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The Earth was already there when God created humans and animals, says academic.
The Earth was already there when God created humans and animals, says academic.
She claims she has carried out fresh textual analysis that suggests the writers of the great book never intended to suggest that God created the world -- and in fact the Earth was already there when he created humans and animals.
Prof Van Wolde, 54, who will present a thesis on the subject at Radboud University in The Netherlands where she studies, said she had re-analysed the original Hebrew text and placed it in the context of the Bible as a whole, and in the context of other creation stories from ancient Mesopotamia.
She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb "bara", which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean "to create" but to "spatially separate".
The first sentence should now read "in the beginning God separated the Heaven and the Earth"
According to Judeo-Christian tradition, God created the Earth out of nothing.
Prof Van Wolde, who once worked with the Italian academic and novelist Umberto Eco, said her new analysis showed that the beginning of the Bible was not the beginning of time, but the beginning of a narration.
She said: "It meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself."
She writes in her thesis that the new translation fits in with ancient texts.
According to them there used to be an enormous body of water in which monsters were living, covered in darkness, she said.
She said technically "bara" does mean "create" but added: "Something was wrong with the verb.
"God was the subject (God created), followed by two or more objects. Why did God not create just one thing or animal, but always more?"
She concluded that God did not create, he separated: the Earth from the Heaven, the land from the sea, the sea monsters from the birds and the swarming at the ground.
"There was already water," she said.
"There were sea monsters. God did create some things, but not the Heaven and Earth. The usual idea of creating-out-of-nothing, creatio ex nihilo, is a big misunderstanding."
God came later and made the earth livable, separating the water from the land and brought light into the darkness.
She said she hoped that her conclusions would spark "a robust debate", since her finds are not only new, but would also touch the hearts of many religious people.
She said: "Maybe I am even hurting myself. I consider myself to be religious and the Creator used to be very special, as a notion of trust. I want to keep that trust."
A spokesman for the Radboud University said: "The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it."
Prof Van Wolde added: "The traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now."
You can't go by what the bible says on creation because it is a compilation of stories of many gods. Not just one. If you recall though Satan was cast out of the heavens. To what was at the time a place called Hell. The Earth. Where a god supposedly created man from the earth so that he wouldn't be alone. Created Adam. Earlier writings show that he created Lillith for a helpmate for Adam but she left him because she refused to be ruled by him. Thus that god created Eve to replace her. Lillith was called a demon thereby proveing that Adam was also a demon and thus also the later created Eve. They were rewrote though as to who their creator was the fact that they were created to keep Satan company though. Their creator had to be Satan as such. Satan was a snake in the Garden of Eden it shows. Thus it shows the Garden of Eden was in Hell since he was cast out of the heavens to Hell. God was supposedly a cloud which spoke to them. A symbol used to show he was in the heavens and not in Hell. Also showing that rain from clouds had a part in the creation of man. They didn't write anything back then that was specific for they didn't have the answers. Thus everything kept being rewrote. At that time they made their god out as a cloud. Later as the sun and the moon even. Kept him as one thing or another. Finally they made him as all of those things. Made him out as haveing many names. Rewrites showing many gods to be one. Worse of all they kept includeing demon-gods in the ranks of those they called god.David for instance. He is the god of the Jews in Psalm 82 and the one god to the Jews when they call Jesus the son of David. That geneiality crock was written to hide that fact later on. They called Jesus the son of god. The son of David. Their god and David was one and the same is why.