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Article
#7
The Bones of the Day
You may ask, what does
Passover have to do with China or the Chinese language? I know
that you are a Root & Branch reader, so you are used to
thinking globally and spiritually. Pay attention!
Perhaps
the most difficult passage in the entire Passover story of
Scripture occurs in Exodus 12:17. Here, the Israelites, that tiny
band of universal metaphors, are set to leave their oppressive
site of slavery and degradation "b'eZTeM haYom haZeH",
in -- literally translated -- "the BONE of the day".
The word "eTZeM" means bone, from the first time that
Adam uses the word in Genesis 2:23, and this Edenic term is the
ultimate source for OSTEOMA (the bone tissue tumor) or the Greek
bone, OSTEON.
Most bible translations have a bone to pick
with this difficult term, so they simply render it "on that
selfsame day" or "very day" -- either way their
translations are absurd.
Biblical scholars try gymnastics
to compare the word to related terms that do mean "itself"
(ATZMo) or OMeTZ, "strength." They sorely need a
prooftext in an actual language before they could understand this
term, and other long ossified Semitic languages, like Akkadian,
are no help.
To the rescue comes the venerable language
of Chinese, Earth's number one spoken language, which replaced
some consonants with rising and falling accents but otherwise
changed little since it was refracted from the Edenic gem at
Babel and spread with the most prolific son of Japeth. Chinese,
like Biblical Hebrew, has large two-letter roots whose meanings
form a theme when noting the many three-letter roots or
like-sounding words that poured forth from the same source over
the millennia.
The Chinese root "zhong," a
reasonable match for the Tzadik-Mem Hebrew bone of contention
above, has several relevant meanings. Among these are Middle
Finger, Backbone, Center, Core, Noon and Midday. Yes, there is
nothing wrong with translating Exodus 12:17 as "the bone of
the day", once we have the Chinese to teach us that the
"bone" (eTZeM) is the middle and strong core (oMeTZ).
Now we can understand that the Israelite slaves were
meant to leave in the backbone or middle of the day. This high
drama was set for high noon, lest someone think the slaves
sneaked out on their own at dawn or twilight. This historic
highlight was well lit for all the world to see, for all time.
(This short essay was
originally published by the Root & Branch Association's
information service, headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel. Check
'em out at http://www.rb.co.il)
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