Devastating News for Traditional Believers

Expatica.com, a web site that presents Dutch news in brief, reports in its October 8, 2009 edition that Professor Ellen Van Wolde, an Old Testament scholar and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, said that Genesis 1:1 has been translated incorrectly and that a correct translation of the first verse of Genesis negates the view that God is the creator of heavens and earth.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

Trouw reports the “Opening sentence of the bible is incorrect” and a “New interpretation of original Hebrew Genesis text negates God as the creator”.

According to Professor Ellen van Wolde, God did not create heaven and earth. Instead he separated them.

Professor Van Wolde, an Old Testament scholar and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, said the standard interpretation of the opening sentence of the bible is no longer acceptable: “The traditional image of God the Creator is untenable. God did not create.”

The professor, who will present her thesis at the Radboud University in Nijmegen on Friday, re-analysed the original Hebrew text and placed it in the context of the Bible as a whole and of other creation stories from Mesapotamia. She eventually concluded the Hebrew verb bara does not mean to create but to spatially separate.

The Radboud University said the new interpretation is ‘No less than a disruption of the story of the creation as we know it’.

Professor Van Wolde said she understood her findings, which are soon to be published in a leading scientific magazine, will be devastating to traditional believers.

The statement that a new translation of Genesis 1:1 “will be devastating to traditional believers,” is nothing new. Secular people, especially those in academic circles, have said that there is no God and if there is one, he was not the creator of the world.

The biblical teaching about creation is that the created order finds its origin in a creator. What the Bible teaches is that God not only created the world, but that he remains sovereign over his creation.

The world is not self-existent, no matter what the proponents of the Big Bang theory say. God may have used the Big Bang and he even may have used evolution to accomplish his purpose. Whatever rationale people may use to explain the creation of the universe, creation is God’s work alone. It is the greatest demonstration of divine power and no retranslation of Genesis 1:1 can deny this reality.

What does God think of those who deny the truth that he is the creator? Maybe, the words of the psalmist express God’s amusement at these denials: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision” (Psalm 2:4).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Creation, Genesis 1:1

In the Beginning God

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 NIV).

The opening words of the Bible begin with a majestic declaration that in the beginning of all things there was God and that God was the creator of the beginning. This opening declaration teaches us that the world did come into being by itself, but it had its beginning by the action of a creator. The opening declaration of Genesis is also an affirmation of the sovereignty of the one who by the power of his word created all things.

The creation of the world as presented in the first chapter of Genesis (Genesis 1:1-2:3) is structured around a patter of sevens. In the Ancient Near East the number seven carries the idea of completeness. The first verse of Genesis contains seven words in Hebrew. Creation is accomplished in seven days. The expression “And God saw that it was good” appears seven times in the narrative of creation. The expression “God saw” also appears seven times. The word “God” appears thirty-five times in Genesis 1:1-2:3, that is, five times seven. God rested on the seventh day and the section dedicated to the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-3) has thirty-fine words in Hebrew, that is, five times seven.

The declaration that God is the creator of all things is an affirmation that God is the owner and Lord of the heavens and earth. Since this sovereign God made us in his image, we must acknowledge him as our God: “Our deliverer is the LORD, the Creator of heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Creation, Creator

The Moral Value of Plants

The Federal Ethics Committee in Geneva has submitted a report on the dignity of plants. According to a press release, the report “condemned the decapitation of flowers without reason, among other sins.”

According to the members of the committee, plants deserve respect and killing them arbitrarily was morally wrong, except when it comes to saving human life.

A few members of the committee objected to genetic engineering of plants since such action infringes on the plant’s “moral value.”

I believe Christians should be good stewards of God’s creation, but the view proposed by this committee is going too far. Consider “the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven” (Luke 12:28 NET), do they have the moral capacity to say to humans that to use them as fuel for the fire is a sin against them?

We kill trees to make paper, we kill corn to make fuel for cars, we kill soy to make soap for human consumption, and we decapitate roses to make our wives happy.

If allowing plants to die without reason is a sin, should we rescue plants when they are being scorched by the hot sun (Mark 4:6)? Should we try to save plants when they are being killed by other plants (Luke 8:7)? The grass will always wither and the flowers will always fade when the wind of the Lord blows upon them (Isaiah 40:7) and there is nothing we can do about that.

We recognize the dignity of human life and work hard to preserve it. We recognize the worth of animals and abhor animal cruelty. We also appreciate the value of plants because they are part of God’s beautiful creation. However, there is a difference between humans, animals, and plants. Enjoying the beauty of the lilies of the field is one of the joys God has given to his creatures. And picking one of them for their beauty and enjoyment is not a sin against the Creator, much less a sin against the plant.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Creation, Plants

The Bible and Pre-Adamic Man

Jay D. Homnick, in an article published in The Jewish Press discusses the biblical and Talmudic views of Creation. In his article Homnick deals with how the Talmud views and interprets God’s act of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. He also discusses the reluctance some people today have dealing with people such as Darwin and Dawkins and “their contention that the processes of natural development could have occurred without being set in motion and/or guided by a supreme Creator.”

In his article, Homnick also discusses how the Bible and the Talmud deals with the issue of prehistoric man. Interpreting passages such as Psalm 105:8 and 1 Chronicles 16:15, the Talmud says that there were 974 generations of prehistoric man that existed before Adam.

The following is an excerpt of Homnick’s article:

As startling as this approach must have been to the assumed orthodoxies in other religions and secular systems, nothing can compare in bombshell status to the biblically hinted, and Talmudically expounded, notion of prehistoric man.

The Talmud in Shabbos (88b) indicates there were 974 generations of prehistoric man. In Chagiga (13b) the Talmud sounds more like those generations were never actualized. The Midrash Rabba (Genesis 28) says they were wiped out.

While it remains somewhat unclear exactly what these 974 generations represent, this seems to be a matter of prime importance that is stressed in two verses (Psalms 105:8, Chronicles I 16:15). These verses point out that the Torah was given to the thousandth generation, which is explained by the Midrash to mean the 974 prehistoric generations plus the 26 from Adam until Moses.

Apparently, this highlights the high level of Torah – that it took a thousand stages in the creation of man, stages designated as “generations,” before man could receive such exalted wisdom.

The Jews traveled through history for millennia studying the Talmud and Midrash, comfortable with a unique concept of prehistoric man, a concept that gave that creature (or idea) a 974:26 edge in pre-biblical generations.

If geology and archaeology have indeed yielded specimens that are indisputably prehistoric men (I am not expert enough to be certain of this), they are substantiating one of the most mysterious parts of the Jewish intellectual tradition.

Personally, I do not believe that Psalm 105:8 is talking about prehistoric man. What amazes me is that many years before Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species and Richard Dawkins published his book The God Delusion, Jewish scholars were talking about prehistoric creatures that existed before Adam. What is also amazing is that they did not see the idea of the existence of pre-Adamic man as a threat to their faith.

Is there a lesson in the Talmud for twenty-first century Christians?

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Adam, Creation, Darwin, Dawkins, Evolution, Prehistoric Man, Talmud