Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Charles,

Now Doug has mentioned Einstein in response to your post, but he 
evidently had it backwards too, since Scripture portrays darkness as 
existing before light. So I am going to send these words about Isa 45:7 
to the list:


> Apologies to the group.
>
> It is interesting to note in Isaiah 45:7 that God created (bara) darkness 
> and formed (asah) light. Thus giving grammatical support that light 
> pre-exixted darkness and was "formed" into that light which was good for 
> man. 
>
> Charles D. Rempel 
>
> I was brain dead when I wrote that. The word is not "asah", but "yatzar".

HH: But yatzar is used in nearby Isa 45:18 for God's creation of the
earth, so it can really mean create. In Jer 10:16 and 51:19 yatzar
refers to God's creation of everything. It is just a synonym for create
(bara) in Isa 45:7. Look at the other half of the verse, which uses bara
of God's creating "evil/adversity" and 'asah of His making
"peace/well-being." Do we want to claim that evil was created first, and
well-being made out of that? No, that's the opposite of the biblical
picture. The verbs are synonyms here.  In Amos 4:13 God forms (yatzar)
the mountains, and creates (bara) the wind. Is one prior to the other?
No, the verbs are synonyms used for literary variety.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard