Does Tohu v Bohu mean Lava?

Google translate has “lava” in modern Hebrew just be “lava” spelled out in Hebrew…am wondering if Tohu v Bohu is (or could be) used as well.

The scriptural term Tohu v Bohu is used twice in the whole Hebrew Bible.

It’s used once in Gen 1:2 on the first day of the 7 day story to describe the state of the earth underneath the oceans.

It’s used once more in Jeremiah 4:23 to describe the earth at a moment of a quaking mountain, the light of the sky being darkened, and everything running away as the land is turned to desolation. So…a volcano.

Bohu is used only one more time, in Isiah 34 8-11. It describes an eternally smoking pitch of sulfur with streams of molten stone. Tohu is also used in this passage but the exact expression Tohu v Bohu isn’t.

It’d make sense ancient hebrews would know of lava. Aside from a famous passage of a person getting commandments on a quaking mountain with fire on top smoking “like a furnace” there were plenty of active volcanoes around the ancient near east, Northern Africa, and the medditeranean at the time Hebrew was coming into being.

I’m not sure if the term is used in modern Hebrew though for it?

It’s pretty neat in the biblical sense…the first day of the creation story says “darkness was on the surface of the deep” ie there was darkness on the surface of the ocean water covering the lava. This leaves open the possibility of light being below the water. Then a wind passes over the water just as let there (or it) be light is uttered. Potentially the water was parted into waves allowing the light through to the surface (there are other famous passages of waters being parted) which gives a good interpretation of what let there be light means.

It also helps explains how plants in that story exist before the sun – it’s a bit like how some scientists think first biological life was at volcanic vents deep in the ocean devoid of sunlight. It makes sense that ancient Hebrews would know of lava – aside from volcanoes, they were on and around the land route between Egyptian and budding Greek empires. They were surrounded by (and formed from) cultures with incredibly precise engineering, military, astronomy, and language capacity. Even the word “pillar” as in “pillar of the earth” comes from a root meaning “to melt.” It’d be surprising if they didn’t know of Lava and tbh the commandments given on what is pretty clearly an active volcano suggests it had really powerful significance to the ancient culture.

Also neat is it’d be, on the first day, ocean water on lava.

Second day shamayim is formed. It’s what birds fly on in scripture and are in as fish are in the sea (zeph 1:3), dew comes from multiple times in the first 5 books of the scripture. So, the moist atmosphere formed by evaporation.

Shamayim is from the Akkadian Shamu, constructed sh – of, the one of and mu – water, bodily fluid, dew. It’s associated with the protosemitic root samay and height (because it’s the sky).

Shamu comes from the Sumerian Cuniform Dinger meaning both sky and father Sky (the Sumerians Father Sky was named An)

An had a Female Partner named Ki. Ki’s Cuniform meant both Mother Earth and the Earth, which turned into arsatum in Akkadian meaning the same, which turned into Aretz.

Which is cool because on day 3 of the text Shamayim and Aretz touch for the first time and plants are formed. It’s like in how Eve and Adam mists and dry earth touch to form first plants. Makes sense as biblically male liquid “seed” in a female body leads to life – basically the liquids in the atmosphere (shamayim, masculine word) enter Mother Earth (Aretz, a feminine word) and life is formed.

All the biological m life in the story, in basically correct evolutionary order, are called the “Toldot” of shamayim and Aretz at the conclusion of the story. Also neat is how Bara (create) is used only in relation to the Shamayim and Aretz Toldot and not to unrelated things like the stars and moon that are “made.”

There’s stuff about upper waters on day two that people say is about a hard dome but it’s wrong. Rakia is from a root simply meaning to spread out and is synonomous to Shamayim which birds fly “on” in the seven day text itself.

It’s actually referencing clouds. Jeremiah 51 has a passage describing thunderstorms forming via evaporation, forming shakakim (clouds) from a root meaning to pulverize to a dust (implying small water particles in them) and Job also has a passage about hot calm heat (calm before the storm) leading to the creation of thunderstorms that swirl like molten material (and are then blown away by the wind)

It’s neat stuff. Maybe got a bit lost after the devastation of the Bar Kokbha revolt and the Romans evil retaliation.

I know there’s stuff about primordial waters and what not but end of the day in the seven day text the water on the first day is quite literally ocean water (they are separated when the Aretz reaches the surface on day 3, in a state of yabasha which is from a root related to dried earthen pottery) and whatever tohu v bohu means the Aretz of the first day literally is the Aretz of the third…continental land. Tbh a culture with a central moment on a volcano would probably have a pretty good idea of how volcanic mountains are formed / rise…can literally see it. It’d be like Hawaiian Islanders going “oh look at all this magma forming rock and making the island higher! This must be how the whole island was formed!” but on a global scale. Compared to the astronomy of the region at the time Hebrew was formed, or mathematic sophisitication required to build the pyramids, this is little league science and the ancient Hebrews (and Akkadians and Sumerians before them) were well out of the little leagues.

Neat also is Bereshis translates literally to “inside the feminine head”, the text contains the line “let US make humans btzelem…male and female”, and Elohim is a plural word which makes sense in their being a Mother Earth and Father Sky, as well as potentially a Feminine Divinity in Reshit in the text.

In any case: is tohu v bohu used as lava in modern Hebrew?