Contributed by Craig Paardekooper: Published 07/04/2002
Frequency of References to Creation in the
Books of the Bible.
In carrying out this study, I have chosen the words below
as references to creation. Firstly, all the different tenses of the verb "to
create" were searched for. Secondly, references to the creator / maker were
searched for. Thirdly, references to the thing created - heaven, earth - were
searched for.
create, created, creating, formed
creator, maker
heaven, earth
I made a careful search for the occurrence of each of
these words in each of the books of the Old and New Testament. I searched in the
NIV Version using the Gateway Bible Search tool.
I discovered that the maximum number of references to
creation occur in the 23rd book of the Bible - Isaiah.
I then made a careful
search of the chapters of Isaiah to find out which chapters contained the
references to creation. The chapter with the maximum number of references to
creation is chapter 45.
Thus, the maximum number of references to creation
occurs in Book 23,Chapter 45 - that is in a Spoke 1 chapter of a Spoke 1 book.
Coincidentally, when I searched for the word
CREATION itself, in each of the books of the
Bible, the maximum frequency occurred in Book 45 - Romans. It is a great
coincidence is it not that Romans is a Spoke 1 book. Secondly, I had
expected the 66 chapters of Isaiah to parallel the 66 books of the Bible, and I
had already found that the 45th chapter of Isaiah contained the highest
frequency of references to creation of all the chapters of Isaiah.
I also searched for COMBINATIONS of the words occurring in
the same verse.
The first verse of Genesis says "IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND
THE EARTH" It is with this phrase that the Bible begins the creation account.
Similarly, the creation account ends with the phrase "THIS IS THE ACCOUNT OF THE
HEAVENS AND THE EARTH WHEN THEY WERE CREATED. WHEN THE LORD GOD MADE THE EARTH
AND THE HEAVENS... "
So I searched for verses containing all the words -
GOD, CREATED,
HEAVENS and EARTH.
Once again I found that the maximum frequency occurred in Genesis and Isaiah. I
also looked for the combination - GOD,
MADE, HEAVENS,
EARTH. Finally I looked for the combination
GOD, CREATED, MADE,
HEAVENS, EARTH. Only 2 verses in the whole Bible contain all five
words. One is in Genesis, the other is Isaiah chapter 45. [Ed. This set therefore forms a Spoke 1 | 