Time in Creation, Creation in Time or Creation and Time?

"Every moment of the day, we confront phenomena that are not reducible to present factors: history is not a simple problem of arithmetic, life is not the product solely of chemical combinations, the genius is something other and more than the child of his time, and every personality is an original." The how, why, when, where and so what of this world are perplexing questions of the mind. The creation story of the bible is no different as it presents more questions than answers which can often tie our thinking into knots through some serious mental gymnastics. Having rationalised and reconciled our modern day science and theories of the likes of evolution, entropy and quantum theory, with Genesis earlier on in my Christian journey, this piece is the fruit of a new found fascination with the concept of time and the temporal dimension of our world, in this case, in the story of creation.

To start, let's have a look at an interesting translation problem of Genesis 1:1-3. Some scholars believe that the creation story in this passage actually proceeded from an original, uncreated chaos. They argue that  בְּרֵאשִׁית (in the beginning) is in the construct state so they can translate the verses as “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless … and then God said “let there be light” and there was light." But according to Bavinck, this translation is not acceptable. The sentence acquires the length of a period which is rare in Hebrew. It is not expected immediately at the beginning and in the style of Genesis 1 and it also puts too strong an accent on the creation of light. The construct state of  בְּרֵאשִׁית (in the beginning) does not require this translation because it also occurs in the same form without suffix or genitive in Isaiah 46:10. Interestingly, unlike the NIV and Holman Christian Standard Bible, the King James version proffers some thoughts on this as it simply translates the first three verses of our bible without temporal dimension as "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

You may recall (if you are a church goer) the confessions repeated time and time again on a Sunday, along the lines of "I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth." By creation, it means that act of God through which, by his sovereign will, he brought the entire world out of nonbeing into being that is distinct from his own being. This is, in fact, the teaching of the scripture and the spirit of the creation narrative, without any unintended suggestion that God created the world from something rather than nothing. 

Indeed, Bavinck puts it simply that Elohim (אֱלֹהִים ) is not presented in Genesis 1 as a cosmic sculptor who, in human fashion, with pre-existing material, produces a work of art, but rather as One who by uttering a word of power, calls all things into being. "And with that view, the whole of Scripture chimes in." Augustine of Hippo who authored the City of God in early 5th century AD has said that the world was not made in time but along with time (as did Plato, Philo and Tertullian). "Time is the necessary form of the existence of the finite. It is not a separate creation but something automatically given with the world, cocreated with it like space...The truth is that eternity is the immutable centre that sends out its rays to the entire circumference of time. To the limited eye of the creature, it successively unfolds its infinite content in the breadth of space and the length of time, so that we might understand something of the unsearchable greatness of God. So the teaching of creation out of nothing maintains that there is a distinction between God and the world. "The creation does not exist as a result of a passage of the world from being in God to being outside of God, nor from being without God to being by God, but from nonexistence into existence."  

Your head is hurting? Good. 

This blog is a snap shot of Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics. All moral rights (including copyright) remain in the author, editor and translator of the book, volume 2: God and Creation. The blog does not and does not intend to infringe any such moral rights in any way. I am just laxed about citation but if anything, take this as a promo and an encouragement to go read his works!