Language as a Tool for the Ancient World View

I was listening to my iVocab Hebrew last night to help myself practice the new vocabulary. I had not looked at the chapter (I have a whole system of listening to the vocab, then listening to the narrated Powerpoint presentation, then actually reading the book). Therefore, I had never seen the words except on the flashcard on my iPod.

I had the flashcards on shuffle so that I could not memorize them in order. But somehow two words were put next to each other that made me laugh quite a bit. The words were (in the closest English transliteration I can type) mayim and shamayim. Mayim means water. Shamayim means heaven.

I was brought back to my Introduction to Bible class from undergraduate where we discussed the first creation story in Genesis. God creates light and darkness. Then he separates the waters above from the waters below (with a dome). The ancient world view coming through was that there is water in the sky because it rains.

Therefore, I found it hilarious that the word for heaven has the root of water. The ancient world view have been embedded in the original language. This can also be seen when looking at the creation story. God creates man, (Hebrew: adam) from the soil of the earth (Hebrew for soil: adamah).

Now it all makes sense!