God is not the Creator, claims academic

[UndertheOcean]

Professor Ellen van Wolde, a respected Old Testament scholar and author, claims the first sentence of Genesis "in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth" is not a true translation of the Hebrew.

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".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6274502/God-is-not-the-Creator-claims-academic.html

[JonQ]

1. Seems trivial

arguing over the exact translation of a book ignorant goat farmers wrote in the desert as if it had any relevance to real life.

[msongs]

3. oh come on the systematic suppression of women & kids is hardly trivial :-) nt

[BrklynLiberal]

2. uh-oh!!! Next thing you know we will hear that Zeus and Hera were not really the King and Queen of

the universe...lololololololololol

The mistranslation of the Bible is responsible for so many erroneous beliefs it would take decades to footnote all of them.

I remember reading that the reason Jews were supposed to have "horns" was because in the Aramaic, Moses was said to have an "aura" or "halo" around his head. This was translated to read that Moses had horns.

I am sure there are countless more...but the powers that be will never allow them to be publicized.

[Democrats_win]

4. There's Einstein's theory of relativity in the first sentence of the Bible!

Einstein's theory of relativity changed the way we view space. Previously we thought space was nothing but Einstein showed that space is defined by objects. Space was actually created. Before space there was literally nothing. So, perhaps her discovery gives us a greater appreciation for the Bible.

[madrchsod]

5. the book of genesis is full of contradictions

it`s an interesting book of history and the myths of the people who settled the lands of the middle east.

[izquierdista]

6. respected ........ scholar

In what other field can you make a name for yourself parsing the scribblings of the long, long, long dead?

Any what do you do for an encore? Divine the future by reading some fossilized mastadon droppings?

[FarrenH]

7. This is unfair

I'm an atheist and I consider parsing old texts and trying to discern their original meanings a scholarly pursuit, regardless of whether they happen to be religious texts or not

[izquierdista]

9. What myriad meanings are out there?

[Jim__]

11. Yeah sure. For instance,

who the hell cares if Archimedes was on the verge of discovering calculus. He's long, long, long dead. We already know calculus. Pfffffffft.


Oh yeah - :sarcasm:

[tama]

13. "In what other field?"

Philology, philosophy, litterature, science, art, etc. All those and many other fields based on accumulative parsing the scribblings of the long, long, long dead.

[Nihil]

14. *cough*

> In what other field can you make a name for yourself parsing the
> scribblings of the long, long, long dead?

Archaeology.

[armyowalgreens]

16. Not a big fan of philosophy are you?

[Odin2005]

18. Hey, studying mythology is very interesting.

It gives insight into the culture and worldview of the culture that created the myths.

[juno jones]

8. Very cool.

Biblical Hebrew is a very symbolic language, each letter has a meaning, each letter corresponds to a number (kaballah) which imparts further meaning.

I am currently rereading Carlo Suares's 1970 book 'Cipher of Genesis'. It's a bit technical on the caballa side for the first couple of chapters (thus not everybody's cup of tea), but his analysis of the Hebrew in the creation passages is fascinating and he came to many of the same conclusions as the professor above.


This is what makes the world interesting.:)

[izquierdista]

15. Cave paintings

These people have too much time to kill. At least when paleontologists look at a dinosaur fossil, they don't pretend to know the dinosaur's skin color. I'm all for scientific study, but this kind of empty hypothesizing falls into the category of debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

[Odin2005]

19. I'm no fan of mumerological nonsense, but the Semitic languages are very interesting in themselves.

Finding the origin of the consonantal-root-based grammar of those languages is a wonderful historical linguistics detective story.

[laconicsax]

10. "Prof Van Wolde added: "The traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now."

Yeah...the traditional view is untenable because of this...:rofl:

[Bad Thoughts]

12. This is an anachronism

People in the ancient world, regardless of their beliefs, had difficulty imagining a universe without physical existence. The best that they could do was either a formless world, or else one with basic elements. Even in Timaues, Plato imagined as the manipulation of various forms of existing matter.

[alp227]

17. YAAAAWNNNN...science wins again?

This ain't surprising; it's a very too obvious reason why biblical literalism sucks. But wait. Was Earth really in heaven back then? I'm confused.

[NotTheist]

20. So?

Who cares?

God does not exist.....

If there is a slim chance is more than enough evidence to intelligently demonstrate the god of the bible was an invention of man.

Misinterpretation... Reinterpretation... Miscommunication.... Pious fraud... BS.... Open lies.... Motivated deception.....

Who the hell cares?


The bible is worthless crap.