the earth".  When dealing with the word pleroma, this passage in Colossians will

naturally come up for a more detailed examination. Christ is "the Beginning" of

Gen. 1: 1, although at the time of Moses such a truth was not perceived, just as the

purpose of the name Jehovah was not known to the world before the revelation given in

the days of Moses. What was known as the Creation of the Almighty, is subsequently

revealed to have been the work of Jehovah, the God of Redemption. In Gen. 1: 1 we

learn that Elohim "God" created the heaven and the earth, and subsequently we learn that

all was the work of Him Who is "The Word", "The Image", "The One Mediator". From

the beginning creation had in view the redemptive purpose of the ages, but just as it

would have been impolitic to have answered the question of the Apostles in Acts 1: 6

before the time, so the true purpose of Creation was not revealed until Man had sinned

and Christ had died for his redemption.

Bara, the word translated create, must now be given a consideration. Metaphysics

"the science of things transcending what is physical or natural" attempts to deal with the

question of "being", and in that department of thought the question of "creating

something out of nothing" naturally arises.  Scripture however never discusses this

metaphysical problem. Even in Gen. 1: 1, it does NOT say "In the beginning God

created the basic matter of the universe", it commences with a highly organized and

differentiated universe "heaven and earth".  The Hebrew word bara in its primary

meaning of "create" is reserved for God as Creator, not being used of man, except in a

secondary sense (and that in five passages only), out of fifty-four occurrences namely

Josh. 17: 15, 18; I Sam. 2: 29; Ezek. 21: 19; 23: 47. Adam is said to be created,

although the "dust of the ground" from which he was made was in existence long before.

God is said to be the Creator of Israel (Isa. 43: 1, 7, 15), yet Israel was a nation

descended from Abraham. Bara gives us the Chaldaic word bar "son", which but

perpetuates the idea already recognized in bara. The Septuagint translates Josh. 17: 15

and 18 "thou shalt clear it", which the A.V. renders "cut down", thereby revealing, as the

lexicographers point out, that bara primarily means "to cut, to carve out, to form by

cutting". When we remember that "the world" kosmos is derived from the word kosmeo

"to adorn" as with "goodly stones", with "gold" and "to garnish" with all manner of

precious stones (Luke 21: 5; I Tim. 2: 9; Rev. 21: 2, 19) we perceive the reason for

the choice of bara and the words with which revelation opens "In the beginning God

created the heaven and the earth" begin to bear deeper significance. It will also show that

"the world" necessarily includes the earth as its sphere. Creation was dual, from the start.

Not heaven only, but the heaven and the earth. Man was created male and female, and

before we read of the generations of Adam, namely of his descendants, we read of the

"generations of the heavens and of the earth" (Gen. 2: 4).  Heaven is intimately

concerned with the earth; in the heavens God is "ALL" ("the Heavens do rule", "as it is

in heaven") and when at last the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven, the goal of

the ages will be attained, and God will not only be "All" but "ALL in ALL". Such are

faint shadows of His ways. By searching we shall never find out God into perfection, but

to stand as we have in a cleft of the rock while His glory passes before us, and be

permitted to behold but the "back part" of His ways is joy unspeakable.