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When talking with evolutionists the question comes up, what is the evidence for your faith in the Biblical account of creation. They don't seem to get it, the Bible itself is evidence.
I've been doing a study in Genesis one and I thought I would offer some of the details in here. The language of this chapter is unique to the Scriptures and absolute, you will find very few passages as emphatic. Let me show you what I mean:
From the Strong's dictionary this term is used in the absolute sense only once and it is in reference to time:
Reshiyth from Albert Barne's Notes on the Bible
That's the first word used in the absolute sense, then there is the word for God. Elohim is the term and the plural form of the word is used, leading many scholars to claim this supports the doctrine of the Trinity as a plurality of persons. It doesn't really, don't get me wrong I'm a Trinitarian but this is plurality of majesty not persons. Plurality of majesty simply means Almighty, in other words God is not partly powerful, or more powerful, God has absolute power.
Elohim, from Albert Barne's Notes on the Bible
There is another word here I want to point out is unique and absolute, the word for 'creation' is Bara.
'Bara' from Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible
What are your thoughts on Genesis
Grace and peace,
Mark
I've been doing a study in Genesis one and I thought I would offer some of the details in here. The language of this chapter is unique to the Scriptures and absolute, you will find very few passages as emphatic. Let me show you what I mean:
From the Strong's dictionary this term is used in the absolute sense only once and it is in reference to time:
beginning (H7225 ראשׁית rê'shîyth ray-sheeth') - From the same as H7218; the first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically a firstfruit):
Reshiyth from Albert Barne's Notes on the Bible
ראשׁית rḕshî̂yt, the head-part, beginning of a thing, in point of time Gen 10:10, or value Pro 1:7. Its opposite is אחרית 'achărî̂yth Isa 46:10. בראשׁית rê'shî̂yth, in the beginning, is always used in reference to time. Here only is it taken absolutely.
That's the first word used in the absolute sense, then there is the word for God. Elohim is the term and the plural form of the word is used, leading many scholars to claim this supports the doctrine of the Trinity as a plurality of persons. It doesn't really, don't get me wrong I'm a Trinitarian but this is plurality of majesty not persons. Plurality of majesty simply means Almighty, in other words God is not partly powerful, or more powerful, God has absolute power.
Elohim, from Albert Barne's Notes on the Bible
The Chaldee form אלה 'elâh occurs about seventy-four times in the singular, and ten in the plural. The Hebrew letter ה (h) is proved to be radical, not only by bearing mappiq, but also by keeping its ground before a formative ending
Its indirect applications point with equal steadiness to this primary and fundamental meaning. Thus, it is employed in a relative and well-defined sense to denote one appointed of God to stand in a certain divine relation to another. This relation is that of authoritative revealer or administrator of the will of God. Thus, we are told Joh 10:34 that he called them gods, to whom the word of God came. Thus, Moses became related to Aaron as God to His prophet Exo 4:16, and to Pharaoh as God to His creature Exo 7:1. Accordingly, in Psa 82:6, we find this principle generalized: I had said, gods are ye, and sons of the Highest all of you. Here the divine authority vested in Moses is expressly recognized in those who sit in Moses seat as judges for God. They exercised a function of God among the people, and so were in Gods stead to them. Man, indeed, was originally adapted for ruling, being made in the image of God, and commanded to have dominion over the inferior creatures. The parent also is instead of God in some respect to his children, and the sovereign holds the relation of patriarch to his subjects. Still, however, we are not fully warranted in translating אלהים 'ĕlohîym, judges in Exo 21:6; Exo 22:7-8, Exo 22:27 (Hebrew versification: 8, 9, 28), because a more easy, exact, and impressive sense is obtained from the proper rendering.
The word מלאך mel'āk, angel, as a relative or official term, is sometimes applied to a person of the Godhead; but the process is not reversed. The Septuagint indeed translates אלהים 'ĕlohîym in several instances by ἄγγελοι angeloi Psa 8:6; Psa 97:7; Psa 138:1. The correctness of this is seemingly supported by the quotations in Heb 1:6 and Heb 2:7. These, however, do not imply that the renderings are absolutely correct, but only suffiently so for the purpose of the writer. And it is evident they are so, because the original is a highly imaginative figure, by which a class is conceived to exist, of which in reality only one of the kind is or can be. Now the Septuagint, either imagining, from the occasional application of the official term angel to God, that the angelic office somehow or sometimes involved the divine nature, or viewing some of the false gods of the pagan as really angels, and therefore seemingly wishing to give a literal turn to the figure, substituted the word ἄγγελοι angeloi as an interpretation for אלהים 'ĕlohîym.
Its indirect applications point with equal steadiness to this primary and fundamental meaning. Thus, it is employed in a relative and well-defined sense to denote one appointed of God to stand in a certain divine relation to another. This relation is that of authoritative revealer or administrator of the will of God. Thus, we are told Joh 10:34 that he called them gods, to whom the word of God came. Thus, Moses became related to Aaron as God to His prophet Exo 4:16, and to Pharaoh as God to His creature Exo 7:1. Accordingly, in Psa 82:6, we find this principle generalized: I had said, gods are ye, and sons of the Highest all of you. Here the divine authority vested in Moses is expressly recognized in those who sit in Moses seat as judges for God. They exercised a function of God among the people, and so were in Gods stead to them. Man, indeed, was originally adapted for ruling, being made in the image of God, and commanded to have dominion over the inferior creatures. The parent also is instead of God in some respect to his children, and the sovereign holds the relation of patriarch to his subjects. Still, however, we are not fully warranted in translating אלהים 'ĕlohîym, judges in Exo 21:6; Exo 22:7-8, Exo 22:27 (Hebrew versification: 8, 9, 28), because a more easy, exact, and impressive sense is obtained from the proper rendering.
The word מלאך mel'āk, angel, as a relative or official term, is sometimes applied to a person of the Godhead; but the process is not reversed. The Septuagint indeed translates אלהים 'ĕlohîym in several instances by ἄγγελοι angeloi Psa 8:6; Psa 97:7; Psa 138:1. The correctness of this is seemingly supported by the quotations in Heb 1:6 and Heb 2:7. These, however, do not imply that the renderings are absolutely correct, but only suffiently so for the purpose of the writer. And it is evident they are so, because the original is a highly imaginative figure, by which a class is conceived to exist, of which in reality only one of the kind is or can be. Now the Septuagint, either imagining, from the occasional application of the official term angel to God, that the angelic office somehow or sometimes involved the divine nature, or viewing some of the false gods of the pagan as really angels, and therefore seemingly wishing to give a literal turn to the figure, substituted the word ἄγγελοι angeloi as an interpretation for אלהים 'ĕlohîym.
There is another word here I want to point out is unique and absolute, the word for 'creation' is Bara.
'Bara' from Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible
bārā', create, give being to something new. It always has God for its subject. Its object may be anything: matter Gen 1:1; animal life Gen 1:21; spiritual life Gen 1:27. Hence, creation is not confined to a single point of time. Whenever anything absolutely new - that is, not involved in anything previously extant - is called into existence, there is creation Num 16:30. Any thing or event may also be said to be created by Him, who created the whole system of nature to which it belongs Mal 2:10. The verb in its simple form occurs forty-eight times (of which eleven are in Genesis, fourteen in the whole Pentateuch, and twenty-one in Isaiah), and always in one sense.
What are your thoughts on Genesis
Grace and peace,
Mark
