386,926
edits
Difference between revisions of "Creation"
From BiblePortal Wikipedia
no edit summary
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
== Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_34962" /> == | == Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_34962" /> == | ||
< | |||
== Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_80506" /> == | == Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_80506" /> == | ||
<p> in its primary import, signifies the bringing into being something which did not exist before. The term is therefore most generally applied to the original production of the materials whereof the visible world is composed. It is also used in a secondary or subordinate sense, to denote those subsequent operations of the [[Deity]] upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of nature, and all the primitive <em> genera </em> of things, received their forms, qualities, and laws. The accounts of the creation of the world which have existed among different nations, are called <em> Cosmogonies. </em> Moses's is unquestionably the most ancient; and had it no other circumstance to recommend it, its superior antiquity alone would give it a just claim to our attention. It is evidently Moses's intention to give a history of man, and of religion, and an account of creation. In the way in which he has detailed it, it would have been foreign to his plan, had it not been necessary to obviate that most ancient and most natural species of idolatry, the worship of the heavenly bodies. His first care, therefore, is to affirm decidedly, that God created the heavens and the earth; and then he proceeds to mention the order in which the various objects of creation were called into existence. First of all, the materials, of which the future universe was to be composed, were created. These were jumbled together in one indigested mass, which the ancients called chaos, and which they conceived to be eternal; but which Moses affirms to have been created by the power of God. The materials of the chaos were either held in solution by the waters, or floated in them, or were sunk under them; and they were reduced into form by the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. Light was the first distinct object of creation; fishes were the first living things; man was last in the order of creation. </p> <p> <strong> 2. </strong> The account given by Moses is distinguished by its simplicity. That it involves difficulties which our faculties cannot comprehend, is only what might be expected from a detail of the operations of the omnipotent mind, which can never be fully understood but by the Being who planned them. Most of the writers who come nearest to Moses in point of antiquity have favoured the world with cosmogonies; and there is a wonderful coincidence in some leading particulars between their accounts and his. </p> <p> They all have his chaos; and they all state water to have been the prevailing principle before the arrangement of the universe began. The systems became gradually more complicated, as the writers receded farther from the age of primitive tradition; and they increased in absurdity in proportion to the degree of philosophy which was applied to the subject. The problem of creation has been said to be, "Matter and motion being given, to form a world;" and the presumption of man has often led him to attempt the solution of this intricate question. But the true problem was, "Neither matter nor motion being given, to form a world." At first, the cosmogonists contented themselves with reasoning on the traditional or historical accounts they had received; but it is irksome to be shackled by authority; and after they had acquired a smattering of knowledge, they began to think that they could point out a much better way of forming the world than that which had been transmitted to them by the consenting voice of antiquity. [[Epicurus]] was most distinguished in this hopeful work of invention; and produced a cosmogony on the principle of a fortuitous concourse of atoms, whose extravagant absurdity has hitherto preserved it from oblivion. From his day to ours, the world has been annoyed with systems; but these are now modified by the theories of chemists and geologists, whose speculations, in so far as they proceed on the principle of induction, have sometimes been attended with useful results; but, when applied to solve the problem of creation, will serve, like the systems of their forerunners, to demonstrate the ignorance and the presumption of man. </p> <p> <strong> 3. </strong> The early cosmogonies are chiefly interesting from their resemblance to that of Moses; which proves that they have either been derived from him, or from some ancient prevailing tradition respecting the true history of creation. The most ancient author next to Moses, of whose writings any fragments remain, is Sanchoniatho, the Phenician. His writings were translated by [[Philo]] Byblius; and portions of this version are preserved by Eusebius. These writings come to us rather in an apocryphal form; they contain, however, no internal evidence which can affect their authenticity; they pretty nearly resemble the traditions of the Greeks, and are, perhaps, the parent stock from which these traditions are derived. The notions detailed by [[Sanchoniatho]] are almost translated by Hesiod, who mentions the primeval chaos, and states ερος , or <em> love, </em> to be its first offspring. [[Anaxagoras]] was the first among the Greeks who entertained tolerably accurate notions on the subject of creation: he assumed the agency of an intelligent mind in the arrangement of the chaotic materials. These sentiments gradually prevailed among the Greeks; from whom they passed to the Romans, and were generally adopted, notwithstanding the efforts which were made to establish the doctrines of Epicurus by the nervous poetry of Lucretius. [[Ovid]] has collected the orthodox doctrines which prevailed on the subject, both among Greeks and Romans; and has expressed them with uncommon elegance and perspicuity in the first chapter of his "Metamorphoses." There is so striking a coincidence between his account and that of Moses that one would almost think that he was translating from the first chapter of Genesis; and there can be no doubt that the Mosaic writings were well known at that time, both among the Greeks and Romans. Megasthenes, who lived in the time of [[Seleucus]] Nicanor, affirms, that all the doctrines of the Greeks respecting the creation, and the constitution of nature, were current among the Bramins in India, and the Jews in Syria. He must, of course, have been acquainted with the writings of the latter, before he could make the comparison. [[Juvenal]] talks of the writings of Moses as well known:— </p> <p> <strong> <em> Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses. [Whatever Moses has transmitted in his mystic volume.] </em> </strong> </p> <p> We are therefore inclined to think that Ovid actually copied from the Bible; for he adopts the very order detailed by Moses. Moses mentions the works of creation in the following order: the separation of the sea from the dry land; the creation of the heavenly bodies; of marine animals; of fowls and land animals; of man. [[Observe]] now the order of the | <p> in its primary import, signifies the bringing into being something which did not exist before. The term is therefore most generally applied to the original production of the materials whereof the visible world is composed. It is also used in a secondary or subordinate sense, to denote those subsequent operations of the [[Deity]] upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of nature, and all the primitive <em> genera </em> of things, received their forms, qualities, and laws. The accounts of the creation of the world which have existed among different nations, are called <em> Cosmogonies. </em> Moses's is unquestionably the most ancient; and had it no other circumstance to recommend it, its superior antiquity alone would give it a just claim to our attention. It is evidently Moses's intention to give a history of man, and of religion, and an account of creation. In the way in which he has detailed it, it would have been foreign to his plan, had it not been necessary to obviate that most ancient and most natural species of idolatry, the worship of the heavenly bodies. His first care, therefore, is to affirm decidedly, that God created the heavens and the earth; and then he proceeds to mention the order in which the various objects of creation were called into existence. First of all, the materials, of which the future universe was to be composed, were created. These were jumbled together in one indigested mass, which the ancients called chaos, and which they conceived to be eternal; but which Moses affirms to have been created by the power of God. The materials of the chaos were either held in solution by the waters, or floated in them, or were sunk under them; and they were reduced into form by the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. Light was the first distinct object of creation; fishes were the first living things; man was last in the order of creation. </p> <p> <strong> 2. </strong> The account given by Moses is distinguished by its simplicity. That it involves difficulties which our faculties cannot comprehend, is only what might be expected from a detail of the operations of the omnipotent mind, which can never be fully understood but by the Being who planned them. Most of the writers who come nearest to Moses in point of antiquity have favoured the world with cosmogonies; and there is a wonderful coincidence in some leading particulars between their accounts and his. </p> <p> They all have his chaos; and they all state water to have been the prevailing principle before the arrangement of the universe began. The systems became gradually more complicated, as the writers receded farther from the age of primitive tradition; and they increased in absurdity in proportion to the degree of philosophy which was applied to the subject. The problem of creation has been said to be, "Matter and motion being given, to form a world;" and the presumption of man has often led him to attempt the solution of this intricate question. But the true problem was, "Neither matter nor motion being given, to form a world." At first, the cosmogonists contented themselves with reasoning on the traditional or historical accounts they had received; but it is irksome to be shackled by authority; and after they had acquired a smattering of knowledge, they began to think that they could point out a much better way of forming the world than that which had been transmitted to them by the consenting voice of antiquity. [[Epicurus]] was most distinguished in this hopeful work of invention; and produced a cosmogony on the principle of a fortuitous concourse of atoms, whose extravagant absurdity has hitherto preserved it from oblivion. From his day to ours, the world has been annoyed with systems; but these are now modified by the theories of chemists and geologists, whose speculations, in so far as they proceed on the principle of induction, have sometimes been attended with useful results; but, when applied to solve the problem of creation, will serve, like the systems of their forerunners, to demonstrate the ignorance and the presumption of man. </p> <p> <strong> 3. </strong> The early cosmogonies are chiefly interesting from their resemblance to that of Moses; which proves that they have either been derived from him, or from some ancient prevailing tradition respecting the true history of creation. The most ancient author next to Moses, of whose writings any fragments remain, is Sanchoniatho, the Phenician. His writings were translated by [[Philo]] Byblius; and portions of this version are preserved by Eusebius. These writings come to us rather in an apocryphal form; they contain, however, no internal evidence which can affect their authenticity; they pretty nearly resemble the traditions of the Greeks, and are, perhaps, the parent stock from which these traditions are derived. The notions detailed by [[Sanchoniatho]] are almost translated by Hesiod, who mentions the primeval chaos, and states ερος , or <em> love, </em> to be its first offspring. [[Anaxagoras]] was the first among the Greeks who entertained tolerably accurate notions on the subject of creation: he assumed the agency of an intelligent mind in the arrangement of the chaotic materials. These sentiments gradually prevailed among the Greeks; from whom they passed to the Romans, and were generally adopted, notwithstanding the efforts which were made to establish the doctrines of Epicurus by the nervous poetry of Lucretius. [[Ovid]] has collected the orthodox doctrines which prevailed on the subject, both among Greeks and Romans; and has expressed them with uncommon elegance and perspicuity in the first chapter of his "Metamorphoses." There is so striking a coincidence between his account and that of Moses that one would almost think that he was translating from the first chapter of Genesis; and there can be no doubt that the Mosaic writings were well known at that time, both among the Greeks and Romans. Megasthenes, who lived in the time of [[Seleucus]] Nicanor, affirms, that all the doctrines of the Greeks respecting the creation, and the constitution of nature, were current among the Bramins in India, and the [[Jews]] in Syria. He must, of course, have been acquainted with the writings of the latter, before he could make the comparison. [[Juvenal]] talks of the writings of Moses as well known:— </p> <p> <strong> <em> Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses. [Whatever Moses has transmitted in his mystic volume.] </em> </strong> </p> <p> We are therefore inclined to think that Ovid actually copied from the Bible; for he adopts the very order detailed by Moses. Moses mentions the works of creation in the following order: the separation of the sea from the dry land; the creation of the heavenly bodies; of marine animals; of fowls and land animals; of man. [[Observe]] now the order of the Roman poet:— </p> <p> <strong> <em> Ante mare et terras, et, quod tegit omnia, coelum, Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Quem dixere chaos, rudis, indiffestaque moles. Hanc Deus, et melior litem natura diremit. Nam coelo terras, et terras abscidit undis; </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aere coelum. Neu regio foret ulla suis animalibus orba; </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Astra tenent coeleste solum, formaeque deorum; Cesserunt nitidis habitandae piscibus undae: Terra feras cepit, volucres agitabilis aer. Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altae </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in caetera posset: Natus homo est. </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> "Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball, And heav'n's high canopy, that covers all, One was the face of nature; if a face: Rather, a rude and indigested mass: </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> [[A]] lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unframed, Of jarring seeds; and justly </em> </strong> <strong> chaos </strong> <strong> <em> named. But God, or nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine discords put an end; </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n, </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> And grosser air sunk from ethereal heav'n. </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Thus when the God, whatever god was he, Had formed the whole, and made the parts agree, </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> That no unequal portions might be found, </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> He moulded earth into a spacious round. </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Then, every void of nature to supply, With forms of gods he fills the vacant sky: </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share: </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> New colonies of birds, to people air; And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair. </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> [[A]] creature of a more exalted kind </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> Was wanting yet, and then was man design'd: </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> [[Conscious]] of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire formed, and fit to rule the rest: Whether with particles of heav'nly fire </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> The God of nature did his soul inspire," &c. </em> </strong> </p> <p> <strong> <em> [[Dryden.]] </em> </strong> </p> <p> Here we see all the principal objects of creation mentioned exactly in the same order which Moses had assigned to them in his writings; and when we consider what follows;—the war of the giants; the general corruption of the world; the universal deluge; the preservation of [[Deucalion]] and Pyrrha; their sacrifices to the gods on leaving the vessel in which they had been preserved;—there can scarcely remain a doubt that Ovid borrowed, either directly or at second hand, from Moses. What he says, too, is perfectly consistent with the received notions on the subject, though it is probable that they had never before been so regularly methodised. This train of reasoning would lead us to conclude that Ovid, and indeed the whole [[Heathen]] world, derived their notions respecting the creation, and the early history of mankind, from the sacred Scriptures: and it shows how deficient their own resources were, when the pride of philosophy was forced to borrow from those whom it affected to despise. With regard to the western mythologists, then, there can be little doubt that their cosmogonies, at least such of them as profess to be historical, and not theoretical, are derived from Moses; and the same may be affirmed with regard to the traditions of the east: as they were the same with those of [[Greece]] in the time of Megasthenes, whose testimony to this effect is quoted both by [[Clemens]] Alexandrinus and Strabo, we may naturally conclude that they had the same origin. </p> <p> <strong> 4. </strong> The Hindoo mythology has grown, in the natural uninterrupted progress of corruption, to such monstrous and complicated absurdity, that in many cases it stands unique in extravagance. In the more ancient Hindoo writings, however, many sublime sentiments occur; and in the "Institutes of Menu," many passages are found relating to the creation, which bear a strong resemblance to the account given by Moses. They are thus given in an advertisement, prefixed to the fifth volume of the "Asiatic Researches," and are intended as a supplement to a former treatise on the Hindoo religion:— </p> <p> "This universe existed only in the first divine idea, yet unexpanded, as if involved in darkness, imperceptible, undefinable, undiscoverable by reason, and undiscovered by revelation, as if it were wholly immersed in sleep. When the sole self-existing Power, himself undiscerned, but making this world discernible, with five elements and other principles of nature, appeared with undiminished glory, expanding his idea, or dispelling the gloom. He, whom the mind alone can perceive, whose essence eludes the </p> <p> external organs, who has no visible parts, who exists from eternity, even he, the soul of all beings, whom no being can comprehend, shone forth in person. He, having willed to produce various beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters. The waters are called <em> nara, </em> because they are the production of <em> Nara, </em> or the Spirit of God; and since they were his first <em> ayana, </em> </p> <p> or place of motion, he thence is called <em> Narayana, </em> or moving on the waters. From that which is, the first cause, not the object of sense, existing every where in substance, not existing to our perception, without beginning or end, was produced the divine male. He </p> <p> framed the heaven above, and the earth beneath; in the midst he placed the subtile ether, the eight regions, and the permanent </p> <p> receptacle of waters. He framed all creatures. He, too, first assigned to all creatures distinct names, distinct acts, and distinct occupations. He gave being to time, and the divisions of time; to the stars also, and the planets; to rivers, oceans, and mountains; to level plains, and uneven valleys. For the sake of distinguishing actions, he made a total difference between right and wrong. Having divided his own substance, the mighty Power became half male, half female. He whose powers are incomprehensible, having </p> <p> created this universe, was again absorbed in the spirit, changing the time of energy for the time of repose." </p> <p> In these passages we have evidently a philosophical comment on the account of creation given by Moses, or as transmitted from the same source of primitive tradition. We also see in these passages the rudiments of the Platonic philosophy, the eternal ideas in the divine mind, &c; and were any question to arise respecting the original author of these notions, we should have little hesitation in giving it against the Greeks. They were the greatest plagiaries both in literature and philosophy, and they have scarcely an article of literary property which they can call their own, except their poetry. Their sages penetrated into Egypt and India, and on their return stigmatized the natives of these countries as barbarians, lest they should be suspected of stealing their inventions. </p> <p> <strong> 5. </strong> The [[Chaldean]] cosmogony, according to Berosus, when divested of allegory, seems to resolve itself into this, that darkness and water existed from eternity; that [[Belus]] divided the humid mass, and gave birth to creation; that the human mind is an emanation from the divine nature. The cosmogony of the ancient [[Persians]] is very clumsy. They introduce two eternal principles, the one good, called <em> Oromasdes, </em> the other evil, called <em> Arimanius; </em> and they make these two principles contend with each other in the creation and government of the world. Each has his province, which he strives to enlarge; and <em> [[Mithras]] </em> is the mediator to moderate their contentions. This is the most inartificial plan that has been devised to account for the existence of evil, and has the least pretensions to a philosophical basis. The [[Egyptian]] cosmogony, according to the account given of it by Plutarch, seems to bear a strong resemblance to the Phenician, as detailed by Sanchoniatho. According to the Egyptian account, there was an eternal chaos, and an eternal spirit united with it, whose agency at last arranged the discordant materials, and produced the visible system of the universe. The cosmogony of the northern nations, as may be collected from the Edda, supposes an eternal principle prior to the formation of the world. The Orphic [[Fragments]] state every thing to have existed in God, and to proceed from him. The notion implied in this maxim is suspected to be <em> pantheistic, </em> that is, to imply the universe to be God; which, however, might be a more modern perversion. [[Plato]] supposed the world to be produced by the Deity, uniting eternal, immutable ideas, or forms, to variable matter. [[Aristotle]] had no cosmogony, because he supposed the world to be without beginning and without end. According to the Stoical doctrine, the divine nature, acting on matter, first produced moisture, and then the other elements, which are reciprocally convertible. </p> | ||
== Holman Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_39472" /> == | == Holman Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_39472" /> == | ||
<p> Creation accounts in the Bible never function simply to satisfy a childlike curiosity to know “how it all began.” The biblical writers' concern with God as Creator grew out of their knowledge of Him as Redeemer. Genesis 1-11 serves as prologue to God's redemptive purpose in calling [[Abram]] ( Genesis 12:1-3 ). Similarly, in Isaiah 40:1 concern with God as Creator is in a larger context of concern with God as [[Redeemer]] from [[Babylonian]] captivity. </p> <p> Important questions about creation include the following: </p> <p> 1. Where in the Bible is the subject of creation encountered? </p> <p> 2. What is the function of biblical references to creation? </p> <p> 3. What literature contemporary with the Bible contains references to creation? </p> <p> 4. How are biblical and extra-biblical references to creation related? </p> <p> 5. What cosmology is reflected in the Bible? </p> <p> 6. What is the time frame of creation in the Bible? </p> <p> 7. What is humanity's place in creation? </p> <p> 8. How is the New [[Testament]] concept of the new creation in Christ related to the biblical concept of physical creation? </p> <p> Biblical References to Creation Probably the best known reference to creation in the Bible is Genesis 1:1-2:4 . That certainly is not the only place in Scripture where the subject is treated. Psalmists mentioned creation or the Creator frequently ( Psalm 8:3-4; Psalm 74:17; Psalm 95:5; Psalm 100:3; Psalm 104:24 ,Psalms 104:24, 104:30; Psalm 118:24; Psalm 40:5; Psalm 51:10; Psalm 64:9; Psalm 24:1-2; Psalm 102:25; Psalm 145:10 ). The second half of Isaiah ( Psalm 40-66 ) has four direct references to creation ( Isaiah 40:28; Isaiah 43:7 , Isaiah 43:15; Isaiah 45:7; Isaiah 65:17 ). Job alluded to creation in two speeches ( Job 10:8; Job 26:7 ), and God's answer to Job contains one reference to the subject ( Job 38:4 ). </p> <p> The New Testament reveals that Jesus “made” all things ( John 1:3 ) and that “all things were created by him, and for him” ( Colossians 1:16 ). Paul's assertion recorded in Ephesians 3:9 is that God “created all things.” The writer of Hebrews notes that Jesus was the agent God used to create the world ( Hebrews 1:2 ). Because God created all things, He is worthy of “glory and honor and power” ( Revelation 4:11 ). Luke testified that the living God “made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein” ( Acts 14:15 ). The consistent report of the Bible is that God is the Source of the whole created order. </p> <p> The Function of Biblical Creation References Genesis is a book about beginnings. The centerpiece of the book is God's redemptive activity following the fall of man. God began by calling Abram out of Ur, by entering into a covenant with him, and by making promises to bless him and to bless all the families of the earth through him. </p> <p> Genesis 1-11 is prologue to the patriarchal stories ( Genesis 12-50 ). It sets a world stage on which God acted in choosing one man in order to bless all men. Genesis 1-2 contain two accounts of creation, the order of man's creation coming at the end in the first and at the beginning in the second. God's creation, “good” as it was ( Genesis 1:4 ,Genesis 1:4, 1:10 ,Genesis 1:10, 1:12 ,Genesis 1:12, 1:21 ,Genesis 1:21, 1:25 ,Genesis 1:25, 1:31 ), soon became bad through human rebellion against God. The accounts of creation in Genesis 1-2 prepare the reader for the record of the first people being placed in the [[Garden]] of Eden, temptation by the serpent, rebellion against God, expulsion from the garden, and the degenerating effect of sin in society. </p> <p> God's judgment on sin in the form of a flood did not put an end to sin ( Genesis 6-9 ). | <p> Creation accounts in the Bible never function simply to satisfy a childlike curiosity to know “how it all began.” The biblical writers' concern with God as Creator grew out of their knowledge of Him as Redeemer. Genesis 1-11 serves as prologue to God's redemptive purpose in calling [[Abram]] ( Genesis 12:1-3 ). Similarly, in Isaiah 40:1 concern with God as Creator is in a larger context of concern with God as [[Redeemer]] from [[Babylonian]] captivity. </p> <p> Important questions about creation include the following: </p> <p> 1. Where in the Bible is the subject of creation encountered? </p> <p> 2. What is the function of biblical references to creation? </p> <p> 3. What literature contemporary with the Bible contains references to creation? </p> <p> 4. How are biblical and extra-biblical references to creation related? </p> <p> 5. What cosmology is reflected in the Bible? </p> <p> 6. What is the time frame of creation in the Bible? </p> <p> 7. What is humanity's place in creation? </p> <p> 8. How is the New [[Testament]] concept of the new creation in Christ related to the biblical concept of physical creation? </p> <p> Biblical References to Creation Probably the best known reference to creation in the Bible is Genesis 1:1-2:4 . That certainly is not the only place in Scripture where the subject is treated. Psalmists mentioned creation or the Creator frequently ( Psalm 8:3-4; Psalm 74:17; Psalm 95:5; Psalm 100:3; Psalm 104:24 ,Psalms 104:24, 104:30; Psalm 118:24; Psalm 40:5; Psalm 51:10; Psalm 64:9; Psalm 24:1-2; Psalm 102:25; Psalm 145:10 ). The second half of Isaiah ( Psalm 40-66 ) has four direct references to creation ( Isaiah 40:28; Isaiah 43:7 , Isaiah 43:15; Isaiah 45:7; Isaiah 65:17 ). Job alluded to creation in two speeches ( Job 10:8; Job 26:7 ), and God's answer to Job contains one reference to the subject ( Job 38:4 ). </p> <p> The New Testament reveals that Jesus “made” all things ( John 1:3 ) and that “all things were created by him, and for him” ( Colossians 1:16 ). Paul's assertion recorded in Ephesians 3:9 is that God “created all things.” The writer of Hebrews notes that Jesus was the agent God used to create the world ( Hebrews 1:2 ). Because God created all things, He is worthy of “glory and honor and power” ( Revelation 4:11 ). Luke testified that the living God “made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein” ( Acts 14:15 ). The consistent report of the Bible is that God is the Source of the whole created order. </p> <p> The Function of Biblical Creation References Genesis is a book about beginnings. The centerpiece of the book is God's redemptive activity following the fall of man. God began by calling Abram out of Ur, by entering into a covenant with him, and by making promises to bless him and to bless all the families of the earth through him. </p> <p> Genesis 1-11 is prologue to the patriarchal stories ( Genesis 12-50 ). It sets a world stage on which God acted in choosing one man in order to bless all men. Genesis 1-2 contain two accounts of creation, the order of man's creation coming at the end in the first and at the beginning in the second. God's creation, “good” as it was ( Genesis 1:4 ,Genesis 1:4, 1:10 ,Genesis 1:10, 1:12 ,Genesis 1:12, 1:21 ,Genesis 1:21, 1:25 ,Genesis 1:25, 1:31 ), soon became bad through human rebellion against God. The accounts of creation in Genesis 1-2 prepare the reader for the record of the first people being placed in the [[Garden]] of Eden, temptation by the serpent, rebellion against God, expulsion from the garden, and the degenerating effect of sin in society. </p> <p> God's judgment on sin in the form of a flood did not put an end to sin ( Genesis 6-9 ). Noah himself carried sin into the society that survived the flood. Even destroying the tower of Babel, confusing the people's language, and scattering them over the face of the earth did not stop the spread of sin ( Genesis 11:1 ). Genesis 11:1 ends by introducing Terah, the father of Abram, through whom God would bless the world in spite of its rebellion against Him. The link between creation and redemption is clear. </p> <p> Isaiah reminded weary exiles that the God he proclaimed as their Redeemer and Sustainer was “the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth” ( Isaiah 40:28 ). The prophet linked God's redemptive activity with His creative activity ( Isaiah 43:7 ,Isaiah 43:7, 43:15 ). He went on to declare God's plan to “create new heavens and a new earth” as well as a new people ( Isaiah 65:17-18 ). </p> <p> Job lamented that God's hands “made and fashioned” him but for some unexplained reason turned about to “destroy” him ( Job 10:8 ). In a later speech Job expressed the effortless manner in which God created the universe ( Job 26:7-11 ) and defeated [[Rahab]] and the serpent ( Job 26:12-13 ). The Lord's speech in response to Job ( Job 38-39 ) makes clear that God is the Creator and that man had no part in creation. </p> <p> The psalmists' concerns with God as Creator were related to people's place in creation ( Psalm 8:3-4 ), to God's redemptive activity ( Psalm 74:17; Psalm 95:5 ), and to praise for the Creator ( Psalm 100:3; Psalm 104:1; Psalm 24:1-2 ). One psalmist referred to the creation to contrast its perishable nature with the imperishable nature of the Creator ( Psalm 102:25-27 ). </p> <p> The three doxologies in Amos ( Amos 4:13; Amos 5:8-9; Amos 9:5-6 ) magnify God the Creator and Controller of creation. Malachi's reference to God as Creator stresses the fact that one God created all people ( Malachi 2:10 ). This fact forms the basis of the prophet's appeal for faithfulness among covenant members. </p> <p> John based God's worthiness to receive “glory and honor and power” on His creative activity ( Revelation 4:11 ). By God's will “all things” existed and were created. John's testimony is that “the Word” made all things ( John 1:3 ) and that Jesus is the Word ( John 1:14 ). </p> <p> Paul's perspective was that [[Christians]] represent God's workmanship “created in Christ Jesus for good works” ( Ephesians 2:10 ). The gospel that God called Paul to preach had been hidden in God who “created all things” ( Ephesians 3:9 ). He agreed with John that Jesus the Savior, the firstborn of all creation, was Himself the Source of all creation ( Colossians 1:16-17 ). </p> <p> The author of Hebrews wrote of God's revelation through prophets of old, but “in these last days” God spoke through a Son ( Hebrews 1:1-2 ). The Son created the world. Like many Old Testament passages, this passage in Hebrews links God's creative activity with His redemptive activity. </p> <p> The people of [[Lystra]] took [[Barnabas]] and Paul to be gods ( Acts 14:11 ). Paul and Barnabas set the record straight as they pointed to “the living God which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein” ( Acts 14:15 ). </p> <p> Relationship of Biblical and Extra-biblical References to Creation The Enuma Elish (“When on High”) is probably the best known extra-biblical reference to creation. This Mesopotamian account reflects a striking correspondence in various details and in order of events when it is compared with the biblical references to creation. What is the explanation for these similarities? Did the [[Babylonians]] follow the biblical account? Did the biblical authors follow Babylonian prototypes? Did both Babylonian and biblical writers rely on some unidentified ultimate source? </p> <p> Based on the dating of Babylonian and biblical materials, apparently biblical writers were aware of Babylonian prototypes. Though the two accounts are similar in some ways, they are poles apart in other ways. [[Conflict]] between rival deities dominates the Babylonian story of creation. The biblical accounts feature one God creating a good, orderly, and harmonious universe. Their cosmogony (theory of the origin of the universe) is similar; their religion is radically different. Biblical writers seem to be conscious of Babylonian sources, but they take a critical position toward them. </p> <p> Human Place in Creation Both detailed stories of creation in the Bible feature people at center stage, even though the creation of persons is last in the order of creative acts in Genesis 1:1-2:4 but first in Genesis 2:4-24 . The author of Psalm 8:1 seems surprised at the attention the Creator gives to mortal humans formed from the dust ( Psalm 8:4 ). Yet God gave humans a place of prominence and set them over the rest of creation ( Psalm 8:5-8 ). “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels” ( Psalm 8:5 ) may be a commentary on the Genesis statement that God “created man in his own image” ( Genesis 1:27 ). </p> <p> The language of Genesis 1:1 pictures God at a distance speaking humans into existence. The language of Genesis 2:1 portrays God with a “hands on” closeness shaping Adam and [[Eve]] like a potter forming a clay vessel. “Create” (bara') is the dominant verb of creation in Genesis 1:1 . “Formed” (yatsar) is the controlling verb of creation in Genesis 2:1 . </p> <p> New Creation and [[Physical]] Creation The Old Testament is consistent in its use of the verb “create” ( <i> bara' </i> ). Only God serves as subject of the verb. Creation is the work of God. People may “make” ( <i> asah </i> ) and “form” ( <i> yatsar </i> ). God alone creates ( <i> bara' </i> ). </p> <p> Psalm 51:10 may reflect a transition in usage of “create” ( <i> bara' </i> ) to designate a purely physical work. [[A]] clean heart is the object of the verb “create” in this Psalm. Isaiah employed “create” in reference to “new heavens and a new earth” as well as “Jerusalem” and “her people” ( Isaiah 65:17-18 ). Paul wrote to the Corinthians about being “in Christ” and thereby being “a new creation” ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 ). “Created in Christ Jesus” is Paul's terminology for spiritual salvation in Ephesians 2:10 . The point in all of these references is that God alone is the Author of spiritual redemption. </p> <p> God is the Creator of all things. All things belong to God. God gave humans dominion over creation, a stewardship assignment. Therefore, people are accountable directly to God for their use or abuse of creation. God created “good” heavens and a “good” earth. The entrance of human sin has had an adverse effect on creation ( Hosea 4:1-3 ). Paul pictured that the whole of creation “groaneth and travaileth” under the burden of human sin ( Romans 8:22 ). He also wrote of a time when “the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” ( Romans 8:21 [[Nas).]] Paul anticipated a day when God would restore the whole of creation to its original goodness. </p> <p> Billy [[K.]] Smith </p> | ||
== Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_50346" /> == | == Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_50346" /> == | ||
<p> <strong> | <p> <strong> [[Creation]] </strong> . One of the most convincing proofs of the composite authorship of the [[Pentateuch]] has always been found in the existence side by side of two independent and mutually irreconcilable accounts of the creation of the world. The first, Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4 a, forms the introduction of the Priestly Code [[(P]] [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ), which was compiled, as is now generally acknowledged, in the 5th cent. b.c. The second, Genesis 2:4 bff., opens the Jahwistic document [[(J]] [Note: Jahwist.] ), whose latest portions must be dated at least a century and a half earlier than the compilation of [[P]] [Note: Priestly Narrative.] . These two narratives, while expressing the same fundamental religious ideas, differ profoundly in their concrete conceptions of the process of creation. The account of [[P]] [Note: Priestly Narrative.] starts with a description ( Genesis 2:2 ) of the primeval chaos a dark formless watery abyss, out of which the world of light and order was to be evolved. Whether this chaotic matter owed its origin to a prior creative act of God is a question depending on a delicate point of grammatical construction which cannot be adequately explained here; but, looking to the analogy of the Babylonian Creation-story (see below), it seems probable that the chaos is conceived as pre-existent, and that the representation of the chapter falls short of the full dogmatic idea of creation as production out of nothing, an idea first unambiguously expressed in 2Ma 7:28 The work of creation then proceeds in a series of eight [[Divine]] fiats, viz.: (1) Creation of light and separation of light from the primeval darkness, Genesis 1:3-5; (2) division of the chaotic waters by the firmament, Genesis 1:6-8; (3) separation of land and sea, Genesis 1:9-10; (4) clothing of the earth with vegetation, Genesis 1:11-13; (5) formation of the heavenly bodies, Genesis 1:14-19; (6) production of fishes and birds, Genesis 1:20-23; (7) land animals, Genesis 1:24 f.; and (8) the creation of man in the image of God with dominion over the creatures, Genesis 1:26 ff. The most remarkable formal feature of the record is a somewhat artificial but carefully planned and symmetrical arrangement of the eight works under a scheme of six days. The creative process is thus divided into two parallel stages, each embracing four works and occupying three days, the last day in each division having two works assigned to it. There is an obviously designed, though not quite complete, correspondence between the two series: (1) light || ( Genesis 1:5 ) luminaries; (2) waters and firmament || ( Genesis 1:6 ) fishes and fowls; (3) dry land || ( Genesis 1:7-8 ) terrestrial animals; (4) trees and grasses, and (on the sixth day) the appointment of these as the food of men and animals. The significance of the six days’ scheme is revealed in the closing verses ( Genesis 1:1-3 ), where the resting of the Creator on the seventh day is regarded as the antitype and sanction of the [[Jewish]] Sabbath-rest. It is not improbable that the scheme of days is a modification of the original cosmogony, introduced in the interest of the [[Sabbath]] law; and this adaptation may account for some anomalies of arrangement which seem to mar the consistency of the scheme. </p> <p> In the narrative of [[J]] [Note: Jahwist.] (2:4bff.), the earth as originally made by [[Jahweh]] was an arid lifeless waste, in which no plant could grow for lack of moisture, and where there was no man to till the ground (vv. 5, 6). The idea of man’s superiority to the other creatures is here expressed by placing his creation, not at the end as in [[P]] [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , but at the beginning (v. 7); followed by the planting of the garden in which he was to dwell and from whose trees he was to derive his food (vv. 8, 9, 15 17); the forming of beasts and birds to relieve his solitude and awake his craving for a nobler companionship (vv. 18 20); and lastly of the woman, in whom he recognizes a part of himself and a helpmeet for him (vv. 21 23). The express reference to the welfare of man in each act of creation makes it doubtful whether a systematic account of the origin of things was contemplated by the writer, or whether the passage is not rather to be regarded as a poetic clothing of ideas generated by reflexion on fundamental facts of human life and society. It is probable, however, that it contains fragments of a fuller cosmogony which has been abridged and utilized as a prologue to the story of [[Paradise]] and the Fall. On either view, the divergence from the account of [[P]] [Note: Priestly Narrative.] is so obvious as to preclude the attempt to harmonize the two, or to treat the second as merely supplementary to the first. </p> <p> Much ingenuity has been expended in the effort to bring the Biblical record of creation into accord with the facts disclosed by the modern sciences of Geology and Astronomy. [[Naturally]] such constructions confine their operations to the systematic and semi-scientific account of Genesis 1:1-31; for it has probably never occurred to any one to vindicate the scientific accuracy of the more imaginative narrative of [[J]] [Note: Jahwist.] . But even if we were to admit the unique claim of the first chapter to be a revealed cosmogony, the difficulty of harmonizing it with the teachings of science is seen to be insurmountable as soon as the real nature of the problem to be solved is fairly apprehended. It is not sufficient to emphasize the general idea of gradation and upward progress as common to science and Scripture, or to point to isolated coincidences, such as the creation of fishes before mammals, or the late appearance of man on the earth: the narrative must be taken as a whole, and it must be shown that there is a genuine parallelism between the order of days and works in Genesis 1:1-31 and the stages of development recognized by science as those through which the universe has reached its present form. This has never been done; and after making every allowance for the imperfection of the geological record, and the general insecurity of scientific hypothesis as distinguished from ascertained fact, enough is known to make it certain that the required correspondence can never be made out. Thus the formation of the sun and moon after the earth, after the alternation of day and night, and even after the emergence of plant-life, is a scientific impossibility. Again, the rough popular classifications of Genesis (plants, aquatic animals, birds, land animals, etc.) are, for scientific purposes, hopelessly inadequate; and the idea that these groups originated <em> as wholes </em> , and in the order here specified, is entirely contrary to the ‘testimony of the rocks.’ But, indeed, the whole conception of the universe on which the cosmogony of Genesis rests opposes a fatal barrier to any valid reconciliation with scientific theory. The world whose origin is here described is a solid expanse of earth, surrounded by and resting on a world-ocean, and surmounted by a rigid vault called the <strong> firmament </strong> , above which the waters of a heavenly ocean are spread. Such a world is unknown to science; and the manner in which such a world was conceived to have come into being cannot truly represent the process by which the very different world of science and fact has been evolved. This fact alone would amply justify the emphatic verdict of Professor Driver: ‘Read without prejudice or bias, the narrative of Genesis 1:1-31 creates an impression <em> at variance with the facts revealed by science </em> : the efforts at reconciliation … are but different modes of obliterating its characteristic features, and of reading into it <em> a view which it does not express </em> ’ ( <em> Westm. Com </em> . ‘Genesis,’ p. 26). </p> <p> To form a correct estimate of the character and religious value of the first chapter of Genesis, it has to be borne in mind that speculative theories of the origin of the universe were an important element of all the higher religions of antiquity. Many of these cosmogonies (as they are called) are known to us; and amidst all the diversity of representation which characterizes them, we cannot fail to detect certain underlying affinities which suggest a common source, either in the natural tendencies of early thought, or in some dominant type of cosmological tradition. That the Hebrew cosmogony is influenced by such a tradition is proved by its striking likeness to the Babylonian story of creation as contained in cuneiform tablets from Ashurbanipal’s library, first unearthed in 1872. From these Assyriologists have deciphered a highly coloured mythological epic, describing the origin of the world in the form of a conflict between Marduk, god of light and supreme deity of the pantheon of Babylon, and the power of [[Chaos]] personified as a female monster named <em> Ti’âmat </em> (Heb. <em> TÄ•hôm </em> ). [[Wide]] as is the difference between the polytheistic assumptions and fantastic imagery of the Babylonian narrative and the sober dignity and elevated monotheism of Genesis, there are yet coincidences in general outline and in detail which are too marked and too numerous to be ascribed to chance. In both we have the conception of chaos as a watery abyss, in both the separation of the waters into an upper and a lower ocean; the formation of the heavenly bodies and their function in regulating time are described with remarkable similarity; special prominence is given to the creation of man; and it may be added that, while the <em> order </em> of creation differs in the two documents, yet the separate works themselves are practically identical. In view of this pervading parallelism, it is clear that the Hebrew and Babylonian cosmogonies are very closely related; and the only question open to discussion is which of them represents more faithfully the primary tradition on which each is based. Looking, however, to the vastly higher antiquity of the Babylonian narrative, to its conformity (even in points which affect the Biblical record) to the climatic conditions of the [[Euphrates]] Valley, and to the general indebtedness of [[Israel]] to the civilization of Babylon, it cannot reasonably be doubted that the Hebrew narrative is dependent on Babylonian models; though it is of course not certain that the particular version preserved in the tablets referred to is the exact original by which the Biblical writers were influenced. </p> <p> From this point of view we are able to state the significance of the Scripture account of creation in a way which does justice at once to its unrivalled religious value and to its lack of scientific corroboration. The <em> material </em> is derived from some form of the Babylonian cosmogony, and shares the imperfection and error incident to all pre-scientific speculation regarding the past history of the world. The Scripture writers make no pretension to supernatural illumination on matters which it is the province of physical investigation to ascertain. Their <em> theology </em> , on the other hand, is the product of a revelation which placed them far in advance of their heathen contemporaries, and imparted to all their thinking a sanity of imagination and a sublimity of conception that instinctively rejected the grosser features of paganism, and transformed what was retained into a vehicle of Divine truth. Thus the cosmogony became a classical expression of the monotheistic principle of the [[Ot,]] which is here embodied in a detailed description of the genesis of the universe that lays hold of the mind as no abstract statement of the principle could do. In opposition to the heathen theogonies, the world is affirmed to have been <em> created, i.e. </em> to have originated in the will of God, whose Personality transcends the universe and exists independently of it. The spirituality of the First Cause of all things, and His absolute sovereignty over the material He employs, are further emphasized in the idea of the word of God as the agency through which the various orders of existence were produced; and the repeated assertion that the world in all its parts was ‘good,’ and as a whole ‘very good,’ suggests that it perfectly reflected the Divine thought which called it into being. When to these doctrines we add the view of man, as made in the likeness of God, and marked out as the crown and goal of creation, we have a body of spiritual truth which distinguishes the cosmogony of Genesis 1:1-31 from all similar compositions, and entitles it to rank amongst the most important documents of revealed religion. </p> <p> John Skinner. </p> | ||
== Bridgeway Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_18503" /> == | == Bridgeway Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_18503" /> == | ||
<p> A basic [[Christian]] belief is that God created all things, and that all three persons of the godhead were involved in the acts of creation. God spoke and, by the power of his creative word, it happened ( Genesis 1:1-3; Job 33:4; Psalms 33:6; Psalms 33:9; Psalms 102:25; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-2). </p> <p> '''The Creator and the universe''' </p> <p> God alone is eternal; therefore, before his initial act of creation, nothing existed apart from him. He created all things, visible and invisible. Even spirit beings, though they may have existed before the physical universe, are creatures whom God has made ( Genesis 1:1-2; Job 38:4-11; Psalms 33:6-9; Psalms 90:2; Isaiah 40:26-28; Isaiah 42:5; John 1:1-3; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11). Once God had created matter, he used the materials of the universe to make and develop the features of the universe. He made animals and humans, for example, out of materials he had made earlier ( Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:19). </p> <p> Having created the universe, God did not then leave it to itself, as if it were like a huge clock that he wound up and left to run automatically. God is still active in the physical universe. He maintains what he creates. Though he is Lord of creation and distinct from it, he works through it. He is over all things and in all things ( Psalms 147:8-9; Acts 17:24; Acts 17:28; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; see also | <p> [[A]] basic [[Christian]] belief is that God created all things, and that all three persons of the godhead were involved in the acts of creation. God spoke and, by the power of his creative word, it happened ( Genesis 1:1-3; Job 33:4; Psalms 33:6; Psalms 33:9; Psalms 102:25; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-2). </p> <p> '''The Creator and the universe''' </p> <p> God alone is eternal; therefore, before his initial act of creation, nothing existed apart from him. He created all things, visible and invisible. Even spirit beings, though they may have existed before the physical universe, are creatures whom God has made ( Genesis 1:1-2; Job 38:4-11; Psalms 33:6-9; Psalms 90:2; Isaiah 40:26-28; Isaiah 42:5; John 1:1-3; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11). Once God had created matter, he used the materials of the universe to make and develop the features of the universe. He made animals and humans, for example, out of materials he had made earlier ( Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:19). </p> <p> Having created the universe, God did not then leave it to itself, as if it were like a huge clock that he wound up and left to run automatically. God is still active in the physical universe. He maintains what he creates. Though he is Lord of creation and distinct from it, he works through it. He is over all things and in all things ( Psalms 147:8-9; Acts 17:24; Acts 17:28; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; see also [[Providence).]] </p> <p> The universe exists, above all, for the praise and glory of God. He created it, not as an act of necessity, but as an act of free grace; not because he had to, but because he chose to ( Isaiah 43:7; Acts 17:25; Romans 11:36; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11). It shows something of God’s love, power and wisdom ( Psalms 19:1-4; Jeremiah 10:12; Romans 1:20). </p> <p> God’s ‘rest’ after creation indicated that he was completely satisfied with all his created works. In his grace he gave the physical world to the people he had created and made them caretakers over it. God wanted them to enjoy his creation in fellowship with himself, and in so doing to share in his ‘rest’ ( Genesis 1:27-28; Genesis 2:1-3; Hebrews 4:3-10). </p> <p> But the human creatures refused to submit to their divine Creator, and as a result they ruined the relationship both with the Creator and with the physical creation. They brought disaster upon the human race as a whole and this had damaging consequences in the natural world ( Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 1:20-23; Romans 8:20). Only when the redeemed enters their full salvation at the end of the age will the created world enter its full glory ( Romans 8:21-23; Philippians 3:21; see [[Nature).]] </p> <p> '''Story of creation''' </p> <p> The chief purpose of the account of creation in Genesis is to provide an introduction to the story of God’s dealings with the human race. It shows that God created everything out of nothing, and that he brought the universe through various stages of development till it was a fitting dwelling place for human beings ( Genesis 1:1; Genesis 1:5; Genesis 1:8; Genesis 1:13; Genesis 1:19; Genesis 1:23; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 2:4-7). Modern science may at times cause people to think they are almost insignificant in relation to the size and complexity of the universe, but the Bible takes a different view. It is concerned above all with people, and says little about how the physical universe operates ( Psalms 8:3-9). </p> <p> God is pleased when men and women want to learn more about the wonders of his creation, but he has appointed that they do so by the hard work of study and investigation ( Genesis 3:19; Psalms 111:2). God does not usually give such information by direct revelation. The Bible is not a textbook on science, nor is it concerned with the sort of information that scientists are concerned with. Its purpose is not to teach scientific theories, but to give a short simple account of the beginning of things, and in language that people of any era or any background can understand. </p> <p> The language of the creation story, like that of the rest of the Bible, is not the technical language of the scientist, but the everyday language of the common people (cf. Genesis 1:16; Genesis 7:11-12; Genesis 40:22). The scientist may speak of the sun as the centre of the solar system, with the earth a minor satellite of the sun, and the moon a minor satellite of the earth. The Bible, by contrast, speaks of the heavens and the earth from the viewpoint of ordinary observers. To them the earth appears stationary, and the sun ‘rises’ and ‘sets’ as it moves around the earth ( 1 Chronicles 16:30; Ecclesiastes 1:5; Malachi 1:11; Matthew 5:45). The sun is the ‘greater light’ and the moon the ‘lesser light’ ( Genesis 1:16). The pictorial language of the Bible is different from the technical language of science, but the two are not necessarily in conflict. </p> <p> Science may tell us much about God’s creation, though it does so from a viewpoint that is different from the Bible’s. Science can help us understand how nature works, whereas the Bible is concerned with showing that God is the one who makes nature work. </p> <p> From science we may learn how the stars move, how the weather changes, or how plants grow, but from the Bible we learn that God is the one who makes these things happen ( Psalms 65:9-10; Psalms 78:20; Psalms 78:26; Psalms 104:1-30; Psalms 147:8; Matthew 5:45; Matthew 6:30). Although science may investigate how the creation developed, the Bible reveals that the development came about through the creative activity of the sovereign God. The ‘laws of nature’ are God’s laws ( Genesis 1:1; Genesis 1:7; Genesis 1:11; Genesis 1:20; Genesis 1:24; Hebrews 11:3). </p> | ||
== Charles Buck Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_19433" /> == | == Charles Buck Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_19433" /> == | ||
<p> In its primary import, signifies the bringing into being something which did not before exist. The term is therefore most generally applied to the original production of the materials whereof the visible world is composed. It is also used in a secondary or subordinate sense to denote those subsequent operations of the Deity upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of Nature, and all the primitive genera of things, receive their form, qualities, and laws. There is no subject concerning which learned men have differed in their conjectures more than in this of creation. "It is certain, " as a good writer observes, "that none of the ancient philosophers had the smallest idea of its being possible to produce a substance out of nothing, or that even the power of the Deity himself could work without any materials to work upon. Hence some of them, among whom was Aristotle, asserted that the world was eternal, both as to its matter and form. Others, though they believed that the gods had given the world its form, yet imagined the materials whereof it is composed to have been eternal. Indeed, the opinions of the ancients, who had not the benefit of revelation, were on this head so confused and contradictory, that nothing of any consequence can be deduced from them. </p> <p> The free-thinkers of our own and of former ages have denied the possibility of creation, as being a contradiction to reason; and of consequence have taken the opportunity from thence to discredit revelation. On the other hand, many defenders of the sacred writings have asserted that creation out of nothing, so far from being a contradiction to reason, is not only probable, but demonstrably certain. Nay, some have gone so far as to say, that from the very inspection of the visible system of Nature, we are able to infer that it was once in a state of non-existence." We cannot, however, here enter into the multiplicity of the arguments on both sides; it is enough for us to know what God has been pleased to reveal, both concerning himself and the works of his hands. "Men, and other animals that inhabit the earth and the seas; all the immense varieties of herbs and plants of which the vegetable kingdom consists; the globe of the earth, and the expanse of the ocean; these we know to have been produced by his power. Besides the terrestrial world, which we inhabit, we see many other material bodies disposed around it in the wide extent of space. </p> <p> The moon, which is in a particular manner connected with our earth, and even dependent upon it; the sun, and the other planets, with their satellites, which like the earth circulate round the sun, and appear to derive from him light and heat; those bodies which we call fixed stars, and consider as illuminating and cherishing, with heat each its peculiar system of planets; and the comets which at certain periods surprise us with their appearance, and the nature of whose connection with the general system of Nature, or with any particular system of planets, we cannot pretend to have fully discovered; these are so many more of the Deity's works, from the contemplation of which we cannot but conceive the most awful ideas of his creative power. "Matter, however, whatever the varieties of form under which it is made to appear, the relative disposition of its parts, or the motions communicated to it, is but an inferior part of the works of creation. We believe ourselves to be animated with a much higher principle than brute matter; in viewing the manners and economy of the lower animals, we can scarce avoid acknowledging even them to consist of something more than various modifications of matter and motion. The other planetary bodies, which seem to be in circumstances nearly analogous to those of our earth, are surely, as well as it, destined for the habitations of rational intelligent beings. the existence of intelligences of an higher order than man, though infinitely below the Deity, appears extremely probable. Of these spiritual beings, called angels, we have express intimation in Scripture (see the article | <p> In its primary import, signifies the bringing into being something which did not before exist. The term is therefore most generally applied to the original production of the materials whereof the visible world is composed. It is also used in a secondary or subordinate sense to denote those subsequent operations of the Deity upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of Nature, and all the primitive genera of things, receive their form, qualities, and laws. There is no subject concerning which learned men have differed in their conjectures more than in this of creation. "It is certain, " as a good writer observes, "that none of the ancient philosophers had the smallest idea of its being possible to produce a substance out of nothing, or that even the power of the Deity himself could work without any materials to work upon. Hence some of them, among whom was Aristotle, asserted that the world was eternal, both as to its matter and form. Others, though they believed that the gods had given the world its form, yet imagined the materials whereof it is composed to have been eternal. Indeed, the opinions of the ancients, who had not the benefit of revelation, were on this head so confused and contradictory, that nothing of any consequence can be deduced from them. </p> <p> The free-thinkers of our own and of former ages have denied the possibility of creation, as being a contradiction to reason; and of consequence have taken the opportunity from thence to discredit revelation. On the other hand, many defenders of the sacred writings have asserted that creation out of nothing, so far from being a contradiction to reason, is not only probable, but demonstrably certain. Nay, some have gone so far as to say, that from the very inspection of the visible system of Nature, we are able to infer that it was once in a state of non-existence." We cannot, however, here enter into the multiplicity of the arguments on both sides; it is enough for us to know what God has been pleased to reveal, both concerning himself and the works of his hands. "Men, and other animals that inhabit the earth and the seas; all the immense varieties of herbs and plants of which the vegetable kingdom consists; the globe of the earth, and the expanse of the ocean; these we know to have been produced by his power. Besides the terrestrial world, which we inhabit, we see many other material bodies disposed around it in the wide extent of space. </p> <p> The moon, which is in a particular manner connected with our earth, and even dependent upon it; the sun, and the other planets, with their satellites, which like the earth circulate round the sun, and appear to derive from him light and heat; those bodies which we call fixed stars, and consider as illuminating and cherishing, with heat each its peculiar system of planets; and the comets which at certain periods surprise us with their appearance, and the nature of whose connection with the general system of Nature, or with any particular system of planets, we cannot pretend to have fully discovered; these are so many more of the Deity's works, from the contemplation of which we cannot but conceive the most awful ideas of his creative power. "Matter, however, whatever the varieties of form under which it is made to appear, the relative disposition of its parts, or the motions communicated to it, is but an inferior part of the works of creation. We believe ourselves to be animated with a much higher principle than brute matter; in viewing the manners and economy of the lower animals, we can scarce avoid acknowledging even them to consist of something more than various modifications of matter and motion. The other planetary bodies, which seem to be in circumstances nearly analogous to those of our earth, are surely, as well as it, destined for the habitations of rational intelligent beings. the existence of intelligences of an higher order than man, though infinitely below the Deity, appears extremely probable. Of these spiritual beings, called angels, we have express intimation in Scripture (see the article [[Angel.)]] But the limits of the creation we must not pretend to define. </p> <p> How far the regions of space extend, or how they are filled, we know not. How the planetary worlds, the sun, and the fixed stars are occupied, we do not pretend to have ascertained. We are even ignorant how wide a diversity of forms, what an infinity of living animated beings may inhabit our own globe. So confined is our knowledge of creation, yet so grand, so awful, that part which our narrow understandings can comprehend!" "Concerning the periods of time at which the Deity executed his several works, it cannot be pretended that mankind have had opportunities of receiving very particular information. Many have been the conjectures, and curious the fancies of learned men, respecting it; but, after all, we must be indebted to the sacred writings for the best information." Different copies, indeed, give different dates. The Hebrew copy of the Bible, which we Christians, for good reasons, consider as the most authentic, dates the creation of the world 3944 years before the Christian era. The [[Samaritan]] Bible, again, fixes the era of the creation 4305 years before the birth of Christ. And the Greek translation, known by the name of the [[Septuagint]] version of the Bible, gives 5270 as the number of years which intervened between these two periods. </p> <p> By comparing the various dates in the sacred writings, examining how these have come to disagree, and to be diversified in different copies; endeavouring to reconcile the most authentic profane with sacred chronology, some ingenious men have formed schemes of chronology plausible, indeed, but not supported by sufficient authorities, which they would gladly persuade us to receive in preference to any of those above-mentioned. Usher makes out from the Hebrew Bible 4004 years as the term between the creation and the birth of Christ. Josephus, according to Dr. Wills, and Mr. Whiston, makes it 4658 years; and [[M.]] Pezron, with the help of the Septuagint, extends it to 5872 years. Usher's system is the most generally received. But though these different systems of chronology are so inconsistent, and so slenderly supported, yet the differences among them are so inconsiderable, in comparison with those which arise before us when we contemplate the chronology of the Chinese, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians, and they agree so well with the general information of authentic history, and with the appearances of nature and of society, that they may be considered as nearly fixing the true period of the creation of the earth." Uncertain, however, as we may be as to the exact time of the creation, we may profitably apply ourselves to the contemplation of this immense fabric. </p> <p> Indeed, the beautiful and multiform works around us must strike the mind of every beholder with wonder and admiration, unless he be enveloped in ignorance, and chained down to the earth with sensuality. These works every way proclaim the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of the Creator. Creation is a book which the nicest philosopher may study with the deepest attention. Unlike the works of art, the more it is examined, the more it opens to us sources of admiration of its great Author; the more it calls for our inspection, and the more it demands our praise. Here every thing is adjusted in the exactest order; all answering the wisest ends, and acting according to the appointed laws of Deity. Here the Christian is led into the most delightful field of contemplation. To him every pebble becomes a preacher, and every atom a step by which he ascends to his Creator. [[Placed]] in this beautiful temple, and looking around on all its various parts, he cannot help joining with the [[Psalmist]] in saying, [["O]] Lord, how manifold are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made them all!" </p> <p> See [[Eternity]] of [[God.]] </p> <p> See Ray and Blackmore on the Creation; art. Creation, Enc. Brit.; Derham's Astro and Physico- theology; Hervey's Meditations; La Pluche's Nature Displayed; Sturm's Reflections on the Works of God. </p> | ||
== Morrish Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_65554" /> == | == Morrish Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_65554" /> == | ||
<p> This word is principally applied to the act of bringing things into existence that did not exist before. This is expressed in Hebrews 11:3 : "things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." It is also applied to making new things out of material already in existence, thus, though man was 'made' of the dust of the ground, Genesis 2:7 , he is also said to have been <i> created, </i> the same Hebrew word, <i> bara </i> , being used in Genesis 1:1 for the creation of the world, that is used in Genesis 5:1,2 , for the creation of man. The passage in Hebrews 11 is important, because as men have no idea how anything can be brought into existence from nothing, they have talked of 'the eternity of matter;' the passage says it is 'by <i> faith </i> we understand' that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that seen things were not made of what is apparent. </p> <p> The discoveries made by geologists of the various strata of the earth, the fossils found therein, together with the time that would necessarily be required for the formation of those strata, raised a cry that scripture must be incorrect in saying all was done in seven days. This led Christians to compare these <i> works </i> of God in creation with His <i> words </i> in scripture; and the principal question resolved itself into this: where in scripture could be found the many thousands of years which were apparently needed under ordinary circumstances for the formation of the strata? [[Putting]] aside the <i> theories </i> of the geologists, the <i> facts </i> are undeniable. There are the various beds of different substances in layers, which any one can see for themselves. </p> <p> There are two ways in which Christians who have studied the subject hold that all difficulties are overcome. </p> <p> 1. That a long gap, of as many thousands of years as were necessary for the formation of the earth's crust, may be placed between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1 . That Genesis 1:1 refers to the original creation of the heaven and earth out of nothing; that the different beds were formed with the varying objects that are found therein as fossils, occupying a very long period. Then in Genesis 1:2 another condition is found: the earth by some means had become without form and void.* It was then ordered in view of the creation of man; and the various things were arranged and formed in the six days as detailed in Genesis 1 , as they are now found in and on the earth. </p> <p> *Some suppose this to have been the work of Satan. </p> <p> The principal objection to this is, that though there had been upheavals, depressions, earthquakes, sudden deaths, as evidenced by the contortions of fishes, in some of the early strata, there is no appearance after the various beds had been formed of what would answer to Genesis 1:2 , which says "the earth was without form and void." </p> <p> 2. The other theory is that Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 refer to the formation of the earth as matter, or that Genesis 1:1 refers to the creation of the earth, and that Genesis 1:2 refers to its being disordered by some means, as in the above theory, but that the various beds were formed with the fossils found therein during the six days recorded in Genesis 1; and that the days were of any needed indefinite length. It has been shown that the first things named as on the earth were grass and herbs, and these are always found in the lowest beds; and the other things created are found exactly in the same order <i> upwards </i> from the lowest, until man appears. These, in short, form three divisions: plants in the lowest beds; reptiles in the middle; mammals in the highest, with man the most recent. It is also asserted that no break has been discovered, as would be the case if after the beds had been formed destruction had come in, and an entirely new work of creation had begun again in what is recorded in Genesis 1 . Many of the existing species are contemporaneous with those that we know have ceased to exist. It is maintained that the term 'day' is often used for indefinite periods of time in scripture, and therefore may be so in Genesis 1; that they refer to <i> God's </i> days, and not to natural days, seeing that 'the evening and the morning' are spoken of before the sun, which naturally causes the evening and morning. Also that it is not consistent to hold that God's rest on the seventh day only alluded to 24 hours.†It is true that the introduction of sin marred God's rest; but this is not there contemplated. </p> <p> †It is asserted that long before any question of geology arose there were some among the Jews, as [[Josephus]] and Philo, and some among the Christians, as Whiston, Des Cartes, and De Luc, who believed that the 'days' of Genesis 1 were long periods. 'Creation,' Kitto's Cyclopaedia. </p> <p> To this theory it is objected that the words 'the evening and the morning' are too definite a description of the meaning of the word 'day' to allow the idea of indefinite periods. It is also held that Isaiah 45:18 (translating the passage "He created it not without form, he formed it to be inhabited") proves that God did not create the world in the first instance "without form and void." The word 'created' here is the same as in Genesis 1:1; and the words 'in vain' in the A.V. are the same as 'without form' in Genesis 1:2 . As to the correspondence in the order of created things it may be admitted that if the long periods come in between Genesis 1:1 and 2, the after order in the six days' creation is exactly the same God working, in the same order on the large scale (ages), and on the smaller (six days' work). </p> <p> [[Either]] of these theories sufficiently meets the supposed difficulty, and shows that God in His works does not clash with God in His word, though His word was never intended to teach science. </p> <p> In the creation we read that of every living thing each was made 'after his kind;' man was entirely separated from all others by God forming him in His own image and likeness, and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, thus leaving no room for the modern theory of evolution. God, who knew perfectly everything which He had created, declared it to be as it left His hands <i> very good </i> ; and the more His works are examined the more perfection is discovered in every minute detail both as to plan and purpose, suiting everything for the place which each and every one is intended to fill. [[Sin]] has come in and spoiled God's fair creation, but man, who has been the occasion of it, dares to ignore God, or to blame Him for the pains and penalties attached to fallen humanity. Man everywhere endorses Adam's sin by his own individual sins. </p> | <p> This word is principally applied to the act of bringing things into existence that did not exist before. This is expressed in Hebrews 11:3 : "things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." It is also applied to making new things out of material already in existence, thus, though man was 'made' of the dust of the ground, Genesis 2:7 , he is also said to have been <i> created, </i> the same Hebrew word, <i> bara </i> , being used in Genesis 1:1 for the creation of the world, that is used in Genesis 5:1,2 , for the creation of man. The passage in Hebrews 11 is important, because as men have no idea how anything can be brought into existence from nothing, they have talked of 'the eternity of matter;' the passage says it is 'by <i> faith </i> we understand' that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that seen things were not made of what is apparent. </p> <p> The discoveries made by geologists of the various strata of the earth, the fossils found therein, together with the time that would necessarily be required for the formation of those strata, raised a cry that scripture must be incorrect in saying all was done in seven days. This led Christians to compare these <i> works </i> of God in creation with His <i> words </i> in scripture; and the principal question resolved itself into this: where in scripture could be found the many thousands of years which were apparently needed under ordinary circumstances for the formation of the strata? [[Putting]] aside the <i> theories </i> of the geologists, the <i> facts </i> are undeniable. There are the various beds of different substances in layers, which any one can see for themselves. </p> <p> There are two ways in which Christians who have studied the subject hold that all difficulties are overcome. </p> <p> 1. That a long gap, of as many thousands of years as were necessary for the formation of the earth's crust, may be placed between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1 . That Genesis 1:1 refers to the original creation of the heaven and earth out of nothing; that the different beds were formed with the varying objects that are found therein as fossils, occupying a very long period. Then in Genesis 1:2 another condition is found: the earth by some means had become without form and void.* It was then ordered in view of the creation of man; and the various things were arranged and formed in the six days as detailed in Genesis 1 , as they are now found in and on the earth. </p> <p> *Some suppose this to have been the work of Satan. </p> <p> The principal objection to this is, that though there had been upheavals, depressions, earthquakes, sudden deaths, as evidenced by the contortions of fishes, in some of the early strata, there is no appearance after the various beds had been formed of what would answer to Genesis 1:2 , which says "the earth was without form and void." </p> <p> 2. The other theory is that Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 refer to the formation of the earth as matter, or that Genesis 1:1 refers to the creation of the earth, and that Genesis 1:2 refers to its being disordered by some means, as in the above theory, but that the various beds were formed with the fossils found therein during the six days recorded in Genesis 1; and that the days were of any needed indefinite length. It has been shown that the first things named as on the earth were grass and herbs, and these are always found in the lowest beds; and the other things created are found exactly in the same order <i> upwards </i> from the lowest, until man appears. These, in short, form three divisions: plants in the lowest beds; reptiles in the middle; mammals in the highest, with man the most recent. It is also asserted that no break has been discovered, as would be the case if after the beds had been formed destruction had come in, and an entirely new work of creation had begun again in what is recorded in Genesis 1 . Many of the existing species are contemporaneous with those that we know have ceased to exist. It is maintained that the term 'day' is often used for indefinite periods of time in scripture, and therefore may be so in Genesis 1; that they refer to <i> God's </i> days, and not to natural days, seeing that 'the evening and the morning' are spoken of before the sun, which naturally causes the evening and morning. Also that it is not consistent to hold that God's rest on the seventh day only alluded to 24 hours.†It is true that the introduction of sin marred God's rest; but this is not there contemplated. </p> <p> †It is asserted that long before any question of geology arose there were some among the Jews, as [[Josephus]] and Philo, and some among the Christians, as Whiston, Des Cartes, and De Luc, who believed that the 'days' of Genesis 1 were long periods. 'Creation,' Kitto's Cyclopaedia. </p> <p> To this theory it is objected that the words 'the evening and the morning' are too definite a description of the meaning of the word 'day' to allow the idea of indefinite periods. It is also held that Isaiah 45:18 (translating the passage "He created it not without form, he formed it to be inhabited") proves that God did not create the world in the first instance "without form and void." The word 'created' here is the same as in Genesis 1:1; and the words 'in vain' in the [[A.V.]] are the same as 'without form' in Genesis 1:2 . As to the correspondence in the order of created things it may be admitted that if the long periods come in between Genesis 1:1 and 2, the after order in the six days' creation is exactly the same God working, in the same order on the large scale (ages), and on the smaller (six days' work). </p> <p> [[Either]] of these theories sufficiently meets the supposed difficulty, and shows that God in His works does not clash with God in His word, though His word was never intended to teach science. </p> <p> In the creation we read that of every living thing each was made 'after his kind;' man was entirely separated from all others by God forming him in His own image and likeness, and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, thus leaving no room for the modern theory of evolution. God, who knew perfectly everything which He had created, declared it to be as it left His hands <i> very good </i> ; and the more His works are examined the more perfection is discovered in every minute detail both as to plan and purpose, suiting everything for the place which each and every one is intended to fill. [[Sin]] has come in and spoiled God's fair creation, but man, who has been the occasion of it, dares to ignore God, or to blame Him for the pains and penalties attached to fallen humanity. Man everywhere endorses Adam's sin by his own individual sins. </p> | ||
== American Tract Society Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_15859" /> == | == American Tract Society Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_15859" /> == | ||
| Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
== Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_55513" /> == | == Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_55513" /> == | ||
<p> <b> | <p> <b> [[Creation.]] </b> —The beginning of the world, as the earliest starting-point of time, is mentioned in Matthew 24:21, Mark 13:19. The other [[Gospel]] references to this subject include one by an [[Evangelist]] and two by our Lord Himself. The first ( John 1:3) teaches that the Divine Word, who afterwards became incarnate in Jesus ( John 1:14), was the direct [[Agent]] in Creation (cf. Colossians 1:6, Hebrews 1:2; and see following art.). The second ( John 5:17) occurs in a discussion on the Sabbath. In the words ‘my Father worketh hitherto,’ Jesus shows that the divine rest following the work of creation has been a period of continued Divine activity. His primary object is to justify His own works of healing on the Sabbath day, but He shows incidentally that the seventh ‘day,’ and therefore also the other ‘days,’ of Genesis 1 need not be understood in a literal sense. In the third allusion ( Matthew 19:4 ff., Mark 10:6 ff.) the words of Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:24, describing the original creation of man and woman, are quoted in support of Christ’s ideal of marriage (cf. Ephesians 5:31). </p> <p> James Patrick. </p> | ||
== Easton's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_30893" /> == | == Easton's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_30893" /> == | ||
Genesis 1:1,26 1 Corinthians 8:6 John 1:3 Colossians 1:16,17 Genesis 1:2 Job 26:13 Psalm 104:30 Isaiah 37:16 40:12,13 54:5 Psalm 96:5 Jeremiah 10:11,12 Colossians 1:16 Revelation 4:11 Romans 11:36 <p> Traditions of the creation, disfigured by corruptions, are found among the records of ancient Eastern nations. (See | Genesis 1:1,26 1 Corinthians 8:6 John 1:3 Colossians 1:16,17 Genesis 1:2 Job 26:13 Psalm 104:30 Isaiah 37:16 40:12,13 54:5 Psalm 96:5 Jeremiah 10:11,12 Colossians 1:16 Revelation 4:11 Romans 11:36 <p> Traditions of the creation, disfigured by corruptions, are found among the records of ancient Eastern nations. (See [[Accad]] .) [[A]] peculiar interest belongs to the traditions of the Accadians, the primitive inhabitants of the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. These within the last few years have been brought to light in the tablets and cylinders which have been rescued from the long-buried palaces and temples of Assyria. They bear a remarkable resemblance to the record of Genesis. </p> | ||
== Smith's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_71941" /> == | == Smith's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_71941" /> == | ||
<p> '''Creation.''' (The creation of all things is ascribed in the Bible to God, and is the only reasonable account of the origin of the world. The method of creation is not stated in Genesis, and as far as the account there is concerned, each part of it may be, after the first acts of creation, by evolution, or by direct act of God's will. The Hebrew word '''bara''' create is used but three times in the first chapter of Genesis - </p> <p> (1) as to the origin of matter; </p> <p> (2) as to the origin of life; </p> <p> (3) as to the origin of man's soul; and science has always failed to do any of these acts thus ascribed to God. </p> <p> All other things are said to be made. The order of creation as given in Genesis is in close harmony with the order as revealed by geology, and the account there given, so long before the records of the rocks were read or the truth discoverable by man, is one of the strongest proofs that the Bible was inspired by God. - Editor). </p> | <p> '''Creation.''' (The creation of all things is ascribed in the Bible to God, and is the only reasonable account of the origin of the world. The ''method'' of creation is not stated in Genesis, and as far as the account there is concerned, each part of it may be, after the first acts of creation, by evolution, or by direct act of God's will. The Hebrew word '''bara''' ''create'' is used but three times in the first chapter of Genesis - </p> <p> (1) as to the origin of matter; </p> <p> (2) as to the origin of life; </p> <p> (3) as to the origin of man's soul; and science has always failed to do any of these acts thus ascribed to God. </p> <p> All other things are said to be ''made'' . The ''order of creation'' as given in Genesis is in close harmony with the order as revealed by geology, and the account there given, so long before the records of the rocks were read or the truth discoverable by man, is one of the strongest proofs that the Bible was inspired by God. - Editor). </p> | ||
== King James Dictionary <ref name="term_59112" /> == | == King James Dictionary <ref name="term_59112" /> == | ||
<p> | <p> [[Creation,]] n. </p> 1. The act of creating the act of causing to exist and especially, the act of bringing this world into existence. Romans 1 . 2. The act of making, by new combinations of matter, invested with new forms and properties, and of subjecting to different laws the act of shaping and organizing as the creation of man and other animals, of plants, minerals, &c. 3. The act of investing with a new character as the creation of peers in England. 4. The act of producing. 5. The things created creatures the world the universe. <p> As subjects then the whole creation came. </p> 6. Any part of the things created. <p> Before the low creation swarmed with men. </p> 7. Any thing produced or caused to exist. <p> [[A]] false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain. </p> | ||
== Webster's Dictionary <ref name="term_105753" /> == | == Webster's Dictionary <ref name="term_105753" /> == | ||
| Line 39: | Line 39: | ||
== Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature <ref name="term_35438" /> == | == Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature <ref name="term_35438" /> == | ||
< | |||
== International Standard Bible Encyclopedia <ref name="term_2585" /> == | == International Standard Bible Encyclopedia <ref name="term_2585" /> == | ||
<p> '''''krē̇''''' -'''''ā´shun''''' ( בּרא , <i> '''''bārā'''''' </i> "to create"; κτίσις , <i> '''''ktı́sis''''' </i> , "that which is created," "creature"): </p> <p> 1. Creation as [[Abiding]] </p> <p> 2. Mistaken Ideas </p> <p> 3. True [[Conception]] </p> <p> 4. The Genesis [[Cosmogony]] </p> <p> 5. Matter Not [[Eternal]] </p> <p> 6. "Wisdom" in Creation </p> <p> 7. A F ree, Personal Act </p> <p> 8. Creation and [[Evolution]] </p> <p> 9. Is Creation Eternal? </p> <p> 10. Creation Ex Nihilo </p> <p> 11. From God's Will </p> <p> 12. [[Error]] of [[Pantheism]] </p> <p> 13. First Cause A N ecessary Presupposition </p> <p> 14. The End - T he Divine | <p> '''''krē̇''''' -'''''ā´shun''''' ( בּרא , <i> '''''bārā'''''' </i> "to create"; κτίσις , <i> '''''ktı́sis''''' </i> , "that which is created," "creature"): </p> <p> 1. Creation as [[Abiding]] </p> <p> 2. Mistaken Ideas </p> <p> 3. True [[Conception]] </p> <p> 4. The Genesis [[Cosmogony]] </p> <p> 5. Matter Not [[Eternal]] </p> <p> 6. "Wisdom" in Creation </p> <p> 7. [[A]] [[F]] ree, Personal Act </p> <p> 8. Creation and [[Evolution]] </p> <p> 9. Is Creation Eternal? </p> <p> 10. Creation [[Ex]] Nihilo </p> <p> 11. From God's Will </p> <p> 12. [[Error]] of [[Pantheism]] </p> <p> 13. First Cause [[A]] [[N]] ecessary Presupposition </p> <p> 14. The End - [[T]] he Divine Glory </p> <p> Literature </p> 1. Creation as Abiding <p> Much negative ground has been cleared away for any modern discussion of the doctrine of creation. No idea of creation can now be taken as complete which does not include, besides the world as at first constituted, all that to this day is in and of creation. For God creates not being that can exist independently of Him, His preserving agency being inseparably connected with His creative power. We have long ceased to think of God's creation as a machine left, completely made, to its own automatic working. With such a doctrine of creation, a theistic evolution would be quite incompatible. </p> 2. Mistaken Ideas <p> Just as little do we think of God's creative agency, as merely that of a First Cause, linked to the universe from the outside by innumerable sequences of causes and effects. Nature in her entirety is as much His creation today as she ever was. The dynamic ubiquity of God, as efficient energy, is to be affirmed. God is still All and in All, but this in a way sharply distinguished from pantheistic views, whether of the universe as God, or of God as the universe. Of His own freedom He creates, so that [[Gnostic]] theories of natural and necessary emanation are left far behind. Not only have the "carpenter" and the "gardener" theories - with, of course, the architect or world-builder theory of Plato - been dismissed; not only has the conception of evolution been proved harmonious with creative end, plan, purpose, ordering, guidance; but evolutionary science may itself be said to have given the thought of theistic evolution its best base or grounding. The theistic conception is, that the world - that all cosmic existences, substances, events - depend upon God. </p> 3. True Conception <p> The doctrine of creation - of the origin and persistence, of all finite existences - as the work of God, is a necessary postulation of the religious consciousness. Such consciousness is marked by deeper insight than belongs to science. The underlying truth is the anti-patheistic one, that the energy and wisdom - by which that, which was not, <i> became </i> - were, in kind, other than its own. For science can but trace the continuity of sequences in all Nature, while in creation, in its primary sense, this law of continuity must be transcended, and the world viewed solely as product of Divine Intelligence, immanent in its evolution. For God is the Absolute Reason, always immanent in the developing universe. Apart from the cosmogonic attempts at the beginning of Genesis, which are clearly religious and ethical in scope and character, the Old Testament furnishes no theoretic account of the manner and order in which creative process is carried on. </p> 4. The Genesis Cosmogony <p> The early chapters of Genesis were, of course, not given to reveal the truths of physical science, but they recognize creation as marked by order, continuity, law, plastic power of productiveness in the different kingdoms, unity of the world and progressive advance. The Genesis cosmogony teaches a process of becoming, as well as a creation (see [[Evolution]] ). That cosmogony has been recognized by Haeckel as meritoriously marked by the two great ideas of separation or differentiation, and of progressive development or perfecting of the originally simple matter. The Old Testament presents the conception of time-worlds or successive ages, but its real emphasis is on the energy of the Divine Word, bringing into being things that did not exist. </p> 5. Matter Not Eternal <p> The Old Testament and the New Testament, in their doctrine of creation, recognize no eternal matter before creation. We cannot say that the origin of matter is excluded from the Genesis account of creation, and this quite apart from the use of <i> '''''bārā'''''' </i> , as admitting of material and means in creation. But it seems unwise to build upon Genesis passages that afford no more than a basis which has proved exegetically insecure. The New Testament seems to favor the derivation of matter from the non-existent - that is to say, the time-worlds were due to the effluent Divine Word or originative Will, rather than to being built out of God's own invisible essence. So the best exegesis interprets Hebrews 11:3 . </p> 6. "Wisdom" in Creation <p> In Old Testament books, as the Psalms, Proverbs, and Jeremiah, the creation is expressly declared to be the work of Wisdom - a Wisdom not disjoined from Goodness, as is yet more fully brought out in the Book of Job. The heavens declare the glory of God, the world manifests or reveals Him to our experience, as taken up and interpreted by the religious consciousness. The primary fact of the beginning of the time-worlds - the basal fact that the worlds came into being by the Word of God - is something apprehensible only by the power of religious faith, as the only principle applicable to the case ( Hebrews 11:3 ). Such intuitive faith is really an application of first principles in the highest - and a truly rational one (see [[Logos]] ). In creation, God is but expressing or acting out the conscious Godhood that is in Him. In it the thought of His absolute Wisdom is realized by the action of His perfect Love. It is philosophically necessary to maintain that God, as the Absolute Being, must find the end of creation in Himself. If the end were external to, and independent of, Him, then would He be conditioned thereby. </p> 7. [[A]] [[F]] ree, Personal Act <p> What the religious consciousness is concerned to maintain is, the absolute freedom of God in the production of the universe, and the fact that He is so much greater than the universe that existence has been by Him bestowed on all things that do exist. The [[Scriptures]] are, from first to last, shot through with this truth. Neither Kant nor Spencer, from data of self-consciousness or sense-perception, can rise to the conception of creation, for they both fail to reach the idea of Divine Personality. The inconceivability of creation has been pressed by Spencer, the idea of a self-existent Creator, through whose agency it has been made, being to him unthinkable. As if it were not a transparent sophism, which Spencer's own scientific practice refuted, that a hypothesis may not have philosophical or scientific valuee, because it is what we call unthinkable or inconceivable. As if a true and sufficient cause were not enough, or a Divine act of will were not a <i> vera causa </i> . Dependent existence inevitably leads thought to demand existence that is not dependent. </p> 8. Creation and Evolution <p> Creation is certainly not disproved by evolution, which does not explain the origin of the homogeneous stuff itself, and does not account for the beginning of motion within it. Of the original creative action, lying beyond mortal ken or human observation, science - as concerned only with the manner of the process - is obviously in no position to speak. Creation may, in an important sense, be said not to have taken place in time, since time cannot be posited prior to the existence of the world. The difficulties of the ordinary hypothesis of a creation in time can never be surmounted, so long as we continue to make eternity mean simply indefinitely prolonged time. [[Augustine]] was, no doubt, right when, from the human standpoint, he declared that the world was not made in time, but with time. Time is itself a creation simultaneous with, and conditioned by, world-creation and movement. To say, in the ordinary fashion, that God created in time, is apt to make time appear independent of God, or God dependent upon time. Yet the time-forms enter into all our psychological experience, and a concrete beginning is unthinkable to us. </p> 9. Is Creation Eternal? <p> The time-conditions can be transcended only by some deeper intuition than mere logical insight can supply - by such intuitive endeavor, in fact, as is realized in the necessary belief in the self-existent God If such an eternal Being acts or creates, He may be said to act or create in eternity; and it is legitimate enough, in such wise, to speak of His creative act as eternal. This seems preferable to the position of Origen, who speculatively assumed an eternal or unbeginning activity for God as Creator, because the Divine Nature must be eternally self-determined to create in order to the manifestation of its perfections. [[Clearly]] did Aquinas perceive that we cannot affirm an eternal creation impossible, the creative act not falling within our categories of time and space. The question is purely one of God's free volition, in which - and not in "nothing" - the Source of the world is found. </p> 10. Creation Ex Nihilo <p> This brings us to notice the frequently pressed objection that creation cannot be out of nothing, since out of nothing comes nothing. This would mean that matter is eternal. But the eternity of matter, as something other than God, means its independence of God, and its power to limit or condition Him. We have, of course, no direct knowledge of the origin of matter, and the conception of its necessary self-existence is fraught with hopeless difficulties and absurdities. The axiom, that out of nothing nothing comes, is not contradicted in the case of creation. The universe comes from God; it does not come from nothing. But the axiom does not really apply to the world's creation, but only to the succession of its phenomena. [[Entity]] does not spring from non-entity. But there is an opposite and positive truth, that something presupposes something, in this case rather some One - <i> aliquis </i> rather than <i> aliquid </i> . </p> 11. From God's Will <p> It is enough to know that God has in Himself the powers and resources adequate for creating, without being able to define the ways in which creation is effected by Him. It is a sheer necessity of rational faith or spiritual reason that the something which conditions the world is neither ὕλη , <i> '''''húlē''''' </i> , nor elemental matter, but personal Spirit or originative Will. We have no right to suppose the world made out of nothing, and then to identify, as Erigena did, this "nothing" with God's own essence. What we have a right to maintain is, that what God creates or calls into being owes its existence to nothing save His will alone, [[Ground]] of all actualities. Preëxistent Personality is the ground and the condition of the world's beginning. </p> 12. Error of Pantheism <p> In this sense, its beginning may be said to be relative rather than absolute. God is always antecedent to the universe - its <i> prius </i> , Cause and Creator. It remains an effect, and sustains a relation of causal dependence upon Him. If we say, like Cousin, that God of necessity creates eternally, we run risk of falling into Spinozistic pantheism, identifying God, in excluding from Him absolute freedom in creation, with the impersonal and unconscious substance of the universe. Or if, with Schelling, we posit in God something which is not God - a dark, irrational background, which original ground is also the ground of the Divine Existence - we may try to find a basis for the matter of the universe, but we are in danger of being merged - by conceptions tinged with corporeity - in that form of pantheism to which God is but the soul of the universe. </p> <p> The universe, we feel sure, has been caused; its existence must have some ground; even if we held a philosophy so idealistic as to make the scheme of created things one grand illusion, an illusion so vast would still call for some explanatory Cause. Even if we are not content with the conception of a First Cause, acting on the world from without and antecedently in time, we are not yet freed from the necessity of asserting a Cause. An underlying and determining Cause of the universe would still need to be postulated as its Ground. </p> 13. First Cause a [[Necessary]] Presupposition <p> Even a universe held to be eternal would need to be accounted for - we should still have to ask how such a universe came to be. Its endless movement must have direction and character imparted to it from some immanent ground or underlying cause. Such a self-existent and eternal World-Ground or First Cause is, by an inexorable law of thought, the necessary correlate of the finitude, or contingent character of the world. God and the world are not to be taken simply as cause and effect, for modern metaphysical thought is not content with such a mere <i> ens extra-mundanum </i> for the Ground of all possible experience. God, self-existent Cause of the ever-present world and its phenomena, is the ultimate Ground of the possibility of all that is. </p> 14. The End - [[T]] he Divine Glory <p> Such a Deity, as <i> causa sui </i> , creatively bringing forth the world out of His own potence, cannot be allowed to be an arbitrary resting-place, but a truly rational Ground, of thought. Nor can His Creation be allowed to be an aimless and mechanical universe: it is shot through with end or purpose that tends to reflect the glory of the eternal and personal God, who is its Creator in a full and real sense. But the Divine. action is not dramatic: of His working we can truly say, with Isaiah 45:15 , "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." As creation becomes progressively disclosed to us, its glory, as revealing God, ought to excite within us an always deeper sense of the sentiment of Psalm 8:1 , Psalm 8:9 , [["O]] [[Yahweh]] our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" See also [[Anthropology]]; [[Earth]]; [[World]] . </p> Literature <p> James Orr, <i> Christian View of God and the World </i> , 1st edition, 1893; [[J.]] Iverach, <i> [[Christianity]] and Evolution </i> , 1894; [[S.]] Harris, <i> God the Creator and Lord of All </i> , 1897; [[A.]] [[L.]] Moore, <i> Science and the Faith </i> , 1889; [[B.]] [[P.]] Bowne, <i> Studies in [[Theism]] </i> , new edition, 1902; [[G.]] [[P.]] Fisher, <i> Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief </i> , new edition, 1902; [[J.]] Lindsay, <i> Recent Advances in Theistic [[Philosophy]] of Religion </i> , 1897; [[A.]] Dorner, <i> Religionsphilosophie </i> , 1903; [[J.]] Lindsay, <i> Studies in European Philosophy </i> , 1909; [[O.]] Dykes, <i> The Divine [[Worker]] in Creation and [[Providence]] </i> , 1909; [[J.]] Lindsay, <i> The Fundamental Problems of [[Metaphysics]] </i> , 1910. </p> | ||
== Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia <ref name="term_298" /> == | == Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia <ref name="term_298" /> == | ||
<ol> <li> <i> Date </i> . The date of creation cannot be determined. The first Statement of the book of Genesis places the time in remote and Impenetrable antiquity. </li> <li> <i> Creator </i> . The writer of Genesis offers no proof of the existence Of Jehovah or of the fact that all things were made by Him. ( Genesis 1:1,2; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:10; Hebrews 11:3 ). </li> <li> <i> Light </i> . The process of creation had probably been going on for Ages before light was created by the fiat of Jehovah ( Genesis 1:1,3; 2 Corinthians 4:4 ). </li> <li> <i> Days of Creation </i> . The fact that the creative work had been going On for unnumbered ages, leads the reverent student to the conclusion That the "days" were ordinary periods of twenty-four hours each, and That each product of [[Almighty]] power was finished and appointed to its Sphere on its designated day. The phrase "evening and morning" occurs Six times in the first account of creation, and it cannot be understood Except in the light of the above statement. </li> <li> <i> Order of Creation </i> . <ol> <li> Light, </li> <li> Firmament, </li> <li> Vegetation, </li> <li> Sun, moon, and stars, </li> <li> [[Water]] animals and fowls, </li> <li> Land animals, man--woman. </li> </ol> <p> Observe the steady march from the lower to the higher, from the Insensate to the intelligent, from the servitor to the sovereign. See The universe by God's hand touched to harmony; see the march of Creative power to its culmination in the making of the companion for Man, pure and innocent, the highest image of God, and hear the stars Sing together and the sons of God shout for joy over the completion of The mighty and glorious work! </p> </li> </ol> | <ol> <li> <i> Date </i> . The date of creation cannot be determined. The first Statement of the book of Genesis places the time in remote and Impenetrable antiquity. </li> <li> <i> Creator </i> . The writer of Genesis offers no proof of the existence Of Jehovah or of the fact that all things were made by Him. ( Genesis 1:1,2; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:10; Hebrews 11:3 ). </li> <li> <i> Light </i> . The process of creation had probably been going on for Ages before light was created by the fiat of Jehovah ( Genesis 1:1,3; 2 Corinthians 4:4 ). </li> <li> <i> Days of Creation </i> . The fact that the creative work had been going On for unnumbered ages, leads the reverent student to the conclusion That the "days" were ordinary periods of twenty-four hours each, and That each product of [[Almighty]] power was finished and appointed to its Sphere on its designated day. The phrase "evening and morning" occurs Six times in the first account of creation, and it cannot be understood Except in the light of the above statement. </li> <li> <i> Order of Creation </i> . <ol> <li> Light, </li> <li> Firmament, </li> <li> Vegetation, </li> <li> Sun, moon, and stars, </li> <li> [[Water]] animals and fowls, </li> <li> Land animals, man--woman. </li> </ol> <p> Observe the steady march from the lower to the higher, from the Insensate to the intelligent, from the servitor to the sovereign. See The universe by God's hand touched to harmony; see the march of Creative power to its culmination in the making of the companion for Man, pure and innocent, the highest image of God, and hear the stars [[Sing]] together and the sons of God shout for joy over the completion of The mighty and glorious work! </p> </li> </ol> | ||
==References == | ==References == | ||
