They’re God’s image, which means that, together, men and women embody and represent the Creator within his creation. Tim: So humans come up from the ground, like the other land creatures, but they’re also more. Jon: “So God created humanity in his own image, in the image of God he created them male and female he created them.” 17 Humanity is the climax of days one through six, and their importance is explained in the first poem in the Bible. Jon: Now, over and over, God says what he created was “good.” But then, after making humans, God says that it is “very good.” 15 13 Then God provides all of those plants from day three as abundant food. And then, matching that bonus act of creation on day three, God makes a special land creature: human, or in Hebrew, ‘adam. Tim: They emerge up out of the ground to live on the land. Jon: Then finally on day six: “Let the land produce living creatures.” 12 These are the creatures that live in the waters below and those that fly near the waters above. Jon: Then on day five: “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the land.” 11 He gives them his own royal power to separate day and night. Tim: God installs these lights––the sun, moon, and stars––as signs and symbols that reflect God’s own light. Jon: So on day four: “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky.” 9 This is what happens on days four through six. Now it’s time to go back and fill these realms of days one through three with inhabitants. Jon: Okay, so we’ve got the realms of time, the realm of the skies and the seas, and the land. God invites plants and fruit trees with seed to emerge out of the land. And then there’s a bonus creative act on day three. Tim: God is establishing the realm of the land, and it emerges out of the chaotic waters. Jon: And then on day three: “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, and let dry ground appear.” 7 God’s depicted here as splitting the chaos waters in half, above and below, which creates the realms of the sky and the seas. Tim: In the ancient culture of the biblical authors, the sky was perceived as a solid dome that holds back waters. Jon: Okay, and then on day two: “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 6 What’s “the vault?” Tim: This is God’s own glorious light that fills and contains the darkness as he separates day from night. Tim: Okay, so the first realm of order begins with light on day one. Then on days four through six, God fills the uninhabited wasteland with creatures. So on days one through three, God splits apart that unordered darkness into three ordered realms. Every day addresses those problems introduced in verse 2––that there’s no order and no inhabitants. Jon: Each day begins with the phrase, “and God said,” and then ends with the phrase, “and there was evening and morning.” And this ordering happens in a series of six days. Jon: So you can’t see it, but God is present in the darkness, ready to bring order, so that life can flourish. Tim: The Hebrew word for God’s Spirit is ruakh, which can refer to wind, or breath, or God’s invisible presence. Jon: “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” 4 Because in the midst of those dark waters, God is present. Now, here’s where things start to get interesting. It’s another common way the ancients described the non-reality that preceded creation. Jon: “And darkness was on the face of the deep abyss.” 3 The Chaotic Waters And the next line uses another image to say the same thing. “The land was tohu vavohu,” which means, “unordered and uninhabited.” This is the ancient way of talking about the pre-creation state, what we might call “nothingness.” For the biblical authors, non-existence means having no purpose and no order. Jon: And it reads: “Now the land was wild and waste…” 2 This line is summarizing what’s going to happen in the following narrative, which starts in the next line. And the word for “earth” does not mean “globe” but rather, “the land.” Tim: Now, your Bible translation might say, “the heavens and the earth.” In biblical Hebrew, the word for “heaven” refers simply to the sky above. Now, the opening line of the whole Bible is: “In the beginning God created the skies and the land.” 1 Heaven and Earth It’s a carefully crafted narrative about God creating and ordering the whole cosmos. Tim: And we’re going to look closely at the first page of the book of Genesis. Jon: The first book in the Bible is called Genesis.
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