28 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL 



The second verse may describe the condition of the earth 

 on the evening of this first day ; (for in the Jevv^ish mode of 

 computation used by Moses, each day is reckoned from the 



creatures of God's hand, do we at all mean that we were physically 

 formed out of nothing. In like manner, whether bara should he para- 

 phrased by " created out of nothing" (as far as we can comprehend these 

 words), or, "gave a new and distinct state of existence to a substance 

 already existing," must depend upon the context, the circumstances, or 

 what God has elsewhere revealed, not upon the mere force of the word. 

 This is plain, from its use in Gen. i. 27, of the creation of man, who, as wo 

 are instructed, chap. ii. 7, was formed out of previously existing matter, 

 the " dust of tlie ground." The word bara is indeed so far stronger than 

 asah, " made," in that bara can only be used with reference to God, whereas 

 asah may be applied to man. The difference is exactly that which exists in 

 English between the words by which they are rendered, "created" and 

 " made." But this seems to me to belong rather to our mode of conception 

 than to the subject itself; for making, when spoken of with reference to 

 God, is equivalent to creating. 



The words accordingly, bara, created — asah — made yatsar, formed, are 

 used repeatedly by Isaiah and are also employed by Amos, as equivalent 

 to each other. Bara and asah express alike a formation of something 

 new (de novo,) something whose existence in this new state, originated 

 in, and depends entirely upon the will of its creator or maker. Thus God 

 speaks of Himself as the Creator " ftoree" of the Jewish people, e. g. 

 Isaiah xliii. 1, 15 ; and a new event is spoken of under the same term as 

 a "creation," JNumb. xiv. 30. English version, " If the Lord make a new 

 thino-," in the margin, Heb. " create a creature." Again, the Psalmist 

 uses the same word, Ps. civ. 30, when describing the renovation of the face 

 of the earth through the successive generations of living creatures, " Thou 

 sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the 

 earth." The question is popularly treated by Beausobre, Hist, de Mani- 

 cheisme, torn. ii. lib. 5, c. 4 ; or, in a better spirit, by Pctavius Dogm. 

 Theol. torn. iii. de opificio sex dierum, lib. 1, c. 1, § 8. 



After having continually re-read and studied this account, I can come 

 to no other result than that the words "created" and "made" are syno- 

 nvmous, (although the former is to us the stronger of the two,) and that 

 because they are so constantly interchanged; as, Gen. i. ver. 21, "God 

 created great whales :" ver. 25, " God /Ha(/e the beast of the earth;" ver. 

 26, " Let us ?;io/rc man ;" ver. 27, "So God created man." At the same 

 time it is very probable that bara, " created,'''' as being the stronger 

 word, was selected to describe the first production of the heaven and the 

 earth. 



