So are these theologians correct? Did God actually create the universe out of nothing, or is he perhaps merely a craftsman who shaped and organized matter and brought order to a chaos that preexisted eternally? The phrase “creation out of nothing” is not found in the Bible, so does the Bible actually teach such an idea, and does it matter whether or not it is true? These are some of the questions we will tackle in this series. It will be our objective to demonstrate that the classical Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) is firmly rooted in Scripture and that the doctrine is critical to our understanding of the world.

We begin by taking a look at the opening verses of Genesis. Central to our understanding of these verses is the nature of the grammar used to describe God’s action as he opens the curtain on creation. At issue is whether Genesis 1:1 is construct or absolute. Paul Copan and William Lane Craig argue that “it has become popular in some scholarly circles to insist that the Old Testament’s view of creation must be similar to the views of Israel’s ancient pagan neighbors, all of whom held to some version of creation out of preexisting matter” (“Craftsman or Creator,” in The New Mormon Challenge, 110). This has led a number of such scholars to interpret Genesis 1:1 in a construct sense.

For example, the New English Bible translates Genesis 1:1-2: “In the beginning of creation, when God made heaven and earth, the earth was without form and void.” Similar translations appear in the New American Bible and the New Jewish Bible. What is implied in these translations is that something existed before God began to create. This is quite different from the English Standard Version which translates Genesis 1:1-2 based on an absolute interpretation: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void….” The NIV and NASB also follow this understanding of the Hebrew grammar. Which is more accurate? Answering this question is critical because, as Copan and Craig assert, at stake is “either monotheism (God as the ultimate, eternally existent Being) or an eternal dualism (God and chaotic matter are coeternal)” (Creation Out of Nothing, 38).

Those who favor the construct view often argue that the lack of an article in the original (in beginning instead of in [the] beginning) entails such an interpretation. However, many sober exegetes disagree with this, among them G. Wenham, N. H. Ridderbos, James Barr, and John Sailhamer, and have shown that such phrases can be found in a number of other places throughout the Scriptures where an absolute sense is clearly intended (e.g., Is 40.21; 41:4, 26; 46:10; 48:16; Pr 8:23; Ecc 3:11). Copan and Craig conclude “that it just has not been shown that beresith (in [the] beginning) cannot have an absolute sense” (Creation Out of Nothing, 39). Therefore, it would seem questionable to insist on a translation of these verses suggesting that the earth existed before God’s creative work.

In addition, Genesis 1:1 is followed by the Hebrew conjunctive waw (and in English) suggesting that Genesis 1:1 is more than just a heading or a title. Copan and Craig point out that “the function of the waw (and) in 1:2 is to connect the various subsequent acts of creation with 1:1 as ‘the primary foundation on which they rest...[and] as the historical context or setting for what follows in 1:2 and beyond" (Creation Out of Nothing, 42).

Another piece of evidence in favor of God’s absolute creation appearing in Genesis 1:1 is the phrase “the heavens and the earth.” This is a rhetorical device known as a merism. It is a common literary technique in the Old Testament expressing the idea of totality. For example, the phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” is a merism frequently used by the ancient writers to refer to all of geographical Israel. Therefore, the writer appears to be employing this device to communicate clearly that in the beginning, God created everything that is other than God himself. This phrase, therefore, precludes the existence of eternal matter or primordial chaos so common in Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies and leaves the biblical account of origins standing unique among them.

In our next post, we will conclude our examination of the Old Testament evidence for the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo.

Blessings, 

Arnie Gentile        

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