Universe of Platonic Thought 2026

34th International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Plato the Architect of Sciences”

Igor Romanovich Tantlevskij, DSc in Philosophy, Professor; Saint Petersburg State University, Institute of Theology (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Head of Department of Jewish Theology and Culture

The Hebrew Concept עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) as a Probable Initial Source of Henri Bergson’s Doctrine of the “Universe That Endures” *

The article advances a hypothesis concerning a possible genetic connection between the semantics of the Hebrew term עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) and Bergson’s concept of duration. Drawing on the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, rabbinic usage, and historical lexicography, it examines the meanings of ʿôlām as “eternity,” “age,” “world,” and, above all, “duration.” Particular attention is paid to Qohelet 3:10–11, where hā-ʿōlām, placed by God in the human “heart,” is interpreted as duration constituting the basis of consciousness and enabling the human being to apprehend the world as process. The article considers Henri Bergson’s Jewish background and early education, his possible familiarity with the biblical and liturgical use of hā-ʿōlām, and Selig Newman’s lexicographical entry linking ʿôlām with “duration” and with the world that “endureth throughout all ages.” It is suggested that these linguistic and religio-cultural impulses may have been among the initial sources of Bergson’s formulas “the universe endures” and “real duration” as the fabric of consciousness. The argument is presented as a historical-philological reconstruction and does not claim to establish a direct documentary dependence.

Keywords: עוֹלָם (ʿôlām), Qohelet, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Henri Bergson, duration, time, eternity, Jewish philosophy, biblical anthropology, consciousness, Judaism.

According to H. Bergson, “the universe endures” (L’univers dure): “duration” (la durée) is immanent in the universe as a whole, just as “real duration” constitutes the very “fabric” of human consciousness[1]. It may reasonably be supposed that an initial source of this philosophical conception was a Jewish view expressed in the semantic field of the term עוֹלָם (ʿôlām), with which Bergson had been familiar since childhood. As for Bergson’s conception of “duration” underlying human consciousness, this idea may initially have taken shape under the influence of the passage in Qohelet 3:11[2].

The concept עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) expresses a fundamental feature of the Jewish worldview, while the associated idea of a universe that, in essence, endures became a major factor in the formation of Jewish civilizational identity[3].

The semantics of the term עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) may be defined as follows[4]: “eternity”—not, however, in the philosophical sense of a “motionless withdrawal from time”[5], as ancient Greek thinkers conceived it[6], but in the sense of being filled with infinite duration, which embraces / contains all that exists in the process of its irreversible development. ʿÔlām may also be defined as cosmic “eternity” or, more precisely, as the world understood as duration[7], within which things arise, take shape, and perish, while thoughts and events are actualized. ʿÔlām is infinite but not beginningless, for it was created by God[8].

In certain contexts, the meaning of the term may be defined more narrowly: the remote past and distant future; a prolonged period of world-time, a cycle or an era; or the duration of a human life.

According to certain conceptions, one ʿolam may be succeeded by another; yet this successive replacement of non-recurrent world cycles constitutes a moving, irreversibly linear, infinite “Everlastingness”–“Duration” (ʿōlāmîm; pl.). In Deut. 33:27, human trust is metaphorically placed in the fact that one’s “refuge is the primordial God, and [one abides] beneath the arms[9] of ʿolam” (מְעֹנָה אֱלֹהֵי קֶדֶם וּמִתַּחַת זְרֹעֹת עוֹלָם — mәʿōnāh ʾĕlōhê qeḏem û-mi-ttaḥaṯ zәrōʿōṯ ʿôlām).

From the Hellenistic period onward, Jewish eschatological thought crystallized the concept of a future “eternal,” that is, infinitely enduring, “Kingdom of God”[10]; in the mishnaic-talmudic literature, the opposition between (הָ)עוֹלָם הַזֶּה / (ha-)ʿôlām ha-zzeh—provisionally interpreted as “this world / this age”[11]—and (הָ)עוֹלָם הַבָּא / (ha-)ʿôlām ha-bbāʾ—“the world to come / the future age”[12]—became established. In Greek-language literature, ʿôlām was rendered by the noun αἰών (“age,” “epoch,” and, in certain contexts, “eternity”) and, in attributive constructions, also by the adjective αἰώνιος (“eternal,” “everlasting”), whereas its spatial meaning corresponded to κόσμος—“world,” “universe” (cf. Latin saeculum / aevum, aeternus, and mundus[13], respectively).

In our view, it is precisely in the sense of “duration” / “the world as duration” that the term עֹלָם (ʿōlām) is used in the exceptionally difficult passage of the Book of Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) 3:10–11:

10. I perceived what task God had assigned to the sons of man, that they should carry it out:

11. He made everything fitting—yet in its own time (בְּעִתּוֹ [bә-ʿittô])[14].

He also placed הָעֹלָם [hā-ʿōlām][15] in their heart (בְּלִבָּם [bә-libbām]),

without which one could not comprehend (מִבְּלִי אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִמְצָא [mi-bbәli ʾăšer lōʾ yimṣāʾ[16]])

what the human being seeks to know,

namely, what God has made—from beginning to end[17].

It should be noted that the term לֵבָב/לֵב (lēḇ/lēḇāḇ), literally “heart,” understood in biblical anthropology as the organ of thought, primarily embraces the following range of meanings and connotations: reason, consciousness, individuality, selfhood (libbî, “my heart,” is used as a synonym for “I”[18]), and reflection, including reflection correlated with emotions and sensations connected with intellectual activity[19]. Rational and cognitive-epistemological activity takes place in the “heart”; it acquires and preserves wisdom and knowledge, a point expressed explicitly above all in the Book of Qohelet[20]. The “heart” also functions as an inner judge evaluating a person’s deeds and intentions[21]. It is especially noteworthy that in the Book of Qohelet—as in no other biblical work—the word לֵב (lēḇ), “heart,” is used in a sense very close to the concept of “consciousness.” This is indicated, in particular, by such authorial formulas in the book as “I spoke with my heart”[22] and “I said in my heart”[23]. It should also be emphasized that the term לֵב (lēḇ), “heart,” is in several cases used in parallelism with the concept “spirit,” רוּחַ (rûaḥ), and is thereby brought semantically close to it (cf., for example, the parallelism in Proverbs concerning the Lord’s “weighing” of “spirits,” רוּחוֹת (rûḥôṯ)[24], and of “hearts,” לִבּוֹת (libbôṯ)[25]); it is also possible that the “heart” could be regarded as a kind of “seat” of the spirit.

Given that one of the principal meanings of the term עֹלָם (ʿōlām) is “duration,” most often infinite duration, it is entirely legitimate to suppose that the word הָעֹלָם (hā-ʿōlām) in Qohelet 3:11 denotes the world, the universe, as duration. Since in the Book of Qohelet the word לֵב (lēḇ), “heart,” is used in a sense very close to “consciousness,” it also seems possible to interpret the phrase in Qohelet 3:11aβ as follows: “…He placed duration in their (the sons of man.—I. T.) heart”—that is, not a “sensation / feeling of time,” not a “reckoning of time,” not an “interval of time,” and so forth, but duration itself as the basis of human consciousness. The human being is thus enabled to apprehend the world as duration because duration has been placed by God at the foundation of consciousness. At the very least, one may say that this passage fully manifests the connotation of עֹלָם (ʿōlām) as “duration,” in opposition to “time,” עֵת (ʿēṯ)[26].

At this point it is appropriate to recall Henri Bergson’s formula, “the universe endures” (l’univers dure), as well as his idea that “duration” (la durée) underlies the universe—just as it underlies human consciousness…

Henri-Louis Bergson (1859–1941), born in Paris, was the son of Michał (Michel) Bergson, a Warsaw-born Polish-Jewish pianist and composer who came from a prominent Warsaw Jewish family closely connected with Polish Hasidism: his grandmother, Temerl Bergson, was a celebrated patroness of Polish Hasidim. The philosopher’s mother, Katherine (Kate) Levison, was from England; Bergson himself called her “a religious soul in the highest sense of the word.” She spoke to her children in English, and Henri was therefore fluent in both French and English from childhood. Michał Bergson collaborated with Marcus Hast, the Chief Cantor of the Great Synagogue of London, in compiling and editing a collection of Jewish sacred hymns and prayers published in 1878. In October 1868, Henri entered the Imperial Lycée Bonaparte in Paris—the present-day Lycée Condorcet[27]—where he studied until 1878. When his parents and the other children settled in London, he remained in Paris as a boarder at the Jewish educational establishment L’Institution israélite Springer (from 1868/1869 to 1878), visiting his family in England during the holidays. Bergson’s education and residence were made possible by a scholarship obtained through the assistance of Joseph Wertheimer, Chief Rabbi of Geneva[28], who had recognized the boy’s exceptional abilities[29]. It is known, in particular, that by 1869 L’Institution israélite Springer had a Jewish oratory (oratoire). A former pupil, Henri Hauser, recalled a rabbinical tutor at L’Institution israélite Springer who was expected to teach them Hebrew; he also explicitly mentions a classe d’hébreu, “Hebrew classes” (the events described belong approximately to the late 1870s)[30].

In Jewish religious families, children are traditionally introduced to Jewish blessings from an early age. The standard opening formula of most Jewish blessings, frequently recited in a wide variety of circumstances, including everyday life, is בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, Bārûḵ ʾAttāh ʾĂdōnāy ʾĔlōhênû Meleḵ hā-ʿôlām, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of ʿolam.” Thus the opening part of this formula—the direct benediction of the Almighty—contains the word הָעוֹלָם (hā-ʿôlām; with the definite article), whose meaning could hardly have failed to interest the young Bergson.

This concept itself may have served as an initial source of Henri Bergson’s conception of the universe as enduring. In searching ex hypothesi for a possible concrete textual source of Bergson’s conception, we drew attention to the entry “עוֹלָם” (ʿôlām) in the following publication (a copy of which may have been held in a family, lycée, or public library in Paris or London):

Newman S. ספר השרשים [Sefer ha-shorashim[31]]: A Hebrew and English Lexicon, Containing All the Words of the Old Testament, with the Chaldee Words in Daniel, Ezra, and the Targums; and Also the Talmudical and Rabbinical Words Derived from Them. London: Printed for the Author and Sold by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green; Hatchard & Son; and J. Nisbet, 1834[32].

In the corresponding entry on pp. 482–483, the term עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) is interpreted as follows (italics added):

עוֹלָם N. m.

1. eternity, also a long period, (probably from its duration; comp. עֲלַם) often referring to time to come.

English rendering: עוֹלָם, n. m. 1. eternity, also a long period (probably on account of its duration; cf. עֲלַם), often referring to time to come.

2. The world; which endureth throughout all ages.

English rendering: The world, which endures throughout all ages.

S. Newman (p. 483) further relates Hebrew עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) to the Aramaic (“Chaldean”) term עֲלַם (ʿălam), which he interprets as follows:

עֲלַם Ch. (kindred with חָלַם) to become strong or lasting

English rendering: עֲלַם, Chald. (kindred with חָלַם): to become strong or to endure.

Thus, irrespective of what the author of the lexicon himself intended by this interpretation of the Hebrew concept עוֹלָם (ʿôlām), a reader could understand it in the following way: ʿôlām is cosmic eternity / the universe that endures (“the world which endureth”), while the spatial characteristics of the world are left out of account; the universal process is perhaps conceived as grounded in its “duration.” It is precisely in this way that the meaning of Hebrew עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) may have been conveyed to an audience by rabbis, mentors, heads of educated religious families, and others.

***

Thus, in Henri Bergson’s words:

L’univers dure. Plus nous approfondirons la nature du temps, plus nous comprendrons que durée signifie invention, création de formes, élaboration continue de l’absolument nouveau[33].

The universe endures. The more deeply we penetrate the nature of time, the more clearly we shall understand that duration means invention, the creation of forms, and the continuous elaboration of the absolutely new.

Greek thought, by contrast, interpreted time to a certain extent as space[34]—as juxtaposed instants devoid of duration, rather than as continuous duration whose elements interpenetrate and interact. Ancient metaphysics gave this mode of thought philosophical consolidation, and the subsequent European tradition inherited it. It should also be noted that the universe as a whole was conceived by the ancient Greeks primarily in spatial terms, whereas for the Jews the world was par excellence duration[35],[36].

As for Henri Bergson’s idea that “real duration” constitutes the very “fabric” of human consciousness, one of its possible initial sources may have been the passage from the work of the Jewish sage Qohelet, 3:11, discussed above. The scroll containing the complete text of this philosophical work is read during the Jewish festival of Sukkot[37].

That Bergson studied the Book of Qoheleth is evident from his early work Extraits de Lucrèce (Excerpts from Lucretius, 1884), published five years before Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience (Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, 1889); he regarded this biblical work as an expression of a distinctively “Jewish idea” (l’idée juive).

[1] Bergson H. L’Évolution créatrice. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1907. Pp. 3, 11.

[2] This idea was first stated by us in lapidary form in a published work: Tantlevskij I. R. Ocherki po filosofii Spinozy [Essays on Spinoza’s Philosophy]. St Petersburg: RHGA Publishing House, 2018. P. 13, n. 3 [in Russian].

[3] For a detailed discussion, see: Tantlevskij I. R. Vospriiatie mirozdaniia, vremeni i vechnosti kak kliuchevoi faktor formirovaniia tsivilizatsionnoi identichnosti: na primere drevnikh evreev i drevnikh grekov [The Perception of the Universe, Time, and Eternity as a Key Factor in the Formation of Civilizational Identity: The Case of the Ancient Jews and Ancient Greeks] // Schole: Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition. 2026. Vol. 20, no. 2. Pp. 851–884 [in Russian].

[4] For the range of meanings of ʿōlām in the Bible, Jewish epigraphy, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza, see: Clines D. J. A. (ed.). The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. Vol. VI: Samekh–Pe. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007. Pp. 300–307. Cf. also: Koehler L., Baumgartner W., Stamm J. J. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Translated and edited by M. E. J. Richardson. Study ed. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill, 2001. Pp. 798–799.

[5] The expression is S. S. Averintsev’s: Averintsev S. S. Poriadok kosmosa i poriadok istorii [The Order of the Cosmos and the Order of History] // Poetika rannevizantiiskoi literatury [The Poetics of Early Byzantine Literature]. St Petersburg: Azbuka-klassika, 2004. P. 269, n. 24. Cf. also: Jeremias A. Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients. 4. Aufl. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1930. S. 127; Bychkov V. V. Estetika pozdnei antichnosti [The Aesthetics of Late Antiquity]. Moscow: Nauka, 1981. P. 23; Shifman I. Sh. Drevniaia Finikiia. Mifologiia i istoriia [Ancient Phoenicia: Mythology and History] // Finikiiskaia mifologiia [Phoenician Mythology]. St Petersburg: Letnii Sad, 1999. P. 211 [Russian works in Russian].

[6] Cf. Pl. Ti. 37d–38a. As H. Bergson observes, “a perpetuity of mobility (une perpétuité de mobilité) is possible only if it rests upon an eternity of immutability (une éternité d’immutabilité). <…> Such is the last word of Greek philosophy” (Bergson H. L’Évolution créatrice. P. 352).

[7] The meaning of the root from which the term עוֹלָם (ʿōlām) is derived is “to conceal.” It may have been implied that infinite duration, as well as the remote past and future (notions included in the semantic field of ʿōlām), cannot be perceived directly.

[8] The creation of time proper is expressed figuratively in Gen. 1:5: “And there was evening, and there was morning—Day One”; calendar time in its traditional sense is created in Gen. 1:14–19 (the account of the creation of the luminaries). Significantly, in Opif. 26, Philo of Alexandria, commenting on Gen. 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν), observes that “beginning” (ἡ ἀρχή) should not be understood “in relation to time” (τὴν κατὰ χρόνον), since “there was no time before the world; rather, time came into being either together with it or after it”: “time is the extension of the movement of the world” (διάστημα τῆς τοῦ κόσμου κινήσεώς ἐστιν ὁ χρόνος). Philo thus defines time not as an independent substance but merely as a characteristic—the duration—of cosmic processes.

[9] That is, ʿōlām is to some extent personified here. The term zәrōaʿ means “arm” (from shoulder to wrist), “forearm,” and, metaphorically, “strength” or “power.”

[10] On the use of the term עוֹלָם (ʿôlām) in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see: Brin G. The Concept of Time in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Leiden; Boston; Cologne: Brill, 2001. Pp. 277–293.

[11] Cf., for example, Ps. 73[72]:12.

[12] See, for example, m. Sanh. 10:1. Cf. 1 En. 71:15–16.

[13] Cf. the Vulgate at Qoh. 3:11: …et mundum tradidit disputationi eorum, “…and He delivered the world to their investigation.”

[14] Cf. Qoh. 3:1–8.

[15] In the Septuagint, hā-ʿōlām is interpreted as ὁ αἰών; in the Vulgate, as mundus.

[16] The verb מָצָא (māṣāʾ; “to find,” “to discover,” etc.) is attested in the explicit sense “to comprehend,” “to understand,” for example, in Qoh. 7:27.

[17] An alternative interpretation of the final fragment is:

<…> yet in such a way that the human being cannot comprehend

what God has made, from beginning to end.

About possible alternative interpretations of the entire verse of Qoh. 3:11 see, for example: Tantlevskij. Vospriiatie mirozdaniia, vremeni i vechnosti kak kliuchevoi faktor formirovaniia tsivilizatsionnoi identichnosti [The Perception of the Universe, Time, and Eternity as a Key Factor in the Formation of Civilizational Identity]. Pp. 851–884 [in Russian].

[18] Cf., for example, Qoh. 7:25.

[19] Cf., for example, Qoh. 2:10; 5:19 (“joy”); Prov. 14:10 (“bitterness”).

[20] Cf., for example, Job 9:4; 12:2–3, 24; 34:10, 34; 37:24.

[21] Cf., for example, 1 Sam. 24:6[5], 10; 25:31.

[22] Qoh. 1:16.

[23] Qoh. 2:1, 15–16; 3:17–18.

[24] Prov. 16:2.

[25] Prov. 21:2; 24:12.

[26] Cf. Qoh. 3:1.

[27] A particularly high proportion of Jewish pupils is attested here in comparison with other educational institutions (Henri Bergson, Marcel Proust, Georges Mandel (Rothschild), and others).

[28] He had known the Bergson family since the period when it lived in Geneva.

[29] On Henri Bergson’s family and early years, see: Mossé-Bastide R.-M. Bergson éducateur. Paris: PUF, 1955. Pp. 24–25; Guitton J. «La vocation de Bergson» // Œuvres complètes. T. I: Portraits. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1966. Pp. 586–587, 591, 593, 595; Greenberg L. M. Bergson and Durkheim as Sons and Assimilators: The Early Years // French Historical Studies. 1976. Vol. 9, no. 4. Pp. 619–634 (especially pp. 621–622); Hude H. Bergson. Vol. I. Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1989. P. 30; Sokolow N. “Henri Bergson’s Old-Warsaw Lineage” // The Golden Tradition. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996. Pp. 349–359; Saint-Sernin B. «Portrait de Bergson en 1907» // Centenaire de la parution de L’Évolution créatrice de Henri Bergson. Paris: Institut de France, Académie des sciences morales et politiques, 2007. Pp. 4–6; Gelber N. M. “Bergson (Berkson)” // Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. 2007. P. 431; Sowden D. L. “Bergson, Michael” // Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. 2007. P. 432; Vieillard-Baron J.-L. Bergson. 3e éd. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2009. P. 7; Baiget J. “Bergson Meets God: His Philosophy in Light of His Life and Spiritual Conversion” // Church, Communication and Culture. 2026. Vol. 11, no. 1. Pp. 105–123 (especially pp. 107–109). The principal scholarly biography of Henri Bergson is: Soulez P. Bergson: Biographie / complété par F. Worms. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, coll. «Quadrige», 2002; 1re éd.: Paris: Flammarion, 1997.

[30] Hauser H. «Souvenirs d’un vieux grand-père à sa petite-fille. Mes origines» // Marin S.-A., Soutou G.-H. (dir.). Henri Hauser (1866–1946). Humaniste, historien, républicain. Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne (PUPS), coll. «Mondes contemporains», 2006. Pp. 329–330.

[31] “Book of Roots.”

[32] The 1846 trade catalogue lists Newman’s two complementary dictionaries as a two-volume octavo set priced at £1: The London Catalogue of Books Published in Great Britain, with Their Sizes, Prices, and Publishers’ Names, from 1814 to 1846. London: Thomas Hodgson, 13, Paternoster Row; sold by Longman and Co.; Rivingtons; Whittaker and Co.; Simpkin and Co.; Hamilton and Co.; Sherwood and Co.; R. Groombridge and Sons; and by all booksellers, 1846. P. 349, s.v. “Newman (Sel.)”: “Hebrew, Chaldee, and English Lexicon, 2 v. 8vo—£1 0s. 0d.—Wertheim.” This entry apparently referred to a set comprising Newman’s English–Hebrew dictionary—An English and Hebrew Lexicon (London, 1832; new issue, 1834)—and the Hebrew–English ספר השרשים A Hebrew and English Lexicon (London, 1834).

[33] Cf. Bergson. L’Évolution créatrice. P. 11.

[34] For a detailed discussion of the “spatial” aspects of the ancient Greek perception of time, see: Tantlevskij I. R. Vospriiatie mirozdaniia, vremeni i vechnosti kak kliuchevoi faktor formirovaniia tsivilizatsionnoi identichnosti [The Perception of the Universe, Time, and Eternity as a Key Factor in the Formation of Civilizational Identity]. Pp. 851–884 [in Russian].

[35] See: Tantlevskij. Ibid.

[36] H. Bergson contrasts “homogeneous time” (temps homogène)—“time” represented on the model of space, or “spatialized time” (temps spatialisé)—with “real time” (temps réel), that is, “pure” or “real” “duration” (durée pure; durée réelle). “Spatialized time” is conceived as a homogeneous line on which moments are external to one another, separated and juxtaposed, and are therefore susceptible to counting and measurement; “real duration,” by contrast, is a continuous qualitative becoming whose phases interpenetrate and are preserved within one another. See: Bergson H. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1889. Pp. VII–VIII, 75–91 (where the distinction is introduced between “pure duration” and “time” as the “fourth dimension of space”); Bergson H. L’Évolution créatrice. Pp. 321–337, 341, 355–357; Bergson H. Durée et simultanéité. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1922. Pp. 68–70. In the Essai, Bergson calls homogeneous time a “phantom of space” and describes duration by analogy with a melody: its notes do not merely stand side by side but are preserved and interpenetrate (pp. 75–84).

[37] Literally, “Booths.”

* This study was funded by Russian Science Foundation, project number 24-18-00479, Saint Petersburg State University