Genesis 1:24-31

→Bible→Old Testament→Genesis

DAY 6. LAND CREATURES AND HUMANKIND
← 5 Water and air creatures		7 Day of Rest →

The entire Day 6 passage from v.24 to v.31

(King James Version)

²⁴ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

—
²⁶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
²⁹ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
³⁰ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
—
³¹ And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Day Six: the first two verses

King James Version (1611)

(The account of the creation of land animals is uncontroversial.)

²⁴ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Re "Let us" — see Divine Council

Day Six: Translations of the account of the creation of ‎אדם "adam"

(There are questions about the account of the creation of adam — humankind, a single pair, or a single man called "Man"? Translations of Hebrew ‎אדם adam and related pronouns are highlighted thus.)

Jewish translations of ‎אדם

JPS Tanakh

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.           (JPS Tanakh)

Robert Alter

And God said, "Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness, to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the cattle and the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth.

And God created the human in his image,
in the image of God He created him,
male and female He created them.

Notes v 26:

a human. The term 'adam, afterward consistently with a definite article, which is used both here and in the second account of the origins of humankind, is a generic term for human beings, not a proper noun. It also does not automatically suggest maleness, especially not without the prefix ben, "son of," and so the traditional rendering "man" is misleading, and an exclusively male 'adam would make nonsense of the last clause of verse 27.

hold sway. The verb radah is not the normal Hebrew verb for "rule" (the latter is reflected in "dominion" of verse 16), and in most of the contexts in which it occurs it seems to suggest an absolute or even fierce exercise of mastery.

"the wild beasts. The Masoretic Text reads "all the earth" bekhol ha'arets, but since the term occurs in the middle of a catalogue of living creatures over which humanity will hold sway, the reading of the Syriac Version, hayat ha'arets, "wild beasts," seems preferable.

Notes v 27.

In the middle clause of this verse, "him", as in the Hebrew, is grammatically but not anatomically masculine. Feminist critics have raised the question as to whether here and in the second account of human origins, in chapter 2, 'adam is to be imagined as sexually undifferentiated until the fashioning of woman, though that proposal leads to certain dizzying paradoxes in following the story.

Everett Fox

God said: Let us make humankind, in our image, according to our likeness! Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the heavens, animals, all the earth, and all crawling things that crawl about upon the earth! So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God did he create it, male and female he created them.

Christian Translations of ‎אדם

New Revised Standard Version

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.          (NRSV)

King James Version (1611)

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.           (KJV)

Revised English Bible

Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness, to have dominion over the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, all wild animals on land, and everything that creeps on the earth.’

God created human beings in his own image;

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.          (REB)

NET Bible

Then God said, “Let us make humankind* in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”

God created humankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them,

male and female he created them.          (NET)

* Translators' footnote: The Hebrew word is אָדָם ('adam), which can sometimes refer to man, as opposed to woman. The term refers here to humankind, comprised of male and female. The singular is clearly collective (see the plural verb, "[that] they may rule" in v. 26b) and the referent is defined specifically as "male and female" in v. 27. Usage elsewhere in Gen 1-11 supports this as well. In 5:2 we read: "Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and called their name 'humankind' (אָדָם)." The noun also refers to humankind in 6:1, 5-7 and in 9:5-6.

ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man* in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.           (ESV)

* Footnote: The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam.

NIV

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.          (NIV)

Day Six: the blessing of ‎אדם adam and conclusion

King James Version (1611)

²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
²⁹ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
³⁰ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
³¹ And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Discussion

"Let us . . ."

See Divine Council and linked pages, including R Evans, Genesis in Context - 1.

Adam and Eve, or humankind?

The perennial question regarding this verse is whether ‎אדם adam refers to Adam and Eve as recounted in chapter 2, or to humankind as a whole, as translations reflect, as implied by 5:2, and as implied by the immediate context (verses 28-30) down to "and it was so" in verse 30. See Does Genesis 1:26 refer to Adam or humankind? Some English interpretations appear to depend on confessional loyalties. See also Isaiah 45:12.

— Bruce (talk) 23:16, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

Making a baby takes 9 months

Q. ". . .  and it was so" — was it? How long did it take to replenish the earth?

A. Many centuries: the "days" are not literal; adam means "humankind".

The translation "a man" was referenced here (5.3.4) in our responses to the AACE discussion questions.

In God's image

See The Image and Likeness of God for discussion and links to literal and non-literal understandings of the expressions "in our image, according to our likeness" and "in his image, in the image of God".