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.
[…]
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.”
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She writes in her thesis that the new translation fits in with ancient texts.[…]”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.”
you know, she just might be right
Hah, hah. She’s nuts.
Here is a secret about the Bible: its fiction. This is like arguing over the meaning of a sentence in The Lord of the Rings.
It gets worse. The Hebrew uses Elohim for God, which is plural of Eloi. So the first sentence literally translates to In the beginning, the Gods separated the heavens from the earth.
http://christianleadershipcenter.org/Bara.htm
Evidently, ((sic, as in who cares about evidence?)) this is not a new issue at all.
It shall remain a mystery this inviolate word of god. He said it, it was written down, but he didn’t stay around long enough to tell us what it means.
Hah, hah. Silly Hoomans.
Uncle Dave–your second link to the oldest ancestor of man is also very informative. Everyone should click on it for a quick read.
Reminded me of someone commenting that each and every fossil is “a transitional species.” Thinking about our development–its magical/spiritual how we separated, some would say “bara”-tized from our environment.
In all fairness, I doubt this will shake anyone’s faith. This is a fascinating area of investigation of ancient linguistics and shows just how difficult this type of work is.
The Jewish/Christian/Muslim religion is not based on a single scriptural passage but rather thousands of contradictory and difficult to translate passages.
Don’t believe in this nonsense… Join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Even Ardi is not any conclusive evidence for evolution. How can scientists suddenly say “Evolution had practically nothing to stand on, UNTIL NOW THANKS TO ARDI,” if it hasn’t been false all along. Twisted science people. Actually it’s just non-science.
Bible Scholar my a$$. It took me all of five minutes to find instances of “Bara” in the OT which make no sense if it means “separate”. The biblical story may have had origins in a myth of a separation of the earth from the water (similar to the Babylonian myth in which the primordial sea existed before the gods, and Marduk created the earth from the body of the god/monster Tiamat). But that’s not what the bible itself says. As others said, the same word is used for creating not just the earth and the heavens, but also the great reptiles, the birds, and people.
#9–Jag==AMAZING====I see the trinity in the FSM too!! Holy Trioka. We must all worship three!!!! This is going to be good news tonight when I reveal this to my wife and her sister. THREE, much better than ONE. Makes me rethink what one plus one “actually” means.
You know, when the wing nuts can find death panels in a modern document like whatever health plan bill they found it in, its no wonder what highjinks they can come up with various documents from 1000’s of years ago in a language they don’t even speak.
But seriously folks, how can this woman say god didn’t create everything from nothing? He must have, and then he separated it===or whatever====or certainly NOT.
Silly Hoomans.
Now where is Dr. Dodd claiming there can be only 1 interpretation of the bible?
Since both creation myths in Genesis are rip-offs of Babylonian stories, it’s interesting to look at the root of bara in Babylonian and Assyrian. The best sense of the meaning of bara there is “to give birth” or “produce”.
Now that put’s a whole different slant on things when you think about it.
#11 – bobbo
Have faith, brother!
More interesting reading/interpretation of first sentence of Genesis “in the beginning (he)created God, Heaven and the Earth”
Now the question is: Who is he that created God firs?
That’s nothing. I highly recommend *The Evolution of God*, by Robert Wright.
Biblical scholars have long known, for instance, that the texts of Genesis presume the existence of other gods besides Yawheh.
And don’t bother to tell your Christian friends what’s already in the Bibles on their shelves. The Godly command, for instance, that if your daughter is raped, you must force her to marry her rapist — otherwise, both she and the rapist are to be stoned to death…
There are few people as ignorant of the Bible as Christians…
Wretched Gnu, it a terrific book – good recommendation. I was fascinated by his argument around monotheism breeding intolerance and how it has led to “God-on-God” violence and wars.
so give her an ipod loaded with Beatles music as a parting gift and send her on her way. I mean who “really” gives a
google anonib bara B)
#21. Try Russell’s, History of Western Philosophy. There are a few big words, no pencil sketches of burning bushes. http://bit.ly/34HjA
Academic.
Bible.
Both full of shit.
When are humans going to get past the madness of believing in such inane fairy tales?
Poor Alfred, his life is disintegrating before our very eyes as his book of fiction is being torn apart. He’s going quote crazy again! Yawn.
Don’t forget to check out evilbible.com and skepticsannotatedbible.com for the critical thinker. Great sites, right Alfred?
Besides the fact that she’s actually wrong… even if she is right… the most troubling thing for Atheists is still the incredibly insightful “in the beginning” part. Go ahead… think of more loony ideas to make the universe eternal… go ahead.
Hsi pee-pee is about 10x the size of my sons.
His – I’m lysdexic.
#2,
You arnt right. Its a history and rules to live by. Its not fiction.
Im waiting for someone to estimate that the bible was a Conglomeration of religious beliefs at the time, Gathered together to form 1, that would fit ALL..
Prof Van Wolde, 54, 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”.
This is not a surprising belief because it’s exactly what Seventh-day Adventists teach. http://everythingimportant.org/genesis
I believe that the Hebrew verb “bara” means “to organize,” which is a form of creating.
This all begs the question: How BIG is God’s penis, and what exactly does HE do with it?
Silly Hoomans indeed.
#34–Omar==I think he uses it to paint his image onto toast. God has always instructed us thru bread, bread products, and wheat. We just don’t pay enough attention.