Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

chay - חַי (Strong's #2416)
Life

The word חַי chay "life" (Strong's #2416, x501), often seen suspended from a chain around the neck of many modern Jews, is first used in the Creation narrative when God commands, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures" (Genesis 1:20, NKJV). The AV renders this "moving creatures that hath life", both miss the literal Hebrew translation "living souls" clearly having a problem with the implication that animals can be described as having or being souls. Man's distinction, apart from being made in the image of God, is the direct receipt of éç chay "life" breathed into his nostrils by God himself (Genesis 2:7). In Genesis 1:28,30; 2:19-20, the expression "beasts of the field" is actually "life of the earth" or "life of the field", so that חַי chay can mean simply creature "wherein there is life" (Genesis 1:30).

In Genesis 2:9 the tree of life is mentioned which, curiously, is a singular tree followed by a plural life, חַיִּים chayyîym, so literally "tree of lives". Maybe there is a hint already at our need for a second resurrection life, this life and the life of the world to come. חַיִּים chayyîym can sometimes be used as an emphatic plural, i.e., "life in all its fullness", as in the Jewish toast leChaim, literally, "to life(s)". The ancient Jewish habit of saying leChaim over a glass of wine, much as we say cheers, or bottoms up, is reputedly first recorded in Machzor Vitri 80, Shnayim. It has been suggested that the custom grew up to distinguish drinking wine "to life" from the practice of giving wine to a condemned man, to ease the pain of execution (Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 2; Kol Boh, 25, U'B'Seudat) or to remind that wine should lead to life not to sin, as in the case of some patriarchal incidents (Noah, Genesis 9:20-21; Lot, Genesis 19:31-34).

In the Jewish and biblical worldview the possession and enjoyment of life is a high ideal, not to be surrendered cheaply. The law of life superseded many others so long as staying alive did not mean denying your God. The wisdom of Ecclesiastes 9:4 that a "a living dog is better than a dead lion" is seen too in Jesus' reminder that even the Pharisees would commend breaking the Sabbath rules to save an animal out of a pit (Matthew 12:11).

Daniel's usage of éç chay is interesting in that he is renowned for possibly making the first use of the concept of eternal life explicit. Daniel 12:2, "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life", uses עוּלָם ‘ôwlâm (Strong's #5769, x439) "ages past/future" to augment the plural חַיִּים chayyîym. Some have taken the plural in this instance to mean eternal life. Certainly, a few verses later, Daniel 12:7 describes God as "Him who lives forever", using חַי chay in the singular with עוּלָם ‘ôwlâm again. So, whatever the duration of Daniel's חַיִּים chayyîym is seems to point to something of the quality of חַי chay that God himself enjoys.

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