{"lemma":"ברא","language":"hebrew","strongs":"H1254","transliteration":"ba.ra","partOfSpeech":"verb","pronunciation":"bah-RAH","meanings":[{"id":1,"definition":"to create, to bring something into being; in the Bible, always an act of God.","explanation":"What sets this word apart is not that something gets produced but who produces it. Only God is ever its subject; no craftsman or nation \"creates\" in this sense. It also never describes working with materials already on hand, so it points to God calling something into existence rather than assembling it.\n\nThat is why it became the special word for God's creating, and why questions about creation out of nothing gather around it. Even so, the word on its own only insists that the work is God's; it does not by itself settle how the creating was done.\n\nThe same word reaches from the making of the world to the brand new things God does later in history. Israel's prophets, especially in the second half of Isaiah, deliberately echo the language of Genesis: the God who made the world is the God who makes a new people and a new future.","disputes":[{"issue":"Whether the verb means \"to create\" or \"to separate\" in the Genesis creation account.","positions":[{"view":"It means \"to create,\" the established reading.","heldBy":[{"citation":"HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. ברא","type":"lexicon"},{"citation":"BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. ברא","type":"lexicon"}],"status":"majority"},{"view":"It means \"to separate\" rather than \"to create\" (a proposal that has not displaced the consensus).","heldBy":[{"citation":"Ellen van Wolde, \"Why the Verb ברא Does Not Mean to Create in Genesis 1.1-2.4a,\" JSOT 34 (2009)","type":"article"}],"status":"minority"}]}],"senses":[{"id":"1a","definition":"to make the world and the first human beings, the original work of creation at the beginning.","passages":[{"ref":"Genesis 1:1","note":"The Bible's opening verse, with God as the only one who acts.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 1:21","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 1:27","note":"Used three times in one verse for the making of humanity in God's image.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 2:3","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 5:1","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 5:2","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 6:7","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Deuteronomy 4:32","note":"\"since the day God created human beings on the earth.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 40:26","note":"Of the stars and their host.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 40:28","note":"\"the Creator of the ends of the earth.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 42:5","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 45:12","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 45:18","note":"God who made the heavens did not make the earth empty, but to be lived in.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Amos 4:13","note":"\"who forms the mountains and creates the wind.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Ecclesiastes 12:1","note":"\"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.\"","multivalent":false}]},{"id":"1b","definition":"to bring about something genuinely new in the course of history, whether a people, a rescue, or even a disaster God sends.","passages":[{"ref":"Numbers 16:30","note":"\"if the LORD brings about something new,\" of the ground opening to swallow Korah.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 4:5","note":"God will make a cloud and flaming light of protection over Zion.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 41:20","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 43:1","note":"\"he who created you, Jacob,\" of God forming Israel into a people.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 43:7","note":"\"whom I created for my glory.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 43:15","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 45:7","note":"Here the word covers even darkness and disaster, things God brings about in history.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 45:8","note":"Of deliverance and righteousness made to spring up.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 54:16","note":"God made both the smith and the destroyer.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 57:19","note":"\"creating the praise of the lips,\" that is, peace.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 65:17","note":"\"I create new heavens and a new earth.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 65:18","note":null,"multivalent":false},{"ref":"Jeremiah 31:22","note":"\"the LORD has created a new thing on the earth.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Malachi 2:10","note":"\"Has not one God created us?\", of the covenant people.","multivalent":false}]},{"id":"1c","definition":"to be brought into being, spoken of the thing that comes to exist rather than of God doing the making.","passages":[{"ref":"Genesis 2:4","note":"\"in the day they were created.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Genesis 5:2","note":"The same verse also speaks of them being created.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Exodus 34:10","note":"Wonders such as have never been brought about anywhere on earth.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Psalm 104:30","note":"\"when you send out your Spirit, they are created.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Psalm 148:5","note":"\"he commanded and they were created.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Isaiah 48:7","note":"\"they are created now, and not long ago.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Ezekiel 28:13","note":"Addressed to the king of Tyre: \"on the day you were created.\"","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Ezekiel 28:15","note":null,"multivalent":false}]}]},{"id":2,"definition":"to clear away or cut down, as in clearing land of trees or striking people down.","explanation":"This is a completely separate word that happens to be spelled the same way, and it has nothing to do with creating. It simply means to cut or clear.\n\nIn Joshua it is the hard work of clearing a forest to open up land to settle, and in Ezekiel it is the picture of people being cut down in judgment. It shares a dictionary number with \"create\" only by an accident of spelling, which is exactly why a reader who knows only \"bara means create\" can walk right past it.","senses":[{"id":"2a","definition":"to clear wooded land by cutting down its trees.","passages":[{"ref":"Joshua 17:15","note":"\"clear ground for yourself there\" in the forest, to open up the hill country.","multivalent":false},{"ref":"Joshua 17:18","note":"\"the forest is yours ... you shall clear it.\"","multivalent":false}]},{"id":"2b","definition":"to cut people down, used as a picture of judgment.","passages":[{"ref":"Ezekiel 23:47","note":"The crowd will cut them down with their swords.","multivalent":false}]}]},{"id":3,"definition":"to grow fat, or to feed on rich food.","explanation":"This is the rarest of the three meanings and the least certain. In one place it describes gorging on the best of the offerings until fat; in another it describes refusing to eat.\n\nScholars do not agree on whether these two belong together, or whether the second is really a different word that simply means \"to eat.\" The grouping is a judgment call rather than a settled fact, and it is the kind of question a human reviewer should weigh.","senses":[{"id":"3a","definition":"to make oneself fat by gorging on the best food.","passages":[{"ref":"1 Samuel 2:29","note":"\"to make yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering.\"","multivalent":false}]},{"id":"3b","definition":"to eat, to take food.","passages":[{"ref":"2 Samuel 12:17","note":"\"nor did he eat food with them.\"","multivalent":false,"disputes":[{"issue":"Whether the form here belongs to this word's \"eat/fatten\" sense or to the separate verb barah, \"to eat.\"","positions":[{"view":"A distinct \"eat\" sense under this spelling.","heldBy":[{"citation":"HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. ברא","type":"lexicon"}],"status":"contested"},{"view":"The separate verb barah, \"to eat.\"","heldBy":[{"citation":"BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. ברה","type":"lexicon"}],"status":"contested"}]}]}]}]}],"cautions":"Two traps. First, do not read \"creation out of nothing\" straight out of this word. It does tell us that creating is God's alone and unlike ordinary human making, but the idea of creation from nothing comes from the wider Bible and later teaching, not from this single word. Second, this is a hidden look-alike: the same spelling also carries an unrelated \"cut down or clear away\" (Joshua, Ezekiel) and a rare \"grow fat\" (1 Samuel), and English Bibles translate them so differently that most readers never notice they share one dictionary form.","related":{"synonymsNuance":[{"lemma":"עָשָׂה","distinction":"the everyday word for making or doing. It is used of anyone, God or people, and of working with materials at hand, so it is not reserved for God."},{"lemma":"יָצַר","distinction":"to shape or mold, the way a potter works clay (as when God forms the man from dust in Genesis 2:7). It stresses shaping something out of what is already there."},{"lemma":"קָנָה","distinction":"to get or acquire. In a few old poems it leans toward \"make\" or \"father\" (Genesis 14:19), but its main idea is owning, not bringing into being."}],"crossLanguage":[{"lemma":"κτίζω","language":"greek","strongs":"G2936","gloss":"to create","distinction":"the Greek verb for divine creation; the main New Testament word for God creating."},{"lemma":"ποιέω","language":"greek","strongs":"G4160","gloss":"to do/make: do","distinction":"to make or do, the broad Greek verb; wider than \"create.\""},{"lemma":"עבד","language":"aramaic","strongs":"H5648","gloss":"to make","distinction":"the Aramaic verb for making or doing; Biblical Aramaic has no separate word for \"create.\""}],"cognates":[]},"occurrenceData":{"totalOccurrences":48,"allOccurrencesCovered":true,"factual":{"formCount":14,"forms":[{"parseKey":"qal|perfect|3|m|s","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"perfect","person":3,"gender":"m","number":"s"},"label":"qal perfect 3ms","total":12,"variants":[{"surface":"ברא","count":12}]},{"parseKey":"qal|participle|m|s|absolute","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"participle","gender":"m","number":"s","state":"absolute"},"label":"qal participle m s absolute","total":10,"variants":[{"surface":"בורא","count":7},{"surface":"ובורא","count":2},{"surface":"ברא","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"qal|perfect|1|c|s","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"perfect","person":1,"gender":"c","number":"s"},"label":"qal perfect 1cs","total":6,"variants":[{"surface":"בראתי","count":6}]},{"parseKey":"niphal|infinitive-construct|construct","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"niphal","conjugation":"infinitive-construct","state":"construct"},"label":"niphal infinitive-construct construct","total":4,"variants":[{"surface":"הברא","count":4}]},{"parseKey":"niphal|perfect|3|c|p","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"niphal","conjugation":"perfect","person":3,"gender":"c","number":"p"},"label":"niphal perfect 3cp","total":3,"variants":[{"surface":"נבראו","count":3}]},{"parseKey":"qal|participle|m|s|construct","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"participle","gender":"m","number":"s","state":"construct"},"label":"qal participle m s construct","total":3,"variants":[{"surface":"בורא","count":1},{"surface":"בוראי","count":1},{"surface":"ברא","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"piel|consecutive-perfect|2|m|s","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"piel","conjugation":"consecutive-perfect","person":2,"gender":"m","number":"s"},"label":"piel consecutive-perfect 2ms","total":2,"variants":[{"surface":"ובראת","count":2}]},{"parseKey":"qal|consecutive-imperfect|3|m|s","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"consecutive-imperfect","person":3,"gender":"m","number":"s"},"label":"qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms","total":2,"variants":[{"surface":"ויברא","count":2}]},{"parseKey":"hiphil|infinitive-construct|construct","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"hiphil","conjugation":"infinitive-construct","state":"construct"},"label":"hiphil infinitive-construct construct","total":1,"variants":[{"surface":"הבריא","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"niphal|imperfect|3|m|p","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"niphal","conjugation":"imperfect","person":3,"gender":"m","number":"p"},"label":"niphal imperfect 3mp","total":1,"variants":[{"surface":"יבראו","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"piel|infinitive-construct|construct","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"piel","conjugation":"infinitive-construct","state":"construct"},"label":"piel infinitive-construct construct","total":1,"variants":[{"surface":"ברא","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"qal|consecutive-perfect|3|m|s","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"consecutive-perfect","person":3,"gender":"m","number":"s"},"label":"qal consecutive-perfect 3ms","total":1,"variants":[{"surface":"וברא","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"qal|imperfect|3|m|s","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"imperfect","person":3,"gender":"m","number":"s"},"label":"qal imperfect 3ms","total":1,"variants":[{"surface":"יברא","count":1}]},{"parseKey":"qal|infinitive-construct|construct","parse":{"pos":"verb","stem":"qal","conjugation":"infinitive-construct","state":"construct"},"label":"qal infinitive-construct construct","total":1,"variants":[{"surface":"ברא","count":1}]}]}},"scholarship":{"summary":"In the standard critical lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) and in TDOT, the established meaning of this verb is \"to create\": it is used only with God as its subject and never with an object of raw material, which made it Israel's distinctive term for divine creation. The word by itself does not assert creation out of nothing; that idea is drawn from the wider Bible and later theology. Ellen van Wolde (2009) argued that the verb means \"to separate\" rather than \"to create\" in Genesis 1, but her proposal was criticized in the peer-reviewed literature and has not displaced the consensus. The lexica treat the \"cut down or clear\" and \"grow fat\" uses as separate words that share the spelling.","sources":[{"citation":"HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. ברא","type":"lexicon"},{"citation":"BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. ברא","type":"lexicon"},{"citation":"DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. ברא","type":"lexicon"},{"citation":"TDOT (Botterweck-Ringgren, eds.), s.v. ברא","type":"dictionary"},{"citation":"Ellen van Wolde, \"Why the Verb ברא Does Not Mean to Create in Genesis 1.1-2.4a,\" JSOT 34 (2009)","type":"article"}]},"generation":{"model":"claude-opus-4-8","generatedAt":"2026-06-05T06:12:56.386Z","promptVersion":"h1254-test-v4","reviewStatus":"ai-generated","reviewedBy":null,"version":1}}