Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Othmar Keel and Silvia Schroer: Creation Ex Nihilo is not Taught in Genesis 1 and 2 Maccabees 7:28

 

 

The highly philosophical construct of a creatio ex nihilo, which appears in the historical record for the first time only in the second century A.D., arising in the early church, cannot be found in the Hebrew Bible. It developed from the ontological perspective that had its origins in the time of Aristotle and leads, in regard to understanding Genesis 1 and other passages, to error. Another verse frequently mentioned in this context, 2 Macc 7:28, is no support for a creatio ex nihilo of a Hellenistic character. It is a negative formulation: God did not make the heavens and the earth out of existing things (hoti ouk ex onton epoiesen auta ho theos). “Existing things,” however, must here in good biblical tradition refer to ‘created things’ as opposed to a presumptive “pre-world.” (Othmar Keel and Silvia Schroer, Creation: Biblical Theologies in the Context of the Ancient Near East [trans. Peter D. Daniels; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2015], 139)

 

Further Reading


Blake T. Ostler, Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought

Daniel O. McClellan, James Patrick Holding refuted on Creation Ex Nihilo