>Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 17:37:36 -0400
>From: Murphy <gmurphy@imperium.net>
>To: Pattle Pun <Pattle.P.Pun@wheaton.edu>
>CC: Murphy <gmurphy@calvin.edu>, Keith B Miller <kbmill@ksu.edu>,
> asa@calvin.edu
>Subject: Re: Natural Theology, Unguided Processes and Apologetics
>
>Pattle Pun wrote:
>
>> > The creation of life in Gen.1 is _mediated_ - "Let the waters
>> > bring forth swarms of living creatures..." (v.20), & in the next verse
>> > this is described with the verb _bara_.
>>
>> Creation ex nihilo is based on the independent sentence, as agreed upon by
>> most conservative Hebrew scholars of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God
>> created heavens and earth", not from preexisting matters as Plato's
>> Timaeus.
>
> Conservative Hebrew scholars agree that this is the proper
>translation of v.1. To say it teaches _creatio ex nihilo_ (cen) goes
>beyond questions of Hebrew grammar. The whole of Ch.1 is _consistent_
>with cen because the acts of creation here depend entirely upon God:
>More is involved that the question of whether or not there is
>pre-existing "stuff".
> None of which changes the point I made: Creation of living
>things in Ch.1 is _bara_, depending for its occurrence entirely upon
>God, & is mediated _via_ the earth & waters as God created them.
>
>George L. Murphy
>gmurphy@imperium.net
>http://www.imperium.net/~gmurphy