Bible Dictionaries
Create, Creation, Creator, Creature

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

used among the Greeks to mean the founding of a place, a city or colony, signifies, in Scripture, "to create," always of the act of God, whether (a) in the natural creation, Mark 13:19; Romans 1:25 (where the title "The Creator" translates the article with the aorist participle of the verb); 1 Corinthians 11:9; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; 1 Timothy 4:3; Revelation 4:11; 10:6 , or (b) in the spiritual creation, Ephesians 2:10,15; 4:24; Colossians 3:10 . See MAKE.

primarily "the act of creating," or "the creative act in process," has this meaning in Romans 1:20; Galatians 6:15 . Like the English word "creation," it also signifies the product of the "creative" act, the "creature," as in Mark 16:15 , RV; Romans 1:25; 8:19; Colossians 1:15 etc.; in Hebrews 9:11 , AV, "building." In Mark 16:15; Colossians 1:23 its significance has special reference to mankind in general. As to its use in Galatians 6:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17 , in the former, apparently, "the reference is to the creative act of God, whereby a man is introduced into the blessing of salvation, in contrast to circumcision done by human hands, which the Judaizers claimed was necessary to that end. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 the reference is to what the believer is in Christ; in consequence of the creative act he has become a new creature."* [*From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, p. 339.]

Ktisis is once used of human actions, 1 Peter 2:13 , "ordinance" (marg., "creation"). See BUILDING , ORDINANCE.

has the concrete sense, "the created thing, the creature, the product of the creative act," 1 Timothy 4:4; James 1:18; Revelation 5:13; 8:9 .

among the Greeks, the founder of a city, etc., denotes in Scripture "the Creator," 1 Peter 4:19 (cp. Romans 1:20 , under B, No. 1, above).

Note: It is a significant confirmation of Romans 1:20,21 , that in all non-Christian Greek literature these words are never used by Greeks to convey the idea of a Creator or of a creative act by any of their gods. The words are confined by them to the acts of human beings.

"a living creature:" see BEAST.