It would be a mistake and a linguistic fallacy to assume that because the ancient Israelites spoke of the cosmos with the pair heaven and earth rather than with a single word comparable to Koopoç, this reflects their inability to conceptualize the world abstractly as a whole. In the earliest stages of reflection on the cosmos this may have been the case, but the retention of this fixed word pair in the biblical writings is no proof that the Hebrews could not conceptualize otherwise. Honeyman points out that a merism evolves over time from “the primitive inability to subsume particulars under the universal” to become a fossil of speech, “employed as a stylistic survival for the sake of emphasis and vividness after the use of the universal has been achieved and the inability which brought the usage into being has been transcended.”^^ Such is the case for heaven and earth. The use of heaven and earth for the cosmos does not indicate a poverty in the Hebrew language.
Instead, its common usage can be explained for two reasons. First, as is well known, there is a propensity in Hebrew writing to converse in parallelisms. This proclivity promotes and preserves the use of heaven and earth as a fixed pair, even as its meaning expands beyond the merismatic sense to include an antithetic notion.
But the second factor is even more important. There is in the Israelites’
Weltanschauung a fundamental duality in tension. This too is preserved and promoted by the heaven and earth pair. Houtman sums it up well:
Wright, 88-89. Similar remarks are made in his article, “Biblical Versus Israelite Images o f the Heavenly
Realm,” 93 (2001), 60-61.
A. M. Honeyman, “Merismus in Biblical Hebrew,” JBL 71 (1952), 17. Avishur, Stylistic Studies o f Word Pairs, 91, is similar: “It would seem, that the primary linguistic function o f these phenomena diminished as the language evolved and hendiadys and permerismum were used to serve as figures o f speech.”
Many scholars have argued that the message o f the Primal History o f Gen 2-11 is about “the divinely ordained separation o f heaven and earth as two distinct realms and the enforcement o f distinct limits upon the human race.” This deep-seated distinction in the first book o f the Pentateuch weaves its way through much o f
the OT writings. P. D. Hanson, “Rebellion in Heaven, Azael, and Euhemeristic Heroes in 1 Enoch 6-11,” JBL
Our opinion is that there is a relationship between the manner and the way in which the Israelite practiced reality and the fact that he used a word-pair to signify the
‘cosmos’: for the Israelites the cosmos was taken precisely not as a unity - only God is one - but a duality, a complementary duality and as such a harmony of two opposite poles in balance of the whole contents.. . . the use of ‘heaven and earth’ for the ‘cosmos’ brings consciousness to the Israelite that the world, and also life, is ruled through polar powers.^"*
But contrary to Houtman, who sees only the Weltanschauung as dualistic, it is crucial to see that both the Weltbild and the Weltanschauung of the OT are organically related: Both flow from and are manifested through the pervasive heaven and earth pair. When heaven is used with its “direct meaning” of the astral and atmospheric world, “heaven and earth” refers to the Weltbild, the physical cosmology of the world.
Conversely, when heaven is used in its “symbolic” sense of the place of God’s dwelling, “heaven and earth” refers to the Weltanschauung, or what we may term its “ontological cosmology.”^^ Thus, both the Weltbild and the Weltanschauung of the OT are
fundamentally bipolar and dualistic, playing on the semantic flexibility of heaven in the pairing of heaven and earth.
Thus, we may provide an additional diagram in tandem with Figure 7.3 already given above.
Heavenly Realm
Astral, Meteorological, Angelic Heavenly Realm (God) Earthly Realm
Land of the Living // Sheol/Depths Earthly Realm (Created World)Heavens / Earth
Figure 7.3 Physical Cosmology ^Weltbild” Figure 7.4 Ontological Cosmology “Weltanschauung ”
Figure 7.3 represents the created order or physical cosmology, expressed in the dualistic poles of heaven and earth. Figure 7.4 represents a similar dualism, but this time the two poles stand for God on the one hand and all of creation on the other. This
ontological dualism is likewise expressed through the heaven and earth pair. The
11,” in Creation in the Biblical Traditions (ed. Richard J. Clifford and John J. Collins; Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association, 1992), 40. According to Di Vito, other scholars who hold to this distinction view (which Di Vito opposes) include R. A. Oden, Jr. and W. M. Clark.
Houtman, Der Himmel im AT, 77 (my translation).
This terminology is similar to that employed by G. W. E. Nickelsburg in his discussion o f the spatial and ontological dualism o f 1 Enoch. See Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book o f \ Enoch,
fundamental distinction here hinges on God as uncreated and all else as part of his creation. Therefore, Figure 7.3 in its entirety as the created world (heaven and earth) makes up the “Earthly Realm” element in Figure 7.4.^^
5. Summary
In sum, the OT embodies a dualistic or bipolar idea in the phrase “heaven and earth.” This word-pair forms the substructure of a bipartite cosmology which is manifested continually throughout the OT documents. The occasional descriptions of the world which use terms beyond heaven and earth should be understood as poetic subspecies of the broad dualism of heaven and earth. This includes the place of the dead, Sheol, or the deeps, which is an undeveloped thought in the OT, fundamentally a part of the earth.
This bipartite physical cosmology {Weltbild) in tum feeds and undergirds a symbolic ontological dualism {Weltanschauung) wherein God’s being and ways are contrasted with humanity’s. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:9). This ontological cosmology (Figure 7.4) is organically related to the physical cosmological (Figure 7.3). That is, the basic duality of the physical cosmology is likewise reflected in the duality of the theological diagram. In the latter case, however, the emphasis is on the distinction between the uncreated, eternal God and all created things, including the heavenly bodies. Both the Weltbild and Weltanschauung of the OT are manifested through the heaven and earth pair, though the meaning of this pair varies in each, based on the powerful flexibility of the semantic range of heaven.