Welcome to tohu va bohu. Those of you Hebrew scholars immediately recognize the phrase from Genesis 1:2, “and the earth was without form and void.”
Let me say in the beginning that this is not a blog about creationism. I do believe in a literal six day creation as described in the first few chapters of Genesis, I just don’t want to make it my whole blogging life.
So why tohu va bohu?
The first time I ever heard the phrase tohu va bohu was in 1997. My friend, Josh Seat (then Professor of Communications, now an Agent in the USSS), and I hosted a radio show at The Master’s College on KTMC AM 820. As you might imagine, a more apropos name could not have been selected to designate (and define) our program.
More than that, I always am rubbed the wrong way when I see preachers on television using their name as the rallying point for their ministry. I realize that this does have a few practical benefits, but it bugs me nonetheless. I am not saying that everyone who owns the domain name for their name does so only for ego sake. But the least I can do after almost two years of posting is come up with something better than my initials to identify the blog.
I also suspect that everybody likes Hebrew, at least deep down in that gutteral part of the throat. Hebrew is cool. Besides, if nothing else, the name will serve as a regular reminder to me that I best get back to relearning it.
I might further point out that the label “without form and void” does describe a lot of my posts. Oh, I work at the writing and the html code and all that. I fancy this blog as having lots of potential. But somehow embracing the emptiness of my blog seems to ease the psychological pressure.
On a more serious note, the name is germane to the emptiness of life (cf. Ecclesiastes), and certainly applicable to the void of the world wide web. The writing of many blog posts is endless, and excessive devotion to blogs is wearisome to the body. So why shouldn’t I post more to the void?
Finally, I chose to rename and tweak the template because it is a lot easier to change the veneer and make it look like something significant is happening than to actually produce content.
That said, at least for a few weeks there will be the appearance of “happenings” when in reality it is just void. So without any further ado I hereby christen tohu va bohu and promise much formless and empty posting in the future.
See what’s new after the switch from Blogger to WordPress.