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''Tohu wa-bohu'' or ''Tohu va-Vohu'' ( ) is a

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

phrase found in the

Genesis creation narrative The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word ...

( Genesis 1:2) that describes the condition of the earth () immediately before the creation of light in Genesis 1:3. Numerous interpretations of this phrase are made by various theological sources. The King James Version translation of the phrase is "without form, and void", corresponding to Septuagint , "unseen and unformed".

Text

The words ''tohu'' and ''bohu'' also occur in parallel in , which the King James Version translates with the words "confusion" and "emptiness". The two Hebrew words are properly segolates, spelled ''tohuw'' and ''bohuw''. Wilhelm Gesenius, ''A Hebrew and English Lexicon'' (1906). Hebrew ''tohuw'' translates to "wasteness, that which is laid waste, desert; emptiness, vanity; nothing". ''Tohuw'' is frequently used in the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

in the sense of "vanity", but ''bohuw'' occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible (outside of Genesis 1:2, the passage in Isaiah 34:11 mentioned above, and in Jeremiah 4:23, which is a reference to Genesis 1:2), its use alongside ''tohu'' being mere

paronomasia A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...

, and is given the equivalent translation of "emptiness, voidness".

Rabbinical interpretation

In the early rabbinical period, the verse was a point of contention regarding the question of '' creatio ex nihilo''. In Genesis Rabbah 1:14, Rabbi Akiva refutes gnostic and other heretical views that matter existed primordially and that God alone did not create the world. In Genesis Rabbah 2:2, rabbis Abbahu and Judah b. Simon give analogies in which ''tohu wa-bohu'' means "bewildered and astonished" (mentally formless and void), referring to the Earth's confusion after, having been created simultaneously with the Heavens in Genesis 1:1, it now immediately plays an inferior role. Abraham bar Hiyya (12th century) was the first to interpret the ''tohu'' and ''bohu'' of Gen. 1:2 as meaning "matter" and "form", and the same idea appears in Bahir 2.9–10. Possibly related is the ''Yesod hapashut'' ("simple element") in the Kabbalah, in which "everything is united as one, without differentiation".

Use in modern culture

The phrase is featured on the front of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's EP Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada, referring to the use of the phrase in Jeremiah 4:23. Jeremiah 4:23-27 is shown on the back of the album cover. Tohu and Bohu are used as names for monsters in McCrae web-novel ' Worm'. Tohuvabohu is the name of KMFDM's 15th studio album, as well as the title track on the album.

References

External links

* Go to , p
419
for info on related word i
Isaiah Chapter 22
called ''mekuddash'' (מקדש) which is Hebrew for "it is sanctified" {{Authority control Book of Genesis Bereshit (parashah) Creation myths Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible

Text

Rabbinical interpretation

Use in modern culture

See also

References

External links