Hebrew word · H1278

בְּרִיאָה

beri'ah

creation

The verb bara' means to create, bring into being, or make something new. In its basic form only God is ever its subject (Genesis 1; Isaiah 40–48; Psalm 51:10 'create in me a clean heart'). The noun bəri'ah is found only here in the Bible.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a creation, created thing, new thing, marvel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Numbers 16:30

Range of meaning

The verb bara' means to create, bring into being, or make something new. In its basic form only God is ever its subject (Genesis 1; Isaiah 40–48; Psalm 51:10 'create in me a clean heart'). The noun bəri'ah is found only here in the Bible. Putting the verb with a noun from the same root ('create a creation') makes the idea emphatic: a real novelty, something without precedent.

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'make a new thing'. BSB: 'brings about something unprecedented'. ESV: 'creates something new'. Others: 'something totally new' or 'an entirely new thing'. All of them see that the phrase is about something new. Fewer keep the link to the creation verb of Genesis 1.

How it drifted

A modern reader who meets 'create' in the Bible often thinks of creation out of nothing at the beginning of the world. Here the word is not about making matter. It is about God doing something in history that has never happened before.

Used elsewhere in the period

Bara' for new acts of God in history: Exodus 34:10 ('wonders such as have not been created in all the earth'), Isaiah 48:6–7, Jeremiah 31:22 ('the LORD has created a new thing on the earth'). Targum Onqelos keeps the 'creation' wording. The Greek Septuagint reads differently: 'if the Lord shows [it] by a visible sign' (en phasmati). The Mishnah (Avot 5:6) takes the creation language literally: 'the mouth of the earth' is listed among ten things God created at twilight on the eve of the first Sabbath.

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 16:30 בְּרִיאָ֞ה a creation

    But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”

    Here: This noun appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from the same root as the verb that follows, so the phrase reads 'creates a creation': an act with no precedent, which only God can bring about.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.