God and Nature Spring 2024
Young Earth Creationism’s InterTextual Commentary (When Was Day One? Part Two)
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By John B. Carpenter
Young-Earth Creationists typically claim that their view that Genesis 1 teaches that the earth was created from six to ten thousand years ago is the “plain teaching of Scripture,” or reading the Bible “at face value” (1); and that there is “overwhelming Biblical data” in support of Young-Earth Creationism (YEC) (2). Yet, when challenged to show this “straightforward reading” from Genesis 1, as I did previously in this magazine (3), YEC proponents frequently resort to other passages, like Exodus 20:11 and Matthew 19:4, 8 (c.f. Mark 10:6.) Here, we’ll examine their interpretation of the other passages of scripture that they claim teach YEC.
Exodus
Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 are the prime examples of “intertextual commentary” used, containing the same phrase “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,” giving the theological basis of the Sabbath. Here, we will focus on Exodus 20:11, the fourth commandment. Young-Earth Creationists claim that it sums up the entirety of the creation account. That is, they assume it is about God “creating” the universe and earth in six 24-hour days. However, Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 do not say God “created” (bā·rā’, ברא) the earth in six days. They say He “made” (‘ā·śāh, עָשָׂה) it. While the two words share some overlap in their semantic range, they are not synonyms.
Young-Earth Creationists typically claim that their view that Genesis 1 teaches that the earth was created from six to ten thousand years ago is the “plain teaching of Scripture,” or reading the Bible “at face value” (1); and that there is “overwhelming Biblical data” in support of Young-Earth Creationism (YEC) (2). Yet, when challenged to show this “straightforward reading” from Genesis 1, as I did previously in this magazine (3), YEC proponents frequently resort to other passages, like Exodus 20:11 and Matthew 19:4, 8 (c.f. Mark 10:6.) Here, we’ll examine their interpretation of the other passages of scripture that they claim teach YEC.
Exodus
Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 are the prime examples of “intertextual commentary” used, containing the same phrase “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,” giving the theological basis of the Sabbath. Here, we will focus on Exodus 20:11, the fourth commandment. Young-Earth Creationists claim that it sums up the entirety of the creation account. That is, they assume it is about God “creating” the universe and earth in six 24-hour days. However, Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 do not say God “created” (bā·rā’, ברא) the earth in six days. They say He “made” (‘ā·śāh, עָשָׂה) it. While the two words share some overlap in their semantic range, they are not synonyms.
It does not say “in six days the Lord created heaven and earth.” It says He “made” it. |
We see the terms used in different senses in the creation account itself in Genesis 2:4. “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created (bā·rā’), in the day that the Lord God made (‘ā·śāh) the earth and the heavens.” The YEC case depends on interpreting Genesis 2:4 as a synonymous parallelism, a common feature in Hebrew poetry. Synonymous parallelism is when two lines of poetry express the same idea in different words, such as “he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). Synthetic parallelism also lists, classifies, or compares different actions or kinds of things, like “He created” and “He made.” Genesis 2:4 could just as well be a summary of both the creation ex nihilo of Genesis 1:1 and the making of a habitable earth in the seven days in a synthetic parallelism. Alternatively, Samuel Bray and John Hobbins interpret the second creation account (Genesis. 2:4b-25) as commencing at the middle of Genesis 2:4, thus breaking apart the bā·rā’ of Genesis 2:4a from the ‘ā·śāh ָ of Genesis 2:4b, displayed by the paragraph break (4). That is, in their interpretation, the two words are in no parallel relationship whatsoever. The CEB translation does[AA1] the same. However, Barry Bandstra and the ESV keep them together in some kind of parallelism (5).
Are Create and Make Synonyms?
The key question for Young-Earth Creationists‘ use of intertextual commentary, namely Exodus 20:11, to make Genesis 1:1-2 part of the days (Gen. 1:3-2:3) is whether create (bā·rā’), has a meaning outside the range of “make” (‘ā·śāh). In order to prove that Exodus 20:11 sums up all of Genesis 1, including 1:1-2 (the original creation), they must show that “make” is synonymous with “create.” Weston Fields, in his landmark YEC book Unformed and Unfilled, cites numerous instances of ‘ā·śāh (make) in which he seeks to show it is interchangeable with bā·rā’ (create). While he can show some overlap in their semantic range, he does not successfully demonstrate any instance in which ‘ā·śāh is used for creation ex nihilo (6).
Jeremy Lyon, in his 2019 article, compared “created” in Genesis 1:1 with its use in Genesis 2:4. He did not comment on whether there is a difference in the semantic range between the two terms, though that is a crucial issue for the YEC case he was making (7). C. F. Kiel and other Hebrew scholars believe that there is a difference. “In Kal [verb form] [bā·rā’ ] always means to create, and is only applied to a divine creation, the production of that which had no existence before” (8). Thus, “create” has God as its subject and refers to creation ex nihilo. Brown, Driver, and Briggs, a reputable Hebrew dictionary, defines bā·rā’ as “shape, create . . . always of divine activity” (9).
Meanwhile, ‘ā·śāh, the verb in Exodus 20:11, is defined with two primary meanings “do, make” (10). Other than Genesis 2:4, both words are used in Isaiah 45:7b, “making (‘ā·śāh) peace and creating (bā·rā’) evil.” To prove that Exodus 20:11 refers to the original creation (Genesis 1:1), YEC proponents must show that the verb in Exodus 20:11 (make) includes the creation ex nihilo.
The Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint (LXX), gives further insight into the nuances between the two terms. It sometimes translates both bā·rā’ and ‘ā·śāh with the Greek word ποιεω (poieo) (11). But the question isn’t whether the two terms can sometimes be used synonymously, but whether they always are. In the LXX, “created” is translated into the Greek word poieo in Genesis 1:1 but in Genesis 2:4 it is translated as ἐγένετο (egeneto, “were made”). Here, the LXX translators had the opportunity to translate both words into the same Greek word if they used the two terms interchangeably. They did not. “Create” (bā·rā’) is only used in the OT with God as its subject, whereas “make” (‘ā·śāh) is not so specific.
Let us turn back to Exodus 20:11. It uses ‘ā·śāh, which can mean to “make something out of pre-existing material.” It does not say “in six days the Lord created heaven and earth.” It says He “made” it. In order to describe creation ex nihilo, “create” would be the proper term. To describe God working on the earth already created in Genesis 1:1, to make it habitable (as in 1:3-2:3), “make” is the better term. Since Exodus 20:11 uses “make,” arguably it was not meant to encompass the original creation, from the beginning in 1:1. Its use of ‘ā·śāh implies an exclusion of the original creation ex nihilo. Therefore, Exodus 20:11 can be legitimately interpreted as to only summarize Genesis 1:3-2:3, the main storyline, not necessarily the four scene-setting statements of Genesis 1:1-2. John Sailhamer noted that the use of ‘ā·śāh (make) in Exodus 20:11, instead of bā·rā (create), indicates that Exodus 20:11 does not refer to the original creation, but rather to the seven days (1:3-2:3) (12). Therefore, it does not make a statement about the dating of the original creation.
Matthew 19:4, 8 & Mark 10:6
Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female.
Another intertextual commentary on creation, according to YEC, is Jesus’ words “from the beginning” (ἀπ' ἀρχῆς) in Mt. 19:4, 8 (c.f. Mk. 10:6), taken to be a reference to the beginning of the universe. Jason DeRouchie, in a 2023 article, claimed that Jesus’ statement on marriage dates the original creation. That is, he says Jesus’ statement implies that marriage was at “the beginning”; that Jesus was referring to all of Genesis 1:1-2:3 and stating that all of it, including marriage, was an inseparable part of the original creation (13). Ken Ham reasons similarly, quoting Mark 10:6 and then concluding, “Jesus clearly taught that the creation was young, for Adam and Eve existed ‘from the beginning” (14). This assumes that Jesus was referring to the beginning of the universe, rather than the beginning of marriage or of humanity.
Context suggests otherwise. Having been asked about divorce, Jesus taught about the origins of marriage. We normally allow the context to tell us what beginning, exactly, is being referenced. If a history teacher was asked about the purpose of the United States and replied, “In the beginning, the founding fathers said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .’,” no one is going to interpret the teacher to be referencing the origins of the universe, to be suggesting that the USA was founded at the absolute beginning. Here, Jesus teaches on the nature of marriage, saying that the God who created humanity “from the beginning” (of humanity, or of marriage) made them male and female. Since humanity was created male and female, marriage has, from its beginning, been for such a pair. He implies nothing about when day one begins relative to the original creation. To try to shoehorn the absolute creation into a statement about the origins of marriage is unreasonable.
Further, Young-Earth Creationists do not, technically, believe humanity was created at the beginning either. They believe there was a gap of at least 6 days from the initial creation of the universe until the creation of humanity and marriage. They implicitly claim their six-day gap is close enough to the beginning to still be referred to as “the beginning.” But who’s to say that even the billions of years allowed for by Old Earth Creationism from the original creation to the creation of humanity is also not, from God’s transcendent perspective, “the beginning”?
Conclusion
Young-Earth Creationists’ need to resort to other passages to interpret Genesis 1 for us is evidence that Genesis 1 is not the “clear” testimony to YEC that they claim it is. Further, these passages do not support YEC. Exodus 20:11 refers to the days that began at an undisclosed time after the original creation. Jesus’ reference to “from the beginning” (Mt. 19:4, 8; Mk. 10:6) was about the beginning of humanity or marriage, not the absolute creation of the universe. Thus, neither Genesis 1 nor the intertextual commentary show that day one begins with the absolute creation and thus allow for dating the earth as young. So, YEC dogmatism is, also, ex nihilo.
References
1. John MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning (W Publishing Group: Nashville, TN, 2001), 18,19, 21, 62.
2. John Carpenter When Was Day One? God and Nature Fall 2023
3. DeRouchie, “Our Young Earth: Arguments for Thousands of Years,” MJT 22.1, 2023, 2.
4. Samuel L. Bray and John F. Hobbins, Genesis 1-11, A New Old Translation for Readers, Scholars and Translators (Wilmore, KY: Glossa House: 2017), 90.
5. Barry Bandstra, Genesis 1-11, A Handbook on the Hebrew Text (Waco, Tx: Baylor University Press, 2008), 116.
6. Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled (Master Books: Green Forest, AR, 1976), 60-74.
7. Jeremy D. Lyon, “Genesis 1:1–3 and the Literary Boundary of Day One,” JETS 62.2 (2019): 269–85.
8. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Volume 1 (Edinburg: T. & T. Clark, 1866), 47.
9. Francis Brown, S R Driver, Charles A Briggs Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon Snowball Publishing, 2011 p. 135
10. Brown, Driver, Briggs, p. 793b.
11. ποιεω (poieó) means to make, or do.
12. John Sailhamer, Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1996), 107. The same could be said of Nehemiah 9:6.
13. Jason S. DeRouchie, Wayne Grudem, “How Old Is the Earth,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 22.1, 2023, 3.
14. “Did Jesus Say He Created in Six Literal Days?,” Answers in Genesis, undated; https://answersingenesis.org/days-of-creation/did-jesus-say-he-created-in-six-literal-days/.
John B. Carpenter, Ph.D., is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, in Danville, VA. and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf and Stock, 2022) and the Covenant Caswell substack.
Are Create and Make Synonyms?
The key question for Young-Earth Creationists‘ use of intertextual commentary, namely Exodus 20:11, to make Genesis 1:1-2 part of the days (Gen. 1:3-2:3) is whether create (bā·rā’), has a meaning outside the range of “make” (‘ā·śāh). In order to prove that Exodus 20:11 sums up all of Genesis 1, including 1:1-2 (the original creation), they must show that “make” is synonymous with “create.” Weston Fields, in his landmark YEC book Unformed and Unfilled, cites numerous instances of ‘ā·śāh (make) in which he seeks to show it is interchangeable with bā·rā’ (create). While he can show some overlap in their semantic range, he does not successfully demonstrate any instance in which ‘ā·śāh is used for creation ex nihilo (6).
Jeremy Lyon, in his 2019 article, compared “created” in Genesis 1:1 with its use in Genesis 2:4. He did not comment on whether there is a difference in the semantic range between the two terms, though that is a crucial issue for the YEC case he was making (7). C. F. Kiel and other Hebrew scholars believe that there is a difference. “In Kal [verb form] [bā·rā’ ] always means to create, and is only applied to a divine creation, the production of that which had no existence before” (8). Thus, “create” has God as its subject and refers to creation ex nihilo. Brown, Driver, and Briggs, a reputable Hebrew dictionary, defines bā·rā’ as “shape, create . . . always of divine activity” (9).
Meanwhile, ‘ā·śāh, the verb in Exodus 20:11, is defined with two primary meanings “do, make” (10). Other than Genesis 2:4, both words are used in Isaiah 45:7b, “making (‘ā·śāh) peace and creating (bā·rā’) evil.” To prove that Exodus 20:11 refers to the original creation (Genesis 1:1), YEC proponents must show that the verb in Exodus 20:11 (make) includes the creation ex nihilo.
The Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint (LXX), gives further insight into the nuances between the two terms. It sometimes translates both bā·rā’ and ‘ā·śāh with the Greek word ποιεω (poieo) (11). But the question isn’t whether the two terms can sometimes be used synonymously, but whether they always are. In the LXX, “created” is translated into the Greek word poieo in Genesis 1:1 but in Genesis 2:4 it is translated as ἐγένετο (egeneto, “were made”). Here, the LXX translators had the opportunity to translate both words into the same Greek word if they used the two terms interchangeably. They did not. “Create” (bā·rā’) is only used in the OT with God as its subject, whereas “make” (‘ā·śāh) is not so specific.
Let us turn back to Exodus 20:11. It uses ‘ā·śāh, which can mean to “make something out of pre-existing material.” It does not say “in six days the Lord created heaven and earth.” It says He “made” it. In order to describe creation ex nihilo, “create” would be the proper term. To describe God working on the earth already created in Genesis 1:1, to make it habitable (as in 1:3-2:3), “make” is the better term. Since Exodus 20:11 uses “make,” arguably it was not meant to encompass the original creation, from the beginning in 1:1. Its use of ‘ā·śāh implies an exclusion of the original creation ex nihilo. Therefore, Exodus 20:11 can be legitimately interpreted as to only summarize Genesis 1:3-2:3, the main storyline, not necessarily the four scene-setting statements of Genesis 1:1-2. John Sailhamer noted that the use of ‘ā·śāh (make) in Exodus 20:11, instead of bā·rā (create), indicates that Exodus 20:11 does not refer to the original creation, but rather to the seven days (1:3-2:3) (12). Therefore, it does not make a statement about the dating of the original creation.
Matthew 19:4, 8 & Mark 10:6
Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female.
Another intertextual commentary on creation, according to YEC, is Jesus’ words “from the beginning” (ἀπ' ἀρχῆς) in Mt. 19:4, 8 (c.f. Mk. 10:6), taken to be a reference to the beginning of the universe. Jason DeRouchie, in a 2023 article, claimed that Jesus’ statement on marriage dates the original creation. That is, he says Jesus’ statement implies that marriage was at “the beginning”; that Jesus was referring to all of Genesis 1:1-2:3 and stating that all of it, including marriage, was an inseparable part of the original creation (13). Ken Ham reasons similarly, quoting Mark 10:6 and then concluding, “Jesus clearly taught that the creation was young, for Adam and Eve existed ‘from the beginning” (14). This assumes that Jesus was referring to the beginning of the universe, rather than the beginning of marriage or of humanity.
Context suggests otherwise. Having been asked about divorce, Jesus taught about the origins of marriage. We normally allow the context to tell us what beginning, exactly, is being referenced. If a history teacher was asked about the purpose of the United States and replied, “In the beginning, the founding fathers said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .’,” no one is going to interpret the teacher to be referencing the origins of the universe, to be suggesting that the USA was founded at the absolute beginning. Here, Jesus teaches on the nature of marriage, saying that the God who created humanity “from the beginning” (of humanity, or of marriage) made them male and female. Since humanity was created male and female, marriage has, from its beginning, been for such a pair. He implies nothing about when day one begins relative to the original creation. To try to shoehorn the absolute creation into a statement about the origins of marriage is unreasonable.
Further, Young-Earth Creationists do not, technically, believe humanity was created at the beginning either. They believe there was a gap of at least 6 days from the initial creation of the universe until the creation of humanity and marriage. They implicitly claim their six-day gap is close enough to the beginning to still be referred to as “the beginning.” But who’s to say that even the billions of years allowed for by Old Earth Creationism from the original creation to the creation of humanity is also not, from God’s transcendent perspective, “the beginning”?
Conclusion
Young-Earth Creationists’ need to resort to other passages to interpret Genesis 1 for us is evidence that Genesis 1 is not the “clear” testimony to YEC that they claim it is. Further, these passages do not support YEC. Exodus 20:11 refers to the days that began at an undisclosed time after the original creation. Jesus’ reference to “from the beginning” (Mt. 19:4, 8; Mk. 10:6) was about the beginning of humanity or marriage, not the absolute creation of the universe. Thus, neither Genesis 1 nor the intertextual commentary show that day one begins with the absolute creation and thus allow for dating the earth as young. So, YEC dogmatism is, also, ex nihilo.
References
1. John MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning (W Publishing Group: Nashville, TN, 2001), 18,19, 21, 62.
2. John Carpenter When Was Day One? God and Nature Fall 2023
3. DeRouchie, “Our Young Earth: Arguments for Thousands of Years,” MJT 22.1, 2023, 2.
4. Samuel L. Bray and John F. Hobbins, Genesis 1-11, A New Old Translation for Readers, Scholars and Translators (Wilmore, KY: Glossa House: 2017), 90.
5. Barry Bandstra, Genesis 1-11, A Handbook on the Hebrew Text (Waco, Tx: Baylor University Press, 2008), 116.
6. Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled (Master Books: Green Forest, AR, 1976), 60-74.
7. Jeremy D. Lyon, “Genesis 1:1–3 and the Literary Boundary of Day One,” JETS 62.2 (2019): 269–85.
8. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Volume 1 (Edinburg: T. & T. Clark, 1866), 47.
9. Francis Brown, S R Driver, Charles A Briggs Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon Snowball Publishing, 2011 p. 135
10. Brown, Driver, Briggs, p. 793b.
11. ποιεω (poieó) means to make, or do.
12. John Sailhamer, Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1996), 107. The same could be said of Nehemiah 9:6.
13. Jason S. DeRouchie, Wayne Grudem, “How Old Is the Earth,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 22.1, 2023, 3.
14. “Did Jesus Say He Created in Six Literal Days?,” Answers in Genesis, undated; https://answersingenesis.org/days-of-creation/did-jesus-say-he-created-in-six-literal-days/.
John B. Carpenter, Ph.D., is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, in Danville, VA. and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf and Stock, 2022) and the Covenant Caswell substack.