RSV-CCC study-Genesis 1:1

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**Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. **

**CCC on Gen 1:**1

**268 **Of all the divine attributes, only God’s omnipotence is named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God’s power is loving, for he is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it “is made perfect in weakness”. 103

03 Cf. Gen 1:1; Jn 1:3; Mt 6:9; 2 Cor 12:9; cf. I Cor 1:18.

**279 **“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” 116 Holy Scripture begins with these solemn words. The profession of faith takes them up when it confesses that God the Father almighty is “Creator of heaven and earth” (Apostles’ Creed), “of all that is, seen and unseen” (Nicene Creed). We shall speak first of the Creator, then of creation and finally of the fall into sin from which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to raise us up again.

116 Gen 1:1.

**280 **Creation is the foundation of “all God’s saving plans,” the “beginning of the history of salvation” 117 that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”: from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ. 118

117 GCD 51.
118 Gen 1:1; cf. Rom 8:18-23.

**290 **“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”: 128 three things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself; he alone is Creator (the verb “create” - Hebrew bara - always has God for its subject). The totality of what exists (expressed by the formula “the heavens and the earth”) depends on the One who gives it being.

128 Gen 1:1.

==========

Insights into Genesis 1:1-31

CCC on 1:1-2:4

**337 **God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine “work”, concluded by the “rest” of the seventh day. 204 On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, 205 permitting us to “recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God.” 206

204 Gen 1:1 - 2:4.
205 Cf. DV 11.
206 LG 36 § 2.

===============
**
(Edtracted from ) rtforum.org/lt/lt47.html (St Augustine)**
Code: 
    In the beginning God created heaven and earth (Gen 1:1). St. Augustine maintains that we know from the sacred and infallible Scriptures that, in the first instant of time, God created the world out of nothing. He reasons that, when Genesis opens with the words, in the beginning, it means that God "had made nothing previously," and, therefore, that the world was made, "not in time, but simultaneously with time." He sees time as being the measure of change in created things, and, since before this beginning there was no angel, no material thing, no matter at all, therefore there was no time before the creation recorded in Gen 1:1. 5 He stresses that God made everything in the world out of nothing, that in the creation of the world change and motion itself was created, so that before this beginning there was absolutely no movement of anything bodily or spiritual outside of God, Who is Himself eternal and without motion. 6

    Augustine does not exclude the contrary opinion that the angels were created, not in the beginning of time, but before the beginning of time, for in that case, he says, the words in the beginning mean literally, not in the beginning of all creation, since the angels would previously have been created, but rather in the Beginning, that is, in the divine Wisdom, the divine Word of God, Who is the Beginning, as He tells us in Jn 8:25, in answer to the question Who are you? - (I am) the Beginning. 7 Augustine is open to this opinion, chiefly because, he says, "it gives me the liveliest satisfaction to find the Trinity celebrated in the very beginning of the Book of Genesis." 8 Regarding the meaning of heaven and earth in the very first verse of Genesis, Augustine says rather indecisively in The City of God: "Under these names heaven and earth the whole creation is signified, either as divided into spiritual and material, which seems the more likely, or into the two great parts of the world in which all created things are contained, so that, first of all, the creation is presented in sum and then its parts are enumerated according to the mystic number of the days." 9
Cont…2
 
Contd Part 2 of 2

(Extracted from CSS- Dr Scott Hahn & Team)

To Moses and those for whom he wrote,
the process of creation and the scientific nature of things were shrouded in mystery too deep for man to comprehend.
  • It was the fact that God created everything, and that
  • He made man in His image that was important.
How He went about doing it was His business, as Job was to discover. (see Job 38-39).

If we approach Genesis 1 as though it is God’s revelation of scientific truth, we stumble immediately upon difficulties:
  • How was there “evening and. morning, one day” (vs. 5) when the sun had yet to be created?
  • How did the fruit trees grow and bear fruit before there were days and nights or seasons? And
  • How do we reconcile creation in six literal, 24-hour days with modern geological science?
Approach Genesis 1 as divine revelation of spiritual truth,
and these troubles evaporate. -
  • Genesis is more like a hymn than a treatise.
  • It uses poetic language, with symbols and images,
    to relate the history of the created universe.
As such it concerns itself not with how created beings developed over time, but
  • how they came to exist to begin with,
  • by whose decree and to what purpose.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, “.the first three chapters of Genesis .express in their solemn language the truths of creation-its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation” (CCC 289).

Like all good poetry, the language of Genesis is packed with layers of meaning. Only a slow, careful reading will reveal the depths and riches of truth it has to offer.

We are therefore going to approach chapter 1 (and chapters 2
and 3) differently from the way we approach later chapters.
We will take it very slowly, soaking in the chapter as a whole and observing as much as we can about
-*** who God is,
  • what and why He created,
  • who we are and
  • our purpose on earth***
    ===============
    Over to you.
a) Your Reflection,Observation & Personal Comments.
b) Do you like such :threads”? Do you suggest I continue with others later?
End
Saturday 3rd Feb 2007
 
Creation out of Nothing - Gen 1:1

**Ex nihilo **is a Latin term meaning “out of nothing”. It is often used in conjunction with the term creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning “creation out of nothing”. Due to the nature this term, it is often used in philosophical or creationistic arguments, as conservative Christians, Muslims and Jews believe that God created the universe from nothing.

catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0205frs.asp
Catholic Answers

staycatholic.com/ecf_creation_out_of_nothing.htm
The Early Church Fathers and Creation out of Nothing

**Word “creates” (bara (Heb) ex nihilo (Latin: ex nikilo) - out of nothing) **
We humans, can “Invent”. We , cannot “create”)

**CCC 290 **“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”: 128 three things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself; he alone is Creator (the verb “create” - Hebrew bara - always has God for its subject). The totality of what exists (expressed by the formula “the heavens and the earth”) depends on the One who gives it being.

128 Gen 1:1.
 
**Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. **

Monotheism – There is only One God

God creates …. Out of nothing… just by His Will

God creates…the whole universe…the heavens and the ah earth and all in it.… He must be external…outside of the things He create.

At times people ask such questions like
”*Can God create a rock so heave that he cannot lift” *
This is an absurd and illogical question…similar to
“Can we draw a 2-sided Triangle” or
“Can we draw a Round Square”
 
Richard:

Well done!

Hopefully, you’ll have lot of readers!

YBIC, Michael
 
St. Augustine

In the Beginning!!!

The Word!!! The Word is the BEGINNING!!!

Jesus said: I Am the BEGINNING!!! THE ALPHA!!!

Also, this is said in eternity and simultaneously.

This is the literal understanding.

If I have understood St. Augustine, the above is one or two of his many gems.

If I had time I would say more.

This is not to go against any of the above information.

I have not had time to wipe my nose.

I hope I am correct!!!
 
richardeekw said:
**Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. **
Code: 
    Augustine does not exclude the contrary opinion that the angels were created, not in the beginning of time, but before the beginning of time, for in that case, he says, the words in the beginning mean literally, not in the beginning of all creation, since the angels would previously have been created, but rather in the Beginning, that is, in the divine Wisdom, the divine Word of God, Who is the Beginning, as He tells us in Jn 8:25, in answer to the question Who are you? - (I am) the Beginning. 7 Augustine is open to this opinion, chiefly because, he says, "it gives me the liveliest satisfaction to find the Trinity celebrated in the very beginning of the Book of Genesis."
Cont…2
Click to expand...
I really found this interesting Richard - that “In the beginning…” could be understood as “In Jesus, the Divine Word, the Second Person of the Trinity…” Brings to mind the NT Scripture passage that speaks of all things being created in Him.

Thanks.
Nita
 
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