Bara

Created

Teaching and Understanding the Paleo-Hebrew

Document 5 of 11

 

The first sentence of the Torah. Bereshit bara Elohim. In beginning created Elohim.

The second word is bara. The act. The verb. Created. What Elohim did in beginning. Three letters in the Paleo-Hebrew. Three pictures. And the first picture of bara is the same first picture of Bereshit. The same letter. The same drawing. At the opening of both words. The Torah is already showing a pattern before the first sentence is complete.

 

The Three Pictures

ב  Bet  —  House

The first picture of the word created is a house. The same Bet that is the first letter of the entire Torah, enlarged, declared, the building project announced before the creation begins. The act of creation begins with the same picture the Torah begins with. The house. What is being created is a house. The building project is not a consequence of creation. It is the declaration within the act of creation itself.

 

ר  Resh  —  Head of a Man — First, Highest, The Rosh

The second picture is the head. The rosh. The first, the highest, the one at the top. The same Resh in the second letter of Bereshit, the head already in the house before the creation begins. Now in bara, the head in the act of creating. The head is present in the house and in the creating. The one who is rosh, first, head of all things, is the one through whom the act of creation happens.

 

א  Aleph  —  Ox Head — Strength, The First, The Strong One

The third picture is the ox head, strength, the first, the strong one. The same Aleph that begins the Aleph-Tav standing in the first sentence between creator and creation. The same Aleph that is the first letter of the divine alphabet Yeshua declared himself to be. The act of creation ends with the picture of the strong one. The house, the head, the strong one. Three pictures. The building project, the one who is first, the strength by which it is done.

 

What the Three Pictures Together Declare

Bet. Resh. Aleph.

The house. The head. The strong one.

The act of creation, bara, declares in three pictures what the act accomplishes and through whom it happens. The house, the dwelling, the building project that was announced in the first letter of the Torah, is what is being created. The head, the rosh, the first and highest, is the one in whom and through whom the creation happens. The strong one, the Aleph, the first, the one before all things, is the identity of the creator.

The building project is not separate from the act of creation. The building project is announced in the first letter of the first word. It is present in the first letter of the act of creation. The house is in Bereshit and the house is in bara. The Torah is declaring from its second word that what is being created is a house. Not incidentally. Not as a metaphor to be discovered later. As the first picture in the word that means created.

The first letter of Bereshit is the house. The first letter of bara is the house. The Torah announces the building project in the first letter of the first word. The act of creation begins with the same announcement. What is being created is a house. The pictures say so. Twice. Before the first sentence is complete.

 

Bara and the House of Bereshit

In beginning, the house declared. Created, the house again. The Torah is not hiding the building project in a theological concept to be uncovered by careful exegesis. It is stating the building project in the pictures of the first two words. The Bet of Bereshit and the Bet of bara are the same drawing. The same house. The same declaration. The same building project.

And in bara the head follows the house immediately. The Resh, the rosh, the head of all things. Paul in Colossians 1:18, he is the head of the body, the rosh, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. The head in the house. Declared in the second letter of Bereshit. Declared again in the second letter of bara. The head of all things, present in the declaration of the building project and present in the act of creation. Not two separate declarations. One declaration in two words through the same pictures.

Then the Aleph, the strong one, the first. The one before all things. Present at the close of bara as the strength through which the act of creation is accomplished. In him all things were made, Yochanan 1:3. The strong one through whom the house is built. The Aleph at the end of bara is the Aleph at the beginning of the Aleph-Tav, the first and the last, present in the act of creation as the identity of the one through whom all things are created.

Bet, the house being created. Resh, the head of all things in the house. Aleph, the strong one through whom the creation happens. Three pictures in the second word of the Torah declaring the same building project the first word declared. The act of creation and the declaration of what is being created are the same declaration.

 

What Bara Does Not Say

The Hebrew word bara carries a specific meaning in the covenant text. It is used exclusively for YHWH’s creative activity, never for human making or shaping. When a human craftsman makes something the covenant text uses a different word, asah, to make or do, or yatsar, to form or shape. Bara is reserved for the divine creative act. The act that brings into existence what was not there, creation from nothing rather than formation from existing material.

The pictures confirm this reservation. The house in bara is not a house built from existing timber and stone. It is the house declared in beginning, the house that had no material to be built from because in beginning nothing yet existed. The Bet of bara is the Bet of Bereshit, the house that was declared before the creation that would provide the material for any house. The house that was in the document before the document became a body. Before anything was made that was made.

The strong one creates the house through the head of all things, not from existing material but from the declaration of who he is. The house is created because the one who creates is the one whose name is the house and the head and the hand and the nail. The building project is accomplished not by assembling material but by the self-declaration of the one who is himself the document of the building project.

This is why bara belongs to YHWH alone. No human being creates from nothing. No human being builds the house by being the document of the house. The act that the pictures of bara describe, the house, the head, the strong one, is the act of the one whose identity is the building project. Only YHWH can do what bara declares. Because only YHWH is the document that bara is showing in three pictures.

 

Bara, the house, the head, the strong one. The building project in the act of creation. The head of all things present in the creating. The strong one through whom all things are made. Three pictures. The second word of the Torah saying what the first word said. The house. Again.

 

 

ב  ר  א

 

Bet — The house. What is being created.

Resh — The head of all things. In the house. In the creating.

Aleph — The strong one. Through whom all things are made.

 

The first letter of Bereshit: the house.

The first letter of bara: the house.

 

What is being created is a house.

The pictures say so.

Twice.

Before the first sentence is complete.

 

The Gospel Revolution  •  Mike Williams Ministries

William Ethan Massengill  •  Michael Lilborn Williams  •  Daniel Thomas Rouse

Published by Audrey Williams