Editing Creator deity (section)

====Christianity====
{{Further|God in Christianity}}
{{See also|Ex nihilo|Logos (Christianity)}}
[[File:Blake God Blessing.jpg|thumb|upright|''God Blessing the Seventh Day'', 1805 watercolor painting by [[William Blake]]]]
The Abrahamic creation narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the two first chapters of the [[Book of Genesis]].{{sfn|Alter|1981|p=141}} The first account (1:1 through 2:3) employs a repetitious structure of divine fiat and fulfillment, then the statement "And there was evening and there was morning, the [''x''<sup>th</sup>] day," for each of the six days of creation. In each of the first three days there is an act of division: day one divides the darkness from light, day two the "waters above" from the "waters below", and day three the sea from the land. In each of the next three days these divisions are populated: day four populates the darkness and light with sun, moon, and stars; day five populates seas and skies with fish and fowl; and finally, land-based creatures and mankind populate the land.{{sfn|Ruiten|2000|pp=9-10}}

The first (the [[Priestly source|Priestly story]]) was concerned with the cosmic plan of creation, while the second (the [[Jahwist|Yahwist story]]) focuses on man as cultivator of his environment and as a moral agent.{{sfn|Alter|1981|p=141}} The second account, in contrast to the regimented seven-day scheme of Genesis 1, uses a simple flowing narrative style that proceeds from God's forming the first man through the [[Garden of Eden]] to the creation of the first woman and the institution of marriage. In contrast to the [[omnipotence|omnipotent]] God of Genesis 1 creating a god-like humanity, the God of Genesis 2 can fail as well as succeed. The humanity he creates is not god-like, but is punished for acts which would lead to their becoming god-like (Genesis 3:1-24) and the order and method of creation itself differs.{{sfn|Carr|1996|p=62–64}} "Together, this combination of parallel character and contrasting profile point to the different origin of materials in Genesis 1:1 and Gen 2:4, however elegantly they have now been combined."{{sfn|Carr|1996|p=64}}

An early conflation of Greek philosophy with the [[Genesis creation narrative|narratives]] in the Hebrew Bible came from [[Philo of Alexandria]] (d. 50&nbsp;CE), writing in the context of [[Hellenistic Judaism]]. Philo equated the Hebrew creator-deity [[Yahweh]] with [[Aristotle]]'s [[unmoved mover]] ([[First Cause]])<ref>{{cite web |author=Yonge, Charles Duke (1854) |title=Appendices A Treatise Concerning the World (1): But what can be worse than this, or more calculated to display the want of true nobility existing in the soul, than the notion of causes, in general, being secondary and created causes, combined with an ignorance of the one first cause, the uncreated God, the Creator of the universe, who for these and innumerable other reasons is most excellent, reasons which because of their magnitude human intellect is unable to apprehend?" The Works of Philo Judaeus: the contemporary of Josephus. London: H. G. Bohn |url=http://cornerstonepublications.org/Philo |publisher=Cornerstonepublications.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928224539/http://cornerstonepublications.org/Philo/ |archive-date=28 September 2015 |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>Plato Laws Book X, Public Domain-Project Gutenberg. "ATHENIAN: Then I suppose that I must repeat the singular argument of those who manufacture the soul according to their own impious notions; they affirm that which is the first cause of the generation and destruction of all things, to be not first, but last, and that which is last to be first, and hence they have fallen into error about the true nature of the Gods… Then we must say that self-motion being the origin of all motions, and the first which arises among things at rest as well as among things in motion, is the eldest and mightiest principle of change, and that which is changed by another and yet moves other is second."</ref> in an attempt to prove that the Jews had held [[monotheistic]] views even before the Greeks.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

A similar theoretical proposition was demonstrated by [[Thomas Aquinas]], who linked Aristotelian philosophy with the Christian faith, followed by the statement that God is the First Being, the First Mover, and is Pure Act.<ref>{{cite web | translator1 = Fathers of the English Dominican Province | url = https://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/FP/FP003.html | title = On the simplicity of God, in " Summa Theologiae", Part I, Question 3. | publisher = Benziger Bros. edition | year = 1947 | website = Priory of Dominican Order | access-date = Oct 6, 2018 | quotation = Ostensum est autem supra quod Deus est primum movens immobile. Unde manifestum est quod Deus non est corpus. Secundo, quia necesse est id quod est primum ens, esse in actu, et nullo modo in potentia. Licet enim in uno et eodem quod exit de potentia in actum, prius sit potentia quam actus tempore, simpliciter tamen actus prior est potentia, quia quod est in potentia, non reducitur in actum nisi per ens actu. Ostensum est autem supra quod Deus est primum ens. Impossibile est igitur quod in Deo sit aliquid in potential... . Now it has been already proved (Question [2], Article [3]), that God is the First Mover, and is Himself unmoved. Therefore it is clear that God is not a body. Secondly, because the first being must of necessity be in act, and in no way in potentiality. For although in any single thing that passes from potentiality to actuality, the potentiality is prior in time to the actuality; nevertheless, absolutely speaking, actuality is prior to potentiality; for whatever is in potentiality can be reduced into actuality only by some being in actuality. Now it has been already proved that God is the First Being. It is therefore impossible that in God there should be any potentiality. | language = la, en | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111002014207/https://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/FP/FP003.html | archive-date = 2 October 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

The [[deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical]] [[2 Maccabees]] has two relevant passages. At chapter 7, it narrows about the mother of a [[Martyr#Judaism|Jewish proto-martyr]] telling to her son: "I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also";<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/2-Maccabees-Chapter-7_Original-1611-KJV/ | title = 1611 King James Bible. Second book of Maccabees, chapter 7, verse 8 | language = en | website = kingjamesbibleonline.org | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170420054917/https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/2-Maccabees-Chapter-7_Original-1611-KJV/ | archive-date = 20 April 2017 | url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://en.katabiblon.com/us/index.php?text=LXX&book=2Mc&ch=7&interlin=on | title = Greek Septuagint and Wiki English Translation. 2 Maccabees 7:58 | language = en, el | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160914004834/http://en.katabiblon.com/us/index.php?text=LXX&book=2Mc&ch=7&interlin=on | archive-date = 14 September 2016 | url-status = live}}</ref> at chapter 1, it refers a solemn prayer hymned by [[Jonathan Maccabee|Jonathan]], [[Nehemiah]] and the [[Kohen|Priest of Israel]], while making sacrifices in honour of God: "O Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, who art fearefull, and strong, and righteous, and mercifull, and the onely, and gracious king".<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/2-Maccabees-Chapter-1_Original-1611-KJV/ | title = 1611 King James Bible. Second book of Maccabees, chapter 1, verse 24 | language = en | website = kingjamesbibleonline.org | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121224034225/https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/2-Maccabees-Chapter-1_Original-1611-KJV | archive-date = 24 December 2012 | url-status = live}}</ref>

The [[John 1:1|Prologue to the Gospel of John]] begins with: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. <sup>2</sup> The same was in the beginning with God. <sup>3</sup> All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://en.katabiblon.com/us/index.php?text=GNT&book=Jn&ch=1 | title = Greek New Testament and Wiki English Translation. Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 to 3 | language = en, el | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110821181855/http://en.katabiblon.com/us/index.php?text=GNT&book=Jn&ch=1 | archive-date = 21 August 2011 | url-status = live}}</ref>

Christianity affirms the creation by God since its early time in the [[Apostles' Creed]] ("I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.", 1st century CE), that is symmetrical to the [[Nicene Creed#History#Comparison between creed of 325 and creed of 381|Nicene Creed]] (4th century CE).

Nowadays, theologians debate whether the Bible itself teaches if this creation by God is a creation ''ex nihilo''. Traditional interpreters<ref>Collins, C. John, ''Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary'' (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 50ff.</ref> argue on grammatical and syntactical grounds that this is the meaning of [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 1:1, which is commonly rendered: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." However, other interpreters<ref>
{{Cite book
|last= May
|first= Gerhard
|title= Creatio ex nihilo
|trans-title= Creation from nothing
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LoS05gQUDhEC
|access-date= 2009-11-23
|year= 2004
|publisher= Continuum International
|isbn= 978-0-567-08356-2
|page= xii
|quote= If we look into the early Christian sources, it becomes apparent that the thesis of ''creatio ex nihilo'' in its full and proper sense, as an ontological statement, only appeared when it was intended, in opposition to the idea of world-formation from unoriginate matter, to give expression to the omnipotence, freedom and uniqueness of God.
}}</ref> understand creation ''ex nihilo'' as a 2nd-century theological development. According to this view, church fathers opposed notions appearing in ''pre''-Christian [[creation myth]]s and in [[Gnosticism]]—notions of creation by a [[demiurge]] out of a primordial state of matter (known in religious studies as ''[[chaos (mythology)|chaos]]'' after the Greek term used by [[Hesiod]] in his ''[[Theogony]]'').<ref>
{{Cite book
|last= May
|first= Gerhard
|title= Schöpfung aus dem Nichts. Die Entstehung der Lehre von der creatio ex nihilo
|trans-title= Creation from Nothingness: the origin of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo
|series= AKG 48
|year= 1978
|publisher= de Gruyter
|location= Berlin/New York
|language= de
|isbn= 3-11-007204-1
|page= 151f
}}
</ref>
Jewish thinkers took up the idea,<ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04470a.htm
| title = Creation
| access-date = 2008-09-30
| last = Siegfried
| first = Francis
| year = 1908
| encyclopedia = The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4
| publisher = Robert Appleton Company
| location = New York
| quote = Probably the idea of creation never entered the human mind apart from Revelation. Though some of the pagan philosophers attained to a relatively high conception of God as the supreme ruler of the world, they seem never to have drawn the next logical inference of His being the absolute cause of all finite existence. [...] The descendants of Sem and Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, preserved the idea of creation clear and pure; and from the opening verse of Genesis to the closing book of the Old Testament the doctrine of creation runs unmistakably outlined and absolutely undefiled by any extraneous element. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In this, the first, sentence of the Bible we see the fountain-head of the stream which is carried over to the new order by the declaration of the mother of the Machabees: "Son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing" (2 Maccabees 7:28). One has only to compare the Mosaic account of the creative work with that recently discovered on the clay tablets unearthed from the ruins of Babylon to discern the immense difference between the unadulterated revealed tradition and the puerile story of the cosmogony corrupted by polytheistic myths. Between the Hebrew and the Chaldean account there is just sufficient similarity to warrant the supposition that both are versions of some antecedent record or tradition; but no one can avoid the conviction that the Biblical account represents the pure, even if incomplete, truth, while the Babylonian story is both legendary and fragmentary (Smith, "Chaldean Account of Genesis", New York, 1875).
}}
</ref> which became important to Judaism.