Richard Alleyne
The Telegraph, UK
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:04 CST
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God Not Creator
© PA
The Earth was already there when God created humans and animals, says academic.
Professor Ellen van Wolde, a respected Old Testament scholar and author, claims the first sentence of Genesis "in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth" is not a true translation of the Hebrew.

She claims she has carried out fresh textual analysis that suggests the writers of the great book never intended to suggest that God created the world -- and in fact the Earth was already there when he created humans and animals.

Prof Van Wolde, 54, who will present a thesis on the subject at Radboud University in The Netherlands where she studies, said she had re-analysed the original Hebrew text and placed it in the context of the Bible as a whole, and in the context of other creation stories from ancient Mesopotamia.

She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb "bara", which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean "to create" but to "spatially separate".

The first sentence should now read "in the beginning God separated the Heaven and the Earth"

According to Judeo-Christian tradition, God created the Earth out of nothing.

Prof Van Wolde, who once worked with the Italian academic and novelist Umberto Eco, said her new analysis showed that the beginning of the Bible was not the beginning of time, but the beginning of a narration.

She said: "It meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself."

She writes in her thesis that the new translation fits in with ancient texts.

According to them there used to be an enormous body of water in which monsters were living, covered in darkness, she said.

She said technically "bara" does mean "create" but added: "Something was wrong with the verb.

"God was the subject (God created), followed by two or more objects. Why did God not create just one thing or animal, but always more?"

She concluded that God did not create, he separated: the Earth from the Heaven, the land from the sea, the sea monsters from the birds and the swarming at the ground.

"There was already water," she said.

"There were sea monsters. God did create some things, but not the Heaven and Earth. The usual idea of creating-out-of-nothing, creatio ex nihilo, is a big misunderstanding."

God came later and made the earth livable, separating the water from the land and brought light into the darkness.

She said she hoped that her conclusions would spark "a robust debate", since her finds are not only new, but would also touch the hearts of many religious people.

She said: "Maybe I am even hurting myself. I consider myself to be religious and the Creator used to be very special, as a notion of trust. I want to keep that trust."

A spokesman for the Radboud University said: "The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it."

Prof Van Wolde added: "The traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now."

Give the link mightymoe. I want to read it first.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/6274502/God-is-not-the-Creator-claims-academic.html

yellowrose posted a link for you, but it is mainly about how she feels that the bible was mis-interpreted... could be, i guess... i don't speak ancient hebrew...

Thank you yellowrose for the link. Accdg to the old testament. In the beginning when God made the heaven and the earth; the earth is void and formless.. Maybe she was the one who mis interpret the bible.

maybe... i'm not A biblical scholar, so i don't know...i don't remember it saying the earth was a void either....

Anything spoken or written can be misinterpreted, even without the complications of multiple language barriers.

It is impossible to know with all certainty the true meaning of an author or if the author fully understood the true meaning of the story as it was passed down, or even as it was heard straight from the sources mouth.

The length of time we have committed to the education of languages is wonderful, but does not bridge language issues that only the speakers/writers of any given time could answer.

For instance, when someone refers to a GAY MAN today, I am 90% certain they are saying he is homosexual. There was a time when a GAY MAN was only known as elated and full of joy. There is also a time past our comprehension when not even the best linguist today could know with 100% accuracy what a GAY MAN was to their society.

Just putting that out there for consideration.

i agree, not to mention the fact that it has been rewritten countless times, to tune it up a bit...plus that, 10 people can read the bible and interpret it 10 different ways...

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

Funny that I got stuck on that first line. I couldn't help but wonder where the angels were supposed to be kept before heaven was created. Anyway, I don't wish to go off topic.


this appears to make more sense.

I don't know about you, but I would never consider GAY MAN.

you make a good point. I'll dare to take it a step further and say that meaning is realitive per se. Not that it's a problem that needs fixing.Maybe language only needs to be good enough to be useful, but not perfectly accurate.

Agree, interpretation is everything...I am skeptical of what all too often feels like agenda driven interpretation and prefer to read and study the Bible at my own pace and make my own determination(s) as to meaning, especially when I am searching for meaning!!...

if not, there are plenty of people that can tell you what it means...

Got that right Moe!...Personally, I steer clear!

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
(John 14:16-17)

note: The Spirit brings people to the truth of God. All three persons of the Trinity are linked with Truth.
Without the Spirit you can not discern Truth.

sounds like a bunch of goobledegook... if there is a god, why does he need your prayers? 7 billion people praying to him, and he's going to focus on any one persons prayers?.... sounds fishy to me...

God focus is on everyone!!! God does not need Us we need Him, that is why we pray to him not for Him. My response was about receiving the Holy Spirit.

Not that mighty he is not just listening to one prayer. HE is all-knowing. He already know what each and everyone of us pray or felt. He knows you even to the deepest of your soul.

and what are you praying about? 99% of the time it's something they want, like a magical being will do it for them... sorry, i just can't grasp that notion...

if you say so... if he already knows, then whats with the praying? just wait, and he will do it for you, since he already knows....

i don't think i will ever understand the praying part of this...