Towards, unto, into and in Theos

In the previous post we came across the use of the word ‘there’ (sham שם) and how it has an expanded, feminine, form in some places, including Yehezq’el 48.35 – shamah (שמה). In this form the final hebrew letter ה (h) is added. This denotes a feminisation of the word. The feminisation of the word can also be seen as a place unto which someone travels. In this case ‘there’ as a final destination where the name of Yahweh is fulfilled.

The idea of the feminine as a place unto which we can travel can be highly instructive and we did see a number of those themes being explored in the previous post, particularly in relation to Ruth and Bo’az and the figure of redemption of the possession in marriage.

The first thing to note, on a technical level, is that we normally use the homographic preposition ‘el (אל), or its truncated form l (ל), immediately prior to the thing, person or place unto which the direction is headed. Thus:

Now Yahweh said unto (אל) ‘Abram, Get thee from thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto (אל) a land that I will show thee: (Genesis 12.1)

In the above passage the direction of travel is preceded by the direction of Yahweh’s speech unto ‘Abram. The direction that follows the verb (in command form) ‘get thee’ is ‘from’ three times and ‘unto’ in the final instance. The journey is distinguished primarily by three negatives, that is the need to leave behind his land, father’s house and relatives to be able to head in the direction of the positive ‘land’ which Yahweh will reveal, or manifest, unto him. The journey to this land is characterised by the preposition ‘el (אל). The Hebrew is ‘el-ha’arets (אל־הארץ).

And ‘Abram took Saray his woman, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Kana’an; and into the land of Kana’an they came. (Genesis 12.5)

Here, ‘into the land’ is preceded, in the first instance, by the verb ‘went forth’ and, in the second, by the verb ‘came’. We saw these two verbs in the post about ‘comings and goings’, having a direct relevance to the ideas of ‘here’ and ‘there’. The outcomes of these two verbs is the entering into the land. The Hebrew here which translates ‘into the land’ is ‘eretsah (ארצה). The word for ‘land’ (‘erets ארץ) has been feminised by the addition of the final letter ‘h’ (ה). The presence of the final letter ‘h’ (ה) often denotes the feminine. So, we can see that Yahweh commands him to go unto (אל) the land and when he and his household obey the command the destination is no longer referred to with אל but, rather, the destination is feminised. The verbs ‘coming’ and ‘going’ depicting, as they do, the obedience to the command, govern the feminisation of the destination. In fact, here, we can argue that, because the land (‘erets ארץ) as a noun is already a feminine, that we have a double feminisation of the destination. That is, as we saw in an early post, gender is directly related to the author/source/creator being masculine and the receiver/created being feminine. We could, therefore, expect the object of Yahweh’s creative endeavour, the land, the inheritance, the final fulfilment of his purpose with his people, to be the feminine. Yet it has this added layer of feminisation when those chosen to receive his promises and blessings are to come into, and become, that possession. Doubling up in scripture is seen as a point of emphasis where something must surely come to pass, as in Yoseph’s dreams of the stalks of wheat and the cattle (Genesis 41).

Now Mosheh kept the flock of Yethro his father in law, the priest of Midyan: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came unto (אל) the mountain of ‘elohym, even to Horeb. (Exodus 3.1)

Here we see that the verb ‘came’, as above, precedes the destination of Mosheh’s travel and is, in the first instance, followed by the preposition אל but is then qualified by the name of that destination. Here, the mountain name, ‘Horeb’, has been given the h (ה) ending making it Horebah.

Exodus 3 is littered with occurrences of the preposition אל but these are primarily describing the direction of travel of speech from Yahweh to Mosheh, Mosheh’s direction towards the children of Yisra’el to speak to them and towards Phar’oh. However, Yahweh gives the seeming overarching purpose of the revelation of his name:

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Mitsraym, and to bring them up out of that land unto (אל) a good land and a large, unto (אל) a land flowing with milk and honey; unto (אל) the place of the kana’any, and the Hitty, and the ‘Amory, and the Perizy, and the Hiwy, and the Yebusy. (Exodus 3.8)

When Yahweh is giving commandment of the future inheritance of the land we see the use of אל but when someone comes or goes, but in any case enters into the place, then the object of that journey is feminised. We have already seen that a feminine noun – ‘erets (land) – can be apparently feminised further when it is achieved by those who obediently come into it.

Clearly, Exodus 3 is fundamental in getting to grips with the meaning of the name (shem שם). We have also seen that ‘name’ and ‘there’ are homographic, being represented by the same Hebrew letters. ‘Name’ is a masculine noun, ‘there’ is, technically, an adverb so does not have a gender. Though ‘name’ is a masculine noun, it can take the feminine ending (h ה) and thus transform to shemah (שמה), ‘her name’, thus:

And ‘elohym said unto ‘Abraham, As for Saray thy woman, thou shall not call her name Saray, but Sarah is her name. (Genesis 17.15)

So, the changed status of the woman of the foremost of the believing patriarchs, by whom Yahweh was happy to call his own name (Ex.3), is depicted using the word shemah (שמה). Her name changes as she is to become the mother of the promised seed. The word shemah (שמה) is, of course, homographic with the word ‘there’ where it occurs in Yehezq’el 48.35. ‘Yahweh is there’ (shamah שמה). We might also note at this point that Yahweh’s name also carries what appears to be the feminine ending h (ה) and indeed we may conclude that at the point when the unity of the people with him is fulfilled that his name has a feminine sense, because, at that point, he has become the bride and the bride him. Clearly, the name Yahweh is in the masculine gender as the adjectives associated with him occur in the masculine form. He is in the masculine because the ‘he’ that lies behind the manifestational and covenantal name, is the creator and source of all things and he reveals himself to the created and receivers, who are the feminine, by his spirit. However, as the name is fundamentally about that journey towards the final destination of him in others, it has the feminine sense of that destination achieved when he comes into his possession. At that point, when he is in the bride of his possession, is his name fulfilled. The name of Yahweh describes his purpose, it is a name for ‘olam, not an absolute label like our names, which we see as permanent and indivisible from our natural form. The name of Yahweh describes the progressive, and incremental, journey of manifestation unto a destination of perfect kerubic reflection of his name.