Creation ex nihilo - a Christian Myth?

[Jayhawker Soule]

I've raised this elsewhere and thought that some here might find it interesting.

Let's begin with with the rendition offered by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS):

• 1:1 In the beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth.
  1:2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the waterr.
  1:3 And G-d said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light.

So far so good - especially when you realize that virtually every translation follows suit ... well, almost every translation.

It turns out that the highly respected Stone Edition Tanach renders Genesis 1:1 as ...

• 1:1 In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth

and treats verse two as a parenthetical.

Similarly, we read in Etz Hayim ...

• 1:1 When God began to create heaven and earth
  1:2 -- the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water --
  1:3 God said: "Let there be light"; and there was light.

The commentary notes:

1. When God began to create The conventional English translation reads: "In the begining God created the heaven and the earth." The translation presented here looks to verse 3 for the completion of the sentence and takes verse 2 to be parenthetical, describing the state of things at the time when God first spoke. Support for understanding the text in this way comes from the second half of 2:4 and of 5:1, both of which refer to Creation and begin with the word "when". [ibid]

To further clarify the implication of this translation, the commentary turns to verse 2:

2. unformed and void The Hebrew for this phrase (tohu va-vohu) means "desert waste." The point of the narrative is the idea of order that results from divine intent. There is no suggestion here that God made the world out of nothing, which is a much later conception. [ibid]

Both Alter's The Five Books of Moses and Friedman's Commentary on the Torah fully concur with this rendition.

And there's more. The well respected Jewish sage Rashi writes ...

But if you wish to explain it according to its simple meaning, explain it thus: “At the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth, the earth was astonishing with emptiness, and darkness…and God said, ‘Let there be light.’” But Scripture did not come to teach the sequence of the Creation, ... [source]

Finally, while the JPS (1917) uses the 'older' form, the New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text renders the opening line of Genesis as ...

• When God began to create heaven and earth - the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and wind from God sweeping over the water - God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

There is, therefore, an impressive body of highly authoritative translation that sees Genesis 1:1 as the creation of order our of chaos, and not creation ex nihilo. It was no doubt from this perspective that the author of The Rise of Yawism notes:

• It is important to note that many of Ilu's acts of creation take place in historical time. The inhabited world is already there and so we must conclude that the people of Ugarit believed in a kind of creatio continua, like the Egyptians and the Israelites.

Creation ex nihilo looks very much like a Christian/Hellenist re-interpretation of the Torah.

[Revelations won]

I've raised this elsewhere and thought that some here might find it interesting.

Let's begin with with the rendition offered by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS):

• 1:1 In the beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth.
  1:2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the waterr.
  1:3 And G-d said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light.

So far so good - especially when you realize that virtually every translation follows suit ... well, almost every translation.

It turns out that the highly respected Stone Edition Tanach renders Genesis 1:1 as ...

• 1:1 In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth

and treats verse two as a parenthetical.

Similarly, we read in Etz Hayim ...

• 1:1 When God began to create heaven and earth
  1:2 -- the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water --
  1:3 God said: "Let there be light"; and there was light.

The commentary notes:

1. When God began to create The conventional English translation reads: "In the begining God created the heaven and the earth." The translation presented here looks to verse 3 for the completion of the sentence and takes verse 2 to be parenthetical, describing the state of things at the time when God first spoke. Support for understanding the text in this way comes from the second half of 2:4 and of 5:1, both of which refer to Creation and begin with the word "when". [ibid]

To further clarify the implication of this translation, the commentary turns to verse 2:

2. unformed and void The Hebrew for this phrase (tohu va-vohu) means "desert waste." The point of the narrative is the idea of order that results from divine intent. There is no suggestion here that God made the world out of nothing, which is a much later conception. [ibid]

Both Alter's The Five Books of Moses and Friedman's Commentary on the Torah fully concur with this rendition.

And there's more. The well respected Jewish sage Rashi writes ...

But if you wish to explain it according to its simple meaning, explain it thus: “At the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth, the earth was astonishing with emptiness, and darkness…and God said, ‘Let there be light.’” But Scripture did not come to teach the sequence of the Creation, ... [source]

Finally, while the JPS (1917) uses the 'older' form, the New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text renders the opening line of Genesis as ...

• When God began to create heaven and earth - the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and wind from God sweeping over the water - God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

There is, therefore, an impressive body of highly authoritative translation that sees Genesis 1:1 as the creation of order our of chaos, and not creation ex nihilo. It was no doubt from this perspective that the author of The Rise of Yawism notes:

• It is important to note that many of Ilu's acts of creation take place in historical time. The inhabited world is already there and so we must conclude that the people of Ugarit believed in a kind of creatio continua, like the Egyptians and the Israelites.

Creation ex nihilo looks very much like a Christian/Hellenist re-interpretation of the Torah.

Thank you so much for your wonderful post! It is very well stated and to the point.

May I remind you that not all Christians subscribe to the Ex Nihilo interpretation.

I, for one concur with your position and understanding that clearly ex nihilo is an incorrect interpretation. Sometimes it is difficult to get people to look deeper that they may see the correct doctrinal position.

[Jayhawker Soule]

Thank you so much for your wonderful post! It is very well stated and to the point.

And thank you for the kind words.

May I remind you that not all Christians subscribe to the Ex Nihilo interpretation.

Yes, perhaps most notably the Latter Day Saints (LDS).

[Jayhawker Soule]

Thank you so much for your wonderful post! It is very well stated and to the point.

And thank you for the kind words.

May I remind you that not all Christians subscribe to the Ex Nihilo interpretation.

Understood - perhaps most noteworthy in this regard is the position of the Latter Day Saints.

[Revelations won]

Shalom,

I find it a bit amusing that so many take a man made doctrine or myth such as ex-nihilo and mingle it with scripture, clutch on to it for dear life and then try to establish it as a scriptural doctrine.

I have to date, never seen anyone produce overwhelming or undeniable scripture in either the OT or NT in support of this false or man made doctrine of ex-nihilo creation.