Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>]

I'm thinking out loud and I think I am trying to make the following
point. If Gen 1
is interpreted as creatio ex nihilo, what are the roots for this
conceptualization, either in the Hebrew text or in the Mesopotamian
world.

Ideas are not created ex nihilo;  they usually have roots. If they did
not, then we would not need to discuss the Hebrew bible roots for ideas
such as "messiah," resurrection, afterlife, etc.  All we would need to
say is that they were born, fully developed in the Christian bible or in
the Jewish pseudepigraphic writing and need not check out their
antecedents in earlier texts.  Again, if Gen 1 represents creatio ex
nihilo, where are its roots?

irene riegner