Tehom ( he, תְּהוֹם ''ṯəhôm'') 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 t ...
word meaning "the deep". It is used to describe the primeval ocean and the post-creation waters of the earth. It derives from a Semitic root which denoted the sea as an unpersonified entity with mythological import.
Genesis
Tehom is mentioned in
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
1:2, where it is translated as "deep":
The same word is used for the origin of
Noah's flood in :
Gnosticism
Gnostics
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized per ...
used
Genesis 1:2 to propose that the original
creator god
A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatri ...
, called the "
Pléroma" or "
Bythós" (from the Greek, meaning "Deep") pre-existed
Elohim
''Elohim'' (: ), the plural of (), is a Hebrew word meaning "gods". Although the word is plural, in the Hebrew Bible it usually takes a singular verb and refers to a single deity, particularly (but not always) the God of Israel. At other times ...
, and gave rise to such later divinities and spirits by way of
emanations, progressively more distant and removed from the original form.
In
Mandaean cosmology, the
Sea of Suf (or Sea of Sup) is a primordial sea in the
World of Darkness.
Kabbalah
Tehom is also mentioned as the first of seven "
Infernal Habitations" that correspond to the ten
Qliphoth
In the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah, the ''qliphoth/qlippoth/qlifot'' or ''kelipot'' ( ''qəlīpōṯ'', originally Aramaic: ''qəlīpīn'', plural of ''qəlīpā''; literally "peels", "shells", or "husks"), are the represe ...
(literally "peels") of Jewish
Kabbalistic
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...
tradition, often in place of
Sheol.
Sanchuniathon
Robert R. Stieglitz stated that
Ebla
Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
itic texts demonstrate the equation of the goddess Berouth in the mythology of
Sanchuniathon
Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from Phoenician: , "Sakon has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphra ...
with Ugaritic thmt and Akkadian Tiâmat, via the name ''bʾrôt'' ("fountains").
See also
*
Abzu
The Abzu or Apsu ( Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: — ='water' ='deep', recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising qualit ...
*
Atum
Atum (, Egyptian: ''jtm(w)'' or ''tm(w)'', ''reconstructed'' ; Coptic ''Atoum''), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology.
Name
Atum's name is thought to be derived from the verb ''tm'' which means 'to co ...
*
Cosmic Ocean
*
Nu (mythology)
*
Tohu wa-bohu
References
{{Genesis 1
Bereshit (parashah)
Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible
Jewish underworld
Religious cosmologies
Biblical cosmology
Tiamat
Book of Genesis