Reconsidering Creation Ex Nihilo in Genesis 1

Nathan J. Chambers is Pastor at Wiser Lake Chapel.

“The doctrine of creation ex nihilo has been a rich and enriching scholarly pursuit of mine, and so I am glad to recommend Chambers’s excellent book, which effectively and persuasively defends it.”—Paul Copan Presbyterion

• CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION: RECONSIDERING GENESIS 1 AND CREATION EX NIHILO1. The Questions 2. A Brief Overview 3. A Note on Sources CHAPTER 2:INTERPRETIVE CATEGORIES AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT1. Introduction1.1 Comparative Studies and Creation Ex Nihilo1.2 Methodological Issues in Comparative Studies1.3 Comparative Reading of Genesis 11.4 ‘Myth’2. Canaanite Material2.1 Summary2.2 Key Text?3. Egyptian Material3.1 Summary3.2 Key Text: The Memphite Theology4. Mesopotamian Material4.1 Summary4.2 Key Text: Enuma Elish5. Questions5.1 Is Genesis 1 a ‘recension’ of Enuma elish of any other ANE Text? 5.2 What preceded creation in ANE creation accounts? 5.3 How was creation understood in the ANE?5.4 Is the act of creation limited or conditioned by the ‘material’? 5.5 How was the world pictured in the ANE? 6. Conclusion: ANE and Post-Biblical Categories CHAPTER 3:‘LOVE SOUGHT IS GOOD, BUT GIVEN UNSOUGHT IS BETTER’1. Introduction 1.1 A Sketch 1.2 What Does a Doctrine Do?1.3 A Terminological Clarification: Creatio Ex Nihilo1.4 A Threefold Organization2. God Creates from Nothing 2.1 Trinity and Creation2.2 Transcendence and Presence 2.3 The Act of Creation 3. The World is Created from Nothing3.1 Contingence 3.2 Dependence 3.3 Goodness 3.4 ConclusionExcursus: Does Creation Ex Nihilo Involve Historical Truth Claims 4. Living as Creatures Created from Nothing4.1 Dual Agency 4.2 The Self-Involving Force of Creation Ex Nihilo 4.3 The Problem of Sin and Evil 5. Conclusion: On the Possible Failure of Creation Ex NihiloCHAPTER 4:BIBLICAL PRESSURE AND EX NIHILO HERMENEUTICS1. Introduction: The Sudden Emergence of Creation Ex Nihilo 2. The Emergence of Creation Ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought 2.1 Background in Jewish, Christian, and Hellenistic 2.1.1 Early Jewish Sources 2.1.2 Early Christian Sources 2.1.3 Hellenistic Philosophy 2.2 Second Century Attempts to Formulate a Doctrine of Creation 2.2.1 Gnostic Approaches to the Doctrine of Creation 2.2.2 The Emergence of the Church Doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo 2.3 Evaluation of May’s Argument 3. Biblical Pressure 3.1 Exegesis 3.1.1 Luke 18:27 3.1.2 Romans 4:17 3.2 Implications 3.3 Restating the QuestionCHAPTER 5:THE DEBATED SYNTAX OF GENESIS 1:1-31. Introduction 2. ‘When God Set About to Create…’2.1 Speiser’s Argument 2.1.1 Grammatical Analysis 2.1.2 The Argument from Parallels 2.1.3 Argument from the Logic of Genesis 12.2. Testing Speiser’s Proposal 2.2.1 Scrutinizing the Grammatical Analysis 2.2.2 Reexamining the Purported Parallels 2.2.3 Discovering the Logic of Genesis 1 2.2.4 Conclusion3. ‘In the Beginning When God Created…’ 3.1 Holmstedt’s Argument 3.1.1 Possible Options3.1.2 The ‘Construct-Relative’ Option 3.2 Testing Holmstedt’s Proposal3.2.1 Homstedt’s Assumptions 3.2.2 Holmstedt’s Evidence 3.2.3 Larger Issues, Mostly Conceptual3.3 Conclusion 4. ‘In the Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth’4.1 The Use of the Definite Article with r’šyt 4.2 The Absolute Use of r’šyt4.3 The Use of the Qatal Form at the Beginning of Narrative Units4.4 A Structural Argument for Reading Genesis 1:1 as an Independent Clause4.5 Conclusion 5. Support from the Versions5.1 Masoretic Text5.2 Targums5.3 Septuagint 5.4 Hexapla 5.5 Syriac Versions 5.6 Conclusion and Prospectus6. Conclusion Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 CHAPTER 6:THE NARRATIVE FUNCTION OF GENESIS 1:1 1. Jon Levenson and the Persistence of Evil1.1 Introduction 1.2 Levenson’s Motivations in Writing 1.3 Rejecting Creation Ex Nihilo 1.4 Creation as Mastery1.5 Levenson’s Reading of Genesis 11.6 The Relationship between Genesis 1 and Other Creation Texts1.7 An Existential Construal of the Doctrine of Creation 1.8 Levenson’s Argument in a Different Key2. An Evaluation of Jon Levenson’s Theology of Creation2.1 The Need for Clarification2.1.1 Clarifying Terms 2.1.2 Clarifying Texts 2.1.3 Explicating Enuma elish 2.2 A Difficult Picture of God 2.2.1 What Kind of Lord is God?2.2.2 Does God Become Actualized in Creation? 2.2.3 Is it Problematic if Violence is Intrinsic to Creation? 2.3 The Ethics of Reading Genesis 1 2.4 Could Genesis 1:2 Describe Morally Neutral Given Material 2.5 Conclusion 3. Genesis 1:1 as Heading to the Narrative 3.1 An Exposition of Gunkel’s Interpretation of Genesis 1:1-2 3.2 An Evaluation of Gunkel’s Interpretation of Genesis 1:1-2 3.3 Reformulating Gunkel’s Interpretation within a Canonical Approach4. Genesis 1:1 as the First Act of Creation4.1 Two Senses of šmym4.2 Bipartite and Tripartite Cosmological Formulae 4.3 Genesis 1:1 as the First Step in Creation5. Further Questions5.1 How Should We Picture the Cosmology of Genesis 1? 5.2 How Should We Conceive of God’s Transcendence and Presence in Genesis 1? 5.3 Why Does God Initially Create the Earth in an Uninhabitable State? 5.4 Conclusion CHAPTER 7: IN CONCLUSION: A WAY FORWARD1. Introduction2. Creation Ex Nihilo as a Framework for Reading Genesis 13. John 1 and the Canonical Context of Genesis 1 4. ConclusionBIBLIOGRAPHY