God did NOT create the world, says expert

Writers of the Bible got it wrong: God did NOT create the world, says expert

DUTCH Professor Ellen van Wolde, a respected Old Testament scholar and author, claims the first sentence of Genesis “in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth” is not a true translation of the Hebrew.

She claims she has carried out fresh textual analysis that suggests the writers of the great book never intended to suggest that God created the world – and in fact the Earth was already there when he created humans and animals.

Professor van Wolde

The Telegraph reports that Prof Van Wolde, 54, will present a thesis on the subject at Radboud University in The Netherlands where she studies.

She claims to have re-analysed the original Hebrew text and placed it in the context of the Bible as a whole, and in the context of other creation stories from ancient Mesopotamia.

She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb “bara”, which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean “to create” but to “spatially separate”.

The first sentence should now read:

In the beginning God separated the Heaven and the Earth.

According to Judeo-Christian tradition, God created the Earth out of nothing.

Prof Van Wolde, who once worked with the Italian academic and novelist Umberto Eco, said her new analysis showed that the beginning of the Bible was not the beginning of time, but the beginning of a narration.

She elaborated:

It meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself.

She writes in her thesis that the new translation fits in with ancient texts. According to them there used to be an enormous body of water in which monsters were living, covered in darkness, she said.

She said technically “bara” does mean “create” but added:

Something was wrong with the verb. God was the subject (God created), followed by two or more objects. Why did God not create just one thing or animal, but always more?

She concluded that God did not create, he separated: the Earth from the Heaven, the land from the sea, the sea monsters from the birds and the swarming at the ground. She explained:

There was already water. There were sea monsters. God did create some things, but not the Heaven and Earth. The usual idea of creating-out-of-nothing, creatio ex nihilo, is a big misunderstanding. God came later and made the earth livable, separating the water from the land and brought light into the darkness.

She said she hoped that her conclusions would spark “a robust debate”, since her findings are not only new, but would also touch the hearts of many religious people.

She said:

Maybe I am even hurting myself. I consider myself to be religious and the Creator used to be very special, as a notion of trust. I want to keep that trust.

A spokesman for the Radboud University said:

The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it.

Prof Van Wolde added:

The traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now.

mmm…I would agree with her but if she could tell me who had created the earth first?

mmm…I would agree with her but if she could tell me who had created the earth first?

perhaps a different god? 

i wonder what will be the next …

yes, i agree with her, god didn't create the world … he created the entire solar system along with the world xD @_@

I'm sorry to say that I give more credence to the thousands of years of Rabbinic study of the Bible than to a non-Jewish secular scholar trying to make a name for herself with an absurd claim.

The first sentence of Genesis in Hebrew is :

Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz

In the beginning gd created heaven and earth. 

'bara' has always meant to construct or create. 'avdel' is to seperate. The two verbs are both used in the same Torah portion.

this means nothing

because it is only  a linguistic question.to differenciate between the meanings of certain verbs in Hebrew language.

for us as muslims we believe that Torah which is actually in the hands of jews is not true.ther are many copies for Torah which means many important things in the right Torah have been  changed

r u djouzi ??

@

"for us as muslims we believe that Torah which is actually in the hands of jews is not true.ther are many copies for Torah which means many important things in the right Torah have been  changed"

Really? As far as I know, there is only one Torah, and it has never been changed ONCE.

If you can present one single Torah that is different from the others, then you'd be right, but this isn't the case.  And there is no proof in favour of the accusation either.

"perhaps a different god? "

 ooh, Gkiss, how and u said no god at all?

and now u believe in many gods but to believe in one is diffecult to u???!!!!emmm

"She sounds more like an atheist to me then an expert in religion!"

it is obvious Leaf ;)