Episode 164, now that we've outlined some introductory concepts, we can move forward and attempt an exegesis of the very challenging biblical chapters in Genesis 1 to 11. We begin with only the first three verses of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 to 3 and what is known as the Pre-Creative State. You might find it surprising that there is a translation debate, in that the translation of the first two words of the Bible is uncertain. This is because the vowel pointing, that is the dots and dashes in Hebrew, is debated by scholars. Please turn to page 44 in the handouts. And you can see how this is reflected in the translations of the first three verses from eight different Bibles. You will note that there are two basic translations, the traditional, In the beginning God created. And the more recent, When God began to create. Here are the first two words of the Bible in Hebrew. In this language, prepositions can be attached to nouns. Therefore [FOREIGN] has the preposition [SOUND], which can mean in and it can also mean when. And it also has the noun [FOREIGN], meaning beginning and first. Since we have two possible translations for the first two words of the Bible, there are two possible grammatical arrangements for the first three verses. One approach states that Genesis 1:1 is a title. So in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. This is the title of the first chapter of the Bible. Therefore, in verse 2, we have the opening scene. Now the Earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And then in verse three, we have God's first act of creation. And God said let there be light, and there was light. The other grammatical arrangement claims that Genesis 1:2 is a parenthesis. According to this approach, verse 1 is translated, when God began to create the heavens and the earth. And then in verse 2, we go into a parenthesis that describes the opening scene prior to God's acts of creation. Now the Earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And then in verse 3, we have God's first act of creation. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. A couple comments regarding the two ways to translate the first three verses of the bible. It's important to emphasis that the opening scene in both translations is Genesis 1:2. A dark watery chaotic earth is already there. This is termed the precreative state, and there's no mention it was created. It even seems to be eternal, and this is the science of the day for Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks. The notion that there seems to be an eternal precreative state naturally leads to the question, does this challenge the Christian Doctrine of Creation-Out-of-Nothing? My answer is no, let me explain. First, we need to raise the issue of ancient epistemology. The complex idea of creation-out-of-nothing is not part of the ancient Near Eastern mindset. Therefore, this concept is not part of the intellectual category set of the writer of Genesis I. Second, we need to understand that biblical revelation is progressive. The concept of creation-out-of-nothing is found in later biblical passages. This idea first appears in 2 Maccabees 7, and it's echoed in Colossians 1 and Hebrews 11. These verses are cited in supplementary quotes four to six. Finally, it's necessary to recognize that doctrines develop over time. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity appeared in the late fourth century. And the doctrine of creation-out-of-nothing developed in the second century. The lesson to be learned here is that Genesis 1 does not deal with creation-out-of-nothing. Because this idea was simply not part of the mindset. Let's now turn to the verb traditionally translated to create. It is the Hebrew verb bara. It has a number of meanings, such as, to create, form, separate, divide, split and fashion by cutting. Notably, a number of ancient Near Eastern creation accounts feature creation by separation of opposites. For example, Heaven is separated from Earth and Earth separated from water. And as we'll see, this is God's creative method in Genesis 1. End of episode.