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To: GourmetDan; count-your-change

==Vs 16 uses ‘asah’ in reference to sun, moon, etc and v 26 uses ‘asah’ in reference to man. V 27 uses ‘bara’ in reference to man.

I just looked up the Hebrew in verse 16, 26, and 27...And GourmetDan is quite correct. Asah is used to refer to the creation of man in 16 and 26, whereas bara is used in verse 27 to refer to the creation of man. This suggest that asah and bara are interchangeable, or that there are some aspects of man that were created, whereas other aspects were formed (or both). If the words are interchangeable, the explanation for their use may be as simple as using synonyms so as not to be repetitive re: word usage.

The same thing occurs in Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 2:4. In 1:1 God uses the word bara in reference to creating the heavens and the earth, whereas 2:4 uses asah to refer to the same. This definitely strengthens the idea that both words can be used interchangeably (although it doesn’t rule out that God was both creating and making within the same timeframe). There are a number of other verses that could be given, but I think the above is a sufficient case-in-point.


430 posted on 02/04/2009 8:20:09 PM PST by GodGunsGuts
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To: GodGunsGuts

” Asah is used to refer to the creation of man in 16 and 26,..”

The two ideas, create and make are distinguished by two different words in Hebrew and translators for 400 years have recognized this difference by using two different English words.

No where in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), that I have found, (perhaps you have?) is the word bara’ used except to mean create or bring into existence by God something that did not already exist.

Nor is ‘asah used to refer to creating. Rather ‘asah is used to to mean perform, to do, bring to pass, function.
Isa. 45:18 is such an example where bara’ and ‘asah are used,

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed1 it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.”

Create and made, not create equals made. Over and over there is a distinguishing between the two, not an interchange of meaning.

God can ‘asah, humans can ‘asah, but only God can bara’.
That is how the words are used, one distinguished from the other and a Bible dictionary will recognize this difference as I pointed to in Strong’s.


446 posted on 02/05/2009 8:48:09 AM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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