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Re: creatio ex nihilo

From: "Lewis Reich" <LBR AT sprynet.com>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: creatio ex nihilo
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 22:55:53 -0500

On 2 Feb 01, at 20:46, Jonathan D. Safren wrote:

> Creatio ex nihilo also appears in Jewish tradition. "creation by word"
> (beri'ah be-ma'amar) is one way of putting it; "Hanging the world on
> nothing "(toleh erets al belimah) is another.

I've never happened to look at the commentaries on that phrase, but I've
somehow always assumed that "hanging the world on nothing" meant that
the world was neither hung from nor supported by any other material object
(e.g. neither Atlas nor a turtle undernearth, no string suspending it from
something above). How is the phrase interpreted to support ex nihilo?

Lewis Reich

creatio ex nihilo, David Stabnow, 02/02/2001
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- RE: creatio ex nihilo, Liz Fried, 02/02/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, Jonathan D. Safren, 02/02/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, Lewis Reich, 02/02/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, Lewis Reich, 02/02/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, Jonathan D. Safren, 02/03/2001
- creatio ex nihilo, Harold R. Holmyard III, 02/03/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, Jonathan D. Safren, 02/03/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, Cees van Veelen, 02/03/2001
- RE: creatio ex nihilo, Ruthy & Baruch, 02/03/2001
- Re: creatio ex nihilo, David Stabnow, 02/05/2001