempo rhythm, a repeated melodic pattern in the bass, and a series of improvised variations in the treble.

Notes:

[1] Rashbam arrives at a similar conclusion on Genesis 1:1.

[2] Saadia, Emunot VeDeot 1:1.

[3] For a similar usage in other classical texts, see Aristophanes, Aves 1218; Bacchylides 5, 27.

[4] First came the Chasm; and then broad-breasted Earth, secure seat for everof all immortals who occupy the peak of snowy Olympus; the misty Tartara in a remote recess of the broad-pathed earth; and Eros, the most handsome among the immortal gods, dissolver of flesh, who overcomes the reason and purpose in the breasts of all gods and men . . .

Hesiod’s Theogony, trans. M. L. West (New York: Oxford, 1988), 6.

^[5] In Ovid’s poetic compendium of mythology known as the Metamorphosis, the poet describes the state of chaos that existed before the earth assumed its present form:

Before the ocean and the earth appeared—

before the skies had overspread them all—

the face of Nature in a vast expanse

was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.

It was a rude and undeveloped mass,

that nothing made except a ponderous weight;

and all discordant elements confused,

were there congested in a shapeless heap.

P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses, Book 1, line 5

[6] The Stoics, deriving the word from χὲω, defined Chaos as the elemental Water (school of Apoll. Rhod. i. 498).

[7] Cf. Papyri Graecae Magicae, ed. K. Preisendanz IV 2535f.) viewed chaos as the air between heaven and earth (e.g. Aristophanes, Aves 1218; Bacchylides 5, 27), and the (whole or part of the) netherworld (e.g., Ps-Plato, Axiochus 371e).

[8] Pseudo-Plato Axiochus 371e.

[9] The term γνῶσις (gnosis = “knowledge”) refers to an intuitive apprehension of esoteric and spiritual truths pertaining to divine mysteries. Many of these doctrines derive from Hellenistic, pagan, Jewish, and early Christian sects; their doctrines stress the importance of a firsthand knowledge and experience of God. The salvation of the human race depends upon awakening this spiritual capacity within the human soul.

[10] According to The Nag Hammadi writings, chaos is a pre-eternal force to the world:

• Seeing that everybody, gods of the world and mankind, says that nothing existed prior to chaos, I in distinction to them shall demonstrate that they are all mistaken, because they are not acquainted with the origin of chaos, nor with its root. Here is the demonstration. How well it suits all men, on the subject of chaos, to say that it is a kind of darkness! But in fact it comes from a shadow, which has been called by the name darkness. And the shadow comes from a product that has existed since the beginning. It is, moreover, clear that it (viz., the product) existed before chaos came into being, and that the latter is posterior to the first product (J. M. Robinson and R. Smith, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 4th rev. ed. [Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1996], 172).

[11] In Gnostic thought “to be in exile” is to be unredeemed; such a state of ignorance keeps the soul apart from its true Source—the Creator. In these and other texts, knowledge thus becomes the necessary key to personal salvation and liberation from the earthly shackles that binds its consciousness.

[12] Onkelos’s definition is more precise than Rashi and translates תֹּהוּ (töºhû) as צָדיָא (ƒ¹dyâ = “desolation”); this reading better describes the original condition of the earth. The term בֹּהוּ may be related to the Arabic cognate bahiya “was empty.” This noun בֹּהוּ appears only in Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23, where it implies a world that is a formless wasteland bereft of light and life itself. In each instanceבֹּהוּ appears, it is in context with תֹּהוּ and both expressions signifies “empty wilderness.” See Gur Aryeh’s exposition of Rashi, who understands Rashi’s explanation as “bewilderment and void” while R. E. Mizrachi (ca, 16^th century) thinks תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ should be read as an adverbial phrase, i.e., “astonishingly empty.” Both these rabbinic explanations are questionable for the reasons mentioned above.

[13] Cf. F. Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, Facsimile of 1910 Ed. edition repr.1997); J. Hinnells, ed., Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Volumes One and Two (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1975); M. J Vermaseren, Mithras, the Secret God (New York: Barnes and Nobles, 1963).

[14] Cf. Isa. 24:10; 34:11; 45:18; 45:19; Jer. 4:23.

[15] M. Luther Luther’s works, Vol. 1: “Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 1-5” Trans. J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House 1999, c1958), 6-8. The last portion of Luther’s comment “the heaven adorned with stars” does not apply here, since the verse is speaking solely of the earth being a “barren wasteland.”

[16] An alliterative is the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables that are typical of tongue-twisters. Famous examples include, “How much wood would the woodchuck chuck if the woodchuck could chuck wood?” or “She sells seashells by the seashore . . .” and “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers . . .”

[17] Marvin Wilson calls attention to an insight by historian of Near Eastern cultures and languages, Cyrus Herzl Gordon (1908-2001), who fondly refers to this particular type of alliteration as possessing a “boogie-woogie” construction. The reader will recall that boogie-woogie is a style of blues music characterized by an up-tempo rhythm, a repeated melodic pattern in the bass, and a series of improvised variations in the treble.

[18]Other examples include: נָע וָנָד (nä` wänäd) “a fugitive and a stranger” (Gen. 4:12); בֶּרַע מֶלֶךְ סְדֹם וְאֶת־בִּרְשַׁע מֶלֶךְ (et-Beºra` meºlek südöm wü´et-Birša`) “made war on King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah” (Gen. 14:2); later on in Genesis we find a more complex alliteration: גָּד גְּדוּד יְגוּדֶנּוּ וְהוּא יָגֻד עָקֵב (Gäd Güdûd yügûdeºnnû wühû´ yägùd `äqëb) “As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, But he shall raid at their heels” (Gen. 49:19); מֵי הַמָּרִים הַמְאָרֲרִים (mê hammärîm hamü´ä|rárîm) “the water of bitterness that brings a curse” (Numb. 5:18); וַנֵּפֶן וַנִּסַּע (wannëºpen wannissa`) “Then we turned, and took our journey” Deut. 2:1); אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי (´árammî ´öbëd ´äbî) “My father was a fugitive Aramean” (Deut. 26:5).

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This article comes from my new book, “Birth and Rebirth Through Genesis: A Timeless Theological Conversation (Genesis 1-3)” (Tamarac, FL: Aeon Publishing, 2010), 82-86.

http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Rebirth-through-Genesis-Conversation/dp/1456301713/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309652244&sr=1-2