, after the general statement in verse
1, other verbs signifying to _form_ or _make_ are used to denote the
elaboration of the separate parts of the universe, and the word
"create" is found in only two places, when it refers to the
introduction of "great whales" (reptiles) and of man. These uses of
the word have been cited to disprove its sense of absolute creation.
It must be observed, however, that in the first of these cases we have
the earliest appearance of animal life, and in the second the
introduction of a rational and spiritual nature. Nothing but pure
materialism can suppose that the elements of vital and spiritual being
were included in the matter of the heavens and the earth as produced
in the beginning; and as the Scripture writers were not materialists,
we may infer that they recognized, in the introduction of life and
reason, acts of absolute creation, just as in the origin of matter
itself. In Genesis ii. and iii. we have a form of expression which
well marks the distinction between creation and making. God is there
said to have rested from all his works which he "created and
made"--literally, created "for or in reference to making," the word
for making being one of those already referred to.[31] The force of
this expression consists in its intimating that God had not only
finished the work of _creation_, properly so called, but also the
elaboration of the various details of the universe, as formed or
fashioned out of the original materials. Of a similar character is the
expression in Isaiah xlii., 5, "Jehovah, he that _created_ the heavens
and spread them out;" and that in Psalm cxlviii., 5, "He commanded and
they were _created_, he hath also established them for ever and ever."

In as far as I am aware, the word _bara_ in all the remaining
instances of its occurrence in the Pentateuch refers to the creation
of man, with the following exceptions: Exodus xxxiv., 10, "I will do
(create) marvels, such as have not been seen in all the earth;"
Numbers xvi., 30, "If the Lord make a new thing (create a creation),
and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up." These verses are
types of a class of expressions in which the proper term for creation
is applied to the production of something new, strange, and
marvellous; for instance, "Create in me a clean heart, O Lord;"
"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth." It is, however,
evidently an inversion of sound exposition to say that these secondary
or fig