Hopeless

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! Deuteronomy 6:4 NASB One – Paradigms, paradigms, paradigms. Everywhere we look, people operate according to paradigms. “Evidence” is a function of presupposed paradigmatic expectations. Once I have made up my mind about a worldview, I will find all the evidence I need to…

Aristotle’s Influence

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1  NASB In the beginning – We just can’t get away from the opening verse, can we?  Genesis 1:1 stands as a clarion call for everything that’s different about the Hebrew worldview.  Not only does it soundly deny all of the opening ideas of…

The God Paradigm

When God began to create heaven and earth—  Genesis 1:1  JPS God – Now don’t get too upset about the JPS translation.  It only tries to capture the fact that the opening word, bere’shiyt, does not have a definite article attached (“the” beginning) and therefore must be understood in some other way than an announcement…

Single Source Theory

In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth – when the earth was astonishingly empty,  . . .   Genesis 1:1  JPS Stone Tanakh In the beginning – You’re probably a bit surprised by the JPS translation of the first verse of the Tanakh.  While it contains some of our usual words, its…

Peek Behind the Curtain

In the beginning God created [et]  . . . .  Genesis 1:1  NASB Et – If you read this text in Hebrew you would read the following:  beresheet bara Elohim et hashamayim ve-et ha-aretz.  Let me try to display this in Hebrew letters: Why is it important to see the Hebrew text?  Because there is…

Doctrinal Direction

In the beginning, God created . . .  Genesis 1:1  NASB In the beginning – It is little wonder that some rabbis spent their entire lives contemplating the opening three words of Scripture.  We have spent quite a bit of time on the same subject.  At last count, there are half a dozen or more…

The Problem with Bet

 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1  NASB In the beginning – When does it all begin?  Most believers point to the first verse of Genesis.  “It begins with the creation of heaven and earth,” they reply.  Theologians point to the same verse and proclaim that it all started with…

Second Story

In the beginning Genesis 1:1 In The Beginning – The Tanakh opens with a single word, bere’shiyt, a compound of the preposition be and re’shiyt, a noun that means “the first, the chief, the best.” The rabbis noted a curious thing about bere’shiyt.  It begins with a bet, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. …

Why, Not How

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1 In The Beginning – Rethink from the beginning.  Start with the beginning and think again about what it says.  In our culture, we are so saturated with scientific naturalism (the idea that all explanation must be found within a closed-universe model of inferential…

Creation 2010

In the beginning, God created . . . Genesis 1:1 Created – Today I received an email announcement for “Creation 2010 Supercamp.”  The advertisement said, “5 Fantastic Days. 14 Speakers. 20 Sessions.”  Even the meals are included.  But what caught my attention was the second headline.  It read “Battle for the Bible.”  Oops!  Just a…