The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1

Genesis 1:1-31

Summary

The first six days. The creation of, in order; Light, Night and Day, a Dome to separate the waters from the waters (Called "the Sky"), Dry Land¹ (Called "Earth"), Seas², Vegetation, the Sun, the Moon and Stars, Sea Creatures, Birds, Living things upon the Earth, and finally Humankind in God's image.

Humankind are given instructions to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, to have dominion over the other creatures, eating only veggies, while animals eat only green plants, which kind of narrows it down, I guess.

Personal Thoughts/Commentary

You might noticed I put a couple reference notes in my very brief summary of all things God cooked up in the first six days. I'll get to them in a minute. First, I want to talk about the very first verse in the whole giant library that is the Bible.

"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1)

I've emphasized the "the" because a theologian that I know, who also knows Hebrew, has suggested to me that a better translation might be "In a beginning," which kind of changes the whole meaning behind, well, pretty much everything from here on out.

Personally, I like the second translation. It appears to thwart some of the suggestion that humanity is the centre of the Universe, which might be reassuring to some, but I think of that vast expanse and wonder if we're any more central to the Universe than any other life that might be out there. It suggests that our beginning is not necessarily the beginning, the only beginning, but it doesn't deny that our beginning is important to us.

I drew attention the "creation" of Dry Land and Seas because of some fascinating language in the passages which suggest they were more discovered or revealed than created.

"...the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." (Gen 1:2)

This passage, reading it alone, suggests that the water was already there, albeit covered in darkness. There's another passage that backs up this assertion as well.

"And God said, 'Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so." (Gen 1:9)

This could be read in a couple of ways. It's possible that God pulled all the water into low places that didn't yet exist, and then created land in the empty spaces. It's also possible that beneath the waters beneath the sky there was already land, and the water just needed a push to rush into the low places to reveal it. It's possible, I think, that what was really being created here was gravity.

Towards the end of the chapter, there's an oft-quoted passage, usually used to suggest that humans are special.

"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Gen 1:27)

It would be very special to be created in the image of God. What does that mean, though? The language throughout this chapter is quite artful. The phrase "And it was so" accompanies everything that God says, and at the end of each day God saw that what was created was good. It's very tidy and intentional, but the interpretations for some of the early bits (like I've shown), require some interpretation.

Why should this passage be any different? A very literal interpretation of the phrase "in the image of God he created them" would be that humans are made to look like God. This interpretation would challenge the all-to-common perception of God as male, if it didn't more often suggest that women are somehow inferior, because they are made in God's image but somehow got the gender wrong.

An interesting definition of "image" found using the Google definition feature provides the idea of an image as an "iconic mental representation". This is very interesting, because it suggests that if this idea of an image is used in the interpretation of scripture, it means we are created to reflect the iconic representation of God; A representation which is up for discussion and debate.

For me, however, the iconic representation of God is of the Creator. I see that reflected in people, always writing, thinking, drawing, singing; always creating.