Summary: With so many bible verses discussing a ?return to the mother?s womb? (some positive, some relatively negative), it is quite difficult to label the entire matter as one ?idiom?, because it is so layered and
interpretive as a concept.
Detailed Analysis:
Job 1:21, ?Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.?
Scholars say the ?return to the mother?s womb? is understood in Hebrew
metaphorically (womb = earth), rather than idiomatically. For example, the metaphorical perspective is touched upon by Christopher B. Hays:
click here. He puts into perspective and criticizes what he considers to be the simplistic view of Giuseppe Ricciotti, ZAW 67 (1955) 249-251 (as cited by Nicholas J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Nether World in the Old Testament (1969), p. 122) who discussed archaeological evidence of burials where ancient corpses were placed in the fetal position inside the grave (?womb of the earth?); ?in Egyptian funerary texts, there is ?an astonishing consistency? to the imagery of death as a return to a goddess? womb, from the Old Kingdom through the Hellenistic period [citation omitted].?
So if you focus on Ricciotti?s work and look back into graves from ancient Egypt and the extended regions of ancient Israel, you can at least find circumstantial evidence of idiom/metaphor. But lest one think the Egyptian views and Israelite views were the same on this topic, see Tromp above.
Some wish to focus on the connection between the tomb (i.e., deceased placed in fetal position) and the Egyptian views of ?mother goddesses?. Blah. Or as I was saying we can focus on Yahshua instead to learn about the living and not the dead. In the gospel of Matthew a man wanted to go ?bury his father?, which is a Hebrew/Aramaic idiom for ?take care of his sick father until he dies?. But Yahshua instructed, ?Follow after me and leave the dead to bury their dead.? Matthew 8:22.
You see the greater concept here does not end with idiom, for Yahshua in Matthew 8:22 turns idiom on its head by instructing this man to focus on life (follow/sign (
Tha) after Yahshua for life) rather than focus on death (follow the idiom). Notice Yahshua says
Tha, which is ?
tav aleph?, meaning ?end/death? to ?beginning/life?. By comparison, the man wanted to use his life/beginning to follow after his father?s end/death.
Again, immediately before this verse Yahshua instructed a scribe to leave the comfort (can spread out to death) of his precious deskwork and follow Yahshua (grows toward life) from place to place, even though the Son of man was not enjoying a desk job ? he has nowhere to rest his head; compare the comfort of the scribe. Matthew 8:19-20. Dualities are presented again (
Thub) and again for our learning/repentance as we are continually presented with choice in this saga of life and death.
As scholar Hays points out, there are several theories on the meaning of ?return to the mother?s womb?. The traditional understanding is metaphorical, where the womb is earth: ?return to mother earth?. See e.g., Psalm 139:13-15, Sirach 40:1. Even a remote possible interpretation has come from wordplay in Ecc 5 using
Shmh (?there?) as another way to say ?underworld? ? Hays finds this speculative and says Job 1:21 does not lend itself well to Hebrew euphemism (where something has been left unsaid). But for the underworld interpretation, see Hosea 13:13-14, Jonah 2:2. One man?s metaphor is another?s idiom, so people call it what they wish.
Here is Karina Martin Hogan,
Mother Earth as a Conceptual Metaphor in 4 Ezra (2009):
Quote:In the second dialogue, in response to Ezra?s question to God, ?Could you not have created at one time those who have been and those who are and those who will be, that you might show your judgment the sooner?? (5:43), Uriel commands Ezra, ?Ask a woman?s womb, and say to it, ?If you bear ten children, why one after another?? Request it therefore to produce ten at one time? (5:46). Once Ezra has acknowledged the absurdity of this suggestion, Uriel draws out the analogy: ?Even so I have made the earth a womb for those who from time to time come forth on it? (5:48).
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Uriel?s first analogy to childbirth comes immediately after an extended metaphor likening the final judgment to the threshing of a harvest (4:28 - 32), to be treated below. In response to Ezra?s question about whether the ?time of the threshing is delayed for the righteous on account of the sins of those who dwell on earth? (4:39), Uriel commands him, ?Go and ask a woman who is with child if, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the child within her any longer? (4:40). After Ezra answers that it cannot, Uriel draws out the analogy: ?The underworld and the treasuries of the souls are like the womb? (4:41), adding, ?For just as a woman who is in travail makes haste to escape the pangs of birth, so also do these (places) hasten to give back those things that were committed to them from the beginning? (4:42).
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In the Hebrew Bible, the vocabulary of human reproduction and agriculture overlap; e.g., (rz for both plant seed and human semen (as well as human offspring), yrp for both agricultural produce and human offspring, and )cy (in both Qal and Hif?il) used for the ?coming forth? of both plants from the earth and human offspring from the womb. See Vall, ?From Womb to Tomb,? 42 - 43.
CW, have I answered your question? If you?re looking for different idioms here, you may wish to look through the citations in Hays paper, and footnote 54 in Rendsburg (discussed below). And consider reading
Michael Heiser, his work is excellent.
That?s cool that you?re searching the Hebrew scriptures to learn about the expression. Ecclesiastes 5 is an excellent chapter in regards to what I?ve described above too, though I should caveat (lest I speak too much (oops, probably too late)) that Ecclesiastes 5 begins with an admonition to avoid speaking too many words because
Alhym is in heaven. I reason that because the door to heaven is small 'like a mustard seed', one shouldn?t try to bring too many words there lest you don?t fit through the narrow door.
The common translation of Ecc 5:15 reads, ?As he came forth from his mother?s womb naked, he shall return to go as he came?. Note the phrase ?as he came? in Hebrew is
kShba, which also means ?lamb?, so multiple meanings are inherent.
When you read the full Hebrew context of this passage from Ecclesiastes, you can see that the author is emphasizing the importance of
smallness and humility. Thus the
kShba (?lamb?) is an excellent metaphor. The author finds vanity and irony (see e.g., Ecc 5:9) in the fact that the rich man?s profit does not bring him happiness - the laborer sleeps well regardless of whether he eats, but the rich man?s abundance hinders his sleep. Young lambs love to take naps in green pasture and next to one another ? very cute.
Did you know the Hebrew word for womb (
btn) also means ?hollow?? Hollow is the feeling of the rich man with his banquet and riches, yet ironically hollow is the poor man?s belly yet he still sleeps well. Hollow was Sarah?s womb in Genesis 18, until Alha gave life for Abraham?s seed to grow there. Hollow is a vessel ? if the vessel knows Alha it is blessed; if the vessel does not have Alha then it is a place of sorrow or mourning.
You can also find a ?hollow? place for the souls of the dead in Enoch 22, which is where the voice of Abel cries out regarding his brother Cain who murdered him. See Knibb, Ethiopic Book of Enoch, p. 108.
As I summarized above, with so many bible verses discussing a return to the mother?s womb (some positive, some potentially negative), it is quite difficult to label the entire matter as one ?idiom?, because it is so layered and
interpretive as a concept. The concept inherently reveals polarity to us as well.
Consider the ?lamb? wordplay (alternate translation) above -- if you receive the grace of Alha to return to the beginning, you will find a womb where you rest like a baby, like a lamb. But you must be small/humble like a lamb, because as the author of Ecclesiastes says to you in the completion of this verse (Ecc 5:15), ?And from his labor he may not carry anything that may go in his hand.? We say this all the time in English, regarding how you can?t bring your money/toys to the afterlife, ?can?t take it with you.? Some things stay down here, some things go up there, yet they are connected in the mind ? polarity.
And the author of Ecclesiastes has concluded his chapter (at 5:20) just as I concluded my post above, by focusing on the ?heart? (
lbu) as the true source of riches, because the heart is the key that connects you to the messiah in the rebirth of His new world/age. Study the heart and you find electromagnetism and polarity.
For example, in Matthew 13:44 the kingdom of heaven is likened to a treasure buried in a field. In the Aramaic language, the
qryTha (?field? and ?beam?) comes from
gla (?reveal? and ?straw? and ?wave?), which is
illustrated in Matthew 7:5. So there is a particular ?treasure? (golden ratio wave) hidden in a ?field? (the many waves of this world). In Aramaic, the word
symn means ?treasure?, and humorously a grain of wheat covered by chaff does indeed look like a sperm. And then
KhtTha (?wheat?) and
Khta (?sin?) can be used interchangeably in Aramaic, as we see for example in Revelation 6:6. Notice
Tha here ? these are all signs on earth for our learning.
Golden ratio discovered in uterus, The Guardian (2012).
The Aramaic word for ?treasure? is
symTha, which comes from the root word for ?silver? (
syma), 30 of which was the price paid by priests to Judas Iscariot in exchange (Khlp) for Yahshua?s blood in the temple. Iscariot (
skryuta) is a wordplay for Eucharist (
aukrstya), as in the eater of broken bread. I think it also helps to discern the Aramaic wordplays of
syma (?mark?) and
symta (?marketplace?).
Learn about the womb by studying the torus, the mathematical ratios.
In the rebirth that is coming, the heavenly womb is for those who are small, not large. Heaven is for those willing to conform themselves to the pattern (the seed) of Alha, and then when their appointed time comes, the flesh passes away but the seed given from Alha is reborn.
We learn from the example of children as they are closer to the truth/source. Learn from the example of the humble, just as Yahshua explains in his sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5. The womb is peaceful too ? blessed are the peacemakers. The heavenly womb follows the law and delivers the baby according to the code of the seed, the ratios. On earth, we learn from the example of DNA following the golden ratio.
http://www.interferencetheory.com/HarmonicTheory/HarmonicEvolution/HarmonicEvolution/files/b9d10b83caf5257d0b162a0604ef847f-1.html
The golden ratio is pervasive.
Conforming to the code/law of Alha is essential for life - it is why ?instruction? and ?admonition? are literally
essential to understanding the kingdom of heaven in Alha, so you can point your soul toward Alha. Learn from the wordplay in Matthew with regard to the kingdom of heaven as a pearl ?
pearls are admonitions. Be like a child and follow the rules. A child in the womb is the best example of all ? he conforms to the shape of the womb and grows in the golden ratio ? a son of man follows
exactly the code/law of his father and mother ? he is born clean.
Let me return to your question about idiom in John 3. The words in Aramaic are
mThyld mn drySh (?born from the beginning?). I began this reply with the best evidence I could find for idiom in Hebrew. But there is nothing I see in Ecclesiastes 5:15 on which to hang the Sumerian term ?amargi?, unless through wordplay (i.e., amar) as the ?lamb? (
kShba) identified above for Ecc. 5:15.
Studying the freedom connection is interesting and logical though. In Aramaic, the root word for freedom is
Khr (as we see in John 8:32), which is a wordplay with
Khur (?whiteness?) -- as in cleanness, such as the clean robes of those in heaven; or whiteness as in the full visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Another intriguing example of
Khr comes from the Aramaic word
Khrura (?into the eye?), which is used in Matthew 19:24 for example. The womb is a kind of ?eye? in the sense that it receives contracted light (see discussion of Russell below). Note also that
Khrdla is ?mustard seed?. And it is also interesting in Aramaic to compare
krsa (womb) with
KhrSha (magic) as we read of the leavened perversions of the whore of Babylon in the book of Revelation. How does one respond to this whore ?
Khra (?resist?, ?dispute?, ?affirm?)?
You asked how the learned Nicodemus could possibly not understand something in his own languages. Good question, but then you say you were not seeking mysteries in Yahshua?s words, so this presents a little challenge for me personally to answer your question. But hopefully this post focuses adequately on the Hebrew & Aramaic languages to be helpful in pointing toward a fruitful direction:
In Aramaic there are going to be a lot of layers here in John 3:3 (
mThyld mn drySh):
- mTh = wordplay for death; see also Hebraic Tongue Restored, by Fabre d?Olivet (1921), p. 394
yld = birth, fathered
mn = from
d = of
rySh = head, beginning
I'm simplifying the above dramatically, but I'll just continue for the sake of momentum (irony ? this reply is embarrassingly long).
To understand the concept of rebirth from the mother aspect of Alha, you are given the opportunity to connect earthly concepts (sexual desire, church/assembly, this world) to heavenly concepts (spiritual heart, kingdom of Alha, new world birthed from heavenly spirit).
Nine months after sexual intercourse with a woman on earth, there is a new beginning ? a child is born
clean, a son of man is born again in flesh. I think this is why after eating bread (a euphemism for sex), Yahshua explains to Simon Peter he needs to ?wash his feet? (another euphemism for sex) in order to become clean. Simon Peter and others may have even chuckled at the back-to-back euphemisms, but if they did, they would not be focusing on the spiritual aspect of rebirth that creates fullness. The fullness requires one to analyze the mystery -- the spiritual mathematics of rebirth that create sustainable fractal revolutions. Those chosen to hear Yahshua are given to look beyond this earth in their own unique ways, to spiritual rebirth. The flesh is only a sign ? sometimes we are drawn to it for constructive reasons, and sometimes destructive. Sometimes we are repelled from flesh for constructive reasons, and sometimes our repulsion destroys us.
You experience that you have a healthy and loving relationship with your spouse if you want to share sexuality with them in a sustainable way ? marital fidelity. Wholesome sharing is at the essence of the healthy desire for sex, because that is what love is made of, if I may simplify the matter. It has been said that if people could see the energetic waves that they emit, they would be very very careful what they think while consummating a sexual action. Notice how the word for ?sharing? (
ShThuThpun) is used in Matthew 1:18 to identify the
marriage of Joseph & Mary after Mary receives the holy spirit.
There are many biblical examples for how to learn more about these concepts. And Hebrew is so great for this because of the euphemisms. See the examples provided by Rendsburg:
? Eating bread is a euphemism for sex. See e.g., Genesis 39:6-9, Exodus 2:20-21, Proverbs 6:26, Proverbs 30:20.
? Feet are a metaphor for a sexual organ. See e.g. Isaiah 6:2, 7:20, Ruth 3:4, 2 Sam 11:8-11.
? Knock is a metaphor for an invitation to sex. See e.g., Song of Songs 5:2. And remember
the (love?) song of those who knock in Revelation 14:2.
? Hand (
yad) is a metaphor for the male sexual organ. See e.g., Isaiah 57:8
?
zkr is a metaphor for sex. See e.g., Eze. 16:17, Isaiah 23:16, Isaiah 57:8. Interestingly, John the Baptist is the son of
zkrya (zkr = sex). If crossing the Jordan is like washing your feet in the river, how much more a baptism?
So I recommend research in Hebrew to understand the meaning of ?sharing?. One option is to start with the Hebrew word
hbr (?sharing?). In its component parts
br is a reference to son or daughter, and the
h prefix emphasizes life. Love between a man and woman is supposed to be about creating a child ? wholesome.
One reason I like the
hbr example is that in physics there is a term called h-bar, which is the Planck?s constant (our instruments presently cannot measure beyond it because it is so small). It is written:
The equation reminds me of Eve from the bible, and the idea of sons of men trying to enter the kingdom of heaven by what comes out of her (
hbr slq). We can engage endlessly thinking of mystery if we choose.
Proverbs 25:2, ?The honor of Elohim is to hide a word; and the honor of sovereigns to probe a word.?
The old testament offers many examples where Hebrew assemblies engage in spiritual fornication ? Jezebel and her worship of Isht-something come to mind. But the book of Revelation provides the ultimate lesson: different assemblies come together through complex relationships in space and time. The son of man chooses the good assembly by marrying his chosen ones in Israel. By contrast, the whore of Babylon murders and fornicates her way into shame.
Yahshua came to earth and shared freely with his chosen ones. Jezebel killed prophets, but hear Yahshua in Matthew 23:37, ?Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you have killed the prophets and you have stoned those who were sent to her. How many times have I wanted to gather your sons
like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not desire??
It is unknown whether Yahshua speaks of himself here, or of the Father (I think the Father), as the verse is suggestive of female attributes ? of wholeness within the son of man. He is alive and continues to share today, in and through his chosen ones. You can accomplish only secondary matters with sexual organs, because the beginning of love and sharing come from the heart ? the heart is primary. The rest of the body and brain must align with the heart in order to be whole, to be clean.
rKhm is another Aramaic word for "womb", and interestingly it also means "love" and "befriend". According to Hebrew/Aramaic tradition,
rKhm also translates "orifice of the matrix"! Our modern science reveals today what tradition has taught since ancient times - the womb is mathematical; and producing and receiving a womb is a sign of love. The specific type of
rKhm (love, friendship, womb, matrix) will define the experience. You cannot choose the womb from which you come, but you can choose the womb you desire. As I highlighted in the post above, there are many types of "love" in Aramaic if you know how to read the language (through its relationships and constructs).
Okay, last point -- to really go deep into the concept of idiom (ideas reflecting off words through the memory of experience) as fulfilling a purpose in the material world, consider the reflective nature of the universe as presented through Walter Russell. In particular, see the discussion of 'idea' around minute five of
this video.
Studying Russell you learn all sorts of neat things. In particular for the study here about the mother?s womb ? the womb would be the vessel to receive the white light of vortex contraction. The product of the womb expands into what we call space (fields) and matter (physical things like us) ? and yet this product remains secondary to the reality of the source, which is Alha (God).
The Russellian view is that the universe is the illuminated outward manifestation of the ?mind of God?. Or in other words, the electric (+, north) magnetic (-, south) universe exists within ?God? and is secondary to ?God?. If you wish, this even has some support in the first words of the Hebrew bible, because an alternative translation of
braShyTh = it was in my head =
b (in)
raShy (my head)
Th (it was). However, Russell posits that all is light (even darkness is just elongated light waves), so that would be at odds with Genesis 1, unless the darkness and light were separated from one another, a common origin, which does seem to be suggested in Genesis 1. Separation can be accomplished by setting ratio, setting law.
This is important because it confirms John 1:1, and I think the Father uses Hebrew and Aramaic together. Energy follows word (Hebrew =
dbr). The word is the code that leads (Aramaic =
dbr) energy. So the word was first. Who/what/when/where did it come from? Alha, possibility. And so life is saga.
Many students enjoy studying
?holographic universe? principles and electromagnetism along with the bible. For example, it is within the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we find the rainbow - the sign of the covenant. My understanding is elementary but I enjoy how fractal math and ?sacred ratios? help give scientific meaning to the idea that the son lives in the Father, and the Father gives all to the son.
Where is the mother in a fractal relationship? The Father and Mother are One ? like electricity and magnetism work simultaneously with exact counterbalancing precision, and the result is the electromagnetic spectrum that brings light to this world. And the vortex of their motions continue, as a new world will be born in their Son. To be the messiah is to be chosen to receive the ?all of possibility? in Alha.
According to the gospel of Matthew, a rich man on earth cannot enter the kingdom of heaven just like a rope cannot fit through the eye of a needle. Hearing this, the disciples were worried that no human would be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Then Yahshua comforted them,
luTh bnynSha had la mShkKha luTh alha dyn klmdm mShkKha (?With men this is not possible, but with Alha, all things are
possible.?) The word for ?possible? in Aramaic is actually a wordplay for ?messiah?. In my worldview, the messiah is like a fractal of the Father, the Holder of all that is possible.
So, who is your mother and how do you return to her? Do you return to the spiritual source of creation, or do you return to the physical earth?
Dust returns to earth, and the spirit of Alhym returns to Alhym. Ecc 12:7.
If you focus on flesh, you receive it. If you are given spirit, it is
mShkKha in you to receive spirit.