Bohu Means Lava! It is the source of Light on Day 1!
Howdy!
I am a member of the public reporting finding a dinosaur skeleton to the professionals, so to speak, at university dinosaur departments.
I am not a professional academic but I know a Dinosaur Skeleton when I see one!
So I am sending it to “Dinosaur Departments” for investigation, excavation, and expansion.
Here is a 20 second snippet of an essay and some notes below. It’s sort of like a photo of the skull of the skeleton.
“The Hebrew word Bohu means lava and is the source of light on day 1 of the seven day text.
The 3 uses of Bohu in Hebrew Scripture are:
Gen 1:2: state of earth underneath deep ocean water that fish will later swim in. There is darkness “on the surface” of the water.
Jeremiah 4:23: state of earth as mountain shakes, light of sky is blotted out, all life flees as area destroyed. Volcano.
Isaiah 34:11: state of stone running in lines across an eternally smoking pitch of brimstone. Volcanic field.
Day 1 is water on top of light emitting lava.
Water is parted by ruach elohim meracaphet al p’nei ha mayim…allowing light to reach the darkness “on the surface” of the water. This occurs as Elohim says “let there (or it) be light.”
(And there was darkness on the surface of the deep. And the breath of elohim soared across the surface of the water. And Elohim said “let it be light”” gen 1:2)
Explains how light is present prior to sun, moon, stars in the seven day text.
Ocean water on Lava to start the story. Day 2 Shamayim is formed (air / sky / heaven. Akkadian Samu “the one of water”).
Dew comes from it and birds are in it like fish in the sea (zeph 1:3). It is an ancient conception of atmospheric formation – ocean water on molten earth causing steam / the moist atmosphere.”
Below is a brief, then a longer essay, and some odds and sods notes.
As you will see in it there is some really cool stuff including the explanation why a rocking mountain with fire on top, smoke “ascending like a furnace”, would have been considered an especially sacred place to ancient Hebrews.
I’ve sent this through to your peers at places like Oxford and Cambridge in case you want to contact them and schmooze with them about it.
It has the potential to be a very cool and fun collaborative academic project.
Hope y’all enjoy! Also it’d be good to hear from you just be nice please, thank you.
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BOHU MEANS LAVA! IT IS THE SOURCE OF LIGHT ON DAY ONE!
The word Bohu means Lava!
It is where Light comes from on Day 1!
The 3 uses of Bohu in Scripture are:
Gen 1:2: state of earth underneath deep ocean water that fish will later swim in. There is darkness “on the surface” of the water.
Jeremiah 4:23: state of earth as mountain shakes, light of sky is blotted out, all life flees as area destroyed. Volcano.
Isiah 34:11: state of stone running in lines across an eternally smoking pitch of brimstone. Volcanic field.
Day 1 is water on top of light emitting lava.
Water is parted by ruach elohim meracaphet al p’nei ha mayim…allowing light to reach the dark surface. (and the wind / spirit of elohim soared across the surface of the water gen 1:2)
Explains how light is present in text prior to sun, moon, stars.
Day 2 shamayim is formed.
Ancient conception of atmospheric formation: ocean water on molten earth causes steam.
Shamayim from akkadian Samu (the one of water) from Sumerian Father Sky An(u).
Birds are in it and on it in seven day text. There is water above / in the upper part in shakakim (clouds). Birds are in it like fish in the sea (zeph 1:3). Dew comes from it.
Masculine grammatical tense.
Day 3 earth reaches surface of water. It is in a state of Yabasha from root related to dried pottery (pslm 22:15). Sinai = smoking shaking mountain with fire on top.
Consider why a volcanic mountain would be considered a particularly sacred place by ancient Hebrews: they thought all earth was formed that way, like a giant Hawaii.
Aretz from Akkadian Arsatum and Ersetu – both with connotations of feminine divinity – from Sumerian Mother Earth Ki…partner to Anu.
Shamayim and Aretz touch on Day 3.
Plants.
Mother Earth / Father Sky.
Liquids of atmosphere / water masculine. Body of earth feminine.
Text concludes saying biological life formed are “toldot” (children by generational birth) of shamayim and aretz.
Order of creation matches what fossil record reasonably would indicate to ancient scientists.
Bara only used in relation to this sequence (create / evolve – design), asah (made) used in relation to sun, moon, stars.
7 day week goes back to Sumeria. The historical area the scriptural Abraham is from.
This An(u) / Ki (Father Sky / Mother Earth) connection can also be seen in ancient Chinese religion in Tian / Di and their union Tiandi. (Tian = sky Di = earth)
Ki and Anu had at least two sets of twins. One are the eastern twins Tian and Di and another the western Shamayim and Aretz. (Sumer was in what is now modern day Iraq-ish)
Yup, you read that correctly!
Chinese and Hebrews are long lost family!
For Real.
The mother earth / father sky concept in Shamayim and Aretz going back to Ki and Anu means Seven Day Text gives us best evidence of where gender in language comes from and it’s original “meaning.”
Some languages with Gender in it: Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, French, Portuguese, Romanian, German, Russian, Early English, Italian, Urdu.
Every child learning such languages asks where it comes from.
This is the best indication: the seven day text provides evidence of a mother earth / father sky concept of masculine liquid in atmosphere and body of feminine earth going back to Sumerian Ki and Anu.
So yes maybe 5 billion or so people can learn about gender in language from Hebrew!
Good news!
Also billions in China can learn Tiandi connection, turns out Hebrews and Chinese are long lost family!
Good news!
The conception of masculinity associated with liquids of atmosphere / femininity with earth is found in isolate in First Nations Tribes in what is called the Americas. Though maybe its so ancient it crossed from Asia over the bering straight back when Americas was only bears and beavers and moose etc.
Important also to look at literal translation of word Bereshit. (oft known in the beginning)
literally: inside the Feminine Head, Top Feminine. Idea of Primary Womb can be seen in book of Job when referencing Seven Day Text directly. Proverbs 8 is entirely about hidden femininity in the Seven Day Text.
Important to look into Merachaphet (usually translated as “soar”) and its connection to syriac “to brood, breed.” It is the word describing the action of Elohim on day 1 as masculine mayim covers feminine aretz. Rarely used Hebrew root, notably a speech of scriptural Moses about a bird over a nest…
Important to note, with eggs in mind, the term for “pillar of the earth” is only used once and is from a root meaning “to melt, to make molten.” (Passage in Isaiah referenced below makes mention of earth being curved)
Also: Rakia is used nowhere to imply a solid dome. It is synonymous to Shamayim that birds are in like the sea. People oft cite a mistranslation in Job 37 shamayim is “hard as a mirror of cast metal.” The passage makes no mention of shamayim.
It is talking about shakakim hazakim – powerful thunder clouds that look like dark molten metal and which are blown away by the wind.
I have included below an essay I typed up with all this more at length including further mentions of the flawed translations regarding a “firmament.”
I am letting you know this info. I am not submitting it to “academic journals.”
I’m reporting it to professionals, like someone who finds a dinosaur bone reports it to a university dinosaur department.
You are free to do with it as you wish.
(Ps the -u ending on bohu and tohu strongly suggests sumerian origin.)
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Below is a more expanded essay if this has piqued your interest.
(There’s some odds and sods as well at the end)
In ancient Chinese religion there is a concept called Tiandi. It is the union of sky and earth, or colloquially, heaven and earth. It is among the highest religious concepts.
Tian = sky, heaven. Di = Earth.
I am about to show you how those words are historically connected to the Hebrew Shamayim and Aretz through shared ancestor words – the Sumerian An(u) (Tian) and Ki (Di).
In the process I am going to demonstrate how early semites had a notion of Mother Earth and Father Sky associated with the terms Shamayim and Aretz.
Here we go!
Shamayim comes from the Akkadian Samu. It’s constructed Sa (of, the one of) and Mu (water, dew, bodily fluids). Samu was, in some ancient near eastern cultures, a masculine sky god.
The protosemitic root samay is constructed the same way and associated with height because it is the sky.
Samu comes from the Sumerian An / Anu. The supreme father sky of the sumerians. The first known written language, and in a cuniform script somewhat like early Chinese, Sumeria was in what is now modern Iraq. It is also the region the scriptural Abraham is said to have come from (ur), where the seven day week comes from, and – based on the rivers mentioned in the Eve and Adam text – where the scriptural Garden of Eden was located.
An was more or less interchangeable with Anu. From it comes both the soft T Tian and Samu.
An(u) had a female procreative counterpart.
A Mother Earth named Ki. (Di)
Ki turned into the Akkadian Arsatum and Ersetu, both having connotations of feminine divinity, which turned into the Hebrew Aretz.
(Source: the association assyriophile d France online Akkadian dictionary)
Shamayim is a masculine grammatical tense word. Aretz a feminine.
Is there anything in the Hebrew Scripture that supports an early notion of “Mother Earth” and “Father Sky” – and a union such as Tiandi being particularly sacred?
Absolutely there is. And it is right where one would expect to find it. The Seven Day Week comes from Sumeria, the words Shamayim and Aretz directly related to their Mother Earth and Father Sky Gods.
It makes sense we’d be looking at the Seven Day Text then, including because it describes the formation of both Aretz and Shamayim.
With this in mind
The word Bohu is used three times in the Hebrew Scripture, a scripture that’s most famous moment is a man on a rocking mountain, fire on top, smoke ascending “like a furnace.”
Always Bohu is used in relation to the state of the Aretz.
The three times are:
Jeremiah 4:23 as a mountain quakes, the light of the sky is blotted out, and all life flees the area around the mountain as the surrounding area is turned to desolation.
Isiah 34 6-15 describing an eternally smoking pitch of sulfur uninhabitable by humans with streams of Bohu stone.
Here is the third, Gen 1:2.
“In the Beggining God created the Heaven and the earth. And the earth was tohu v bohu. And there was darkness upon the surface of the deep. V ruach Elohim merachaphet over the surface of the water. And Elohim said “let there (or it, the darkness above the water) be light.”
The water here is ocean water, the same ocean water fish will later swim in in the text.
Darkness is qualified as being on the surface – leaving open the possibility of it covering a light emitting volcanic earth underneath.
At which point, in the same scripture that has a famous passage about parting waters, “ruach elohim merachaphet al pnei ha mayim” while stating “let there (or it) be light”
This explains how light is present in the text prior to the sun or stars.
And the only best rendering of the word Bohu is Lava. And what I just shared with you is the academic standard translation and understanding of the passage described.
With that in mind when you put a pot of water on fire what happens?
Day 2: Shamayim is formed.
It is what dew comes from multiple times in early scripture, causing harvests. It is what birds are “of” and are “on” in the seven day text itself. Zephaniah 1:3 uses the expression “the birds ha shamayim and the fish ha yam” – birds were considered in Shamayim as fish were in the sea. Isiah 40:22 describes it as having been spread out like a fine dust (Doq)
Synonymous to Rakia, a word whose root means to spread out and is used nowhere else to describe a solid dome in the sky, there are waters below it and above / in the upper part of (depending on how one vowels Me’al or Ma’al).
The water below is the ocean water, and later, lakes and streams.
The water above / in the upper part is the water in clouds. Clouds in Hebrew is Shakakim. It comes from a root meaning “to pulverize to a dust” implying knowledge of small water particles in them. Jeremiah 51 describes their formation via observed evaporation and describes their thunder as “water rumbling.”
Day 3: Aretz reaches the surface of the ocean. It is now in a state of yabasha – a root related to dried pottery.
Consider how a culture whose most famous moment is a man on top of a flaming, smoking, quaking mountain might think how all continental land was formed.
(I could really enjoy a Hawaiian vacation right now)
The feminine Aretz and the misty masculine shamayim, of water, touch and…plants. Just like how ancients considered a masculine liquid being inside a feminine body led to life. This Mother Earth / Father sky conception so fundamental to human observation it’s found in isolate cultures, including some First Nations tribes.
The order of life then ocean life and birds (consider ancients finding raptor fossils and shell fossils on land), bugs / reptiles, land animals, then people.
Basically correct evolutionary order. The text concludes these life forms are the “toldot” of Shamayim and Aretz.
The children, or family. The word Bara only used in relation to this chain of life – the sun and moon are “made” (asah).
Mother Earth. Father Sky. A Sacred Union, Tiandi.
(We are getting into the odds and sods notes portion)
And, not for nothing, among the highest religious concept in that same Chinese religious tradition is Chi / Qi. The life force. Literally “vapour” or more colloquially “air” – the result of the union of red hot feminine aretz and masculine mayim.
And just like Shamayim Qi can be translated air.
Take a breath of air. Ehyeh. HYH. I exist. I am. (Theres more on this in the odds and sods notes, that start kinda now-ish)
There you go! And this is pretty much exactly what you’d expect in terms of the history of science out of the region at the time, in and around the land route to and fro Africa and the rest of the known (to the Israelites) world, a region with Pyramids and blooming Greek Empires.
There’s more. Merachaphet is related to the Phoenician “to brood, breed” describing the action of “gods” (Elohim) on day one as masculine mayim covers feminine Aretz. It’s a rarely used word in the Hebrew scripture, notably a speech by the scriptural Moses about a bird over a nest. With eggs in mind, keep in mind the word for pillar (matzuk) as in “pillar of the earth” is only used once in scripture and is from a root meaning “to melt, to make molten.”
Bereshis is an interesting word as well. Literally inside the Feminine Head. Or Primary Feminine. With this in mind take a look at Proverbs 8 and “Sophia” – describing primary feminine wisdom while referencing the seven day text directly, while repeatedly referencing being hidden, something to be found, in that text. The same text with the words “let us make them in our” and in which Elohim means “gods.”
There is quite a bit more. I have it written up in my essay, including how this translation may have been lost. (In short – Jeremiah 51 and Job 37 with clever wordplay mock the idea of a solid dome in the sky while both describe thunder cloud formation via evaporation and heat causing storms. Jeremiah transitions directly from watching a cloud form via mists to ripping into “metal smiths.” It could have been dangerous to argue against the solid dome notion, a notion held in the cosmology of other powerful nations, which explains the word play and use of the term rakia. After the devastation of multiple exiles and destructions and mass murders, perhaps most of all Roman crimes in the Bar Kokbha, this could have been lost at which point it would have been near impossible to find until modern times and even more dangerous and difficult to share (it remains extremely dangerous and difficult to share). Another reason it could have been lost is immense sexism by Yahwists)
I personally love how Elohim makes the world, say take care of the animals (acknowledgement of freedom and love of life), plants are a gift for food (doesnt mention animals), and then more or less retires. No day 8. It’s up to us. The only faith based self evidency statement is the author saying hineh Tov Meod. That is humans being free, being fruitful and multiplying, exploring the earth, being life affirming, taking care of animals, the animals themselves, is good. Also, Elohim do provide a piece of medical advice to people. Don’t eat grass, that’s for cows etc, and will make you sick if you ear grass like cows do.
Ps
I wanted to elaborate on – and clarify – one portion of the above.
Tiandi is the union of sky and earth, and connected to the words Shamayim and Aretz through from their historical ancestor words An(u) and Ki.
Chi / Qi is, in that same ancient Chinese religion, the life force…literally meaning Vapor is the from the union of mayim (water) and bohu aretz (molten earth).
The conception in the seven day text of the atmosphere is as follows:
Early earth was molten and considered feminine and was covered by masculine water.
The area above the water was not void, or empty space. It is where “ruach” was. This ruach was then filled, at least in the area humans and birds inhabited, with moisture. Called Shamayim, it’s what dew came from to facilitate harvests when interacting with the feminine earth.
As demonstrated in Zephaniah 1:3 shamayim was considered a “body of water” in the same way as the ocean.
However, unlike the ocean, there was a medium that sustained the perfect amount of water evaporated into that medium to sustain human life. It’s possible that same medium was considered present in water – only the saturation of water particles was too dense for human life. In a manner it was considered “space” or…hyh…existence, being.
This medium was considered sacred, connected directly with a god, or gods, spirit and the root “HYH” – existence. Which sounds like a breath of air.
The Sumerian Cuniform for An / Anu, which was both the name of the Father Sky and the Sky itself, was called the Dinger symbol.
According to the Wikipedia on the Dinger cuneiform it is connected to the later word “el” – meaning both “a god” but also “to” – as in “I am talking to you.”
That a Male Sky God, later “Yahweh”, was associated with the Ruach and was “the talking god” is understandable due to air being the medium that, in ancient eyes, carried both verbal and visual communication…yet also seems to be a clear misunderstanding.
The masculinity associated with the evaporated waters in the Shamayim was improperly imposed upon the life breath, the ruach, itself.
In fact, and as is clearly shown in scripture in what is the actual name of the primary god of it, the ruach was considered both genderless and alive.
Ehyeh. “Tell them Ehyeh sent you.”
Not Yahweh.
It’s a misunderstanding equating the masculine water in shamayim (and mayim) with the miraculous life sustaining medium itself (space itself, in a sense).
It very clear based on scripture the Yahwists were both very sexist and very violent. For example, they blamed Eve for sin and slanderously said
She committed a crime – and that it justified pregnancy being dangerous and painful. They also considered women their property.
As the Yahwists became dominant the Seven Day Week, the text describing it’s origin including the reason for the Sabbath, and the primary name of the local god “Ehyeh” were – all three of those things – potentially too sacred and too ingrained, including with scribes, for them to completely “write out of the scripture.”
So, there is one mention of the actual name of god (Ehyeh) before ignoring that name and crediting commandments to a Male named Yahweh, the Seven Day Text was written in first person masculine grammar despite Elohim being plural.
However: the inclusion of “us and our” in the Seven Day Text, particularly in relation to Proverbs 8, is something that should be looked into – though in that Proverb, that is almost entirely about a hidden femininity in the Seven Day Text that is findable with careful study, the feminine remains subservient and “less than” the primary masculine.
This itself could be considered more, and sophisticated, sexism by Yahwists…though that sexism in pantheon could go all the way back to the Sumerians where Anu was the primary god.
That said. The term Bereshis. The notion of everything we know existing inside a primary feminine, a first female, the female head or mind even (medics, for instance, back then of course knew the brain was the thought centre, and proverbs 8 is about feminine wisdom in the text). It remains an ultimate challenge to masculine sexists…and may be why such a proverb trying to claim it is subservient would be created by sexists bent on masculine domination at all.
It would be amazing to find forms of the seven day text prior to the form we have it in Hebrew, and it surely existed in previous forms prior and likely all the way back to the Sumerians.
It would be very very important if such an archeological find was made to look carefully at the first word to find if it shared the same Feminine Power that the word Bereshis carries.
Looking further into Qi, and the full historical and theological notions of Tian and Di, would also no doubt be valuable for further understanding.
(also should be noted there is no word for gravity in the Hebrew Scripture. consider shamayim as a form / medium of a body of water and the expression “people were considered like lobsters, birds like fish.”
Also the fact Shamayim / Aretz grammatically match the gender of Anu / Ki suggests the gender itself had meaning…would be to my knowledge the first and only known indication of where gender in language comes from. Billions speak languages with gender today
Consider Abram and the meaning of the name Abraham in the context of all this carrying documents out of the region that was sumeria to share along the route to and from all of africa that was for the African / asian / european known world the centre of the world due the land link to and fro all of Africa.
Also should be kept in mind a relatively common academic view that the eve / adam myth (where the name yahweh initially appears) merged with other traditions (such as the seven day one).
Curvature of earth can be seen from high mountaintops over flatland but especially the way a ship dips below the horizon when going out of view from a distance.
Also
- Theres a passage in Job referencing the seven day text that begins with a notion of a primary womb. Interesting to note the root of the word womb comes from mercy / love / compassion. Job is considered to be some of the oldest writing in scripture
When looking for archeological expansion of this information anything found referencing a primary womb in relation to Akkadian, Sumerian, or any surrounding ancient near eastern cultures should be looked into.
- Job 37 in English translation contains an oft cited mistranslation used by those who claim “rakia” meant a solid dome in the sky. The english translation usually reads “spread out the sky hard as a mirror of cast metal.”
This is not even remotely correct. In Hebrew it is describing shakakim hazakim (powerful clouds, a thunderstorm) with the underside appearance of a dark mirror, or molten metal. These clouds are explicitly blown away by wind in the verses just after, allowing the sun to reach the surface of the earth.
They are described as swirling and in fact their formation described through a calm, hot, heat. The calm before the storm, evaporation, and in a passage the author is mocking those who don’t know how clouds are formed and then with clever word play making fun of those who think there is a solid dome in the sky. Jeremiah 51 does the same thing…describes cloud formation through evaporation while bashing “metal-smiths”.
Rakia as a root simply means “to spread out” and is synonymous to shamayim. It is used nowhere in scripture to describe a “firmament”. In the Seven Day Text itself birds of are of it and on it. It’s why the Jewish Publication Society translates it as “expanse.”
- Some people who posit the solid dome (firmament) notion will mention lines like “the floodgates / windows” of Shamayim opening up. For example the story of the Flood contains such lines, followed immediately by “and it rained”.
It’s a figure of speech, of which the scripture contains many. No, the ancient Israelites did not think there was a magical invisible dome that bent around mountains, clouds of different heights, etc that had “windows” that opened to both allow rain into and out of. Jeremiah 51 and Job 37 makes this clear, as does the root of the word Shakakim, and the fact nowhere is the entire scripture is such an idea mentioned.
An example if another figure of speech in scripture is the notion of thinking or feeling “in or with ones heart.” No, the Ancient Israelites did not think the heart was what we know to be the brain. They were aware of head injuries, loss of consciousness due to them, brain damage, and had expansive knowledge in dissection, surgery, likely vivisection and through these the circulation system (a Hebrew prayerbook mention, in the morning prayers, of the vessels and arteries needing to be open and functioning is a reference to this knowledge).
No, the ancient israelites did not think there were magical windows in an invisible shape shifting dome under the rain clouds…
…and, no, Job 37 isn’t talking about Shamayim being a solid metal dome.
It’s not even talking about Shamayim / Rakia. It’s talking about Shakakim and specifically swirling powerful thunder clouds that are explicitly blown away by the wind in a passage not only describing how they are formed through heat and evaporation but mocking those who refuse to accept that.
Also people did indeed climb mountains and get above clouds…and into them etc etc…
Interesting the root rsh for root implies perspective of a top and bottom generally associated with gravity or pressure – where something flows from. In that sense rsh as a root could loosely be associated with an ancient perspective of gravity…something we can now measure very precisely but still have no idea on what exactly causes it.
Also Ancient Scientists would have known about the female reproductive Egg…
Also elohim means gods and importsnt to know yam (sea) shemesh (sun abbrvted: “sky fire”) were animist gods in many ancient near eastern pantheons alongside samu and ersetue / aretz etc
Also fun to think about is modern scientists are still trying to figure out if the earliest biological life was formed around volcanic shafts deep under the ocean and devoid of sunlight.
Also consider Hell, Hella, Bohu, and the above mentioned sexism.
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The following talks a bit about the notion of firmament / solid dome in the sky, describes two passages in scripture mocking the idea, and puts forward an idea why ancient Hebrews (or some of them) took such offence to the idea.
Basically, the solid dome notion was (aside being nonsensical in the scientific sense) fundementally opposed to the idea that the ruach / ruchot elohim was what ran the show in the highest heavens so to speak.
Here’s a little bit on that:
It’s Jeremiah 51 15-18 to specifically to see an Ancient Hebrew absolutely ripping into the notion of a “solid dome / firmament”
The passage describes a visual observation of clouds being formed by evaporation. “Mists rising.” (imagine watching clouds form on the horizon from the Tel Aviv Beach over the ocean).
It describes the thunder in the thunderclouds formed this way as water rumbling in the sky – again shakakim from a root meaning to pulverize to a dust implying small water particles in them.
The author mentions the winds in sky.
And then immediately tears into “metal-smiths” who are (in english translation here)
senseless and without knowledge, their idol a source of shame, a fraud, and worthy of mockery.
And specifically cites their idols lack of ruach – wind, breath, spirit.
Job 37 it’s the same thing and that “wind” attack on the solid domers is even more clear.
The author describes how clouds are formed through a hot, calm, heat…the calm before the storm while mocking those who don’t know how clouds are formed
Then making a jest about a cloud appearing like dark metal or even ice (often translated as cast mirror. Mirrors back then did not like the ones you’d see at stores today).
Then describes the clouds being blown away by the wind allowing sun to reach the surface.
The point being, and attack being to solid domers being, if clouds are in the dome…and the sun is in the dome…and the dome is solid metal…how does that work?
The best reading of all this is ancient Hebrews and those Sumerians before considered the movements of the stars, sun, and moon to be the result of Ruach / Ruchot Elohim.
Winds, Breath, Spirit.
The Anu (Sumerian Father Sky) cuneiform is a star.
The idea is the Father Sky was the at the highest of the high moving things with their spirit / breath.
City dwellers may forget sometimes how beautiful that place beyond mountains, the stars, actually are without modern light pollution, the brilliance and beauty and reliance to see of which ancients would have experienced most nights is something today we don’t really think about…
and not only the beauty but the importance to not only see but to (drumroll please)
Keep time. The movement of the moon and stars is where the seven day week comes from.
And best reading of all this is ancient Hebrews and those Sumerians before considered the movements of the stars, sun, and moon to be the result of Ruach Elohim.
Winds, Breath, Spirit.
The Anu cuneiform is a star. The idea is the Father Sky was the at the highest of the high moving things with their spirit / breath.
Both passages are clearly tearing into the notion of a solid dome firmament which, again, was part of some groups cosmology regionally.
The intensity of the mockery – especially in Jeremiah 51 – is best considered due to the dome notion being a desecration of the spirituality of the breath / spirit of the divine associated with the movements of the highest heavens.
It also should be considered to be bashing anti-science views – (there are passages in scripture about the court of Solomon having big science conferences, right there on the land route to and fro all of africa.
It’s a big part of why Solomon was associated with knowledge.
In context of what we know Solomon would have considered the dome idea absolute nonsense.
In modern terms it’s clear that court was part of a heritage that believed in “intelligent design” in the sense science was created by the Divine while also forming humans with Free Will as the Divine also has – made in the tzelem so to speak.
The court of Solomon also, by the way, was also very likely responsible for the form of a bunch of the scripture as we have it now. in fact when describing the science conferences solomon put on the language regarding the biological life mirrors that of the seven day text. this indicates that either the seven day text in the form we have it now either came from that court or perhaps someone crediting the text to them. it is of this
authors opinion the betting odds is the form of the text as we have it is solomonic)
Anthropormizatiom aside it’s fun to consider the statement: “if Jesus can walk on water than surely the Big Dog can walk on air” (there are a few references to air walking in Hebrew Scripture such as in Eve and Adam but interestingly in the context of all i have written it’s the “voice” (kol) that is walking)
Also old Yankee Stadium had HOF plaques *in the field of play in center field*- there was a solid dome notion regionally and the blending of traditions happened in the seven day tradition with the Eve / Adam one for instance. Maybe there are in some instances in blends of writing references to the dome notion like Old Yankee stadium (real Yankee Stadium, only Yankee Stadium) having HOF in the field of play…in particular (and far as I know the only HOF plaque) could be exodus 24:10 makes reference to some sort of miraculous “sapphire looking” thing that is a clear as the sky that the “feet” of Elohai-Israel (the God of Israel) are on. The passage is vague, and the use of the term Libnat (used only once in the entire scripture) is suggestive of a cloud but again is vague.
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I remember reading a book about the closed bet opening the scripture…the alef beyond representing the unknowable
aka The Miracle. Even “gods” so to speak are “only” creatures that think, are conscious, like us, logic still applies, Siblings we are, of The Miracle that Miracled this Miracle we are all in together.
I think of Shake n’Bake around the dinner table in Talledaga Nights
I like to think of The Miracle like Rodney Dangerfield saying “I can’t get no respect.” Same with like…the Better Angels, Good Friend Angels, so to speak, though it’s different theologically.
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If you’ve made it to the end here…and Rodney Dangerfield aside…think it goes without saying professors / departments that withhold the above information from paying students could end up being held liable in a class action for financial fraud.
It is what it is.
If I were you I wouldn’t overthink this. I’d just give it to the students and uphold the academic standard that the truth is a good thing.
Also the phrase “let us” perhaps could be understood in the sense the Seven Day Text is a Love Story of Mother Earth / Father Sky or Existence and Wisdom.
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It’s quite amazing how clear the text becomes once one gets Bohu as Lava. I suspect a classroom of college students with one or two semesters of Hebrew instructions was prompted to write an essay on the Seven Day Text with the following words:
Bohu = Lava + Ki + Anu + Zeph 1:3 you’d end up with a bunch of essays with the information I’ve provided. It’s a bit of a Rosetta Stone, so to speak, this Seven Day Text now that we’ve got the Sumerian records and explains why it is the first page in the first place.
Someone was going to figure this out nowadays and I would be totally unsurprised if there’s a few others out there that have by this point who have.
I personally have retired in my amateur excavation. In particular I am sure there is a large portion of this playground to the east of Sumer in Tian / Di in Asia – and I would encourage historians to look into First Nations Traditions that involve a Mother Earth / Father Sky notions. It is not out of question we might be able to trace this way back, in cave paintings in Africa for instance, in a way that maybe we can find a pre-written history of it leaving Africa and entering what is now North America before even being put to writing in Sumer.
I strongly suspect this Mother Earth / Father Sky Notion and the Breath of Air hyh existence / space / I am-ism goes back…way before Sumer.
A playground, so to speak, for many fields and using the example of cave drawings…something to keep on eye out for, to keep in mind.
portion of a letter:
(I’ve avoided including links in the following due to emails with links sometimes being sent to spam folders. For much of this I used the Biblehub online compilation of the Brown Driver Briggs, Englishman’s, NAS, and Strongs Concordance)
The word Bohu is used only three times in the entirety of the Hebrew Scripture, each time alongside the word Tohu. These three instances are:
- Jeremiah 4:23. The passage describes a mountain quaking, the light of the sky being blotted out, and all animal life fleeing as the land is turned to desolation.
- Isaiah 34:11. The passage involves an eternally smoking pitch of brimstone with streams of molten stone uninhabitable by humans.
With volcanoes and lava in mind, this is the third:
“In the beginning Elohim created the Heavens and the Earth. And the earth was tohu v bohu. And there was darkness upon the surface of the deep. And a wind of Elohim flew over the surface of the water and Elohim said “let there (or it) be light.” And there was light.”
The “deep” here is ocean water, which later in the seven day text fish will swim in.
The text clarifies that darkness is “upon the surface” of the deep water. This leaves open the possibility of light being beneath the surface.
Where molten earth is.
The Hebrew Scripture contain a famous passage of the parting of waters – consider this passage the parting of waters by wind to allow light to reach and illuminate the surface.
There is also a famous passage of a man on a quaking mountain with fire on top that has smoke ascending from it “like a furnace.”
There were active volcanoes and volcanic fields in the ancient near east and those on and around the trade route between budding Greek empires and huge northern African ones with giant pyramids had certainly heard of volcanoes.
This rendering help explains the language of the first day of the text…including how light is present in the text prior to stars and the sun.
I would like to talk to you about this – and also what happens to the Seven Day Text when Tohu v Bohu is translated as “molten lava.”
The first day of the text is ocean water on lava.
The second day is when Shamayim is formed. I’d ask you to consider an ancient theory regarding the formation of the atmosphere: ocean water on molten rock, creating steam.
Shamayim is what dew comes from multiple times in the first 5 books of the scripture.
Birds are in it like fish in the sea (Zeph 1:3). Birds fly “upon it” (al) and are “of the” (ha) in the Seven Day Text itself.
As Oxford Professor John Day has written it can validly be translated as “the air” (and is at points by the King James translation).
As stated in the Seven Day Text, Shamayim is synonymous to the word Rakia. Rakia is from a root meaning to spread out, translated by many including the Jewish Publication Society as “the expanse.”
Nowhere in the entirety of the scripture is the word Rakia used to describe a “solid dome in the sky.”
There are waters below the shamayim in oceans, lakes, and streams. There is upper waters in clouds (the originally unvowelled “me’al” (above) could also be vowelled as “ma’al” the upper part of).
Clouds in Hebrew is Shakakim. This is from a root meaning “to pulverize to a dust” implying the small water particles in them.
Jeremiah 51 describes their formation via evaporation – watching mists rising – and their thunder as “water rumbling.” Job 37 describes the formation of “powerful clouds” (shakakim hazakim) via calm, hot, heat (the calm before the storm). These swirling thunderclouds are blown away by the wind.
Shamayim comes from the Akkadian word Samu, constructed Sa = of, the one of and Mu = water, dew, bodily secretions. The protosemetic root Samay is constructed the same way and is associated with height because it’s the sky.
Samu was a sky god in some ancient near eastern cultures and is linguistically traceable back to An/Anu of the Sumarians. An / Anu was the Father Sky of the Sumerians, and they and their Cuniform Dinger turned into Samu. It was the Cuniform for both the Father Sky and the Sky itself. (Source: the Association Assyriophyle d’France online Akkadian dictionary and the Wikipedia for Anu and Dinger)
Anu had a partner. A Mother Earth named Ki. Ki and Her Cuniform turned into Arsatum and Ersetu in Akkadian, which had connotations of feminine divinity, and they turned into Aretz.
On the third day of the text Aretz reaches the surface of the water. It is now in a state of yabasha, from a root connected to dried pottery.
Consider a culture whose most sacred moment involves a person standing in a volcanic mountains view of continental formation might be.
That same cultures notion of pregnancy was musculine liquid in a female body.
On the third day shamayim, credited elsewhere for dew leading to harvests, and Aretz touch.
Plants are formed.
Mother Earth. Father Sky. (A conception so fundamental to ancient human observation of nature and reproduction that many First Nations in what is now North America shared similar a notion.)
The seven day week we know coming from Sumeria. The words Aretz and Shamayim we know having links back to their Mother Earth and Father Sky.
The order of creation is Mother Earth and Father Sky, ocean life and birds (consider ancients finding raptor dinosaur fossils), creeping things, land animals, and then people. Of all things a creation myth could write the evolutionary order is basically correct – and Bara (created) is used only involving this process. (The sun and stars, for instance, are “made.” Evolved is a valid translation of Bara in this text)
The text concludes with the line “these are the Toldot of shamayim and aretz.” Toldot from the root meaning “to give birth” and meaning family, children, or generations.
Some more really interesting things include: the word “merachaphet” (flew) on the first day to describe Elohims wind soaring over the water is connected to the syriac “brood / fertilize” as masculine mayim is on feminine aretz. It is a rarely used word in scripture, notably a passage credited to Moses of a bird over their nest.
With “eggs” in mind another neat thing is that the term “pillar” as in “pillar of the earth” (matsuq) comes from a root meaning to melt. Please consider this in terms of the Mother Earth / Father Sky concept I’ve written of, of eggs, and of a molten core. The term matsuq for “pillar of the earth” is used only a single time in all of scripture (Samuel 2:8). It is highly likely some ancients considered the earth round, like an egg.
The fact Shamayim is masculine grammatical tense and Aretz feminine tense in the sense Mother Earth / Father Sky concept indicates the tense itself has “meaning.”
To my knowledge this is the earliest indication of where masculine / feminine tense originating from might come from. Billions speak languages with masculine and feminine gender today.
Elohim is a plural word meaning “gods.” We know that Shemesh, Yam, Aretz, and Shamayim all were considered separate divinity in cultures prior and surrounding the Israelites. We also know the seven day tradition comes out of Sumeria – and the scriptural Abraham is said to come from former Sumerian / Akkadian territory (Ur). The text includes the line “Let US” make humans in “OUR” likeness (tzelem – image, likeness, stuff of as in a figurine).
Elohim is also interesting when considering Yahweh. El genetically means “a god” and the Cuniform dinger for the Sumerian Father Sky also is connected to the word “to” as in “I’m talking to you.” El also means “to” in Hebrew. Ehyeh and Yahweh both sound like a breath of air, carried via shamayim, via a root HYH associated with “being / existing” itself. For this reason Yahweh might have been associated with male divinity and the “talking god” as shamayim carried verbal communication on it. “Wind” (ruach) on day one also can mean breath.
Also neat is Bereshis literally translates “inside the head / top / first feminine.” Job, considered one of the earliest writings, contains a passage with references to the seven day text that includes both a primordial womb from which all water gushes forth from, as well as mists forming clouds.
Super interesting also. The Chinese Diand Tseun / Tian (pronounced like “an”) are ancient words for earth and heaven / sky respectively in Chinese and key concepts in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. Their combination, written in English as Shangdi, is the highest of all divine concepts in that religious tradition. Given Sumer being the first written language and its proximity to what is now China and use of a Cuniform / Symbolic script it is not surprising that such a connection can be found in China.
It is neat as well that the text essentially is “sealed.” Elohim created the world, said people are the caretakers of the place (acknowledging free will and freedom), said plants are a gift to eat but not saying other animals are, and then retires. There is no day 8. So far as we know, in context of the story, Elohim retired and the text could be called the retirement story.
As for how this translation could have gotten “lost.”
There’s a few reasonable ideas as to how.
The first is that the Yahwist Cult was, no doubt, very sexist. They blamed, for instance, the origins of evil on women (Eve) and held it acceptable Yahweh punished all women forever with dangerous and painful pregnancy as childbirth as punishment. They claimed that a singular, male, god was preeminent and that women were the property of males. It is possible the seven day week, and the sabbath, and some form of this text was so ingrained in the region and their own Hebrew community that they could not totally do away with it while establishing their masculine monotheistic cult. So, they “wrote out” the other gods in the text, changing most (but not all) of the verb tenses to masculine singular. Over time mere suggestion of other forms of divinity could have been considered heretical and extremely dangerous, and eventually it was forgotten completely. The “us” and “our” is highly relevant in questioning this theory though. Interestingly in Eve and Adam plant life is also credited to mists covering earth.
Another could be over the course of multiple exiles and massacres that occurred to the Ancient Israelites it could have been lost – for instance in the aftermath of the Bar Kokbha revolt nearly all Hebrew knowledgeable clergy and ancient academia were killed by Emporer Hadrian, who tried to totally destroy any remnant of the Hebrew culture.
Regarding the “Rakia” being a “solid dome / firmament” idea…it’s fascinating. Nowhere in the entirety of the scripture is a solid dome in the sky referenced. In Job 37 swirling shakakim hazakim (powerful clouds) that are blown away by the wind, and formed by hot heat, are sometimes translated as being a “hard mirror.” A better translation is they look like bubbling molten metal, or they had the appearance of an ancient mirror that would likely be dark, have bubbled imperfections, and not appear anything like the mirrors you might see at a local modern department store. Another passage is sometimes translated Rakia as being like a “tent” but the word itself is connected to veils, implying the “misty” nature of shamayim. There are a couple passages about the “windows” of Shamayim opening and rain falling but the scripture is full of figures of speech and mannerisms.
What is so interesting is some other cultures, some very powerful and dangerous, did have a notion of a solid dome in their cosmology. This does not mean the Israelites shared it – and it could have been very very dangerous to oppose such an idea. In both Job 37 and in Jeremiah 51 – which describes clouds formed via evaporation – we see mockery of the idea of a solid dome. Job mocks those who don’t know how clouds are formed while describing their formation through hot heat (evaporation), and Jeremiah 51 after describing clouds forming via “mists rising” immediately transitions to bashing metalsmiths and metal idols.
Rakia, as a root meaning to spread out, was indeed used in relation to the beating out of a metal in mettalurgy. It’s very possible ancient writers of the Hebrew used the word, obscure to outsiders language, to give plausible deniability that they thought the idea of a metal dome as…something to be mocked, as it cleverly is in both Job 37 wordplay and in Jeremiah 51.
This too could have been lost along the way – particularly during exiles and massacres as mentioned above.
Once lost? Galileo spent the last 9 years of his life under house arrest, and was nearly killed after a long trial, for saying we revolve around the sun. That’s due to how religious authorities read this text. For thousands of years no one has knew of Ki and An and even suggesting time prior to the Scripture was extremely dangerous. There was no online Biblehub, no Wikipedia, no email to share it even if found. The lexicons are less than 100 years old. A tiny amount of people knew any Biblical Hebrew and even less studied it in an academic manner, which is still the case. Prior to the internet, even 30 years ago, some of this knowledge would require very specific knowledge in very specific libraries that many would not have access to.
And nowadays the truth is that in a city of a few million people, the large majority of which practice some form of so called Abrahamic religion, a member of the public can audit two semesters of Tuesday / Thursday evening Biblical Hebrew at the university for the price of a few football tickets and…there are 5 people in the class. There are millions and billions of people who are Abrahamically religious, and even more who live in a seven day week structured largely because of this text, and the truth is a tiny tiny tiny number of people ever actually study it carefully in the original language.
Thank you for reading – and feel free to discuss the information with your peers at Oxford. I am quite sure the students there would also love to take it on.
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My reading is that based on humans free will what Elohim meant by it’s all very good is that this creation is as good as they could do, that they put it their best effort with good intentions, and it’s better than nothing…the line does not that all that people do is good or that bad things that happen to good people is good.
Fun fact Anu means We in Hebrew.
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