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NASB | Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:31 God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. |
Subject: How do you address? |
Bible Note: I have reread Isaiah 45, for context, and also I have consulted the Hebrew for more information. I cannot deny that this passage is immediately pertinent to Cyrus. However, in that context, I believe the prophet is portraying the Lord as "all-mighty." In particular, consult verse 2,5,6,7,8,9,12, and 18. These verses indicate the majesty of God, in all his capacities. As for verse 7, I have considered the Hebrew text, particularly regarding the word in question, "ra" (translated evil, disaster, calamity, etc.). I have discovered that the primary definition of this word, as a noun, is "evil," and this word is translated as "evil" hundreds of times throughout the scriptures. I further considered the word it counterpoints, "shalom," (translated peace, good times, prosperity, etc.). I find that this word is most immediately defined as safe (by grammar, in English, safety), though it is translated as "peace" nearly as often as "ra" is translated as "evil." I see several conclusions and an absolute that can be reached with this information. The first conclusion is simple: these words are translated properly and represent themselves literaly, and I will address this later. A second conclusion is that the word translated "evil" is best translated as calamity to represent a physical manifestation (as you point to), though I find this doubtful, because the word peace, (safety etc.) is relatively intangible, while calamaty is not. A third possibility is that the words represent opposites of a mild nature, such as "health" and "distress," though I doubt this because of the extremes presented at the beginning of the verse (light and darkness). The absolute I see is the use of extreme opposites to define God's supreme power, and is concluded with the phrase "I the Lord do all these things." I find, based on the use of extreme opposites, as well as the contextual declaration of the Lord's all-mighty nature, and the frequency of translation of the words in question, based on Hebrew definition, as "peace" and "evil," that the words are likely translated accurately, particularly considering the typical biblical contrast between the concepts of "light" and "darkness," and that of "good" and "evil." I would also like to point to verse 9 ""Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?" This verse again portrays God as the Creator of all things, and is used by Paul [Romans 9:18-22] to contrast the concept here discussed: "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:" I would also like to point to another verse, still directed towards Cyrus, this one from Chapter 44 of Isaiah [verse 24], keeping the same context as chapter 45: "Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;" I will conclude by stating that the above disemination is based on what I have been lead to find using a concept you advocate, as do I, of allowing scripture to interperate scripture, and by God above, to whom I credit my learning. I can find no definative verse that instructs that the Lord did not create evil, but I can find a number of verses that either describe the evil created, or directly state God creates everything, or that, in fact, God creates that which is evil. |