Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Box 7211
OT 211 Genesis / Vogt
Spring 2007
Genesis 1:1-2:3:
Its Usefulness in Engaging
Ancient and Modern Cosmologies
Genesis 1:1-2:3
1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, 2 but the earth was formless and empty, and
darkness covered the face of the abyss, and the spirit of the Lord hovered over the face of the waters. 3 Then
God said, “Let there be light.” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then God made
a division between the light and the darkness, 5 and God called the light “day” and the darkness he called
“night”; and there was an evening and a morning, a first day. 6 Then God said, “Let there be a barrier
between the waters; and let there be a space separating the waters above and the waters below”. 7 So God
made the barrier separating the waters below the barrier from the waters above it, and so it was. 8 And God
called the barrier “heavens”: and there was an evening and a morning, a second day. 9 Then God said “Let
10
the waters below the heavens be gathered to one place and let dry land appear.” And it was so. And God
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called the dry land “earth” and the gathered waters he called “seas,” and God saw that it was good. Then
God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, seed bearing plants, and trees, bearing fruit with its seed in it,
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according to its species on the earth, and so it was. So the earth brought forth vegetation, seed bearing
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plants, and trees, bearing fruit with its seed in it, according to its species. And God saw that it was good.
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then there was an evening and a morning, a third day. Then God said, “Let there be luminaries in the
barrier of the heavens, to separate the day from the night; and let them indicate signs, and seasons, days,
and years. 15 and Let the luminaries in the heavens shine upon the earth.” And so it was. 16 Then God made
two great luminaries, the greater one luminary to rule the day, and the lesser one to rule the night, and also
the stars. 17 God put them in the barrier of the heavens to shine upon the earth, 18 to govern the day and the
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night, and to separate the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. Then there was an
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evening and a morning, a fourth day. Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living
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creatures, and flying creatures to flutter over the earth and against the boundary of the heavens. So God
created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters teem, according
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to its species, and every flying creature according to its species. And God saw that it was good. And
God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful, increase and fill the waters in the sea.” And let the birds increase on
the earth. 23 Then there was an evening and a morning, a fifth day. 24
Then God said, “Let the land produce
living creatures according to their species: livestock, and creeping creatures, and wild animals each
and the creeping creatures according to their species. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said,
“Let us make a humanity in our image and likeness, to govern the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the
heavens, the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping creature that creeps on the earth.” 27 So
God created humanity in his own image. In the image of God He created; with male and female he created
humanity. 28 Then God blessed them. And God said to them, “be fruitful, increase and fill the earth and
subdue it, govern the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the heavens, the livestock, over all the earth,
and over every creeping creature that creeps on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “See, I have given you every
seed bearing plant on the face of the entire earth, and every tree bearing fruit with the seed in it; it will be
food to you, 30 and to every living creature on the earth, and to every flying creature of the heavens and to
every creeping creature that creeps upon the earth; everything that has life, I have given all vegetation for
31
food.” And so it was. And God saw everything that he had made, and saw that it was very good. Then
there was an evening and a morning, the sixth day. 2:1 So the heavens and the earth were finished and their
entire host. 2 And by the seventh day God had finished the work he had done; and he rested, on the seventh
day, from all the work which he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day, and consecrated it, because in
it he rested from all his work which God had done in creation.
Word Count 2789
Introduction
The account of the creation week (Genesis 1:1-2:3,) stands, appropriately at the
beginning of the first book in the Hebrew and the Christian Cannon. It is foundational to
skepticism since the Enlightenment has shifted our attention from formative theological
issues to critical and apologetic ones. Rather than providing a framework from which
people of faith can engage their world, the passage itself has come to be the topic of
debate.
It is my contention, that as we learn the lessons about who God was revealing
himself to be in the context of the ancient Israelites, these same lessons will also inform
our interaction with the modern cosmologies of contemporary science. The result will
be, not a faith “under the microscope” but rather, a lens through which we as believers
can explore our universe with science, enthusiastically embracing some of its conclusion
while, remaining critical of others, with the ultimate anticipation that the end result of our
human quest for understanding will eventually lead us to the same goal.
commentary provides a thorough analysis of its many structural features.1 The overall
1
Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary 1 pp 5-7
form of the passage is chiastic, but several other structural characteristics are embedded
within the passage as well. The narrative structure for instance, highlights the third and
sixth days of the creation week, which are indicated by a double announcement of the
divine word, and a double statement of the approval formula. This creates a pattern
Wenham also notes that the narrative also has two poles: the heavens, and earth.
The focus of the chapter moves from the heavens to the earth, ending with an extended
presentation of humanity. The palistrophic pattern which reverses the terms heaven and
earth, between day three and day four, also highlight this middle section, the day God
creates luminaries (sun, moon, and stars,) which is the second largest descriptive section.
Finally, Wenham notes ubiquity of the number seven in the text. The
correspondence of 1:1-2 and 2:1-3 are highlighted, by the fact that the number of words
times. The barrier of the heavens 21 times; and the phrases, “and so it was” and “God
We will deal with the significance of these structural elements later, but now let
us now make an examination of some cosmological assumptions from the ancient near
east, and from modern scientific observation and see how the scriptures address their
conclusions.
ANE Cosmology Belief #1:
Polytheism and Eternal Matter
Lines 1-4 of the Enuma Elish, state that there were two beings present at the
foundation of the world, Apsu and Tiamat.2 They were not only the parents of the god’s
but also represented living uncreated world matter; Apsu was the primeval sweet-water
ocean, and Tiamat the primeval saltwater ocean.3 Matter, from the Babylonian point of
While the Enuma Elish pictures this matter as a primeval ocean, different
Mesopotamian traditions represent it in other forms. The Theogony of Dunnu begins with
Plough marrying Earth and together they produce Sea. In yet another text, it is Anu the
sky-god, who creates the sky which creates the earth.4 Of these varying traditions,
however, the consensus is that matter is eternal if not the embodiment of the divine.
Biblical Response
tyviarEB.. The first thing to note here is that it states the creative act was
performed by a singular God. While the word Elohim is in plural form and might be
translated “gods,” the verb bara, which is singular, removes this ambiguity. At the
beginning of the Jewish and Christian cannon, there is only one God standing alone, who
subordinate clause to v2 or v3, in other words, not “in the very beginning” but “in the
summarizing the verses which follow. “In the beginning God created etc. (and here’s
how) Now the earth was formless … and God said.” The fourth interpretation, which also
makes v 1 the main clause, proposes that God first created chaotic matter out of nothing,
and then ordered it. This is the traditional interpretation. It is the one I attempt to
vv 1:1-3. “In the beginning God created ….but the earth was formless and empty…then
God said…”
this cannot be referring to The Beginning, because the absence of the definite article,
means that tyviarEB. must be taken in construct form with the verb ar"B'.
However, Heidel states that terms like tyviarE, when used in adverbial expressions,
almost invariably occur without the definite article, and that in the absolute state.6
Those who make an argument for the presence of pre-existent chaotic matter,
assume that the author of Genesis cannot have a worldview that diverges too greatly from
other ANE cultures, that in fact the Genesis account is modeled after Mesopotamian
creation accounts. But Heidel further argues, that if the author of Genesis chapter one had
intended to begin his account with a subordinate clause, styled after other Mesopotamian
creation accounts, he could have used the Hebrew equivalent of the Babylonian enuma,
6
Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis p 92
or Sumerian ud-da, which would be ~wyb, meaning “in the day” or simply
“when.”7
If the Bible is a polemic, it is not copying but countering the claims of other
ancient near eastern cosmologies, and attempting to show that its God is greater. The
Bible affirms the ANE belief in the divine and that the world has its source in the divine.
But it refutes the belief that there is more than one god or that matter is somehow eternal.
Rather, it claims there is one God, and He is the source of everything that exists.
In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered, that wherever you look, distant galaxies are
moving rapidly away from us.8 We live in an expanding universe, and if the universe is
expanding, you can reasonably assume that there was once a time when everything was
in the same place. Given the unbelievable density and gravitational strength of such a
consolidation, there must have been some great power, like a giant explosion, that
caused the present expansion. Thus the theory of the big bang was born. Given the
present distance and the rate of recession scientists calculate the age of the universe to
Biblical Response
The fact that the bible claims that there is a beginning (that time, matter, and the universe
are not eternal,) means that scientific cosmology is in agreement with the bible on this
7
Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis p 95
8
Hawking, Steven. A Brief History of Time p 8
point at least. One thing which we should give some consideration, however, is the
The bible does not tell us the age of the universe, or even the earth, though some
have tried to imply its age through genealogies and known dates reported in biblical texts.
The, sometimes truncated, nature of the genealogies found in the scriptures prevents us
from making an accurate calculation. Furthermore, such formulae rest on the assumption
that the creation week consisted of six literal days plus one day of rest. If we take an
exegetical look at the creation week we will see that it is not as straight forward as it
appears.
The word used for day, ~Ay yom, is not used the same way everywhere in the
old testament. Just a brief search of Genesis will reveal that in 1:14 yom is used to refer to
the period of light and dark established by the earth and its relation to the sun and moon.
But chapter 2:4 uses the word yom in another way, here it means “day” in an inclusive
sense that alludes to the whole creation week, which was already reported as seven
“days.” Another summary use is in Genesis 5:1-2. The word yom does not always signify
We must also consider that the sun, moon, and stars by which we measure the
length of days and seasons are not created until day four. We are clearly not talking
about evening and morning as they are measured on earth. Furthermore, if we were to
leave the earth and spend a day on another planet in our solar system, the length of a day
would be different. One day on Venus for instance, is the equivalent of 243 earth days
just 18 days longer than its year.9 The length of a day depends on where you stand.
are marked by cardinal numbers, lacking the definite article, while most English
translations insist on translating them as ordinal numbers. Steinmann notes that cardinal
numbers are occasionally used as ordinals, but this only has precedent when counting the
days of a month or the years of a king’s reign. And the use of cardinal numbers in a list of
countables is unattested elsewhere in the Old Testament.10 The use of cardinal numbers
may imply that the creative days were not in immediate succession of each other, and
Furthermore, the use of the number seven may not be literal. If we revisit the
structural comment on the preponderance of sevens in the text, we might assume that the
author is in fact be trying to emphasize the overall perfection and completeness of the
created order. A fact that is mirrored by the closing statement which appears at the end
Arvid Kapelrud draws several conclusion about the use of the number seven in
ANE cultures from Ugaritic texts.11 1. For some unknown reason, the number seven is
considered a dangerous and powerful throughout the ancient near east. 2. Seven is a
round number used to designate an unspecified quantity. 3. Seven was used to indicate
intensity, and quality, but not directly quantity. 4.Seven may also indicate fulfillment,
seven with narrative elements in the text, we can get a sense of how the author us using
10
Steinmann, Andrew E. dxa as an Ordinal Number, And the Meaning of Genesis 1:5 p 582
11
Kapelrud, Arvid S. The Number Seven In Ugaritic Texts p 499
The seven days represent the fact that creation is divine action involving powerful
forces, also reflected in the creative words God speaks. The seven days may not indicate
literal days, but may only be a round number, representative of the period of time over
which God created. It may also be a convenient way of summarizing all the categories
that constitute the known world. The seven days also indicate the quality of goodness of
creation, reflected in the repeated phrase “and God saw that it was good”. Finally seven
emphasized “very good” and the Sabbath rest on the seventh day.
Atrahasis and the Enuma Elish, both envision humanity as slaves to the gods.
Humanity is created to relieve the god’s of their toil. In each of these instances, a god is
slain and his blood is used in the process. Atrahasis has the additional elements of a
mother or midwife goddess Mami who mixes the blood with clay to make human
beings.12
Biblical Response
In Gen. 1:1-2:3 the author uses several means to demonstrate that humanity was
created for a noble purpose. The palistrophic pattern, mentioned above, with its heavenly
and earthly poles has two focal points. The first is the hierarchical progression from the
heavens to the earth with the strong emphasis on humanity. The second is the central
reversal of the terms heaven and earth which highlight the fourth day of creation, which
is the second longest creative day. These emphasis are significant in that it reverses
12
Myths From Mesopotamia p 4
ancient near eastern assumptions about the created order, where stars were worshiped and
Secondly, humanity is said to be created in the image and likeness of God. This
image is not image in a corporeal sense, because nowhere is God said to have a body.
This is another departure from ANE accounts. How then are we to take the “image of
God?” Wenham lists five main solutions.13 Of these five possibilities the last two carry
the most weight. Image is a reference to the fact that humanity is to be God’s
as a spiritual being. The immediate context favors both these interpretations in that
humanity is given the responsibility to govern (Gen 1:26), and human beings are the only
The author of the creation week is in essential agreement with religions of the
ancient near east, in their assertion that human beings were created by divine initiative,
and that in them is something of the divine. It has much in common with Atrahasis which
asserts that there is something of the earth in us as well. It even is in agreement that there
is a purpose for humanity, but here is where they it differs. The author of Gen 1:1-2:3
portrays a God that relates to humanity, and blesses it. A God who’s honors it by
The theory of evolution began with four observations upon his return from his
voyage on the Beagle. 1. The forms of living creatures seem to be adapted to their needs;
2. Some creatures are known to have died out altogether. 3. The uneven distribution of
13
Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary 1 pp 29-30
life-forms throughout the world, and the peculiarity of island populations. 4. Many
creatures posses “rudimentary structures” which serve no apparent purpose (e.g. nipples
on male mammals, wings on flightless birds, pelvis and hind limbs in snakes).14 Darwin
proposed that the best answer to this question is biological evolution. That life in its
varied forms evolved through the process of natural selection. Darwin’s hypothesis was
further vindicated by the discovery of the gene in the late 19th and early 20th century.15
The creation account appears to emphatically imply that God created the various
kinds of creatures on different days; fish and birds on day 5, animals and humans on day
6. It also states that they are created in order to reproduce “according to their species.”
One could assume the position that this precludes the possibility of evolution. One could
also assume the position that the seven days are symbolic of the totality of the known
world, and that the categories are broken down in a way that makes sense to the ancient
One conclusion that we must not take away from this, is that life is here as a result
of blind chance. The text is very explicit about God’s intention. It is represented in the
structure which pairs day 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6, moves beyond the narrative’s report
of God as creator to highlight God as provider for the needs of his creatures. The
dependency of the creatures made on days 4 – 6 upon the environments created in days 1
– 3 demonstrate God’s forethought and his orientation is towards his creatures. The sense
of purpose represented by the image and likeness bestowed on humanity, also argues
Conclusion
14
McGrath, Alister. Dawkins’ God p 22 - 23
15
ibid p 30-31
This is a topic which warrants much deeper consideration and research. Science
has the power to give the people of God a much greater sense of wonder about the world
they live in, but its methodology, which limits itself to strict empiricism, may not always
see things “properly” from a religious point of view. We must also be careful, as
interpreters, to be open to all the possibilities that the text will allow, while still
Hawking, Steven. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam 1989
Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press 1951.
Hey, Nigel. Solar System. United Kingdom: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2005
Kapelrud, Arvid S. The Number Seven In Ugaritic Texts. Vetus Testamentum 18.04 pp 495-499
McGrath, Alister. Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life. MA: Blackwell 2005
Myths From Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, ed. Dalley, Stephanie. Oxford:
Oxford World’s Classics, 2000
Steinmann, Andrew E. dxa as an Ordinal Number, And the Meaning of Genesis 1:5. Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society 45.04 (December 2002). pp 577-584
Walton, John H. Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context: A survey of Parallels Between Biblical
and Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Grand Rapids. Zondervan 1989
Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary1. Waco: Word, 1987