Many Jews and Christians believed that the Hebrew language was a powerful force of creation and destruction. In the Hebrew Bible, it clearly says that creation occurred through an act of divine speech. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light, and Psalm 103 claims that “by the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth”. In the Bible, and particularly in Genesis, the word takes on an existence: it assails the chaos and rushes over it; …