Professor Ellen van Wolde, a world acclaimed Old Testament scholar, may have introduced a considerable problem for creationists. What if the Bible never actually said God “created the Heaven and the Earth”? Van Wolde has issued an intriguing paper suggesting that a mistranslation is responsible for an error in the first sentence of Genesis and that in reality the Bible says that God merely rearranged things on the pre-existing Earth. Much of this turns on the Hebrew verb “bara”, which she says did not mean “to create” but to “spatially separate.” That would require Creationists to rename themselves as “separatists.” “Baristas” may cause trademark issues with Starbucks.
Professor van Wolde looked at the first line of Genesis that reads “in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth” and found that the Hebrew text had been translated incorrectly. The proper translation, she argues, is that the Earth was already there when God created humans and animals.
The use of bara she argues was “meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself.”
She concludes “[t]he traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now.”
For the full story, click here.
If I quoted a kindergarten picture book on how the stork delivers babies to expectant parents in a lecture on sex and childbirth…it would have as much relevance as ANY mention of the Bible in a scientific discussion… Neither it’s contents, nor it’s ‘interpretation’ (adjustments made later by an infinite number of biblical scholars)is of any importance to this subject.
Not so much as a dime of research funding should ever be wasted on any efforts to marry biblical fiction with data(like clipping the pieces of a puzzle to make the end result look more like what god intended),or even attempt to figure out what the creators of christianity/bible authors were thinking when they wrote it. You’re merely trying to reinterpret a piece of fiction.
Works of fiction usually have many instances of factual references in the story,( the best ones have the most-it’s always been an effective device) but that doesn’t change them from fiction to nonfiction…
If someone’s mythology dictates the musing of it’s core literature, then, well,…muse away!
The re-labeling of biblical creationism is amusing, yet of no real consequence to anyone who doesn’t need the myth…
Tootie:
“Look, if the bible says I can KNOW God, I believe it, and that is accomplished according to scripture (not anything I invented).”
***************
It boils down to: I believe in the Bible because the Bible tells me too. Sound juvenile to you there, Ms. Tootie?
interesting – doesnt that make the whole problem of timing go away for Christians? That would explain a lot of carbon dating issues used to say God didnt create the earth. But the Word is prety clear when it says the Spirit of God moved ove rthe face of the waters that the earth was already there anyway. Must have come form a previous word spoken by God millions and millions of years before … or maybe only life took an actual word from Him and the earth was merely a thought, or even a dream …. i see no problem here, only science proving Gods existence whether it wants to or not. but that happens everywhere already so this is nothing different
mespo:
Look, if the bible says I can KNOW God, I believe it, and that is accomplished according to scripture (not anything I invented).
It reads:
“And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3
I am to know God through the eternal life achieved by Christ’s burial, resurrection, and salvation of the lost.
Now, if you wish to make up other stuff about about what the bible doesn’t say, you are free to do so. I’m just trying to stick to the biblical facts as I see them written.
Frustrated:
Thank you for your kind comments. God bless you!