creatio

Updated: November 19, 2024

The Hebrew word "bara," ordinarily translated "created," which implies to most people the idea of creatio ex nihilo, Ibn Ezra renders, in accordance with its etymology, to limit, to define, by drawing or incising a line or boundary.

Isaac Husik - A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy

Setting aside, therefore, the special rôle assigned to Marduk, we find that the Babylonians never developed a theory of real beginnings. The creatio ex nihilo was a thought beyond the grasp even of the schools. There was always something, and indeed there was always a great deal as much perhaps at the beginning of things as at any other time. But there was no cosmic order.

Morris Jastrow - The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria