Morrish Bible Dictionary · Creation.

This word is principally applied to the act of bringing things into existence that did not exist before. This is expressed in Heb. 11:3: "things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." It is also applied to making new things out of material already in existence, thus, though man was 'made' of the dust of the ground, Gen. 2:7, he is also said to have been created, the same Hebrew word, bara, being used in Gen. 1:1 for the creation of the world, that is used in Gen. 5:1-2, for the creation of man. The passage in Heb. 11 is important, because as men have no idea how anything can be brought into existence from nothing, they have talked of 'the eternity of matter;' the passage says it is 'by faith we understand' that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that seen things were not made of what is apparent.