Page 51 - GALIET HEAVEN´S SCROLL IV

Akkadian writings or motifs”43 3⁄4 deny tacitly creation ex nihilo. Neither other OT verses,44 nor Qur’anic ones (Q41: 10-11,45 Q11:746) can demonstrate it. Perplexingly, post-scriptural Jewish literature unsettles the argument further. Desisting to elaborate on the beginnings of heaven and earth, it posits creation out of something. “God,” says The Wisdom of Solomon 11:17,“created the cosmos out of formless matter.”47 Saadia and Kalam thinkers will too posit a pre-existent ideal matter.48
It is probable for Genesis 1:1 3⁄4 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” 3⁄4 says Anderson, to preface the entire Creation Myth in such a way that the Genesis’ creation tale
43 O. Eissfeldt. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia. “Genesis.” Ed. Arthur Buttrick and Emory Stevens Bucke. Volume 2. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962. Bible Dictionary. Genesis. 375.
44 Anderson, B.W. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia. “Creation.” Ed. Arthur Buttrick and Emory Stevens Bucke. Volume I. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962. 728.
45 Q 41:10-11. “Then He turned to the heavens, and it was smoke. So He said to itandtheearth:‘Comewithwillingobedienceorperforce.’” Trans.byA.Ali, 1993.
46 Q. 11:7. “It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six spans, and has control over the waters (of life)...” Trans. by A. Ali, 1993.
“And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and his throne was upon the waters.” Trans. by Arberry. Quoted by Leaman 2002, 43. “Throned above the waters, He made the heavens and the earth in six days.” Trans. by Dawood.
47 Anderson, B.W. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia. “Creation.” Ed. Arthur Buttrick and Emory Stevens Bucke. Volume I. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962. 729
48 This pre-existent ideal Matter may consist of an object of knowledge, of memory, of discourse, of substance or a totality of ideal atoms. Wolfson, Harry Austryn. Studies in the History of Philosophy and Religion. Ch. 12. The Meaning of Ex Nihilo in the Church Fathers, Arabic and Hebrew Philosophy, and St. Thomas. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973. 213
—51—