The following comes from:
Gottfried Nebe, “Creation in Paul’s Theology,” in Creation in
Jewish and Christian Tradition, ed. Henning Graf Reventlow and Yair Hoffman
(Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 319; Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), 119-20
. . . let us have a look at the
problem of the so-called creatio ex nihilo in connection with ontological
terms and categories . . . Neither in Genesis 1-3 nor in the Hebrew Bible (the
Old Testament) as a whole we find this idea directly. We meet it no sooner than
in late Judaism. Especially Jewish-Hellenistic traditions seem to be important
on the way to Paul. Paul says in Rom. 4.17. ‘[This promise (to Abraham), was
valid] in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the
dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.’ Creatio ex
nihilo and resurrection of the dead are connected with one another on the
basis of the greatness and power of God. Paul uses here ontological categories,
but they are not very much developed (τα μη οντα καλειν ως οντα [cf. Gen. 1 (‘God said . . .So it
was’, etc.)]). This Greek seeks to be a kind of popular ontology, if we compare
it with the well-known ontological terms and arguments in Greek philosophy. But
Paul does not continue or develop the line of Classical or Hellenistic ontology
and metaphysics. His aim is to stress the difference and opposition of God and
creation, to show that the beginning and the further existence of the universe
depends alone on God’s creative power. Paul speaks here in the tradition of the
biblical and Jewish concept of God and creation, especially in the wake of
Hellenistic Judaism (30). 2 Macc. 7.28 is a remarkable passage in Jewish literature
compared to Rom. 4.17 (31). The application of ontological terms and categories
by New Testament scholars like R. Bultmann to their interpretation of Paul’s
theology (cf. Bultmann, Theology, pp. 191-93, 198-99, 227-28) betrays
also specially modern presuppositions.
Notes for the Above:
(30) Cf., e.g., Philo
Alexandrinus, Aet. Mund. 5; 78 (in the context of the ideas of pagan
Antiquity); Migr. Abr. 9 (about the faith of Abraham). In Judaism the
passages I quoted above like 2 Bar. 48.2; 2. Macc. 7.28; Philo, Spec.
Leg 4.187; Virt. 130; Vit. Mos.
We should not forget that in the
Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls of the Palestinian Qumran-area we find the connection
of creation by God and the ontological terms and ideas, too, as in 1QS 3.15-16:
‘From the God of knowledge stems all that is and all that shall be (כול היוה רנייה).
Before they existed (היותם) he made all their plans, and when they came into
being (בחיותם), they will execute all their works in compliance with his
instructions, according to his glorious design without altering anything’ (F.
G. Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English [trans.
W. G. E. Watson; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994], p. 6).
(31) 2 Macc. 7.28-29 describes the
situation of the martyrdom of a Jewish family with a mother and her seven sons.
The mother here says words to one of her sons, flouting the cruel tyrant
(Antiochus IV Epiphanes), which connect creation and resurrection of the dead: ‘I
beg you, my child, to look at the sky and the earth and see everything that is in
them, and recognise that God did not make them out of things that existed (ουκ εξ οντων εποιησεν αυτα ο θεος). And in the same way the human
race came into being. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your
brothers. Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may receive you back again
along with your brothers.’ In Hellenistic Judaism we find ideas of the traditional
view of ‘Gods almighty hand created the world out of matter without form’ (η παντοδυναμος σους χειρ και κτισασα τον κοσμον εξ αμορφου υλης); Philo, Spec. Leg. 4.187:
God called things not being into being, making order instead of disorder . . .
light instead of darkness (τα γαρ μη οντα εκαλεσεν εις το ειναι, ταξιν εξ αταξιας . . . εκ δε σκοτους φως εργασαμενος).