Genesis 1 Study Notes

1:1 This opening verse of the Bible, seven words in the Hebrew, establishes seven key truths upon which the rest of the Bible is based.

First, God exists. The essential first step in pleasing God is acknowledging his existence (Heb 11:6). Second, God existed before there was a universe and will exist after the universe perishes (Heb 1:10-12). Third, God is the main character in the Bible. He is the subject of the first verb in the Bible (in fact, he is the subject of more verbs than any other character) and performs a wider variety of activities than any other being in the Bible. Fourth, as Creator, God has done what no human could ever do; in its active form the Hebrew verb bara’, meaning “to create,” never has a human subject. Thus bara’ signifies a work that is uniquely God’s. Fifth, God is mysterious; though this particular Hebrew word for God is plural, the verb form of which “God” is the subject is singular. This is perhaps a subtle allusion to God’s Trinitarian nature: He is three divine persons in one divine essence. Sixth, God is the Creator of heaven and earth. He does not just modify preexisting matter but calls matter into being out of nothing (Ps 33:6,9; Heb 11:3). Seventh, God is not dependent on the universe, but the universe is totally dependent on God (Heb 1:3).

1:2 Bible translations since the time of the Septuagint, the translation of the OT into Greek (ca 175 BC), have rendered the first Hebrew verb in this verse as was. However, in an effort to explain the origins of evil and/or find biblical evidence for an old earth, some Bible scholars have suggested that this verb should be translated as “became.” Citing portions of Is 14:12-21 and Ezk 28:12-19, they believe a time gap, possibly a vast one, exists between the first two verses of the Bible, during which Satan led a rebellion in heaven against God. This allows interpreters to suggest that the early earth became formless and empty because Satan’s rebellion marred God’s good creation. However, the construction of this sentence in the original Hebrew favors the traditional translation (“was” rather than “became”).

The sense of v. 2 is that God created the earth “formless and empty” as an unfinished and unfilled state. Working through an orderly process over a period of six days, God formed (days 1-3) and filled (days 4-6) his created handiwork. The “forming” was accomplished by means of three acts of separating or sorting various elements of creation from one another. The “filling” was carried out through five acts of populating the newly created domains. Watery depths, a single word in Hebrew, suggests an original state of creation that was shapeless as liquid water. The Hebrew verb translated was hovering, used also in Dt 32:11, suggests that the Spirit of God was watching over his creation just as a bird watches over its young.

1:3 A foundational teaching of the Bible is that God speaks and does so with universe-changing authority. The command in this verse is just two words in Hebrew.

1:4 Another basic truth of the Bible is that God saw; this means he is fully aware of his creation. Later writers directly declared that God is aware of events occurring throughout the earth (2Ch 16:9; Zch 4:10). The term good, used here for the first of seven times in this chapter to evaluate God’s creative work, can be used to express both high quality and moral excellence. The physical universe is a good place because God made it. God found satisfaction in his labor. This is the first instance where God separated the twin realms of light and darkness, day and night. God’s activity in the material world parallels the role he also performs in the moral universe, that of the righteous Judge distinguishing between those who live in moral light and those who do not (1Th 5:5).

1:5 In ancient Israel, the act of naming an object, place, or person indicated that you held control over it (35:10; 41:45; Nm 32:42; Dt 3:14; Jos 19:47; 2Kg 23:34; 24:17). When God named the light and the darkness, he asserted his lordship and control over all of time. There was an evening. In ancient Israelite and modern Jewish tradition, sundown is the transition point from one day to the next. Scholars differ over the meaning of “day” in the phrases “one day . . . the second day,” etc. Some argue for twenty-four-hour periods, but other options are possible, especially since (1) there was at first no sun by which to distinguish twenty-four-hour periods, (2) “day” means the period of daylight in 1:5a, and (3) “day” refers to the whole creation period in 2:4 (“at the time” is lit “on the day”). Consequently, some scholars understand the “days” of creation as extended periods of uncertain length or as a rhetorical device by which the account of creation is structured.

1:6 Based on a verb that can refer to covering something with a thin sheet of metal (Nm 16:39; Is 40:19), the noun expanse always refers to the vast spread of the open sky.

1:7 God’s second act of separation was to divide atmospheric water from terrestrial water. Thus he began the process of giving form to the material world. The clause it was so, found six times in this chapter, emphasizes God’s absolute power over creation.

1:8 Sky can refer to the earth’s atmospheric envelope (v. 20), outer space (v. 15), or “heaven,” the spiritual realm where God lives (Ps 11:4).

1:9 God’s third and final act of separation created oceans and continents.

1:10 In his third and final act of naming, God demonstrated his authority over all of the earth. This contrasts with what Israel’s polytheistic neighbors believed about the range of divine powers. Their gods were not all-powerful, but instead exercised authority over a limited territory. The God of Gn 1 holds dominion over everything at all times and in all places.

1:11-13 In preparation for the introduction of animal and human life, God provided an abundant supply of food. The consistent biblical teaching is that “like begets like” (Lk 6:44; Jms 3:12); Gn 1:11-12 establishes that principle for plant life. While five of the six days contain at least one act of creation evaluated as good, only the third and sixth days have this statement more than once.

1:14-15 The events of day four complement those of day one, filling the day and night with finished forms of light. The various lights, or “light-giving objects,” were worshiped as gods in the cultures that surrounded ancient Israel. In Genesis, however, the sun, moon, and stars are portrayed as servants of God that would fulfill three roles: separating the newly created realms of day and night; marking time so that those who worshiped the Creator could keep their festivals in each of the seasons (cp. Lv 23:4,44); and providing light on the earth.

1:16-19 Compared to the elaborate worship that all the other ancient nations give to the sun, moon, and stars, the simplicity of God’s creative word is striking. They are purely inanimate objects created and ruled by God.

1:20 The fifth day’s events complement those of day two, filling the newly formed heavenly domains above and the watery regions below.

1:21 The reuse of the verb created (Hb bara’; cp. v. 1) emphasizes God’s authority over the large sea-creatures. This point was especially significant to the ancient Israelites, whose neighbors worshiped Rahab, a mythical sea monster.

1:22-23 The first of three blessings God pronounced in the creation narrative occurred when God blessed the water animals and birds. This blessing is similar to the one for people, but lacks the commands to “subdue” and “rule” (v. 28).

1:24-25 The term living creatures in vv. 20 and 24 is the same as is translated “living being” in 2:7. The sixth day is for creating land creatures, including people. The three groups of animals are domesticated livestock, crawlers, and wild animals.

1:26 God’s use of plural pronouns (us . . . our . . . our) to refer to himself has raised many questions (3:22; 11:7; Is 6:8). At least five different suggestions have been put forward to explain them: they may be references to (1) the Trinity; (2) God and his angels; (3) God and creation; (4) God’s majesty as expressed by a literary device known as the “plural of majesty”; or (5) a polytheistic view of God. Since the Bible teaches elsewhere that there is only one God (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29; 1Co 8:4), the fifth option is not tenable.

The two Hebrew words translated as image and likeness are often understood as having the same meaning. But some interpreters suggest that “image” refers to the ability to reason, with “likeness” referring to the spiritual dimension. What exactly is the “image” of God? Since the Bible teaches that God is Spirit (Jn 4:24), many commentators believe it refers to the non-material aspects of a person—our moral sensibilities, intellectual abilities, will, and emotions. Based on God’s commands in Gn 1:28, others have suggested that it consists of the role humans are to play on earth—their rulership over the planet and its resources, and secondarily the physical, mental, and spiritual abilities that enable them to fulfill that role. The NT teaches that Christians will someday bear the image of Christ (1Co 15:49; 1Jn 3:2).

1:27 The creation of humanity is the crowning event of chap. 1, as shown by the fact that created is repeated three times. The verb created (Hb bara’) is the same one used in 1:1, referring to a kind of creative activity that only God can do. The term man (Hb ’adam) is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible to refer to humanity in general, not just males (7:21); all people, both male and female, are created in the image of God (cp. Jms 3:9). It should not be concluded that God is both male and female. Christians are generally agreed that God does not have a literal physical body. He is in no way limited by space but is everywhere fully present (Ps 139:7-10; Ac 17:28). Therefore, he cannot be said to be literally either male or female, or both. People are the only beings that are created in the image of God (Gn 9:3-6). The Bible never lumps people into the category of animals. Instead, it separates the creation of people from all other beings and attributes the most privileged roles in creation to humans alone.

1:28 In this the longest of the five blessings found in the account of creation, God gave humanity five different commands. Implicit in the first three commands is God’s blessing on the institutions of marriage and the family. The final two commands, to subdue the earth and rule the animal kingdom, express God’s blessing on the use of the planet’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Of course, only the wise use of these resources permits people to fulfill God’s command to fill the earth. A similar command to the survivors of the flood is shorter, having only the first three verbs in it (9:1).

1:29-30 The repeated use of Hebrew kol, “all, every, entire,” in vv. 29-30 shows that the point is to emphasize God’s abundant and generous provision for all his creatures, rather than to specify what they were or were not supposed to eat. While seed and fruit are listed here, Kenneth Mathews explains, “God’s dietary standards for mankind specifically include meat in the postdiluvian world” (Gn 9:3).

1:31 This is the seventh, final, and most elaborate use of the word good in the account of the seven days of creation in that it adds very to good.