28 So I urge you, my child, to look at the sky and the earth. Consider everything you see there, and realize that God made it all from nothing, just as he made the human race.
To be clear, you're saying that the words of 2 Macc 7:28 contain a poor analogy? Even if that were the case, it still would not overthrow the belief/notion that God creates without preexisting materials. We can give it the tag "ex nihilo" if we like, but the important thing is that God is not like the Platonic Demiurge: he creates without using preexisting matter. All he needs are his omnipotent resources.
2 Macc 7:28 has been interpreted multiple ways. It's not entirely clear how we should understand the part you highlighted. Origen of Alexandria understood the passage to teach creatio ex nihilo, despite its lack of total clarity.
In his 2 Maccabees Commentary (Anchor Bible Series), J. Goldstein writes these remarks about 7:28:
"For an ancient reader, the reading of L, ex ouk onton ('from what did not exist') may well have been less ambiguous, and the Latin ex nihilo is unequivocally 'from nothing'; cf. Schmuttermayr, BZ, neue Folge, 17 ( 1 9 7 3 ), 228. An early assertion of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo thus could well have been phrased in terms that proved to be less than clear, so that the later scribes and translators then tried to improve upon it. Our passage contains multiple textual problems."
7 comments:
28 So I urge you, my child, to look at the sky and the earth. Consider everything you see there, and realize that God made it all from nothing, just as he made the human race.
Adam made from nothing?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamah
https://www.soils.org/files/sssa/iys/july-soils-overview.pdf
ἀξιῶ σε τέκνον ἀναβλέψαντα εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα ἰδόντα γνῶναι ὅτι οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων ἐποίησεν αὐτὰ ὁ θεός καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος οὕτω γίνεται (2 Maccabees 7:28 LXX)
Seems no doubt to me that the verse is saying God made καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος οὕτω
Maybe it's like Philo writes:
"He produced the most perfect work, the Cosmos, out of non-existence into being"
From Richard Creel's book about divine impassibility:
"God does create ex nihilo in the sense that what he creates he does not create from antecedent individuals or matter" (page 72).
J.C. O'Neill also invokes 2 Macc 7:22 in his discussion of 7:28.
It is still a poor analogy. Especially for those conversant in the entire creation account.
To be clear, you're saying that the words of 2 Macc 7:28 contain a poor analogy? Even if that were the case, it still would not overthrow the belief/notion that God creates without preexisting materials. We can give it the tag "ex nihilo" if we like, but the important thing is that God is not like the Platonic Demiurge: he creates without using preexisting matter. All he needs are his omnipotent resources.
2 Macc 7:28 has been interpreted multiple ways. It's not entirely clear how we should understand the part you highlighted. Origen of Alexandria understood the passage to teach creatio ex nihilo, despite its lack of total clarity.
But it does not support it in a meaningful way either.
In his 2 Maccabees Commentary (Anchor Bible Series), J. Goldstein writes these remarks about 7:28:
"For an ancient reader, the reading of L, ex ouk onton ('from
what did not exist') may well have been less ambiguous, and the Latin
ex nihilo is unequivocally 'from nothing'; cf. Schmuttermayr, BZ, neue Folge, 17 ( 1 9 7 3 ), 228. An early assertion of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo thus could well have been phrased in terms that proved to be less than clear, so that the later scribes and translators then tried to improve upon it. Our passage contains multiple textual problems."
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