I heard Walton say that /bara'/ originally indicated arrangement rather
than origination. Seems to me that the general usage fits the latter
sense. See especially Isaiah 54:16; 65:18; Ezekiel 21:19; Amos 4:13.
Either we have a homonym or the term is not always used of God. See
Joshua 17:15, 18; Ezekiel 21:24; 23:47.
To get "had made" in Genesis 1:14ff, the usual claim, fights with the
normal Hebrew narrative forms. I consider it eisegesis.
Dave
On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:32:49 -0400 "Dick Fischer"
<dickfischer@verizon.net> writes:
In the creation account, the Hebrew word bara’ means create, and always
emanates from God. That can imply an ex nihilo creation, a literal out
of nothing creation (Gen. 1:1), or the use of elements brought into
existence previously as with primitive sea life (Gen. 1:21), also a man
and his woman (Gen. 1:27). The word “made” used in Genesis 1:14-19, is
the Hebrew ‘asah, a more general term, and may mean “appoint” or
“accomplish” in this verse.
The Septuagint avoids confusion: “God indeed made the two great
luminaries, the greater luminary for the regulations of the day, and the
lesser luminary, with the stars, for the regulations of the night ...”
Thus, on the first day God created the sun, moon, and stars in addition
to the earth, and on the fourth day, God appointed the sun to govern the
day and commissioned the moon and stars to rule the night.
Had the sun not been created until the fourth day, we would be left to
wonder what caused the demarcation between the “day” and “night” named on
the first day (Gen. 1:5). Furthermore, from what we know about the
physics of orbital objects, it would be impossible for the earth and its
sister planets to circle a blank spot in space awaiting the sun’s
creation.”
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Received on Mon Jun 19 14:50:10 2006
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