CREATION (kr8-a'shiln).
(1) Ohl Testament View. In the ideas implied by this term a subject of vast extent and most pro found interest is suggested; at the same time one in reference to which but little can be said to be so certainly known or distinctly understood as to afford adequate satisfaction to that curiosity which is so naturally excited in the human mind with respect to it.
In the first place the doctrine of revelation on this point, in the most general view, is chiefly founded on the simple ascription of the original formation of all things to Divine power, and on the title of the 'Creator' applied to the Deity. This is the constant language of all parts of Scripture, both of the Old and New Testaments; and in the meaning of the term 'create' we must seek the origin of those views which constitute the theological and revealed belief respecting the mode in which the world had its beginning.
The meaning of this word has been commonly associated with the idea of 'making out of noth ing,' but when we come to inquire more precisely into the subject, we can of course satisfy ourselves as to the meaning only from an examination of the original phrases.
Now, in the Hebrew Scriptures three distinct verbs are in different places employed with refer ence to the same Divine act, viz.: bara, create; asap, make; and satoar, form or fashion, and though each of these has its shade of distinction. yet the best critics understand them as so nearly synonymous that, at least in regard to the idea of making out of nothing, little or no foundation for that doctrine can be obtained from the use of the first of these words. They are used indif ferently and interchangeably in many passages; as, e. g. in Is. xliii :7, where they all three occur applied to the same divine act. The Septuagint renders indifferently by roleip, poi-ein% to make, and rrlreiv, to create. But especially in the account of the Creation in Gen. i the verbs are used irrespectively in verses 7, 16, 21, 25, etc.; and, comparing Gen. 1:27 and ii:7, man is said to have been created, yet he is also said to have been formed out of the ground. Again, in the Deca logue (Exod. xx:i I), the verb is asale, made, not created. In Gen. i the Septuagint has efi-ofay-sen, he made, throughout.
The word bara implies neither positively, on the one hand, a formation out of nothing, nor, on the other, positively a formation out of existing ma terials, but it is absolutely indefinite and neutral as to either of these conditions. Thus the original expression 'let there be light' (Gen. i :3), by no
means necessarily implies that light had never be fore existed. Upon the whole, the only difference between the three verbs lies in the degree of force in the expression ; bara, create, being simply the stronger and more emphatic word to express more forcibly the absolute power of the Creator.
(2) New Testament View. In the New Testa ment we have a similar indifferent use of the words to create and to make, in a great num ber of passages. The former is applied to the origin of the world in Mark xiii :19, and to the formation of man in 1 Cor. xi :9, and in some other places ; but most remarkably in Col. i :16. The same word is also applied in a spiritual sense in Eph. ii : io and other passages, in which the figure clearly involves formation out of what ex isted before ; as also in Eph. iv :24, Col. iii :10, etc. It manifestly implies previous materials in Heb. ix :II, as in the Septuagint version of the corre sponding passage in Lev. xvi :16. But more par ticularly in Rom. i :20, the expression for the in visible things of him from the creation of the world, etc., places in synonym the substantives corresponding to the verbs 'create' and 'fashion' or 'form.' If from the subject of the general idea of crea tion we turn to that of the particular mode in which the 'formation' of existing things (whether the crude material existed previously or not) is represented to have taken place, we find more ex tensive and express declarations in various parts of the Bible. The sacred writers refer largely to the Divine will and the announcement of that will by His word as the immediate agent, as in Ps. xxxiii :6, 9, and cxlviii :5 ; Rev. iv : 11, and many other places ; and this reference to the Divine word is considered by many to be in effect the same with the more direct ascription of the work of creation to the Divine logos, word, in John i :3; which again is explicitly referred to the Son of God in Eph. iii :9, and Heb. i :2, 3; and again, Col. i :16. These general representations of the creation all agree in speaking of it in terms of the most unbounded extent and universality of operation. This is observable in the last cited texts, and not less pointedly in Acts xiv :15, and xvii :24; Rev. x :6; besides many others ; but it is to be ob served, it is not expressed that this universal act took place at one and the same time, nor that it was either instantaneous or gradual. (See ADAM; COSMOGONY; NATURE.)