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Durham E-Theses Genesis 1 and Creation Ex Nihilo: A Reconsideration CHAMBERS, NATHAN How to cite: CHAMBERS, NATHAN (2017) Genesis 1 and Creation Ex Nihilo: A Reconsideration, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12443/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk ABSTRACT Genesis 1 and Creation Ex Nihilo: A Reconsideration Nathan J. Chambers This thesis addresses the question of the relationship between Genesis 1 and the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. Although creation ex nihilo was developed in the early church as a guide for reading Genesis 1, the consensus among modern historically-oriented biblical scholarship is that, as a post-biblical category, creation ex nihilo in fact obscures the original meaning of Genesis 1. By examining the various historical and theological contexts within which Genesis 1 has been read, I illustrate the differing purposes with which one can read the biblical text and the differing methods of study which relate to these purposes. Although one can read Genesis 1 as ancient history, it can also be read as part of the canonical Scripture of the church. I first examine the ancient Near Eastern background of Genesis, which forms the historical context within which Genesis 1 has been read in the modern period. Then I turn to an exposition of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo in its classic iteration within the Christian tradition. This leads naturally to an examination of the historical circumstances in which the early church developed this doctrine. Having examined some of the key historical and theological contexts within which Genesis 1 has been read, and having addressed various hermeneutical issues involved in negotiating these various contexts, I focus on the text of Genesis 1:1-3. The syntax of these verses has been a major interpretive crux in the modern period and so I offer a close philological examination of the various possible interpretations. I conclude by examining the narrative function of Genesis 1:1 within the chapter as a whole and its larger literary-canonical context, arguing that the verse can responsibly and plausibly be read as describing the first act in the process of creation. GENESIS 1 AND CREATION EX NIHILO: A Reconsideration Nathan J. Chambers Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Durham University Department of Theology and Religion 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: RECONSIDERING GENESIS 1 AND CREATION EX NIHILO 1 1. The Questions 1 2. A Brief Overview 3 3. A Note on Sources 5 CHAPTER 2: INTERPRETIVE CATEGORIES AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT 6 1. Introduction 6 1.1 Comparative Studies and Creation Ex Nihilo 6 1.2 Methodological Issues in Comparative Studies 10 1.3 Comparative Reading of Genesis 1 12 1.4 ‘Myth’ 15 2. Canaanite Material 16 2.1 Summary 16 2.2 Key Text? 18 3. Egyptian Material 19 3.1 Summary 19 3.2 Key Text: The Memphite Theology 26 4. Mesopotamian Material 28 4.1 Summary 28 4.2 Key Text: Enuma Elish 32 5. Questions 38 5.1 Is Genesis 1 a ‘recension’ of Enuma elish of any other ANE Text? 38 5.2 What preceded creation in ANE creation accounts? 40 5.3 How was creation understood in the ANE? 42 5.4 Is the act of creation limited or conditioned by the ‘material’? 44 5.5 How was the world pictured in the ANE? 44 6. Conclusion: ANE and Post-Biblical Categories 47 CHAPTER 3: CREATION FROM NOTHING 49 1. Introduction 49 1.1 A Sketch 49 1.2 What Does a Doctrine Do? 51 1.3 A Terminological Clarification: Creation Ex Nihilo 55 1.4 A Threefold Organization 56 2. God Creates from Nothing 57 2.1 Trinity and Creation 58 2.2 Transcendence and Presence 65 2.3 The Act of Creation 69 3. The World is Created from Nothing 72 3.1 Contingence 73 3.2 Dependence 75 3.3 Goodness 76 3.4 Conclusion 83 4. Living as Creatures Created from Nothing 83 4.1 Dual Agency 84 4.2 The Self-Involving Force of Creation Ex Nihilo 86 4.3 The Problem of Sin and Evil 91 5. Conclusion: On the Possible Failure of Creation Ex Nihilo 93 CHAPTER 4: BIBLICAL PRESSURE AND EX NIHILO HERMENEUTICS 97 1. Introduction: The Sudden Emergence of Creation Ex Nihilo 97 2. Gerhard May’s Account of Creation Ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought 99 2.1 Background in Jewish, Christian, and Hellenistic 100 2.1.1 Early Jewish Sources 100 2.1.2 Early Christian Sources 103 2.1.3 Hellenistic Philosophy 104 2.2 Second Century Attempts to Formulate a Doctrine of Creation 110 2.2.1 Gnostic Approaches to the Doctrine of Creation 110 2.2.2 The Emergence of the Church Doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo 114 2.3 Evaluation of May’s Argument 121 3. Biblical Pressure 124 3.1 Exegesis 127 3.1.1 Luke 18:27 127 3.1.2 Romans 4:17 129 3.2 Implications 132 3.3 Restating the Question 133 CHAPTER 5: THE DEBATED SYNTAX OF GENESIS 1:1-3 135 1. Introduction 135 2. ‘When God Set About to Create…’ 135 2.1 Speiser’s Argument 136 2.1.1 Grammatical Analysis 136 2.1.2 The Argument from Parallels 137 2.1.3 Argument from the Logic of Genesis 1 138 2.2. Testing Speiser’s Proposal 138 2.2.1 Scrutinizing the Grammatical Analysis 139 2.2.2 Reexamining the Purported Parallels 144 2.2.3 Discovering the Logic of Genesis 1 146 2.2.4 Conclusion 147 3. ‘In the Beginning When God Created…’ 148 3.1 Holmstedt’s Argument 148 3.1.1 Possible Options 148 3.1.2 The ‘Construct-Relative’ Option 149 3.2 Testing Holmstedt’s Proposal 151 3.2.1 Homstedt’s Assumptions 151 3.2.2 Holmstedt’s Evidence 152 3.2.3 Larger Issues, Mostly Conceptual 156 3.3 Conclusion 158 4. ‘In the Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth’ 158 4.1 The Use of the Definite Article with r’šyt 158 4.2 The Absolute Use of r’šyt 161 4.3 The Syntax of r’šyt 163 4.4 The Use of the Qatal Form at the Beginning of Narrative Units 164 4.5 A Structural Argument for Reading Genesis 1:1 as an Independent Clause 164 4.6 Conclusion 165 5. Conclusion 166 Table 1 167 Table 2 170 Table 3 172 CHAPTER 6: GENESIS 1:1 AS THE FIRST ACT OF CREATION 176 1. Jon Levenson and the Persistence of Evil 176 1.1 Introduction 176 1.2 Levenson’s Motivations in Writing 177 1.3 Rejecting Creation Ex Nihilo 177 1.4 Creation as Mastery 179 1.5 Levenson’s Reading of Genesis 1 180 1.6 The Relationship between Genesis 1 and Other Creation Texts 182 1.7 An Existential Construal of the Doctrine of Creation 183 1.8 Levenson’s Argument in a Different Key 184 2. An Evaluation of Jon Levenson’s Theology of Creation 185 2.1 The Need for Clarification 185 2.1.1 Clarifying Terms 185 2.1.2 Clarifying Texts 187 2.1.3 Clarifying Enuma elish 189 2.2 A Difficult Picture of God 192 2.2.1 What Kind of Lord is God? 192 2.2.2 Does God Become Actualized in Creation? 195 2.2.3 Is it Problematic if Violence is Intrinsic to Creation? 197 2.3 The Ethics of Reading Genesis 1 199 2.4 Conclusion 200 3. Genesis 1:1 as Heading to the Narrative 201 3.1 An Exposition of Gunkel’s Interpretation of Genesis 1:1-2 201 3.2 An Evaluation of Gunkel’s Interpretation of Genesis 1:1-2 205 3.3 Reformulating Gunkel’s Interpretation within a Canonical Approach 207 4. Genesis 1:1 as the First Act of Creation 210 4.1 Two Senses of šmym 210 4.2 Bipartite and Tripartite Cosmological Formulae 213 4.3 Genesis 1:1 as the First Step in Creation 215 5. Further Questions 222 5.1 How Should We Picture the Cosmology of Genesis 1? 222 5.2 How Should We Conceive of God’s Transcendence and Presence in Genesis 1? 224 5.3 Why Does God Initially Create the Earth in an Uninhabitable State? 225 5.4 Conclusion 229 CHAPTER 7: IN CONCLUSION: A WAY FORWARD 231 1. Introduction 231 2. Creation Ex Nihilo as a Framework for Reading Genesis 1 232 3. John 1 and the Canonical Context of Genesis 1 235 4. Conclusion 236 APPENDIX 1: DOES CREATION EX NIHILO INVOLVE HISTORICAL TRUTH-CLAIMS? 237 APPENDIX 2: SUPPORT FROM THE VERSIONS 240 1. Masoretic Text 241 2. Targums 242 3. Septuagint 243 4. Hexapla 246 5. Conclusion and Prospectus 247 BIBLIOGRAPHY 249 DECLARATION AND STATEMENT OF COPYRIGHT This thesis is the product of my own work and does not include work that has been presented in any form for a degree at this or any other university.