Study of the vocabulary genesis 1 verse 2 / בראשית א' פסוק ב': חקר משמעות אוצר המילים

1.2 בְּרֵאשִׁית
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם
And the earth was unformed and void, darkness was upon the face of the deep, while the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters.

We will study the vocabulary of this verse, from the perspective of Quranic Arabic, and its etymology. Perhaps we will find explanations there for Hebrew terms that are poorly understood to this day.

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Noun, feminine singular.
Its Arabic equivalent: أَرْض, and english etymology of Earth.
First information given here: we have the letter and phone ض, Hebrew does not distinguish it, or no longer, from the letter and phone ص, and these two Arabic letters are represented by the grapheme ץ in hebrew.


Morphology

א is starting the word, prefixed to an archaic root רץ :

- א this letter is the arabic ء and when it comes as first letter, it's about initialization, a beginning of something, a Cause, and here it comes with the a sound, so it's about something done ;
- רץ because we have identified its arabic equivalent, we have etyma رض with its semantical field to crush, grinded, broken particles.


Etmology

We have 3 letters, thus 3 archetyps, 3 meanings dwelling the word ארץ :

- א : initialized ;
- ר : tension, constraint ;
- ץ but accuratly the arabic ض : agglutinated. At the opposite, the arabic ص it's about pur essence, unmixed, full. This is the semantic nuance offered by arabic as explanation for the word ארץ, the Earth is a gathering of various elements, particles.

Another lexical approach to seek the meaning of etyma רץ :

68.31 תְּהִלִּים
גְּעַר חַיַּת קָנֶה עֲדַת אַבִּירִים בְּעֶגְלֵי עַמִּים מִתְרַפֵּס בְּרַצֵּי כָסֶף בִּזַּר עַמִּים קְרָבוֹת יֶחְפָּצוּ
Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples, every one submitting himself with pieces of silver; He hath scattered the peoples that delight in war!

We can see here the meaning for רץ and it comes with the plural ימ with the מ elided because the name is annexed by the following name כָסֶף silver. We saw that رض it's to pressure, grind a material, it implies a notion of plularity, to put into pieces, but rather, in this case, it seems we have here the letter ص, and now it's about sticking things one to another, to make one thing added to another make only 1 in essence.
Hence the interpretation of the verse, it would be what men stick on the beast, the ornaments, changing its nature to make it supernatural and impressive beings, confusing the enemies.


Exegesis

The etyma רץ or رض is the heart of Earth meaning, so it tells us that there is a pressure upon it, like the gravity does on the objects in the univers. And it makes sens, because it is always represented in opposition with שָּׁמַיִם, the opposite process, something ethereal, without consistency.

21.30 الأنبياء 

أَوَلَمْ يَرَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ كَانَتَا رَتْقًا فَفَتَقْنَاهُمَا وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ أَفَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
Did the unbelievers not realize that the Skies and the Earth were one solid mass, then We tore them apart, and We made every living being out of water? Will they, then, not believe?

1.2 בְּרֵאשִׁית
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם
And the earth was unformed and void, darkness was upon the face of the deep, while the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters.

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Syntax


We have a verbal phrase, its attributive verb from root היה in the past, the agent of the verb feminine singular 3rd personne the earth, and the attributes, double, for description for the Earth תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ, both connected with the coordination particle וָ.

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morphosemantic


The verb היה is built and the core letter ה, like the two attributs תהו and בהו, so we have 3 particules used to conjugate the roots:
- ת used to express reflexivity when coming prefixed;
- ב used as particle to introduce something or a way to do (by, with, through, in);
- ו used to connect words or sentences (and, then, so), but also to conjugate root and verb, showing the infinitive mood.

The י infixed in the verb היה indicates that the action is maintained, in the past, or in the present and futur. This is not a one-off action.


Then, to understand תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ we need also to understand the verb היה, since the core meaning dwells in the archetyp and letter ה.

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Etymology


היה : this verb is generally translated by to be, to happen, to exist, but these 3 tanslations are interpretations, not the meaning of היה. The same root is used in arabic with same meaning, to get attention, like in demonstrative pronoun هذا thus הֵן (this here) or هنا (here).
See now the semantic value for the letter found in הית תהו בהו :

- ה and ه : ideation the relation bewteen the spiritual and the material;
- י and ي : actualization and it implies a will, the present;
- ת and ت : reflexivity when it begins a word;
- ב and ب : accesibility;
- ו and و :  potentiality and it implies the conditional and futur.

We saw the meaning of the verb היה, its about the ability to conceptualize, another way to understand it, it's that a thing or event that is not conceptualizable, does not exist. It is an operation of the mind on reality.

תהו and בהו, the core meaning is הו for both, thus its meaning : the ו expresses that in both words, there is no realization of the ideation, but in the potentiality.

תהו something is trying to exist for itself, the reflexive particule ת prefixed;
בהו something is trying to enter, to have acces, linked to the verb בוא, to come, to become, also an acess to the futur with בא, a becoming, to be able to last, very closed, or similare, to the meaning of the english verb to be.

Common translations for תֹּהוּ :
formlessness, confusion,  unreality,  emptiness, formlessness (of primeval earth), nothingness, empty space that which is empty or unreal (of idols), wasteland, wilderness (of solitary places), place of chaos, vanity.
The arabic replicated form تَهْتَهَةٌ expressing confusions.

41.29 יְשַׁעְיָהוּ
הֵן כֻּלָּם אָוֶן אֶפֶס מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם רוּחַ וָתֹהוּ נִסְכֵּיהֶם
Behold, they (the idols) are all nothing and their deeds are wind and empty their libation.

Common translations for בהו :
emptiness, void, waste.
We find also this word in arabic, بَهْوٌ : Ampleness, or an ample state, or condition. بَاهٍ : Empty, vacant, containing nothing.

34.11 יְשַׁעְיָהוּ
וִירֵשׁוּהָ קָאַת וְקִפּוֹד וְיַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב יִשְׁכְּנוּ בָהּ וְנָטָה עָלֶיהָ קַו תֹהוּ וְאַבְנֵי בֹהוּ
But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

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Conclusion

With תֹּהוּ this is the capacity to happen, with בֹהוּ this is the capacity to engage in something, and their suffixed וּ expresses that both actions are achievable, a potential, without having started.