R Evans, Genesis in Context - 1
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The First Creation Account
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| links to discussion of Genesis in this wiki | |
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
- (See wiki discussion at Genesis 1:1.)
When we read the opening words of Scripture, a picture naturally forms in our minds. For most of us, that picture is one of a swirling, colourful sphere, silently revolving around the sun, and suspended in star-spangled space; a majestic, astronauts’ eye view of our planet. We have seen photographs taken from space: those images confirm the heliocentric cosmology we were taught in school. When we read Genesis 1, this inculcated worldview forms the unchallenged framework of our modern and subconscious perception.
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| this chain of references | |
For the original readers of Genesis, long before the calculations and concepts of Greek cosmology, an even more primitive mental picture would have accompanied a reading of the text. Theirs was a myopic panorama of land, seas, and sky, as observed with the naked eye from the limited and experiential perspective of a terrestrial standpoint. This was the very real context of their perception, just as heliocentric cosmology and space photography is the very real context of our own. It is also the context in which Genesis was written. To understand that worldview we must abandon modern science, stand alone on a hilltop, and accept what our eyes and our senses tell us.
For these ancients, “Earth” was the solid ground on which they stood: a land mass of limited known area, bounded by limitless oceans, founded within and upon unfathomed deeps, and over-arched by a vault of sky. Wherever one walked, one walked upright, therefore the earth seemed level. Wherever one sailed the sea seemed flat; while the heavens apparently curved downward in all directions, meeting land and sea at a distant and circular horizon. The sun rose in the east, traversing a seemingly static earth until it set in the west — a convincing illusion of relative motion still experienced today.
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| The Sun's Path at Night | |
The moon, visible against the nightly blackness of the heavenly vault, appeared to move across its inner surface. By day the sun appeared to cross the illuminated inner face of the vault, a chariot of heat and white light traversing a bright blue background as it passed from one end of heaven to the other (Psalm 19).
That homogeneous and diffuse “brightness of the firmament” (Daniel 12:3) was called Daylight. It preceded the rising of the sun, prevailed with it through the day, and lingered at dusk after its setting. At midday, Daylight was spread evenly through the whole vault of heaven and did not diminish with distance from the sun, implying a causal independence. Daylight remained when the sun was hidden. Daylight appeared as an infusion of the heavenly waters, making them blue. Daylight was thus inferred, before the Greeks deduced otherwise, to be independent of the sun.[1]Creation of our home
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| Does the earth move? | |
The book of Genesis, given to men with this primitive worldview, was communicated in terms of that worldview. Every text has to be read in its context. When we read modern cultural contexts into an ancient narrative, we read it out of context, and create a fundamental misunderstanding.
defined by purpose and function
We must also remember that Genesis was not written for the Western mind, but for the Hebrew mind, and in terms of Eastern cultural thinking. Our western, scientific culture, rooted in Greek natural science and philosophy, intuitively thinks of the created world in material terms. For us, things are defined and| See also → | |
| John Walton re ANE concept of existence | |
For example, in Hebrew, bayith (house) means both building and household (2 Samuel 7). When David would build God a house, God responded that He would build David a household. Occupancy gives definition to the object.
Consider, then, the creation of a dwelling. For a contractor, the focus is material: he assembles the requisite components, and builds a house. For the builder-owner, the focus is functional; room by room, he creates a home. The contractor’s work is complete at the turn-key stage. For the builder-owner, the focus of the whole project lies in its completion; the day of moving in, the day of occupation and enjoyment.
When we look at Genesis 1, we see that while it contains elements of construction, it is principally an account of the second kind; an arrangement of form and function with a view to occupation. If we treat it purely as an account of material construction, as a blueprint account, we miss the point and misunderstand the text. We focus on walls and studs and trusses, while God is creating rooms and spaces and adding the fixed furniture. In the first Creation account, God is not so much building our house, as creating our home. This thesis is presented by John Walton in his book The Lost World of Genesis 1.
Genesis 1 broadly consists of the following structure:
- a prologue of disorder and vacancy, in passive narrative;
- six days of creation, in active narrative;
- an epilogue of completion and purpose, in passive narrative.
The prologue sets the stage for the home making process. It names the builder and his task. “In the beginning, God created the heavens (shamayim) and the earth (erets)”. Erets denotes the land one stands upon; and shamayim (from a word meaning lofty) everything uplifted above it. In ancient Hebrew usage, these terms contained no connotation of a planet or of an extended universe.
the primordial chaos
It then defines the pile of building materials on site. “The land was waste (tohu), empty (bohu); darkness covered the face of the deep, and the spirit (ruach, breath, presence, or wind) of God moved on the face of the waters”.
By analogy, we are shown the building site before dawn. The pre-existent materials are land and water, in lifeless disorder, in a state of unbroken darkness. The definition of spirit as the possessive attribute of God indicates that this is not just air or wind, but His animate and personal presence, hovering over the elements of wilderness, or primordial chaos.
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| The Primal Sea ים (yam) | |
The popular thesis of creation ex nihilo presumes that in six days God created all things from nothing. However, this is (Heb – bohu)not so. We are plainly told in the passive prologue that the elements of Creation existed before the active process of home-building began. We implicitly understand that God originally created all of these materials; but how those materials were fabricated and arrived at site is not the subject of the active construction narrative in Genesis 1.
Nowhere does it say that God created the water—it is taken for granted as being there from the outset, as is the enveloping darkness. The heavens were not made until Day Two. Land is present from the beginning but does not exist as a dry entity until its separation from water on Day Three; implying that initially it was submerged in the watery chaos. Verses 1-3 cannot be included in the active creation without destroying the fiat/diurnal structure of the account.
At face value, the narrative clearly states that God’s intention was to create heavens and earth; and that the process began with a pile of materials sitting in darkness.
The creation process begins with a change to active narrative. Each of the six creative periods has a specific structure defining its duration. Each begins with the fiat statement “And God said.” Each ends with the diurnal constraint “And there was evening and morning”. The structure of the account defines a sequence of six creative days- the duration of the construction process, from materials to occupied dwelling.
The seven creative days
Day 1: Genesis 1:3-5
“And God said, Let there be Light.” The first thing the builder does is turn on the floodlighting. It is the provision of daylight, illuminating the desolation from above, which commences the process of creation.
What is created in this first fiat act? Light is a tool introduced for a purpose. Its physical properties and cause are irrelevant; the focus of the account is what God does with it. He uses it to create a period of illumination, as counterfoil to a period of darkness. Like darkness, light already has a name. What then is named—and claimed— by God as being newly created? The temporal apportionment of light and dark; the intangible qualities of Day and Night. “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”
The work of the first day is creation, by the act of division, of the function of diurnal time. “And the evening and the morning were the first day.”| See also → | |
| What does it mean to create light? | |
Day 2: Genesis 1:6-8
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| Problems with Literal Readings | |
On the second day, God divides the waters (mayim), by creating a space between them, and a firmament (raqia) to maintain the separation. The Hebrew term raqia, in its etymology and in its ancient usage, denotes a solid barrier (Ezekiel‘s visions certainly imply that it is solid); but no mention at all is given in Genesis of its material composition (this is discussed in the next chapter). Again, the physical properties are irrelevant: the focus of the account is what God does with it.
What is created in this second fiat act? By the act of division and separation of the upper and lower waters, God creates vertical space. This newly created space He names shamayim, or, Heaven. Heaven is subsequently defined as consisting of two parts: the firmament of the heaven, which holds back the upper waters and contains the luminaries (v14-17); and the space between the earth and the under-surface (the face, al pene) of the firmament, which is occupied by birds (Genesis 1:20).
Day 3: Genesis 1:9-13
On the third day God divides the lower waters from the land. What is materially created in this act? Nothing. What is functionally created? A separation of waters from dry ground. In this fiat act, God divides dry from wet. He names these segregated entities Sea and Land, and creates lateral space.
On the third day comes the first act of furnishing. Now that the walls are complete and the roof is on, the carpet goes in. But the carpet does not materialise ex nihilo. It is formed from the materials stockpile.
“And God said, Let the land bring forth plants.” Vegetation arose from the material in which it took root. It was not made ex nihilo, but ex terra. Into this vegetation is set the function of reproductive consistency and continuity—rather like a self-maintaining carpet.
Day 4: Genesis 1:14-19
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| discussion at Genesis 1:14-19 | |
On the fourth day, God furnishes the firmament. Now that the house is complete, the fixed lighting can be installed. In the vault of the heaven (the ceiling of occupied space) he sets lights. In our material worldview, we think of physical heavenly bodies, but Genesis says nothing of physicality. It refers to them solely as luminaries; light-sources, or concentrations of light. The physical properties of the luminaries — such as material composition, or emission versus reflectivity — are irrelevant. The major luminaries are not even individually named: the principal focus of the account is their function.
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| The Four Sources of Light | |
The text states that the luminaries are placed in the firmament, not to cause day and night, but to “govern” them — just as light bulbs modify the diurnal light admitted by windows. The sun governs the day, adding light and heat to the daylight. The moon and stars govern the night, defraying the darkness. The moon and stars are luminaries; they do not cause darkness, they lessen it. This reinforces the observation that in the Genesis text, the luminaries are regarded as governing lights, rather than causative influences.
With the appearance of light on day one, and creation of the luminaries three days later, God is not giving us a literal account of the formation of the physical universe as we understand it. Instead, He is teaching us that original Light comes from Him, that Time is from Him, and that the heavenly lights are servant functionaries set over the world, establishing and maintaining His appointed order. Relegation of the lights to the fourth day divorces them completely from a primordial association with the origin of light, and thus discourages any tendency to worship the luminaries as originators, or gods. In this functional emphasis, God denies all other gods, and secures to Himself the glory.
Day 5: Genesis 1:20-23
On the fifth day God furnishes the sky and the sea, filling them with life, to give movement and meaning to the emptiness. The living things are not created ex nihilo, but ex maris, out of the sea. Once more, the focus is on sustained purpose; with each reproducing after its kind* and being fruitful in so doing, multiplying and filling the dimensional spaces formed on day two.
Day 6: Genesis 1:24-31
On the sixth day God furnishes the land. He moves from kitchen and bathroom, as it were, to the living room. “Let the earth bring forth animals.” Again, there is a creation from existing materials, ex terra, of living things, whose purpose is to multiply and to fill the land. After the animals, God makes mankind. Once more the focus is functional, but with an additional role of supremacy: to represent God’s image, to fill the land, and to dominate over creation. Unlike all other created life, which is “brought forth,” Man is specifically “made”, affirming his unique status. The purpose of the creation of plants on the third day is now fully revealed in the sixth; that they are designed to be a source of food.
In making Man, God—who is spirit—reveals Himself in the form of an anthropic entity, enabling the prospective establishment of a relationship with His creation in terms of image, likeness, and character. The nature of Divine “image and likeness” is conveyed in the instructions to fill the earth and subjugate it and rule it: and is an expression of God’s character rather than of bodily form.
Man is the ultimate and crowning glory of God’s creation, the principal occupant of the finished dwelling. He takes occupancy of the house God has made for him; and the Creation is complete.
Day 7: Day of Rest
On the seventh day, God rests, and the text reverts to passive narrative. As John Walton points out, in a strictly material account of Creation, day 7 would be meaningless, with the contract builder hanging round on site and doing nothing. But from a functional viewpoint, the seventh day is the climax, the fulfilment, God’s day of satisfaction and enjoyment, emphasised and reinforced by a triplicate declaration of finishing and rest (Genesis 2:1-3):
What started out as a pile of building materials on a deserted site is now a completed, furnished, functional, and occupied dwelling for mankind; the glorious fulfilment of Divine purpose (Isaiah 45:18). It is an assurance of order and predictability within the sphere of human experience; that creation will sustain itself through the reproductive process and not degenerate back into primeval chaos.By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing;
So on the seventh day he rested from all his work;
Then God blessed the seventh day because on it he rested from His creative work. (NIV)
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| a physicist's contrary view: What does it mean to create light? | |
What has actually been created? The only “new” entities introduced during the six active days are light, and the raqia (firmament). Everything else was made from the existing materials of the primordial chaos.
Light, first present in the diffuse diurnal form of ‘daylight’, and subsequently supplemented by ‘sunlight’, ‘moonlight’ and ‘starlight’ in the luminaries of the firmament, originates from God himself (Rev. 21:23, 22:5). This independence of daylight from sunlight is beyond modern comprehension.
While other Scriptures represent the raqia as being solid and composed of crystallised water, like glass (Ezekiel 1, Revelation 4) — and by implication formed out of the upper waters — our modern understanding is that the raqia has no tangible physical reality.
Nor do we believe that there are liquid oceans (mayim) above it, even though to the writer of Psalm 148 the waters above the heavens were a very real cosmological entity which praised God by their enduring existence.*
These three facets of the Creation narrative, stumbling stones to modern interpretation, are harmonious elements of the cosmology of ancient Near Eastern culture, in the context of which Genesis was written. The ancients perceived the world as we would perceive a snow-dome ornament from inside; with land and sea separated from the upper waters by a solid dome or vault protecting the open space of the skies beneath. Where we see a spherical bauble in space, they imagined a hemispherical bubble within water. As we will see in the next chapter, the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation uniformly concur with this ancient cosmological model.
When we consider the text as it is written, we find that Genesis 1 is not a material physical record of the creation of the universe, but a metaphysical account of the introduction of Time and Space to a dark and empty chaos. It starts with disorder and emptiness (tohu and bohu), and ends with an organised and inhabited cosmos which God declares to be very good. It is a purpose-focused, structured account of the ordering and filling of the natural world, in terms of contemporary cosmology, to provide a functional habitation for Mankind.
But why seven days? God did not require three literal days to divide light from dark, heavenly from earthly oceans, dry land from sea. These could have been instantaneous acts with Him: particularly the first, which is but the work of a few milliseconds at most. Nor did He require alternating light and darkness to perform the other creative acts. In like manner, the second three days of filling the created spaces would not necessarily take three distinct periods of alternating light and darkness.
The Creation covers six days, not necessarily because it took God six days to achieve, but for the principal reason that it provides exemplary foundation for a six day working week, and forms an etiological foundation for the observance of Sabbath. These are not literal days on an ancient calendar, nor are they symbolic age-days. They are narrative days: six night/day cycles (evening and morning) followed by a seventh day of implied yet indefinite duration, forming a purposed framework for the Creation story.
The six days of Creation intentionally correspond with the six days of the human working week, ending with the observance of a holy Day of Rest (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12 — 15). The Sabbath ordinance was first instituted during the Exodus (Exodus 16), providing permanent reprieve from the unbroken servitude suffered in Egypt, and ensuring a day of rest and worship for
- It is interesting that Day 2, where the entities created – solid firmament and heavenly oceans – have no factual tangible reality, is the only Creation day whose work is not proclaimed as “good”. Possibly God, while accommodating contemporary cosmology, includes a subtle hint for future generations?
God’s people. In terms of its indefinite length, it also anticipated the rest of the Promised Land; and ultimately, an eternal rest for God’s people (Ps.95; Heb 3).
In summarising his understanding of Genesis 1, John Walton postulates that the Creation is the setting up of God’s Temple; that the seventh day is His inaugural occupation. However in the text of the passive conclusion, we are not told that God occupies; only that He observes, and approves. While pagan gods “dwelt” in temples built with hands, the God of Creation, who made the world and everything in it, is not thus constrained (Acts 7:48).
The first chapter of Genesis is an account of the establishment of the secular world, set up as a habitation for mankind (Ps. 115:16, Ps. 8:6, Isa 66:1) where God is the heavenly landlord and man is the earthly tenant. God’s throne is in Heaven, above the firmament, and He dwells outside of His creation. The establishment of a Temple, Priesthood and Divine presence on earth comes afterward, in the second Creation account (Genesis 2:4-25).
Wisdom before the Creation
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| Creation Texts | |
The account in Genesis 1 begins with the ordering of the chaos, the “tohu wabohu” of verse 2. The nature of this chaos, or wilderness, is indicated by the use of the same phrase in Scripture. In Isaiah 34 verse 11, the land of Edom is turned into an uninhabitable wilderness. This “confusion and emptiness” (tohu, wabohu) is defined in terms of uninhabitable desolation, a land occupied only by wild animals and weeds, with no travellers, no kings, and no nobles; without human inhabitant. In Jeremiah 4:23 the desolated land of Israel is described as “waste and empty” (tohu, wabohu): the fruitful place is a wilderness, the cities destroyed, and no man present. In Isaiah 45:18 God describes the whole purpose of creation as functional and not material: “Thus says God who created the heavens, and formed and made the earth: He did not establish it in vain/ waste (tohu) but formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord”. In these passages, the definition of chaos is the absence of human life: the entire purpose of Creation is shown to be functional, with Mankind as its raison d’etre.
The writer of Proverbs takes us back a step further, to the Wisdom and purpose in the mind of God that led to the preparation of the building site and its materials (primeval chaos ex nihilo), and to the works of the great Architect. The wisdom of God is personified, and given a voice, and speaks both of the preparation for Creation (before), and of the creative process (when). Proverbs 8:
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| Proverbs 8:22-31 and discussion there | |
- The Lord obtained me at the beginning of his proceedings.
- I was there from the outset,
- Ahead of, before the land.
- Before the primeval deeps, I was born.
- Before the springs of abundant water.
- Before the mountains were founded in the deeps,
- Before the hills, I was born.
- Before the land was made, or the farthest lands,
- Or the first dust of the inhabited lands.
- When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
- When he inscribed the horizon on the face of the deeps [that is, the edge of the vault on the sea],
- When he prepared the skies above,
- When he established the fountains of the deep,
- When he decreed for the seas that their waters obey His limits,
- When he set the foundations of the land,
- Then was I his craftsman, and I was his delight.
- Day by day I was ever his joy, [implying the six creative days]
- Rejoicing in the inhabited world of the land, [the filling of the land with life]
- And my delight was in the sons of men [the crowning glory of creation].
The principal purpose of the Creation account is not to describe physical fabrication, but to convey the fulfilment of the planning, wisdom and purpose of God.
Paul’s comment in Hebrews
One thing remains to be clarified. The apostle Paul (assuming him to be the writer to the Hebrews) is often quoted as teaching creatio ex nihilo (Hebrews 11:3); but to read thus is to misconstrue the context:
Verses 1 and 3 contain a poetic structure of parallels:
- “Faith is: the proof | of things hoped for; the evidence | of what is unseen.
- By faith we understand: that the ages were ordered | by the word of God;
- so that what is seen | is made from what is not seen.”
Combining the parallels, we read:
- ‘Faith is the proof and evidence of the hoped for and the unseen;
- Just as the ordered ages (aionia) are visible proof of the unseen word of God.’
If we doubt Paul’s meaning, he reiterates it more prosaically in Romans 1:20:
“For his invisible qualities—his power and his divinity—have been clearly seen from the creation of the world (cosmos), being understood from what has been made”.
The terms aionia (the temporal ages) and cosmos (the ordered world) are, in their Greek context and usage, functional expressions. Incidentally Psalm 19, to which Paul may be alluding in his argument, similarly presents the visible heavens and the functioning firmament as proof of the invisible and active qualities of Divine glory and workmanship, and as a foundation and confirmation for the wisdom of God’s Law.
In simple terms, Paul’s argument is this: that the visible and functioning creation is proof of the Word, power and divinity—and therefore the existence—of God, just as we could say that the existence of an occupied and functioning dwelling is evidence and proof of the abilities, craftsmanship, intent, and existence of its maker. How and when He made it is irrelevant: it is its present form and function which witnesses to the Divine existence.
Hebrews 11:2, in which aionia (the order of things in periods of time) is frequently mistranslated as universe, has a functional emphasis. It has nothing whatsoever to do with material physics.
The Creation narrative in Genesis 1 is an account of the Divine ordering and re-shaping of a primordial chaos into a living habitation for Mankind. It is a functional, not a material narrative, set in the context of a contemporary cosmology which was common to most cultures of the time. To read it in terms of modern science and cosmology is to pour new wine into old skins (Mark 2:22), with unfortunate and predictable consequence.
- ↑ Among the church fathers, this primitive view was still held by Ambrose:
A similar view was expressed by St John Chrysostom (347-407AD):“But let us reflect on the fact that the light of day is one thing and the light of the sun and moon and stars another, for the reason that the sun itself with its rays appears to add its brilliance to the light of day”. “The aspect of daylight is uncompounded: it merely furnishes light. The sun, on the other hand, not merely has the power of illuminating; it also has the power of heating.” “The sun gives the day its brilliance; the light, its existence.” (Ambrose, Hexameron, 4th Century AD).
Their contemporary, Basil, held otherwise:“Accordingly (God) created (the sun) on the fourth day lest you think it is the cause of the day… The Lord wanted to make daylight more brilliant by means of this heavenly body also… the text implies that the sun took control of the day and the moon of the night, so that the sun should render the day brighter with its rays, and the moon should dissipate the gloom.” (Homilies on Genesis, 6)
“Since the birth of the sun, the light that it diffuses in the air, when shining on our hemisphere, is day; and the shadow produced by its disappearance is night. But (on day 1 of Creation) it was not after the movement of the sun, but following this primitive light spread abroad in the air or withdrawn in a measure determined by God, that day came and was followed by night”(Basil, Hexameron, 4th century AD).
For those holding the former view, the creation of daylight three days before sunlight was a logical reading of the Genesis text. For those holding the latter view, it was necessary to postulate a primeval light that was supplanted by the sun, or to suppose that primeval light was transferred into the heavenly bodies upon their creation; both being a somewhat creative handling of the text. Our terms “daylight” and “sunlight” define these visibly differing forms of light; though the former is now universally understood to be a diffusion of the latter.
