Making or doing

“It may be that the very reason that the verb ʿāśâ extends across the range of English ‘to do’ and ‘to make’ is because these two activities are much more closely interconnected in ancient thinking.” [footnote: Note the observation of H. Te Velde concerning Egypt: “The creation theology that was practiced or performed in the cult did not simply commemorate the great mythological deeds of the gods or express the coherence and process of the created world; it was, in effect, creation itself. An Egyptian term for performing rituals is ‘doing things.’ The priest had to ‘do things’ to make sure that the order of the cosmos would be maintained and that the universe, the state and the individual would continue their ordered existence” (CANE 1744)]— Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology, page 134