Post by Mercy for All on Feb 12, 2021 3:37:58 GMT
Introduction – Genesis 1 is one of two ancient Hebrew creation accounts (the second being Genesis 2; due an inappropriate chapter division, the “first” creation account ends at Genesis 2:3, with the “second’ starting at Genesis 2:4). Although Genesis 1 comes earlier in the text, it is likely a later production than the Genesis 2 account. When it was completed is unclear, but many scholars believe its roots to very ancient, undergoing compilation and editing until probably reaching its final form sometime during the Babylonian Exile. There are several differences between the two accounts, but rather than seeing them as contradictory, it’s more helpful to see them as complementary, albeit addressing different concerns.
Genesis 1 is almost undoubtedly written (compiled, edited, etc.) as a polemic. Unfortunately, many today leverage as a polemic far more recent narratives than those of its original context(s), which will become clear. Ancient Near East creation stories are in “cosmogonic form,” less concerned with explaining how things came to be than how things are, using the natural, normal, and intelligible symbols of their time.
For the commentary, I have used the New American Standard Translation which, though less readable to the contemporary reader, pays more attention to maintaining as much of a “word for word” approach as is possible while maintaining English grammar. As a caveat, I am not sourcing materials. This commentary is based on whatever sources I have immediately on hand or from memory, with the exception of the NASB posted on biblegateway.com (and its translation notes), biblehub.com’s Hebrew interlinear, biblegateway to look up references for particular verses.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
“In the beginning…” – this the only Ancient Near East in which the subject deity pre-exists the material world rather than emerging from the material world. The first Genesis account, by comparison to its possible cultural contemporaries, affirms that God is the source of the material world and not vice versa. The “heavens” can refer to sky, the spiritual realm, or both. If it refers to the spiritual realm, it implies that said spiritual realm is temporal in nature, rather than eternal, which challenges the assumptions the worldviews of many Christians who are unwittingly more informed by Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy than Hebrew scripture.
“God” here is Elohim, a plural which likely implies “God of gods.” This is in contrast to the Genesis 2 account, in which the main actor is YHWH (traditionally, and erroneously, translated Jehovah; this is the “true name of God,” and because ancient Hebrew did not have vowels, and that for centuries Jews did not pronounce his name out of piety, the original pronunciation has been lost).
Genesis 1:2 – And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the [c]surface of the waters.
There is a clear comparison here to the Babylonian creation story found in the Enuma Elish, in which the primeval threat is chaos, a watery “deep”: darkness, undifferentiated, unorganized, lifeless, and personified by the goddess Tiamat. Egyptian creation myths also presumed a lifeless, watery deep out of which a god emerges. The Hebrew word for “deep” is tehôm, which clearly shared linguistic roots with Tiamat, the dragon-like goddess of chaos/salt water. In contrast to the Babylonian story, in which Tiamat is dominated and subdued in battle by Babylon’s supreme deity, Marduk, the Hebrew story reveals Elohim subduing the waters of impersonal chaos with but a breath. In Hebrew culture, the seas and oceans were sources of terror, associated with “the abyss” (notable examples being the story of Jonah (the “big fish” was a rescue, not a judgment) and the irony of Jesus acquiescing to the legion of demons to avoid the abyss; he casts them into a herd of pigs which immediately rushed down the steep bank and drowned in the lake (Luke 8:31-32).
“Spirit” is the Hebrew ruach, which means all of “spirit, breath, wind.” The same is true of the Greek word pneuma which creates both ambiguity in translation and interpretation which is consistent across both “Old” Testament and “New” Testament (which makes translating passages like John 3:5-8 tricky). In Egyptian creation myths also depict breath or wind moving on the waters. Most Egyptian city-states had their own patron gods. In Memphis’s case (used as a typical comparable, although other Egyptian examples could be used as well), it is Amun who moves on the waters.
The phrase “hovering (over the surface of waters)” is the same verb that would be used for a mother bird brooding over its nest, evoking the dove imagery of Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32) and Jesus’ words nearing Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, and you were unwilling!” (Luke 13:34; see also Matthew 23:37).
a) or waste
b) Lit. face of
c) Lit. face of
Genesis 1:3 – Then God said, “[d]Let there be light”; and there was light.
Elohim creates by speaking. It is a “speech act” (much like a human being makes a vow at a wedding—the speaking of it is the doing of it) – Latin: fiat. In Memphis’s creation story, it is the thought and word of Ptah that creates light, but in contrast to the Hebrew story, light is personified as the god Atum—Ptah creates by naming deities that personify what he is creating. In many of the Egyptian stories, the primary deity creates through his spit or ejaculation. Creation by speaking also features in the Babylonian Enuma Elish, in which Marduk possesses the ability to utter “magic words.” The contrast between the Hebrew stories and its polemical targets is that in the Egyptian and Babylonian stories, “magic” words are required to activate potential in matter, whereas God creates merely by speaking. His words are not “magic”; they are the effortless manifestation of his omnipotent, creative will.
Proverbs clarifies that Elohim performed original creation through "wisdom" (Proverbs 8:22-31). John’s Gospel echoes the Proverbs, but casts Jesus himself in the role of wisdom, expanding the wisdom concept by leveraging the concept of logos from Greek philosophy (particularly Stoicism). While logos means “word” or “message,” it also connotes “rationale” and “logic” (of which logos is the etymological root). For John, this is not an impersonal force as in Stoicism; it is personified in Jesus himself. John is not unique in his perspective; Paul says the same about Jesus’ role in creation (Colossians 1:15-16) and Hebrews says the same in 1:2.
Thus, followers of Jesus look back at the Hebrew text and see trinitarian activity in creation: the Father, by his Breath, emits the Word.
d) I.e., a command, not a request; and so throughout the ch
Genesis 1:4 – God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
This is the first instance of Elohim appraising what he has done. He calls his creation “good.” The Hebrew word tov does not connote “moral goodness,” but describes what is pleasing, beneficial, and appropriate, at least, in early usage.
This separation of light from darkness is the first instance of the pattern of “separating and filling.” The first three “days of creation” consist of Elohim separating spaces and in the next three “days of creation” he fills them.
Genesis 1:5 – God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
The Hebrew word for “day” is yom. This word has caused controversy as some point to its Old Testament use as a metonym for “age” or “period of time” (as in, “Day of the Lord”). That interpretation is challenged by the words “and there was evening and there was morning.” Whether literal or symbolic, this yom is a 24-hour period, not an “age.” Further problems are created by the recognition that this 24-hour period precedes the creation of the sun and moon, leading some to suggest that Elohim accommodated the motions of the earth and sun the pre-existing time scale.
Genesis 1:6-8 – Then God said, “Let there be [e]an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the [f]expanse, and separated the waters that were below the [g]expanse from the waters that were above the [h]expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse “heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
This is the second separation, with a “space” being created in the midst of waters. Some see the “firmament” (see note) as a solid barrier, but I’m not sure how justifiable that position is. In the comparable Memphis creation story, a primordial hill emerges “in the midst of Nun [the water]” and the precreation of the sky (Shu) occurs when Nun is raised over earth. Again, each new created element is a represented by a personified deity. All Ancient Near East creation stories include creation of heaven and earth by division.
e) Or a firmament; i.e., atmosphere and space
f) Or firmament
g) Or firmament
h) Or firmament
i) Or firmament
Genesis 1:9-10 – Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of the waters He called “seas”; and God saw that it was good.
Elohim continues to separate and create spaces, creating order out of chaos. The Egyptian Memphis creation story has the formation of heavenly ocean (Nut) by separation and the formation of dry ground (Geb) by separation, again with the results personified by deities.
Genesis 1:11-13 – Then God said, “Let the earth sprout [j]vegetation, [k]plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to [l]their kind [m]with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth produced [n]vegetation, [o]plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit [q]with seed in them, according to [r]their kind; and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Elohim creates vegetation, both wild and domesticated (notice the differentiation in the notes). Inherent in Elohim’s creation is recreation and reproduction; thus, plants are created “with seed in them” allowing them to reproduce without Elohim’s immediate intervention. He has set part of creation on its course to replicate itself. Again, it is good (tov, see above).
j) Or grass
k) Or herbs
l) Lit its
m) Lit in which is its seed
n) Or grass
o) Or herbs
p) Lit its
q) Lit in which is its seed
r) Lit its
Genesis 1:14-19 – Then God said, “Let there be
Elohim has already created light; now he isolates light into sources—lights, luminaries, or light-bearers (see notes). He is “filling” what he had previously separated—the expanse. That they serve as signs could be read as endorsing astrology, but this contradicts later proscriptions (see Leviticus 19:26) and, given a late date of editing during the Babylonian Exile, it is clear that Genesis 1:14 is not an endorsement.
Again, Elohim appraises his creation as good (tov).
s) Or luminaries, light-bearers, and so throughout the ch
t) Or firmament; i.e., atmosphere and space
u) Lit be for
v) Lit be for
w) Or firmament
x) Lit for the dominion of
y) Lit for the dominion of
z) Or firmament
aa) Lit for the dominion of
Genesis 1:20-23 – Then God said, “Let the waters [ab]teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth [ac]in the open [ad]expanse of the heavens.” And God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
On the fifth day, Elohim fills what he separated on the second day—the sky and the water. He commands the wildlife to be “fruitful and multiply,” fruitfulness setting the paradigm for flourishing on earth with multiplication being its indicator. Although the NASB has “swarms of living creatures,” the original Hebrew indicates two categories: “every living thing that moves” and “great sea creatures” (hattanninim haggedolim – note: tannin is the base word, which means serpent, sea monster, or dragon, ha is the definite article (“the”), and the im suffix indicates plurality). Tannin features in Job (7:12; 30:29), and is one Hebrew option that could be translated “serpent.” The similarity to the “dragon of chaos” featured in Babylonian mythology is not accidental. Further, it foreshadows the serpent in Genesis 2 (which might be considered a stretch but for the connection made in Revelation 20:2 – “the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan…”). Again, the primeval dragon/sea monster is not an antagonist that Elohim must struggle to subdue; he has created it almost as an afterthought, one of many sea creatures.
ab) Or swarm
ac) Lit on the face of
ad) Or firmament
Genesis 1:24-25 – Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to [ae]their kind: livestock and crawling things and animals of the earth according to [af]their kind”; and it was so. God made the animals of the earth according to [ag]their kind, and the livestock according to [ah]their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
In a notable departure from fiat creation, here Elohim empowers the earth itself to “produce living creatures” rather than creating them directly. He specifies both wild animals and domesticated animals and, as in plants and sea creatures, they are empowered to reduce “after their kind.” Attempts to equate “kind” with “species” in some debates today strains the meanings of both, forcing them into inappropriate anachronistic categories.
Again, Elohim declares his creation good (tov).
ae) Lit its
af) Lit its
ag) Lit its
ah) Lit its
Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “[ai]Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and [aj]let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”
The climax of Elohim’s creation is man (a-dam), created “in his image.” In the Memphis creation story, the role of the “image of god” is given to the sun, Rê. Humans are created to serve the gods along with statues of the gods, cult sites, and food offerings.
There is no solid consensus on Elohim’s use of the plural pronoun “we.” Some see it reflecting the plurality of his name (the im marks the name as plural) while others understand Elohim to be conversing with a “heavenly council.” The third option, the “royal we,” is not endorsed by any but a small minority of scholars.
Elohim, as creator, creates mankind with ruling and creative capability with the responsibility to “rule over” creation–not “domination” but stewardship and care; responsibility. This care is echoed in the Genesis 2 creation story in which “the man” is to care for the garden God planted and name the animals (“naming” implies control over).
ai) I.e., indicating united action, not a request
aj) I.e., have them rule
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The implication is not that “male humans” are made in Elohim’s image and “female humans” are not. Some early commentators echo an ancient Greek idea that humans are only complete as “image of God” in their union as male and female. What is unclear (but is usually assumed because of the parallel narrative in Genesis 2) is how many humans Elohim made.
The role of the “image of God,” according to Ancient Near East tradition, is to represent the deity’s interest in the world and express the worship of the world back to the deity. Humanity’s role in the world as Elohim’s “image” is to represent his interests as caregivers of creation and to represent the world’s worship back to him.
Genesis 1:28 – God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that [ak]moves on the earth.”
Once again, mankind’s role of rule is affirmed and the command to flourish (given to the sea animals) is given as well.
ak) Or crawls
Genesis 1:29-30 – Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the [al]surface of all the earth, and every tree [am]which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that [an]moves on the earth [ao]which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
The implication is that Elohim’s original intention was for mankind to be vegetarian (with the permission to eat meat only given after the flood (Genesis 9:3).
al) Lit face of
am) Lit in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed
an) Or crawls
ao) Lit in which is living breath
Genesis 1:31 – And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Elohim’s final proclamation is that creation was very good (tov). Contrary to traditional thought, this does not mean “perfect.” Again, tov means “beneficial, pleasing, appropriate,” and any moral connotation is not present in its earliest usages. The idea of “primeval perfection” is likely a Platonic imposition. Although creation is understood to be sinless at this point, it is not complete (only implied in Genesis 1, but the implication is still stronger in the parallel narrative of Genesis 2).
Genesis 2:1 – And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights.
Elohim has created everything that is part of the natural world. In this polemic against its pagan contemporary stories, the natural world is not divine. Only Elohim is divine, and he is wholly apart from creation. In the Genesis 1 narrative he is completely transcendent (although in the Genesis 2 narrative, he is both immanent and transcendent).
a) Lit host i.e., sun, stars, etc.
Genesis 2:2-3 – By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
In ancient pagan religious practice, it was common practice to build a temple to the deity, and consummate the ritual by bringing the statue or image of the deity, in procession, to its place of rest in the centre of the temple. Elohim doesn’t live in a temple; the whole earth is his resting place and his “image” is humanity.
b) Lit to make
In the Hebrew story, what is completely countercultural is that:
1) The natural world is not divine. Elohim is supreme and the only other part of creation that shares any spark of divinity is mankind.
2) The “image of God” is not the sun. It’s not an idol or another piece of art. It’s humanity itself. In other creation stories, mankind is an afterthought, created by accident or to serve the gods. In Genesis 1, humanity is the image of God, the pinnacle of creation.
3) God does not live in a human-built temple (a concept reiterated throughout scripture); the whole earth is his “place of rest.
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TL;DR – Genesis is written as a polemic against other Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies (origin stories that are crafted not to explain how things came to be but why they are the way they are—they typically honor one god and his/her characteristics above all other competition). In contrast to other cosmogonies: God (Elohim), who creates order out of chaos, is completely transcendent over the natural world, the material world is not divine, mankind has a preeminent place in creation as the “image of God,” and God does not live in a temple—the whole world is his place of rest.
Genesis 1 is almost undoubtedly written (compiled, edited, etc.) as a polemic. Unfortunately, many today leverage as a polemic far more recent narratives than those of its original context(s), which will become clear. Ancient Near East creation stories are in “cosmogonic form,” less concerned with explaining how things came to be than how things are, using the natural, normal, and intelligible symbols of their time.
For the commentary, I have used the New American Standard Translation which, though less readable to the contemporary reader, pays more attention to maintaining as much of a “word for word” approach as is possible while maintaining English grammar. As a caveat, I am not sourcing materials. This commentary is based on whatever sources I have immediately on hand or from memory, with the exception of the NASB posted on biblegateway.com (and its translation notes), biblehub.com’s Hebrew interlinear, biblegateway to look up references for particular verses.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
“In the beginning…” – this the only Ancient Near East in which the subject deity pre-exists the material world rather than emerging from the material world. The first Genesis account, by comparison to its possible cultural contemporaries, affirms that God is the source of the material world and not vice versa. The “heavens” can refer to sky, the spiritual realm, or both. If it refers to the spiritual realm, it implies that said spiritual realm is temporal in nature, rather than eternal, which challenges the assumptions the worldviews of many Christians who are unwittingly more informed by Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy than Hebrew scripture.
“God” here is Elohim, a plural which likely implies “God of gods.” This is in contrast to the Genesis 2 account, in which the main actor is YHWH (traditionally, and erroneously, translated Jehovah; this is the “true name of God,” and because ancient Hebrew did not have vowels, and that for centuries Jews did not pronounce his name out of piety, the original pronunciation has been lost).
Genesis 1:2 – And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the [c]surface of the waters.
There is a clear comparison here to the Babylonian creation story found in the Enuma Elish, in which the primeval threat is chaos, a watery “deep”: darkness, undifferentiated, unorganized, lifeless, and personified by the goddess Tiamat. Egyptian creation myths also presumed a lifeless, watery deep out of which a god emerges. The Hebrew word for “deep” is tehôm, which clearly shared linguistic roots with Tiamat, the dragon-like goddess of chaos/salt water. In contrast to the Babylonian story, in which Tiamat is dominated and subdued in battle by Babylon’s supreme deity, Marduk, the Hebrew story reveals Elohim subduing the waters of impersonal chaos with but a breath. In Hebrew culture, the seas and oceans were sources of terror, associated with “the abyss” (notable examples being the story of Jonah (the “big fish” was a rescue, not a judgment) and the irony of Jesus acquiescing to the legion of demons to avoid the abyss; he casts them into a herd of pigs which immediately rushed down the steep bank and drowned in the lake (Luke 8:31-32).
“Spirit” is the Hebrew ruach, which means all of “spirit, breath, wind.” The same is true of the Greek word pneuma which creates both ambiguity in translation and interpretation which is consistent across both “Old” Testament and “New” Testament (which makes translating passages like John 3:5-8 tricky). In Egyptian creation myths also depict breath or wind moving on the waters. Most Egyptian city-states had their own patron gods. In Memphis’s case (used as a typical comparable, although other Egyptian examples could be used as well), it is Amun who moves on the waters.
The phrase “hovering (over the surface of waters)” is the same verb that would be used for a mother bird brooding over its nest, evoking the dove imagery of Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32) and Jesus’ words nearing Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, and you were unwilling!” (Luke 13:34; see also Matthew 23:37).
a) or waste
b) Lit. face of
c) Lit. face of
Genesis 1:3 – Then God said, “[d]Let there be light”; and there was light.
Elohim creates by speaking. It is a “speech act” (much like a human being makes a vow at a wedding—the speaking of it is the doing of it) – Latin: fiat. In Memphis’s creation story, it is the thought and word of Ptah that creates light, but in contrast to the Hebrew story, light is personified as the god Atum—Ptah creates by naming deities that personify what he is creating. In many of the Egyptian stories, the primary deity creates through his spit or ejaculation. Creation by speaking also features in the Babylonian Enuma Elish, in which Marduk possesses the ability to utter “magic words.” The contrast between the Hebrew stories and its polemical targets is that in the Egyptian and Babylonian stories, “magic” words are required to activate potential in matter, whereas God creates merely by speaking. His words are not “magic”; they are the effortless manifestation of his omnipotent, creative will.
Proverbs clarifies that Elohim performed original creation through "wisdom" (Proverbs 8:22-31). John’s Gospel echoes the Proverbs, but casts Jesus himself in the role of wisdom, expanding the wisdom concept by leveraging the concept of logos from Greek philosophy (particularly Stoicism). While logos means “word” or “message,” it also connotes “rationale” and “logic” (of which logos is the etymological root). For John, this is not an impersonal force as in Stoicism; it is personified in Jesus himself. John is not unique in his perspective; Paul says the same about Jesus’ role in creation (Colossians 1:15-16) and Hebrews says the same in 1:2.
Thus, followers of Jesus look back at the Hebrew text and see trinitarian activity in creation: the Father, by his Breath, emits the Word.
d) I.e., a command, not a request; and so throughout the ch
Genesis 1:4 – God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
This is the first instance of Elohim appraising what he has done. He calls his creation “good.” The Hebrew word tov does not connote “moral goodness,” but describes what is pleasing, beneficial, and appropriate, at least, in early usage.
This separation of light from darkness is the first instance of the pattern of “separating and filling.” The first three “days of creation” consist of Elohim separating spaces and in the next three “days of creation” he fills them.
Genesis 1:5 – God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
The Hebrew word for “day” is yom. This word has caused controversy as some point to its Old Testament use as a metonym for “age” or “period of time” (as in, “Day of the Lord”). That interpretation is challenged by the words “and there was evening and there was morning.” Whether literal or symbolic, this yom is a 24-hour period, not an “age.” Further problems are created by the recognition that this 24-hour period precedes the creation of the sun and moon, leading some to suggest that Elohim accommodated the motions of the earth and sun the pre-existing time scale.
Genesis 1:6-8 – Then God said, “Let there be [e]an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the [f]expanse, and separated the waters that were below the [g]expanse from the waters that were above the [h]expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse “heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
This is the second separation, with a “space” being created in the midst of waters. Some see the “firmament” (see note) as a solid barrier, but I’m not sure how justifiable that position is. In the comparable Memphis creation story, a primordial hill emerges “in the midst of Nun [the water]” and the precreation of the sky (Shu) occurs when Nun is raised over earth. Again, each new created element is a represented by a personified deity. All Ancient Near East creation stories include creation of heaven and earth by division.
e) Or a firmament; i.e., atmosphere and space
f) Or firmament
g) Or firmament
h) Or firmament
i) Or firmament
Genesis 1:9-10 – Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of the waters He called “seas”; and God saw that it was good.
Elohim continues to separate and create spaces, creating order out of chaos. The Egyptian Memphis creation story has the formation of heavenly ocean (Nut) by separation and the formation of dry ground (Geb) by separation, again with the results personified by deities.
Genesis 1:11-13 – Then God said, “Let the earth sprout [j]vegetation, [k]plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to [l]their kind [m]with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth produced [n]vegetation, [o]plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit [q]with seed in them, according to [r]their kind; and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Elohim creates vegetation, both wild and domesticated (notice the differentiation in the notes). Inherent in Elohim’s creation is recreation and reproduction; thus, plants are created “with seed in them” allowing them to reproduce without Elohim’s immediate intervention. He has set part of creation on its course to replicate itself. Again, it is good (tov, see above).
j) Or grass
k) Or herbs
l) Lit its
m) Lit in which is its seed
n) Or grass
o) Or herbs
p) Lit its
q) Lit in which is its seed
r) Lit its
Genesis 1:14-19 – Then God said, “Let there be
Elohim has already created light; now he isolates light into sources—lights, luminaries, or light-bearers (see notes). He is “filling” what he had previously separated—the expanse. That they serve as signs could be read as endorsing astrology, but this contradicts later proscriptions (see Leviticus 19:26) and, given a late date of editing during the Babylonian Exile, it is clear that Genesis 1:14 is not an endorsement.
Again, Elohim appraises his creation as good (tov).
s) Or luminaries, light-bearers, and so throughout the ch
t) Or firmament; i.e., atmosphere and space
u) Lit be for
v) Lit be for
w) Or firmament
x) Lit for the dominion of
y) Lit for the dominion of
z) Or firmament
aa) Lit for the dominion of
Genesis 1:20-23 – Then God said, “Let the waters [ab]teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth [ac]in the open [ad]expanse of the heavens.” And God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
On the fifth day, Elohim fills what he separated on the second day—the sky and the water. He commands the wildlife to be “fruitful and multiply,” fruitfulness setting the paradigm for flourishing on earth with multiplication being its indicator. Although the NASB has “swarms of living creatures,” the original Hebrew indicates two categories: “every living thing that moves” and “great sea creatures” (hattanninim haggedolim – note: tannin is the base word, which means serpent, sea monster, or dragon, ha is the definite article (“the”), and the im suffix indicates plurality). Tannin features in Job (7:12; 30:29), and is one Hebrew option that could be translated “serpent.” The similarity to the “dragon of chaos” featured in Babylonian mythology is not accidental. Further, it foreshadows the serpent in Genesis 2 (which might be considered a stretch but for the connection made in Revelation 20:2 – “the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan…”). Again, the primeval dragon/sea monster is not an antagonist that Elohim must struggle to subdue; he has created it almost as an afterthought, one of many sea creatures.
ab) Or swarm
ac) Lit on the face of
ad) Or firmament
Genesis 1:24-25 – Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to [ae]their kind: livestock and crawling things and animals of the earth according to [af]their kind”; and it was so. God made the animals of the earth according to [ag]their kind, and the livestock according to [ah]their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
In a notable departure from fiat creation, here Elohim empowers the earth itself to “produce living creatures” rather than creating them directly. He specifies both wild animals and domesticated animals and, as in plants and sea creatures, they are empowered to reduce “after their kind.” Attempts to equate “kind” with “species” in some debates today strains the meanings of both, forcing them into inappropriate anachronistic categories.
Again, Elohim declares his creation good (tov).
ae) Lit its
af) Lit its
ag) Lit its
ah) Lit its
Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “[ai]Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and [aj]let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”
The climax of Elohim’s creation is man (a-dam), created “in his image.” In the Memphis creation story, the role of the “image of god” is given to the sun, Rê. Humans are created to serve the gods along with statues of the gods, cult sites, and food offerings.
There is no solid consensus on Elohim’s use of the plural pronoun “we.” Some see it reflecting the plurality of his name (the im marks the name as plural) while others understand Elohim to be conversing with a “heavenly council.” The third option, the “royal we,” is not endorsed by any but a small minority of scholars.
Elohim, as creator, creates mankind with ruling and creative capability with the responsibility to “rule over” creation–not “domination” but stewardship and care; responsibility. This care is echoed in the Genesis 2 creation story in which “the man” is to care for the garden God planted and name the animals (“naming” implies control over).
ai) I.e., indicating united action, not a request
aj) I.e., have them rule
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The implication is not that “male humans” are made in Elohim’s image and “female humans” are not. Some early commentators echo an ancient Greek idea that humans are only complete as “image of God” in their union as male and female. What is unclear (but is usually assumed because of the parallel narrative in Genesis 2) is how many humans Elohim made.
The role of the “image of God,” according to Ancient Near East tradition, is to represent the deity’s interest in the world and express the worship of the world back to the deity. Humanity’s role in the world as Elohim’s “image” is to represent his interests as caregivers of creation and to represent the world’s worship back to him.
Genesis 1:28 – God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that [ak]moves on the earth.”
Once again, mankind’s role of rule is affirmed and the command to flourish (given to the sea animals) is given as well.
ak) Or crawls
Genesis 1:29-30 – Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the [al]surface of all the earth, and every tree [am]which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that [an]moves on the earth [ao]which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
The implication is that Elohim’s original intention was for mankind to be vegetarian (with the permission to eat meat only given after the flood (Genesis 9:3).
al) Lit face of
am) Lit in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed
an) Or crawls
ao) Lit in which is living breath
Genesis 1:31 – And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Elohim’s final proclamation is that creation was very good (tov). Contrary to traditional thought, this does not mean “perfect.” Again, tov means “beneficial, pleasing, appropriate,” and any moral connotation is not present in its earliest usages. The idea of “primeval perfection” is likely a Platonic imposition. Although creation is understood to be sinless at this point, it is not complete (only implied in Genesis 1, but the implication is still stronger in the parallel narrative of Genesis 2).
Genesis 2:1 – And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights.
Elohim has created everything that is part of the natural world. In this polemic against its pagan contemporary stories, the natural world is not divine. Only Elohim is divine, and he is wholly apart from creation. In the Genesis 1 narrative he is completely transcendent (although in the Genesis 2 narrative, he is both immanent and transcendent).
a) Lit host i.e., sun, stars, etc.
Genesis 2:2-3 – By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
In ancient pagan religious practice, it was common practice to build a temple to the deity, and consummate the ritual by bringing the statue or image of the deity, in procession, to its place of rest in the centre of the temple. Elohim doesn’t live in a temple; the whole earth is his resting place and his “image” is humanity.
b) Lit to make
In the Hebrew story, what is completely countercultural is that:
1) The natural world is not divine. Elohim is supreme and the only other part of creation that shares any spark of divinity is mankind.
2) The “image of God” is not the sun. It’s not an idol or another piece of art. It’s humanity itself. In other creation stories, mankind is an afterthought, created by accident or to serve the gods. In Genesis 1, humanity is the image of God, the pinnacle of creation.
3) God does not live in a human-built temple (a concept reiterated throughout scripture); the whole earth is his “place of rest.
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TL;DR – Genesis is written as a polemic against other Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies (origin stories that are crafted not to explain how things came to be but why they are the way they are—they typically honor one god and his/her characteristics above all other competition). In contrast to other cosmogonies: God (Elohim), who creates order out of chaos, is completely transcendent over the natural world, the material world is not divine, mankind has a preeminent place in creation as the “image of God,” and God does not live in a temple—the whole world is his place of rest.
