Hebrew Science Fiction

Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”  Exodus 3:13 NASB

Name – I’ve often wondered why God chose to reveal His intentions for Mankind through an obscure Semitic tribe with little commendable credentials.  After all, Israel was really just an ex-slave population, the progeny of a Mesopotamian wanderer.  Not powerful.  Not political.  Not wealthy.

But there must have been something.

Looking for answers to that question pushes me in the direction of science fiction.  No, I’m not saying that the biblical stories are fictional or alien.  I’m saying that the Hebrew language is remarkably unusual, so much so that it could easily be seen as alien (but it isn’t, of course).  To see what I mean, look at this clip from the movie Arrival.

The movie is about extraterrestrials and their language, a language that is non-linear, i.e., a language that does not view the temporal world as we do, as if time were a line stretched from the beginning to the end.  Non-linear time moves in all directions.  It can be read forward or backward.  Its beginning is its end.  Sort of like Hebrew, as I will explain.

You can imagine Hebrew like a white dot on the sidewall of a tire in motion.  The dot revolves, making circles, ending where it begins.  But at the same time, it is also moving along the road so that each time the dot comes in contact with the road surface, it is at a new place.  The same motion has a different meaning with each rotation.  This is what we call cycloidal.  But we already knew that, didn’t we?  Hebrew “patterns” of linguistic clues show up over and over in the Bible, each time the same words or phrases appear in a new story, each time providing a richer meaning by looking to the past use, the present use and the future implications.  These “clues” mean that Hebrew is multilayered, not only in its linguistic construction but also in its temporal orientation.  Maybe that’s why Hebrew doesn’t have the same verb tenses that linear languages like English do.

Ah, but there’s another factor here, even more intriguing.  You see, Hebrew can’t be read linearly.  Why?  Because the construction of a word or a syllable often depends on what follows.  A consonant doesn’t stand on its own.  In order to read Hebrew, you must constantly be looking ahead and reading behind.  Let me illustrate.

Here is a Hebrew sentence:

וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכׇל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכׇל-נַפְשְךָ וּבְכׇל-מְאֹדֶךָ׃

Ve-A-Hav-Ta   Et   A-Do-Nai   E-Lo-Hei-Kha   Be-Khol-Le-Vav-Kha   U-Ve-Khol-Naf–She-Kha   U-Ve-Khol-Me-O-De-Kha

This is Deuteronomy 6:5.  You will notice that the vowel pointing suggests the proper reading of the text.  You will also notice that the places I have indicated in red require the reader to look ahead of the consonant and then read the consonant afterward.  In other words, the reading is constantly moving forward and backward as it progresses.  Like the white dot on the sidewall, it moves on the road but at the same time it’s moving forward and backward around the circle.

What does this mean?  Well, if I were a science-fiction writer, I’d be inclined to say that this language doesn’t share the same linear view of time that the West assumes.  Things aren’t moving in one temporal direction.  They are fluctuating back and forth and around all that the same moment.  The world isn’t progressing from beginning to end.  It’s gyrating.

You might say, “Well, the Hebrew alphabet is based on the Phoenician, so doesn’t Phoenician have the same characteristics?  Or maybe all ancient Semitic languages have these characteristics?  What makes you think Hebrew is so unusual?”  The answer is provided by Joel Hoffman:

“Amid the mass of confusing and sometimes contradictory theoretical and physical evidence, however, we have one final set of facts.  The Hebrews seem to have recognized the incredible power of reading and writing, and they seem to have recognized the power of vowels.”[1]

“First, the Hebrews discovered their vowels.  The Hebrews then realized how useful they would be, and that no other culture had them.  In this sense, the Hebrews were the ‘vowel-letter’ people.  Because they were the vowel-letter people, they used these vowel letters magically (in their minds) to mark membership in the tribe of vowel-letter people.”[2]

Hebrew has vowels!  That’s what’s amazing.  I don’t mean the vowel pointing added by the Masoretes.  I mean the original consonants that acted like vowels (Vav, Hey, Yud).  This was new—and incredibly powerful.  It changed everything!

I’ve often said that Hebrew is a language that you have to already know what it says before you can read it.  What I mean is that in order to read it properly you must interpret the consonants and the vowel consonants correctly and you can only do that if someone else has taught you how.  You can’t simply sit down with a Hebrew text and read it because you won’t know what vowels to use and when a consonant is a vowel.  You need a teacher, which, of course, is precisely what the commandments advocate.  Oral transmission of written interpretation.  That’s what’s required.

Real science fiction.  It’s just so cool!  God knew what He was doing when He chose this one.  Now we have to stop thinking Greek-Western linear and start being cycloidal.  Remember: God always starts what He finishes.

Topical Index:  Hebrew, language, vowels, Arrival, Exodus 3:13

[1] Joel M. Hoffman, In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (New York University Press, 2004), 37.

[2] Ibid., p. 41.