|
|
Preface Introduction Chapters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Appendices Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Appendix IV Appendix V Appendix VI Appendix VII Appendix VIII Appendix IX Appendix X Appendix XI Appendix XII Appendix XIII Appendix XIV Appendix XV Appendix XVI Appendix XVII Appendix XVIII Appendix XIX Appendix XX Appendix XXI Indexes References Names Biblical References General Bibliography |
APPENDIX II (Reference: p.39) The Classical Concept of
Chaos. According to the Greek
poet Hesiod, in his Theogony (Bk. 116, chap. 123) written
somewhere around 775 BC., there was at the very beginning only a yawning
unfathomable abyss, an infinitude of empty space which was the womb
out of which the Universe came into existence. This empty space was referred to as
"The Chaos". Chaos existed before all
else, before the gods came into being, before the material Universe was
created, and therefore before the earth itself was formed. The conception of Chaos as
the confused mass out of which in the very beginning the
separate forms of material things arose, is not in view. This concept
belongs to a much later period. In his Metamorphoses
(I: 7), the Roman poet and historian Ovid equates Chaos with the
crude, shapeless mass into which the Archi- tect of the World
introduced order and harmony, thereby creating the Cosmos. But the
original Greek concept had placed Chaos before even the gods themselves,
and it had at that time no material sub- stance in it to be
organized. Ovid completed his Metamorphoses somewhere around 10 AD.,
or nearly eight centuries later. If it is remembered that the
Septuagint Version of the Book of Genesis was written about 120 BC., it
will be seen that the concept of Chaos was probably being
re-interpreted, meaning either the first empty space which preceded all things
OR the first state of unorganized matter. As far as I know, there is
no way of being certain which it was. However, the Septuagint
was undoubtedly written with Greek read- ers in mind, and probably to
most Greeks the concept of Chaos was still the traditional one,
a vast emptiness with matter not merely yet unformed but not even in
existence as a material substance at all. To the Hebrew scholars in
Alexandria who prepared the Septuagint Version, such could hardly
be taken as the meaning of Gen. 1.2 since the heaven and the
earth were already in existence created by God, as Gen. 1.1 clearly
states. Moreover, the very idea
involved in the Hebrew word bara
makes it very unlikely that they had in mind "an infinitude of
empty space" such as the Greek concept of Chaos signifies, because this
Hebrew word basically means "to smooth off" pg
1 of 2 or "to polish", a meaning which implies already existing material. Young, in his Analytical
Concordance, suggests the meaning of the word on the basis of biblical
usage as being "to cut" or "carve", both of which terms can only be
applied to something which already exists in substantial form. "Creation", to the Hebrew mind,
implies something more substantial
than an empty space. It is popularly said that
the word means "to create out of nothing". This concept is not
actually inherent in the Hebrew word bara, or perhaps one should say
rather, that it is not necessarily inherent. The proof of this is found
first in the fact that Adam was created out of the dust of the ground,
and not out of nothing: and the word itself is employed elsewhere in
Scripture of human activity. See,
for example: Josh. 17.15 and
18 where it is used of "cutting down" trees, in Ezek.23.47, of
"dispatching" people, ie., by slaughtering them; in Ezek.21.19, of
"cutting out" in the sense of choosing, much as the ranch hand "cuts
out" from the herd certain cattle for a special purpose. In I Sam. 2.29 it
is used in the sense of "carving out" for oneself the choicest cuts of
meat from the sacrifices being offered to God, a nice
illustration of how the true sense of the word illustrates a text which even the
Jerusalem Bible feels is obscure. It
is only obscure so long as one
attributes to the Hebrew word bara the meaning of creating as its
fundamental meaning. But clearly this is not its fundamental meaning. And while we are on this
subject, it may be worth observing that, contrary to a statement
which has been mis-applied to the biblical use of this word times
without number to the effect that the word is only used of divine
activity, it is quite evident that this is not the case. It is , however,
only found applied to divine activity in the light or qal form, a form which
signifies the most effortless kind of activity. That Creation was of such
a nature to God is nicely brought out in three Psalms, where we are
told that creation was the work of God's fingers (Psa. 8.3),
punishment the work of His hands.(Psa. 39.10), and salvation the work of His
arm (Psa. 77.15) - each involving, as it were, a larger part of His
total energies. * *
*
Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights reserved
|
