Creation ex-nihilo
Rough translation from II Maccabees 7:28-29 and selections from Vladimir Lossky.
I’m reading Vladimir Lossky’s The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, and he has an interesting passage about Creation:
It is often forgotten that the creation of the world is not a truth of a philosophical order, but rather an article of faith. Ancient philosophy knows nothing of creation in the absolute sense of the word; the demiurge of Plato is not a creator-God, but rather an ordainer of the universe, a craftsman, a fashioner of the κόσμος, a word itself implying order and comeliness. ‘Being’ in hellenistic thought signifies existence in some ordered manner, the possession of an essence. The demiurge creates substances giving form to amorphous matter which exists eternally and independently of himself as a chaotic and unqualifiable mass, capable of receiving every possible form and quality. In itself, matter is thus non-being, a pure potentiality of being, of becoming something; it is the μη ὀν, but it is not the οὐκ ὀν, which is absolute nothingness. The idea of creation ex nihilo is first found in the Bible (II Macc. vii, 28) where a mother, urging her son to have courage to undergo martyrdom for the faith, says: ‘I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise.’ (ὄτι ἐκ οὐκ ὄντων ἐποίησεν ἀυτά ό θεός, according to the Septuagint translation.) All creatures are balanced upon the creative word of God, as if upon a bridge of diamond; above them is the abyss of the divine infinitude, below them that of their own nothingness,’ says Philaret of Moscow.1
The passage from II Maccabees is worth quoting in full. The context is a mother encouraging her son to stand fast in the face of martyrdom:
Ἀξιῶ σε, τέκνον, ἀναβλέψαντα εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα ἰδόντα, γνῶναι ὅτι ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐποίησεν αὐτὰ ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος οὕτως γεγένηται, μὴ φοβηθῇς τὸν δήμιον τοῦτον, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἄξιος γενόμενος, ἐπίδεξαι τὸν θάνατον, ἵνα ἐν τῷ ἐλέει σὺν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς σου κομίσωμαί σε.2
My (very) rough translation:
I beg you, son, look upon Heaven and Earth. See all things in them. Know that from not-being God made them and so too the birth of Man came to be. Don’t fear this executioner. Become worthy of your brothers and welcome death so that in mercy I will recover you along with your brothers.
As Lossky says, this is the first place in the Bible that (explicitly) describes Creation as ex nihilo. The first verse of Genesis does not. What does it mean to create from non-being/what doesn’t exist/things not existing? It’s beyond understanding.
I apologize for the slow progress on translation of the third chapter. I’m happy to report, however, that I have recorded two new translator interviews: with Herbert Jordan (translator of Homer) and Natasha Wimmer (translator of Roberto Bolaño and Mario Vargas Llosa). Both require a lot of editing, and then I will post them.
Lossky, Vladimir. The mystical theology of the Eastern Church. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976.
Brenton, L. C. L., The Septuagint Version: Greek (London 1851) 2 Mac 7:28-29. The Vulgate is: Peto, nate, ut aspicias ad cælum et terram, et ad omnia quæ in eis sunt, et intelligas quia ex nihilo fecit illa Deus, et hominum genus: ita fiet, ut non timeas carnificem istum, sed dignus fratribus tuis effectus particeps, suscipe mortem, ut in illa miseratione cum fratribus tuis te recipiam.