GENESIS 1

Genesis 1:1 Friedman (BAR) notes, “The very fact that the Bible's sources start off with the creation 

of the earth and all of humankind instead of starting with Israel itself is relevant here. If any of us were asked to write a history of the United States, would we start by saying, 'Well, first there was the Big Bang, and then...'?”

Genesis 1:2 Tohu wabohu has been translated as an uninhabitable empty wilderness or as unproductiveness and emptiness, not a wild chaos. Isaiah and Jeremiah used the terms to describe land that was judged by God and became uninhabited. This is not the same as most Mesopotamian creation myths, which involve a violent struggle between the gods and the forces of chaos. “Formless and empty”: the first three days will correct the first point and the next three will correct the second point. In this case God will conquer chaos by his word only. It may have been written to counteract the pagan ideas. Ruah means wind or spirit. If the latter, it is like the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary in the creation of Jesus. Some translate it as “mighty wind” rather than “breath of God,” in which case the wind is a negative force as part of the original chaos. But that explanation doesn't fit the verb “brooding, or watching over.” It is similar to the Holy Spirit at Jesus' baptism hovering like a dove. See Job 26:13 for the idea that the Spirit took part in the creation. In this case, the Spirit is watching over the chaos and keeping it in check.

Psalm 136:5-9 couples the concept of God's creation and His steadfast love. It may help answer the question: Why did God bother to create anything at all?

Genesis 1:3 God reveals himself as a deity who communicates. Look at John 1:1-5 for Christ's presence at the creation, as well as Colossians 1:16-17 and Hebrews 1:3,10-12. It has been proposed that Christ is the light referred to in this verse. That would be a heretical idea. Read Job 38:12-15 on the purpose of light in general. Paul quotes this in II Corinthians 4:6. Proverbs 8:22-31 says that Wisdom is God's agent in making the world. Psalm 102:25-27 is applied by the author of Hebrews to Jesus (1:10-12). God speaks and it happens (Psalm 33). This does not mean that it necessarily happened instantaneously though. Many have argued that anything less than immediate action would diminish the power of God. But the same argument could be used to ask why it didn't happen all at once instead of taking six 6 days.

Genesis 1:5 Evening and morning = nighttime only; in other words, the end of a work period, not a 

description of a full day by any reckoning. Others feel that this is equivalent to, and the origin of, the 

Hebrew 24-hour reckoning which begins each day at sundown. Psalm 90, attributed to Moses, uses the

two nouns in the same manner. Also, Psalm 90:4 says that a thousand years are as a single day in your 

sight. One theory is that each day was a different day of God revealing to Moses what had been done.

Another view, called the Framework Theory proposes that the six days of creation are ordered 

topically, not chronologically.

Genesis 1:6-8 Firmament (expanse, atmosphere) is the sky. Hebrew has no word for gas. Waters above 

are clouds. Waters under (lower) include most seas, which are below ground level. Bernard Ramm says 

that critics who make fun of the crude cosmological explanations of the Bible do not understand the 

Hebrew words. Critics claim that “firmament” means a thin metallic dome and that “waters below” the 

earth means that the land is supposedly floating on an underground sea. The root meaning of firmament 

can be “to beat out” (referring to metals) or “spread out” (the expanse).

Genesis 1:8-10 There is no benediction at this point since the work was not complete until verse 9. A 

similar explanation is that God only blessed the water restrained by land (seas, rivers) but not the 

ocean. 

Generic “heavens” of 1:1 becomes more specifically the “sky” just as “earth” in v. 1 becomes “land” in 

verse 10. There are indications elsewhere in Scripture that a struggle was involved here. Psalm 

104:6-9, Proverbs 8:29, and Job 38:8-11.

Genesis 1:11 This is not a direct creation; it has been called “secondary creation.” It indicates that the 

land already contained the potential for life (also in verse 24). “After their own kind” is not an 

argument against evolution, but does indicate that God created an orderly world that can be relied on. 

“Kind” is not a scientific term such as “species.” It also says that the original plants and animals gave 

rise to others of that kind, but not what happened subsequently. Remember that natural laws were 

ordained by God's word as well as the original creations themselves.

Genesis 1:14-19 Is astrology being referred to here? It is highly doubtful and more likely refers to the 

use of the heavenly bodies to discern the times and seasons. Critics claim that the belief is that the stars 

are affixed to the solid dome of the firmament. However, there are other biblical references to hanging 

the earth out in space on nothing. And Isaiah 40:22 may also speak about the spherical nature of the 

earth. One conservative view is that the heavenly bodies were there, but could not be seen yet because 

the atmosphere was too hazy. Sun, moon and stars are not even important enough to be named, in 

contrast to pagan civilizations who worshiped them. “Let there be lights,” not the singular light as in 

verse 3. Lights are light-bearers.

Genesis 1:21 Great sea creatures are mentioned specifically since in pagan creation stories the gods 

wrestle with the sea monsters and conquer them, thus restraining the chaos of the oceans. Here God 

first creates the waters and then populates them with sea creatures. This is the first time after 1:1 that 

“create” is used. It signals a new development: the creation of beings who could also create, or the 

creation of conscious life, or to stress that the sea monsters should not be worshiped. The third time in 

Genesis 1 that the word is used is in verse 29 with the creation of mankind.

Genesis 1:22 (and 28) The command to multiply was one reason why eunuchs could not worship in 

the temple and no castrated animals could be offered as sacrifices according to Leviticus.

 

Genesis 1:26-27 creep = to walk lightly

Hillel's rule for exegesis called "the general and the particular" explains why Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 

2:21 are not second creations, but a further explanation of the general creation of mankind first given 

here.

Colossians 1:6,10 uses similar language to that in v. 28. Paul spiritualizes this command in Genesis. 

The blessing by God is not just wishful thinking or a mere command; it confers the power of fertility 

so that fruitfulness and subduing can occur.

 

Genesis 1:31  "Now" is added because mankind is also present.

 

2:1-3 The seventh day is special as marked by the 3x use of the number 7 and definite article “the” 

used for the first time. “In the first 6 days, space is subdued; in the seventh day time is sanctified”-- G. 

K. Beale, The Book of Revelation. Victor Hamilton voices the more precise opinion that God begins 

by creating time (vv. 3-5) then goes on to space, and here returns to time. “Whereas other gods set 

apart temples as memorials of their creative work, the God of Israel set apart a day.”-- Bruce Waltke. 

No end to the seventh day is mentioned. See Hebrews 4:3-5 where the author argues from Genesis and 

from Psalm 95:11 that the promised rest for mankind had not yet arrived in David's time. Thus, it 

couldn't refer to the settling in the land of Canaan; it must be future.

Nehemiah 9:14 indicates that the idea of Sabbath was a revelation to the Jews only.

Work completed on the seventh day infers that God worked at least part of the Sabbath. To eliminate 

this idea, the Septuagint translated it “on the sixth day.”

Using the word “work” for both God's and man's activities (see Exodus 20:8-11) ennobles the latter.

Additional reasons for the Sabbath are given later:

    Deuteronomy 5:12-15: to remember God's redemptive power

    Exodus 31:12-17: as a covenant between the Jews and God

    Isaiah 56:6-8: as a means of bringing in Gentiles to worship God and be joyful

    John 5:1-18: as an appropriate time to carry out redemptive works

    Hebrws 4:3-11: as a promise of the future rest in store for all believers