
There has been a lot of fuss in the media recently surrounding Professor Ellen van Wolde, and her assertion that she has discovered a new way of interpretting Genesis 1:1.
She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb “bara”, which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean “to create” but to “spatially separate.”from this she continues to make a few errors:
She claims she has carried out fresh textual analysis that suggests the writers of the great book never intended to suggest that God created the world — and in fact the Earth was already there when he created humans and animals."this so called fresh perspective has been thoroughly investigated by many including Mark F. Rooker, Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Criswell College, Dallas, Texas In his paper entitled "Genesis 1:1-3: Creation or Re-Creation?" (Bibliotheca Sacra 149 (1992) 411-27. Copyright © 1992 by Dallas Theological Seminary.)
The only thing fresh about her perspective is the fact that she begs the question, "If Genesis 1:1 says that God separated the heavens from the earth, then surely it means he never at any point created it." All the text points to is that we don't know what happened before, Genesis 1:1 is an insertion point, the beginning of a story.
This all to say, theological careers seem to be made by getting media hype, or saying the most outrageous things. The nuance of the Hebrew word "bara" - it doesn't really matter. Real theology is lived, and you'll probably never see their names in a headline.



