Chapter 1

1 The creation of heaven and earth, 3 of the light, 6 of the firmament, 9 of the earth separated from the waters, 11 and made fruitful, 14 of the sun, moon, and stars, 20 of fish and fowl, 24 of beasts and cattle, 26 of man in the image of God. 29 Also the appointment of food.

1. In the beginning. These words remind us of the fact that everything human has a beginning. He alone who sits enthroned the sovereign Lord of time, is without beginning or end. The opening words of Scripture thus draw a striking contrast between all that is human, temporal, and finite, and that which is divine, eternal, and infinite. Reminding us of our human limitations, these words point us to Him who is ever the same, and whose years have no end (Heb. 1:10–12; Ps. 90:2, 10). Our finite minds cannot think of “the beginning” without thinking of God, for He “is the beginning” (Col. 1:18; cf. John 1:1–3). Wisdom, and all other good things, have their beginning with Him (Ps. 111:10; James 1:17). And if we are ever again to resemble our Maker, our lives and all our plans must have a new beginning in Him (Gen. 1:26, 27; cf. John 3:5; 1 John 3:1–3). It is our privilege to enjoy the confident assurance that “he which hath begun a good work” in us “will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). He is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Let us never forget the sublime fact implicit in these words—“in the beginning God.”

This first verse of Holy Writ brings into sharp focus one of the age-old controversies between Bible believing Christians on the one hand and skeptics, atheists, and various shades of materialists on the other. The latter, who seek in different ways and in different degrees to explain the universe without God, contend that matter/energy is eternal. If this be true, and if matter has the power to evolve, first into the simplest forms of life and then into the more complex, until man is reached, God is indeed unnecessary.

Genesis 1:1 affirms that God is before all else and that He is the one and only cause of all else. This verse is the foundation of all right thinking in regard to the material world. Here is set forth the impressive truth that “in the formation of our world, God was not indebted to pre-existing matter” (8T 258).

Pantheism, the ancient heresy that robs God of personality by diffusing Him throughout all the universe, and thus makes Him synonymous with the totality of creation, is also exposed and refuted by Gen. 1:1. There is no basis for the doctrine of pantheism when one believes that God lived serene and supreme before there was a creation and thus stands above and apart from that which He has created.

No declaration could be more appropriate as an introduction to Holy Writ. At the outset the reader is introduced to an Omnipotent Being, possessed of personality, will, and purpose, who, existing before all else and thus dependent on nought else, exercised His divine will and “created the heaven and the earth.”

No discussion of secondary questions regarding the mystery of a divine creation, either as to time or method, should be allowed to blur the fact that the real dividing line between a true and a false belief on the subject of God and the origin of our earth is acceptance or rejection of the truth set forth in this verse.

Right here a word of caution should be said. For long centuries theologians have speculated on the word “beginning,” hoping to discover more of God’s mysterious ways than infinite wisdom has seen fit to reveal. See, for example, the discussion of the false ruin and restoration theory of creation in the Additional Note at the close of this chapter. But all speculation is idle. We know nothing of the method of creation beyond the terse Mosaic declaration, “God said,” “and it was so,” which is the mysterious and majestic overtone of the creation anthem. To set down as the basis of our reasoning that God must have done thus and so in creating the world, else nature’s laws would have been violated, is to darken counsel with words and to give aid and comfort to the skeptic, who has ever insisted that the whole Mosaic record is incredible because it allegedly violates the laws of nature. Why should we attempt to be wise above that which is written?

Very particularly, nothing is gained by speculating as to when the matter constituting our planet was brought into existence. On the time aspect of the creation of our earth and all upon it, Genesis makes two statements: (1) “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (v. 1). (2) “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made” (ch. 2:2). Related scriptures add nothing to what is set forth in these two texts regarding the time involved in creation. To the question: When did God create “the heaven and the earth”? we can only answer, “In the beginning.” And to the question: When did God complete His work? we can only answer, “On the seventh day God ended his work” (ch. 2:2), “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day” (Ex. 20:11).

These remarks regarding the creation account are made, not in an attempt to close the discussion, but as a confession that we are unprepared to speak with certainty beyond what is clearly revealed. The very fact that so much rests upon the creation record—even the whole edifice of Scripture—prompts the devout and prudent Bible student to conform his declarations to the explicit words of Holy Writ. Indeed, when the broad fields of speculation tempt him to roam afar in uncharted areas of time and space, he cannot do better than to meet the temptation with the simple rejoinder, “It is written.” There is always safety within the protecting bounds of Scriptural quotation marks.

God created. The verb “to create” is from the Heb., baraХ which in the form here used describes an activity of God, never of men. God creates “the wind” (Amos 4:13), “a clean heart” (Ps. 51:10), and “new heavens and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17). The Hebrew words that we translate “to make,” Фasah, “to form,” yas\ar, and others, frequently (but not exclusively) used in connection with human activity, imply pre-existing matter. All three words are employed in describing the creation of man. The very first words of the Bible point to the fact that the creation bears the imprint of God’s own activity. The opening page of Holy Writ makes the reader acquainted with a God to whom all things animate and inanimate owe their very existence (see Heb. 11:3). The “earth” here mentioned is manifestly not the dry land, which was not separated from the waters till the third day, but our whole planet.

2. Without form, and void. More exactly, “waste and void,” tohu wabohu. This signifies a state of wasteness and emptiness, but without implying that the earth was once perfect and then was made waste or desolate.

When the words tohu wabohu appear together in other passages, such as Isa. 34:11; Jer. 4:23, they seem to be borrowed from this text, but tohu alone is frequently employed as synonymous with nonexistence, or nothingness (Isa. 40:17, 23; 49:4). Job 26:7 demonstrates the correct meaning of this word. The second half of this passage states that God “hangeth the earth upon nothing,” and the first half has the parallel “he stretcheth out the north over tuho [the emptiness].” This text in Job shows clearly the meaning of tuho in Gen. 1:2, in which this and the synonymous word bohu indicate that the earth was shapeless and lifeless. Its elements were all mingled together, completely unorganized and inanimate.

Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The “deep,” from a root “to roar,” “to rage,” is frequently applied to the raging waters, the roaring waves, or the flood, and hence the depths of the sea (Ps. 42:7; Ex. 15:5; Deut. 8:7; Job 28:14; 38:16). “Deep” is an old word, and is here used like a proper name. The Babylonians, who retained some vague memory of the true creation story for many centuries, actually personified this word, tehom, and applied it in their mythology to a deity, Tiamat, out of whose corpse they believed the earth was created. The Biblical record shows that originally there was no light on earth and that the surface matter was in a fluid state, because “the face of the deep” stands parallel to “the face of the waters” in this verse.

The Spirit of God moved. “Spirit,”ruach. In harmony with Scriptural usage, the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. From this place onward, throughout the whole Scripture, the Spirit of God has the role of the divine agent of God in all creative acts, whether of the earth, of nature, of the church, of the new life, or of the new man. See on v. 26 for a comment on Christ’s relationship to creation.

The word here rendered “moved” is merachepheth, which cannot rightly be translated “brooded,” although it has this meaning in Syriac, a post-Biblical Aramaic dialect. The word occurs but twice elsewhere in the OT. It appears in Jer. 23:9, where it has the meaning “to tremble,” “to shake,” whereas in Deut. 32:11 it is used to describe the fluttering of an eagle over its young. The eagle does not brood over the living young but hovers watchfully and protectingly over them.

The work of God’s Spirit must have some connection with the activity that was presently to be initiated, an activity bringing order out of chaos. The Spirit of God was already present, ready to act as soon as the order should be given. The Holy Spirit has always been doing this very work. This divine Agent has ever been present to assist in the work of creation and redemption, to reprove and strengthen wayward souls, to comfort the sorrowing, and to present the believer’s prayers in an acceptable form to God.

3. And God said. The record of each of the six creation days opens with this announcement. “He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:9), declares the psalmist, and the apostle says that we understand through faith “that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3). The phrase “God said” has offended some as making God too much like a human being. But how could the inspired writer have conveyed to finite minds the act of creation carried out by the infinite God except by using terms that mortal man can understand? The fact that the utterances of God are repeatedly connected with activities performed by God (vs. 7, 16, 21, 27) indicates convincingly that a revelation of God’s creative power is being expressed in human language.

Let there be light. Without light there could be no life; and as the Creator began the work of bringing order from chaos and of introducing various forms of plant and animal life upon the earth, it was essential that there be light. Light is a visible form of energy, which by its action on plants transforms inorganic elements and compounds into food for both man and beast and controls many other natural processes necessary to life.

Light has ever been a symbol of the divine presence. As physical light is essential to physical life, so divine light is necessary if rational beings are to have moral and spiritual life. “God is light” (1 John 1:5); and to those in whose hearts the work of recreating the divine likeness is going on apace, He comes again today bidding the shadows of sin, uncertainty, and discouragement flee, saying, “Let there be light.”

4. God saw. This expression, repeated six times (vs. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), conveys in human language an activity of God—the evaluation of each single act of creation as meeting completely the plan and will of its Maker. As we, by beholding and examining the products of our efforts, are prepared to declare that they meet our plans and purpose, so God declares, after every creative act, that His products agree completely with His plan.

God divided the light from the darkness. At the outset only darkness existed on this formless earth. A change took place with the entrance of light. Now darkness and light exist side by side, but separate from each other.

5. Called the light Day. Names are given to the light and the darkness. The giving of a name was always an important act in antiquity. Names had their meaning and were carefully chosen. God later commissioned Adam to give names to the animals. He sometimes changed His servants’ names to make them agree with their life experience or character. He instructed the earthly parents of His Son concerning the name they should give to the Saviour. During the creation week we find God giving names even to the lifeless products of His creative power.

The evening and the morning were the first day. Literally “evening was, morning was, day one.” Thus the cryptic description of the first momentous day of God’s creation week closes. Many and diversified explanations of this statement have been given. It indicates clearly the duration of each of the seven parts of the creation week, and is repeated five more times in this chapter (vs. 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). Some have thought creative act lasted one night, from the evening to the morning; and others, that every day began with the morning, although the Inspired Record states plainly that the evening preceded the morning.

Many scholars have taken this expression to mean a long, indefinite period of time, believing that some of the divine activities of the following days, as for instance the creation of the plants and animals, could not have been accomplished within a literal day. They think they find a justification for this interpretation in the words of Peter, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8). That this text cannot be used to ascertain the length of the creation days is obvious when one reads the rest of the verse, “and a thousand years as one day.” The context of Peter’s words makes it clear that he wishes to stress the timelessness of God. The Creator can do in a day the work of a thousand years, and a period of a thousand years, a long time for those waiting for God’s judgments to be fulfilled, may be considered by Him as only one day. Psalms 90:4 conveys the same thought.

The literal statement “evening was [with the following hours of the night], and morning was [with the succeeding hours of the day], day one” is clearly a description of an astronomical day, that is, a day of 24 hours’ duration. It is the equivalent of the later Hebrew compound “evening-morning” of Dan. 8:14, which the KJV has translated “days,” here meaning prophetic days, and of Paul’s Greek word, nuchthemeron, translated “a night and a day” (2 Cor. 11:25). Thus the Hebrews, who were never in doubt about the meaning of this expression, began the day with sunset and ended it with the following sunset (Lev. 23:32; Deut. 16:6). Furthermore, the language of the fourth commandment leaves no shadow of doubt that the evening and morning of the creation record are the component sections of an earthly day. This commandment, referring in unmistakable words to the week of creation, declares, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day” (Ex. 20:11).

The tenacity with which so many commentators cling to the idea that the days of creation were long periods of time, even thousands of years, largely finds its explanation in the fact that they attempt to make the inspired creation record agree with the theory of evolution. Geologists and biologists have taught men to believe that this earth’s early history covers millions of years, in which the geological formations were slowly taking shape and living species were evolving. Throughout its sacred pages the Bible contradicts this evolution theory. The belief in a divine and instantaneous creation as the result of words spoken by God stands in complete opposition to the theory held by the majority of scientists and many theologians today that the world and all upon it came into being through a slow process of evolution lasting for untold ages.

Another reason why many commentators declare that the days of creation were long periods of time is that they reject the seventh-day Sabbath. A famous commentary thus expresses this thought: “The duration of the seventh day of necessity determines the length of the other six. … God’s sabbatic rest is understood by the best interpreters of Scripture to have continued from creation’s close until the present hour; so that consistency demands the previous six days to be considered as not of short, but of indefinite, duration” (Pulpit). This kind of reasoning moves in a circle. Because the seventh-day Sabbath, so clearly defined in Holy Scripture as a weekly recurring day of rest, is rejected as such, the seventh day of the creation week is declared to have lasted to the present time. On the basis of this un-Scriptural explanation the duration of all other creation days is also expanded. Sound Scriptural interpretation has no sympathy with this kind of reasoning, but insists on giving a literal meaning to the text, following the example of the divine Expounder of the Word, who parried every attack of the adversary by declaring, “It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10).

The Scriptures speak clearly and plainly of seven days of creation (Ex. 20:11) and not of periods of undefined duration. We are therefore bound to declare emphatically that the first day of creation, indicated by the expression in Hebrew, “evening was, morning was, day one,” was a 24-hour day.

6. A firmament. Or, “an expanse.” The work of the second creation day consisted in the formation of the firmament. The great mass of primeval “waters” was divided into two separate bodies. The “waters which were above the firmament” (v. 7) are generally considered by commentators to be water vapor. The climatic conditions of the originally perfect earth were different from those existing today.

Explorations carried out in the far north have proved that luxurious tropical forests once covered those land areas that are now buried under eternal ice and snow. It is generally conceded that pleasant climatic conditions prevailed during this earth’s early history. Unknown were the extremes of cold and heat that can make life unpleasant in most regions of the world and virtually impossible in some.

8. God called the firmament Heaven. The product of the creative power of God on the second day of the creation week received a name, even as the light of the first day had received one. In the Hebrew as well as in the modern translation the word “heaven” is the name given both to the abode of God and to the firmament. In this verse “heaven” refers to the atmospheric heavens that appear to the human eye as a canopy, or dome, vaulting our earth, and generally called sky.

No life is possible without air. Plants need it as well as living creatures. Without the atmosphere our earth would be lifeless like the moon, tremendously hot in that part which is exposed to the sun and extremely cold in other sections. Not one sprout of plant life would be found anywhere, and no creature could exist for any length of time. Are we grateful for this God-given atmosphere?

9. Let the waters. The third creative act, performed during the first part of the third day, was a separation of the water from the dry land. The inspired pen of the psalmist describes this event in the following picturesque and poetical terms: “The waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of thy thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which thou didst appoint for them. Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass” (Ps. 104:6–9, RSV). The gathering of the waters into one place implies no more than that they were, from this day forward, to be collected into “one place,” and restrained within bounds in a place by themselves, so as to admit the exposure of the earth’s soil. It must have been a grand spectacle to any heavenly observer to see hills rise up out of the water that had so completely covered the face of the earth. Where there had been water only as far as the eye could see, great land areas suddenly rose up and gave to this earth an entirely new appearance.

10. God saw that it was good. God’s eye rested, now, with pleasure and satisfaction on the finished product of the third day of creation. “It was good.” That primeval dry land would scarcely have seemed good to us. It was a world of verdureless valleys and hills and plains, upheaved from beneath the waters. Nowhere was there even a blade of grass or a clinging lichen. Yet is seemed good to its Maker, who could see it in relation to the uses for which He had made it, and as a fit preparatory step to the new wonders He was going to introduce.

11. Let the earth bring forth. After the separation of dry land from the water, another divine order was given on that third day: vegetation was summoned into existence. Some have considered the first of the three terms employed in the divine command a general term for plants, including the second and the third. However, it is preferable to take them as distinct classes.

Grass. Heb., desheФ, “to be green,” “to grow green.” “to sprout.” This word designates green sprouts and tender herbs—the various kinds of plants that supply food for the animals. “Grass” is probably used here as a synonym of the word “herb,” ФesЊeb, when the latter appears without the qualifying expression “yielding seed” (see v. 30; Ps. 23:2).

The herb yielding seed. “Herb,” ФesЊeb, is the more mature herbage, in which the seed is the most striking characteristic, providing one of the two kinds of food designated by God to be consumed by human beings. (v. 29).

The fruit tree. Three characteristics of fruit-bearing trees are here noted: (1) the bearing of fruit, (2) the enclosing of seed within the fruit, and (3) the bearing of this fruit “upon” or above the earth. These trees were to provide man with another source of food (v. 29).

12. The earth brought forth. The vegetation of the third day sprang from the soil. This does not mean that the power to produce life-containing plants was in the soil. The idea of spontaneous generation is as alien to Scripture as it is to science.

After his kind. This expression occurs ten times in the first chapter of Genesis, and altogether 30 times in the books of Moses, especially in Gen. 1, 6, and 7; in Lev. 11; and in Deut. 14. Reference is to kinds of animals and plants, not to their reproductive behavior. It is, however, a fact of nature that living things do reproduce offspring that resemble their parents. Variations within certain limits are possible, but those limits fall far short of creating distinctly new kinds of plants and animals. See Gen. 6:20; 7:14; Lev. 11:14–16, 29; Deut. 14:13–15.

13. See on v. 5.

14. Let there be lights. “Lights,”meХoroth, is not the same as “light,” Хor, of vs. 3 and 4; it means sources of light, light holders, luminaries. The expression that they are set in the firmament, or expanse of heaven, is chosen because it is there that the earthly inhabitant sees them.

To divide the day from the night. To regulate and continue from that time forward the difference between light and darkness, a difference that had existed ever since God decreed light on the first day.

For signs. These celestial bodies marked special acts of God’s favor or displeasure as in Joshua’s (Joshua 10:12, 13), and Hezekiah’s times (2 Kings 20:11), and on the crucifixion day (Matt. 27:45). “Falling stars” served as one of the signs of Christ’s second coming (Matt. 24:29).

Some have mistakenly thought that the celestial bodies were designed also to determine the individual destinies of men. Astrologers have appealed to v. 14 to justify their practice. However, the Bible so vigorously opposes any form of divination and fortunetelling that the thought has to be emphatically rejected that God appointed the sun, moon, and stars to serve astrologers as guides in predicting human affairs and destinies. Jeremiah warns the Hebrews not to be afraid of the signs of heaven, before which the heathen tremble in vain terror (Jer. 10:2); and Isaiah speaks with taunting irony against the astrologers, stargazers, and foretellers, on whose counsel it is folly and wickedness to rely (Isa. 47:13, 14). Although the superstition of reading the destiny of man in the stars never took root among the ancient Israelites, they did not have enough moral strength to resist in general the example of star worship of their pagan neighbors (Jer. 19:13; Eze. 8:16; Zeph. 1:5).

For seasons. Yearly returning festival periods and other definite times were to be regulated by the movement of the celestial bodies (Ps. 104:19; Zech. 8:19). These bodies have, moreover, a definite periodic influence upon agriculture, navigation, and other human occupations, as well as upon the course of animal and vegetable life, as for instance the breeding time of animals and the migration of birds (Jer. 8:7).

For days, and years. The days and years are fixed by the movement of the earth in relation to the sun, which in conjunction with that of the moon has provided men of all ages with the basis for calendars—lunar, solar, or a combination of both.

15. For lights. Not to introduce light for the first time to this world, for God decreed light on the first day, but to serve as a permanent arrangement for the distribution of light for this world.

16. He made the stars also. The words, “he made,” have been supplied. As to the origin of the stars two principal views have been set forth: (1) The stars were brought into existence during creation week, along with the sun and moon. (2) The “stars,” though created earlier, are here mentioned, in passing, by Moses, inasmuch as he is discussing the luminaries of the heavens. The first view necessitates the conclusion that prior to creation week the vast universe was an empty void. This conclusion seems unwarranted.

However, on this as on many other cryptic declarations of Scripture regarding God’s mysterious acts, we should be slow to dogmatize. We should not forget that the primary truth Moses sought to present in regard to the origin of the sun, moon, and stars is that all are the result of God’s creative power. Here is a further refutation of the ancient but ever-recurring heresy of the eternity of matter.

18. It was good. Unlike our present earth, which has changed much as the result of the introduction of sin, the celestial bodies have not suffered from the results of man’s transgression, and reflect their Creator’s power. It is a universally known fact that the laws of the universe are faithfully obeyed by all celestial bodies. Astronomers and navigators are sure that no deviations from established rules occur in the astronomical world. They know that these heavenly bodies will not disappoint them, that they can be trusted because of their continual obedience to the laws laid down for them.

20. Let the waters. We have here the populating of the water and the air by the creation of marine and winged creatures. The original may be translated, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly living creature that moveth,” rendering more clearly in English the Hebrew phrase that means literally, “Let the waters swarm with swarms.” The verb here translated “to swarm” is also used with the meaning “to multiply abundantly.” The term applies not only to fishes but to all water animals, from the greatest to the least, and also to reptiles.

Creature that hath life. The original of this phrase, nephesh chayyah, makes a clear distinction between the animals and the vegetation created two days earlier. It is true that plants have life as do animals and possess certain functions that resemble those of animals, but the fact remains that a marked difference exists between the plant and animal worlds. The animals are in possession of organs that allow them to make decisions, to move about in search of food, and to feel pain, joy, or sorrow, to a greater or less degree.

Hence they can be called creatures, a word that cannot be applied to plants. This must be the meaning of the much-discussed Hebrew word nephesh, translated rightly “creature” in this verse, a term which attributes to the animal a higher form of life than to the plant, which is not a nephesh. The early translators correctly understood that the term cannot mean “soul” in this passage, and rendered it in a way that correctly conveys the thought of the inspired author.

Fowl that may fly. The waters were to produce the water animals but not the birds, as the KJV appears to indicate. Chapter 2:19 states that “every fowl of the air” was formed by God “out of the ground.” The correct rendering of the Hebrew text of ch. 1:20, “and let fowl fly above the earth,” disposes of this seeming difficulty. The word “fowl,” literally “winged beings,” should rather read “birds.” Both domestic and wild birds are included.

21. God created great whales. For the second time the word “created,” baraХ, is used in this chapter to indicate the introduction of something entirely new, the creation of living creatures. In carrying out His word, God created the great sea animals, tanninim. The translation “whales” is too limited in scope. The word has different meanings, like “serpent” (Ex. 7:9, 10, 12) and “dragon” (Isa. 51:9; Eze. 29:3), but must mean “sea monster” in this passage and in Ps. 148:7.

Moveth. The verb “to move,” ramasЊ, is especially descriptive of creeping animals (Gen. 9:2), either on land (Gen. 7:14) or in the water (Ps. 69:34), though here it clearly signifies aquatic creatures.

After their kind. As in the case of the plants created on the third day, the statement is made that the fish as well as the birds were created “after their kind,” explicitly indicating that the distinct kinds of animals we see were established at creation and not through a process of development as evolutionists maintain (see on v. 12).

Why birds and fish were created on the same day is not to be explained by any supposed similarity between the air and the water as Luther, Calvin, and others thought. Again, it is not stated that only a single pair was created of each kind; on the contrary, the words, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures,” seem to indicate that the animals were created, not only in a rich variety of kinds, but in large numbers of individuals. The fact that but one human being was created at first, by no means warrants the conclusion that the animals were created singly also.

God saw that it was good. The earth must have appeared most pleasing to the Creator when He beheld it at the end of this fifth day. Not only verdant hills, sparkling streams, and blue lakes, but living creatures, moving, swimming, and flying, gave to this world for the first time the quality of life it had not possessed before. Here were creatures that could even sing the praises of their Creator, who revealed some measure of understanding, by finding the right kind of food (Matt. 6:26), by building nests as shelters (Matt. 8:20), and by knowing their times of migration (Jer. 8:7).

The mighty works of God performed on the previous days were truly wonderful, but nature received an ornament on the fifth day. Without the vegetation created on the third day the world would present an extremely uninviting appearance. Much more would it be devoid of attraction and cheerfulness if the myriads of living beings with which it is populated were absent. Every one of these small or large creatures should teach us a lesson concerning the marvelous handiwork of the great God, to whom, as the author and preserver of all life, we owe adoration. These creatures should give us a wholesome respect for life, which we cannot impart but should carefully protect and not destroy.

22. God blessed them. The fifth day’s work not only was pronounced to be good by the Creator but received a blessing, which was given neither to the inanimate products of God’s creation nor to the plants. This benediction, which focuses on their propagation and increase, “be fruitful, and multiply,” became a standard formula of blessing (chs. 35:11; 48:4).

24. The living creature. Like the third day, the sixth is distinguished by a double creative act, the production of the land animals and the creation of man. After the sea and air were filled with living creatures, nephesh chayyah (see v. 20), the word of God went forth to the earth, to produce living beings after their kind. These are divided into three classes:

Cattle. From behemah, derived from the root baham, “to be dumb,” meaning “dumb animal.” The word generally denotes the larger domesticated quadrupeds (see Gen. 47:18; Ex. 13:12; etc.), but occasionally the larger land animals as a whole (Prov. 30:30; Eccl. 3:19; etc.).

Creeping thing. From remesЊ, which denotes the smaller animals that move either without feet, or with feet that are scarcely perceptible, such as worms, insects, and reptiles. Here the land remesЊ are meant, the remesЊ of the sea having been created on the previous day.

Beast of the earth. From chayetho Хeres\. This old and unusual Hebrew term denotes the freely roving wild animals.

25. The beast of the earth. The order of creation of living creatures here given differs from that of v. 24, the last group of the previous verse being the first one here enumerated. This is a well-known arrangement in Hebrew speech called “inverted parallelism” (see Gen. 10:1, 2, 6, 21; Prov. 14:16, 17).

After his kind. The statement refers to all three classes of living creatures, each of which has its distinct kinds. These inspired words refute the evolution theory, which declares that higher forms of life developed from lower ones and which suggests that it may yet be possible to produce living matter out of inanimate earth. Although scientific study confirms the Biblical declaration that all animate organisms are made out of the earth, containing nothing else in elements than what the earth possesses, scientists have never been able to produce from lifeless matter one single cell that was able to live and reproduce its kind.

God saw that it was good. With the usual word of approbation the short record of the creation of all land animals closes, and the author hastens to the account of the creation of man, in which the work of creation culminates.

26. Let us make man. The Sacred Record proclaims at the very outset the preeminence of man above all the other creatures of the earth. The plural “us” was regarded by the early church theologians almost unanimously as indicative of the three persons of the Godhead. The word “us” requires the presence of at least two persons counseling together. The statements that man was to be made in “our” image and was made in “God’s” image leads to the conclusion that those counseling must both be persons of the same Godhead. This truth, implied in the OT, in various passages such as the one discussed here, and Gen. 3:22; 11:7; Dan. 7:9, 10, 13, 14; etc., is fully and clearly revealed in the NT, where we are told in unmistakable terms that Christ, the second person of the Godhead, called God by the Father Himself (Heb. 1:8), was associated with His Father in the work of creation. Texts like John 1:1–3, 14; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 1:2 teach us not only that God the Father created all things through His Son but also that all life is preserved by Christ.

Even though it is true that this full light of truth did not shine upon these OT texts previous to the revelations contained in the NT, and that distinct understanding of the different persons of the Godhead was not so readily discernible from the OT passages alone, the initial evidence of the existence of Christ at the time of the creation as colaborer with His Father is present on the first page of the Bible. These texts offer no difficulties for those who believe in the inspiration of the OT as well as the NT, in view of the fact that one part explains the other and that both fit harmoniously together, like the stones of a beautiful mosaic. Not only do vs. 26 and 27 contain hints of the activity of Christ as the second person of the Godhead in this creation work, but v. 2 mentions the Holy Spirit as collaborating in the same work. We are therefore justified in declaring that the first evidence for the sublime mystery of the Godhead is found on the first page of the Bible, a mystery that is placed in clearer light as the pen of inspiration of the different authors of the Bible books was moved to reveal this truth more fully.

The word “man” is Хadam in Hebrew, the very word God employed in naming the father of the human race (ch. 5:2). The meaning of this word has been variously explained. It is descriptive of either his color, from Хadam, “to be red”; or his appearance, from an Arabic root which signifies “to shine,” thus making Adam “the brilliant one”; or his nature as God’s image, from dam, “likeness”; or, and most probably, his origin, “the ground,” from Хadamah, “the one of the soil.”

In our image. “Man was to bear God’s image, both in outward resemblance and in character” (PP 45). That image was most evident in terms of his spiritual nature. He became a “living soul,” or rather living being, endowed with a free will, a self-conscious personality.

This nature reflected the divine holiness of its Maker until sin shattered the divine likeness. It is only through Christ, the brightness of the glory of God and the “express image of his person” (Heb. 1:3), that our nature is transformed into the image of God again (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).

And let them have dominion. The relationship of man to the rest of the creation was to be one of rulership. The use of the plural “them” shows that God planned from the very beginning to create more than one individual. By transferring to Adam ruling power over “all the earth,” God planned to make man His representative, or viceroy, over this planet. That the beast of the field is not mentioned has been taken by some commentators as an indication that the animals that are now wild were not subjected to Adam. This opinion is untenable. The plants are also missing in the enumeration of created works subjected to Adam, although no one will deny that man has had the right to rule over the vegetation to the present day and that the plants must have been included in the phrase “all the earth.” This phrase, in fact, covers everything on this earth not mentioned by name, including “the beasts of the field” (Ps. 8:6–8). However, God limited man’s supremacy to this earth, not transferring to Adam rulership over the celestial bodies.

27. So God created man. The account of the accomplishment of the divine purpose is expressed in a form of Hebrew poetry, common in all poetic books of the Hebrew Bible, in which the thought expressed in the first part of a stanza is repeated with slight variations in words but not in meaning in the second or even in the third part of the stanza, as in our verse:

“So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God created he him;

male and female created he them.”

Moses, who has given us other samples of his poetic ability (see Ex. 15; Deut. 32, 33; Ps. 90), was the first of all the inspired writers who told of God’s wondrous works in words of poetry. When he had reached the point in his record that told of the creation of man, the crown of God’s work on this earth, he left the ordinary narrative style and employed poetry.

In his own image. Noteworthy is the use of the singular, “his.” The plural of v. 26 reveals that the Deity possesses plurality in unity, whereas v. 27 emphasizes that the plurality of God does not negate God’s unity.

Male and female. A new element is introduced in the information given about the creation of man by mentioning differences in sex. The two words “male” and “female” are translations of Hebrew adjectives that indicate the sex of the two individuals. The blessing of fertility pronounced over the animals (v. 22) implies that they must have been created likewise with sexual differences, but this fact is not mentioned. Probably a special reason existed for mentioning it in connection with the creation of man. That reason may spring from the fact that only in man does the duality of sex find its expression in the institution of holy wedlock. This verse prepares us for the revelation concerning God’s plan for the creation of the family that is presented in ch. 2.

28. And God blessed them. The blessings of God conferred upon the living creatures the day before were repeated at the end of the sixth day with special additions appropriate to man. God blessed “them” not “him,” indicating that the creation of Eve must have occurred before the sixth day had passed by and that the blessings and responsibilities conferred on them were to be jointly shared by both in equal manner.

God said unto them. A difference exists between the introductions to the blessings of vs. 22 and 28 that is worth noticing. The blessing for the animals was pronounced regarding them, “God blessed them, saying,” whereas the blessing for the human race was expressed “unto them.” As intelligent beings they were able to listen to God and to receive communications. This verse contains the first revelation of God to man.

Be fruitful. The Creator’s benediction had respect, in the first instance, to the propagation and perpetuation of the species, a blessing that has never been rescinded by God and that is the source of hundreds of millions of human beings who now fill all continents of this world. The divine commission has been understood by various commentators to indicate that the reproduction of human beings should not continue endlessly, but was to cease when the earth was filled with human beings and their animal subjects.

The word translated “replenish” does not support the false doctrine that at some remote time in the past this world was depopulated, and that Gen. 1 is the record of its restoration. “Replenish the earth” may be accurately translated, “Fill the earth” (RSV). See note at end of chapter.

Subdue it. This revelation also contains instruction concerning man’s duty and destiny, to rule over the earthly creation works, a commission expressed almost in the same words as those of the divine council recorded in v. 26. The only difference is the additional phrase, “subdue it,” granting man the right to utilize for his necessities the vast resources of the earth, by agricultural and mining operations, by geographical research, scientific discovery, and mechanical invention.

29. Every herb. Provision for the sustenance of the newly appointed monarch and his subjects is next made. We learn from the divine record that man was to eat of the products of both field and tree, in other words of grain, nuts, and fruit; the animals, to eat of “every green herb,” vegetables, or green plants, and grass.

The wording of this regulation reveals that it was not the will of God that man should slaughter animals for food, or that animals should prey upon one another; consequently, the violent and often painful destruction of life by man and animals is a result of the entry of sin into the world. It was not till after the Flood that God gave man permission to eat of the flesh of animals (see ch. 9:3). Even ancient pagan legends speak of a golden age of innocence, when man abstained from killing animals (Ovid Met. I. 103-106). That no animal of any kind ate flesh at the first may be inferred from the prophetic announcements in Isa. 11:6–9; 65:25, of the new earth state, where the cessation of sin and the complete transformation of the world into the kingdom of God are accompanied by the cessation of slaughter of any of God’s creatures.

The clear teaching of Scripture that death entered the world through sin shows clearly that God originally intended that neither man nor animals should take life in order to provide themselves with food.

All arguments based on the premise that it is necessary to kill animals to check their excessive increase are of doubtful value. It is futile to speculate on what would have happened to this world if animals and human beings had multiplied unchecked in perpetuity. God certainly had made His plans to meet changing conditions as they would arise. These plans have not been revealed to us, because sin entered the world before the need arose to check an excessive reproduction (see v. 28).

31. Behold, it was very good. The creation of man and his installation as ruler on the earth brought the creation of all earthly things to a close. According to the record God had frequently reviewed His work and pronounced it good (vs. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). The survey undertaken at the end of the sixth day embraced all works completed during the previous days, “and, behold, it was very good.” Everything was perfect in its kind; every creature met the goal appointed by the Creator, and was equipped to accomplish the purpose for which it was created. The application of the term “good” to everything God had made, and the repetition of the word with the emphasis “very” at the close of creation, with man as its crown and glory, indicate that nothing imperfect had come forth from God’s hand. This expression of admiration entirely excludes the possibility that any imperfection in the creation was responsible for the weakness demonstrated by Adam and Eve during the hour of temptation.