Creatio ex nihilo (
Latin for "creation out of nothing") is the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine creative act.[1] It is a
theistic answer to the question of how the universe came to exist. It is in contrast to Ex nihilo nihil fit or "
nothing comes from nothing", which means that all things were formed ex materia from preexisting things; an idea by the Greek philosopher
Parmenides (c. 540 – c. 480 BC) about the nature of all things, and later more formally stated by
Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 – c. 55 BC).
Ex nihilo nihil fit means that nothing comes from nothing.[2] In ancient creation myths, the universe is formed ex materia from eternal formless matter,[3] namely the dark and still primordial ocean of
chaos.[4] In
Sumerian myth this cosmic ocean is personified as the goddess
Nammu "who gave birth to heaven and earth" and had existed forever;[5] in the Babylonian creation epic
Enuma Elish pre-existent chaos is made up of fresh-water
Apsu and salt-water
Tiamat, and from Tiamat the god
Marduk created Heaven and Earth;[6] in Egyptian creation myths a pre-existent watery chaos personified as the god
Nun and associated with darkness, gave birth to the primeval hill (or in some versions a primeval lotus flower, or in others a celestial cow);[7] and in Greek traditions the ultimate origin of the universe, depending on the source, is sometimes
Oceanus (a river that circles the Earth),
Night, or water.[8]
To these can be added the account of the
Book of Genesis, which opens with God creating the heavens and the earth, separating and restraining the waters. To further clarify the meaning of the Genesis creation account, the Hebrew sentence which opens Genesis, Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, can be interpreted in at least three ways:
As a statement that the
cosmos had an absolute beginning (In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth).
As a statement describing the condition of the world when God began creating (When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless).
As background information (When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth being untamed and shapeless, God said, Let there be light!).[9]
Though option 1 has been the historic and predominant view,[10] it has been recently suggested that (since the Middle Ages) it cannot be the preferred translation based on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds. [11] Whereas our modern societies see the origin of matter as a question of crucial importance, this may not have been the case for ancient cultures. Some scholars assert that when the author(s) of Genesis wrote the creation account they were more concerned with God bringing the cosmos into operation by assigning roles and functions.[12]
Creatio ex nihilo: the creation of matter
Creatio ex nihilo, in contrast to ex nihilo nihil fit, is the idea that matter is not eternal but was created by God at the initial cosmic moment.[13][14] In the third century a new
cosmogony arose, articulated by
Plotinus, that the world was an
emanation from "the One" (God) and therefore in some way "a part" of God. This view of creation was unacceptable to Christian church fathers of the time, as well as to Arabic and Hebrew philosophers, and they forcefully argued for the otherness of God and his creation and that God created all things from nothing by the Word of God.[15] The first known written articulation of the notion of creation ex nihilo is found in a late 2nd century letter written by
Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, a pagan friend.
In the letter Theophilus writes, (II, 4) "As, therefore, in all these respects God is more powerful than man, so also in this; that out of things that are not He creates and has created things that are"[16] This is almost a verbatim quote of St. Paul as rendered in the
Douay–Rheims Bible, (Romans 4:17) "...before God, whom he believed, who quickeneth the dead; and calleth those things that are not [Gr: μὴ ὄντα; L: non sunt], as those that are".[17]
By the beginning of the 3rd century the tension was resolved and creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.[18] Theophilus of Antioch is the first post New Testament author to unambiguously argue for an
ontologicalex nihilo creation from nothing, contrasting it to the views of
Plato and
Lucretius who asserted clearly that matter was preexistent.[19]
In modern times some Christian theologians argue that although the Bible does not explicitly mention creation ex nihilo, it gains validity from having been held by so many for so long; and others find support in modern cosmological theories surrounding the
Big Bang.[20] Some examine alternatives to creatio ex nihilo, such as the idea that God created from his own self or from Christ, but this seems to imply that the world is more or less identical with God; or that God created from pre-existent matter, which at least has biblical support, but this implies that the world does not depend on God for its existence.[20]
Theologians and philosophers of religion point out that Creatio ex nihilo is stated in Jewish literature from the first century BC or earlier depending on the dating of
2 Maccabees:[23][24]
I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.
Others have argued that the belief may not be inherent in Maccabees.[26]
In the first century,
Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenized Jew, lays out the basic idea of ex nihilo creation, though he is not always consistent, he rejects the Greek idea of the eternal universe and he maintains that God has created time itself.[27] In other places it has been argued that he postulates pre-existent matter alongside God.[28] But other major scholars such as
Harry Austryn Wolfson see that interpretation of Philo's ideas differently and argue that the so-called pre-existent matter was created.[29]
Saadia Gaon introduced ex nihilo creation into the readings of the Jewish bible in the 10th century CE in his work Book of Beliefs and Opinions where he imagines a God far more awesome and omnipotent than that of the rabbis, the traditional Jewish teachers who had so far dominated Judaism, whose God created the world from pre-existing matter.[30] Today Jews, like Christians, tend to believe in creation ex nihilo, although some Jewish scholars maintain that Genesis 1:1 allows for the pre-existence of matter to which God gives form.[31]
Jewish philosophers of the 9th and 10th century adopted the concept of "yesh me-Ayin", contradicting
Greek philosophers and
Aristotelian view that the world was created out of primordial matter and/or was
eternal.[32]
Mainstream Christianity
Mainstream Christians believe that originally there was nothing except for a single, infinite and eternal God and that God alone brought all matter, energy, time, and space into existence out of nothing.[33] That belief developed in the second century of the
Christian era.[34]
Mormons do not believe, as do traditional Christians, that God created the universe ex nihilo (from nothing).[35] Rather, to Mormons, the act of creation is to organize or reorganize pre-existing matter or intelligence.[36]
Most scholars of Islam share with Christianity and Judaism the concept that God is a
First Cause and absolute Creator; He did not create the world from pre-existing matter.[37][38]
However, some scholars, adhering to a strict literal interpretation of the Quran such as
Ibn Taimiyya whose sources became the fundament of
Wahhabism and contemporary teachings, hold that God fashioned the world out of primordial matter, based on Quranic verses.[39]
Hindu opinion
The
Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.1 says before the world was manifested, there was only existence, one unparalleled (sat eva ekam eva advitīyam).
Swami Lokeshwarananda commented on this passage by saying "something out of nothing is an absurd idea".[40]
Stoicism, founded by
Zeno of Citium around 300 BC, includes the belief that creation out of nothing is impossible and that
Zeus created the world out of his own being.[41]
The
Big Bang theory, by contrast to theology, is a scientific theory; it offers no explanation of cosmic existence but only a description of the first few moments of that existence.[42][43]
See also
Emergence – Unpredictable phenomenon in complex systems
^Bunnin & Yu 2008, p. 149,"The doctrine of creation ex nihlo maintains that matter is not eternal and that no matter existed prior to the divine creative act at the initial moment of the cosmic process."
^David B. Burrell; Carlo Cogliati; Janet M. Soskice; William R. Stoeger (2 September 2010).
Creation and the God of Abraham. Cambridge University Press. pp. 33–.
ISBN978-1-139-49078-8.
Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
^Husam Muhi Eldin al- Alousi The Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought, Qur'an, Hadith, Commentaries, and KalamNational Printing and Publishing, Bagdad, 1968 p. 29 and 96
^Husam Muhi Eldin al- Alousi The Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought, Qur'an, Hadith, Commentaries, and KalamNational Printing and Publishing, Bagdad, 1968 p. 53
^"Brief Answers to Cosmic Questions".
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for NASA's Education Support Network.
Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2021-09-10. It is a common misconception that the Big Bang was the origin of the universe. In reality, the Big Bang scenario is completely silent about how the universe came into existence in the first place. In fact, the closer we look to time "zero," the less certain we are about what actually happened, because our current description of physical laws do not yet apply to such extremes of nature. The Big Bang scenario simply assumes that space, time, and energy already existed. But it tells us nothing about where they came from - or why the universe was born hot and dense to begin with.
Griffin, David Ray (2001). "Creation Out of Nothing, Creation Out of Chaos, and the Problem of Evil". In Davis, Stephen T. (ed.).
Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy. Westminster John Knox Press.
ISBN9780664222512.
Archived from the original on 2023-08-15. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
Rubio, Gonzalez (2013).
"Time Before Time: Primeval Narratives in Early Mesopotamian Literature". In Feliu, L.; Llop, J. (eds.). Time and History in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 56th Recontre Assyriologique Internationale at Barcelona, 26–30 July 2010. Eisenbrauns.
Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2019.