The answer is: Not necessarily

This question was answered with the help of the Hebrew Lexicon at:

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Hebrew/

This question arose (as did most of these questions) from post at the newsgroup, soc.religion.mormon. In that post, a person claimed that the specific meanings of the two words used in Genesis to mean "creation", which he said were "asah" and "bahrah", imply that Adam could not have existed prior to the Creation (contrary to the Mormon doctrine of a premortal existence). The rationale the poster used was to claim that asah means to renovate, and bahrah means to make something from nothing, and that the way the two words were used meant that Adam was created from nothing.

Anyway, his information was quite wrong, but in researching an answer, I learned some interesting things which I'll share here.

First of all, let me look up the word asah. It's actually written: 'asah. Definition is to do, fashion, make, accomplish. The English words translated from 'asah in the King James Version are the following: do, make, wrought, deal, commit, offer, execute, keep, shew, prepare, work, do so, perform, get, dress, maker, maintain, and some other less common ones. References from Genesis include, "God made the firmament", "God made two great lights", "God made the beast of the Earth", "God said let us make man", "He rested on the seventh day from all his work", "I will make an help meet for him", etc.

You can access the definition at:

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Hebrew/heb.cgi?number=06213&version=kjv

I note that 'asah is usually translated as "make", but never as "create".

Now for the word bara/bahrah. (Actually, it's written bara' in the lexicon.) Definition is to create, shape, or form. Note that even this word does not necessarily mean to create something from nothing! The English words translated from bara' in KJV are: create, creator, choose, make, and some other less common ones. Verses in Genesis which use bara' include: "God created the heaven and the Earth", "God created great whales and every living creature", "God created man in his own image".

You can access the definition at:

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Hebrew/heb.cgi?number=01254&version=kjv

I think it is interesting that *both* Hebrew words are used to describe both the creation of the heaven/firmament, and the creation of man.

Anyway, this is all just information. I am sure people will interpret it as they please. However, as I told the poster, to claim that bara' only means to create something from nothing is just plain *wrong*, and one should definitely not base one's entire opinion regarding a premortal existence on that.