Bible Geek Word Nerd - God Created

God CREATED

 May 5, 2022

“In the beginning God CREATED the heavens and the earth.”

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Genesis 1:1

 

The ancient Jewish sages wondered why the first word – BERESHITH – of their sacred Text begins with the second letter – that is, the B (בְּ) – of their ALEPH-BETH, rather than the first. Their whimsical answer is that God was reserving the first letter – the ALEPH (א) – for an even higher purpose than the physical creation: the giving of the Torah. And thus the Ten Words (i.e., the Ten Commandments) begin: “I am (אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ ANOKHI) the LORD your G-d, Who brought you out from the Land of Egypt” ( אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם). 

 

This answer also hints at something more significant about the purpose of these first words of the Genesis text: they are not there to explain HOW things were created, only by WHOM they were created (pace, Ken Ham). The Scriptures were never intended to be “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” (for all you Evangelicals out there raised on Summer Vacation Bible Schools). Certainly, the Bible has instructions. But just as the Torah comprises much more than “law”, the Scriptures comprise much more than basic instructions.

Which leads us to today’s Bible word.: the word behind “created”: BARA (בָּרָא). 

 

BARA principally means “to shape, create”. It occurs more than 50 times in the Hebrew Bible, from its first appearance here in Genesis 1, to Psalm 51 (“CREATE in me a clean heart”), to Ezekiel 21 (“MAKE a signpost where the road branches off to the city”), to Malachi 2 (“did not one G-d CREATE us?”). 

 

BARA almost always refers to the making of something new (not necessarily something from nothing, but something which did not previously exist). And as a verb, it is almost always used in the sense of the Divine – G-d Himself – doing the creating.