Tohuwabohu

Hullabaloo (Hebrew tohu תהו ובהו, ṿāṿōhū; literally " without form and void " ) refers to a shambles and is modernized with " confusion " and / or " chaos " translated.

Etymology

In the first book of Moses ( Moses 1:1-2 ) The Bible begins with the sentence: "1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form and void ( tohu vavohu ). ". From the Hebrew term was taken and means by Luther " without form and void ". This tohu refers to the desolation, wa means " and" and vohu is the emptiness. In the NRSV the spot with is " without form and void " translated ( Genesis 1:2 EU). Other translations (for example, the font of Buber and Rosenzweig ) speak of " Irrsal and confusion ".

Interpretations

In the book of Jeremiah (more precisely: Jer 4:23) is the sentence: "I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a chaos. ". In verse 26 is, among other things: " And behold, the orchard was a wilderness and all the cities were destroyed. " Passages in Chapter 4 describe therefore a state hopeless confusion after a war. Whether the Jeremiah passage refers to the creation story, or vice versa, must remain open. Tohu may be suppressed but also "spiritual emptiness" ( a kind of leadership ) from - bohu other hand, possibly meaning " spiritual emptiness " (ie lack of thinking beings ).

Modern

Today the term " chaos " used colloquially for a shambles.