1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3And God said "Let there be light," and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." 7And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8And God called the expanse Heaven*. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. 10God called the dry land Earth,and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. 16And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
So often we lose the point of the Bible's first story. Its meaning and its elegance are cluttered up with controversy; we are too busy debating and defending (whatever our viewpoint) to actually stop and listen to what is being said here.
I'll clear this out of the way first:In my view, Genesis 1 was not designed to be a scientific textbook. If it had been, no one could have understood it for years. (I find science it exciting - that amazing 'how', where Genesis focuses on the 'who' and the 'why'.) Instead it tells the truth in the language it knows how - painting a picture for us, explaining something deeply profound.
I think this first chapter is more concerned with the theological order of things, not the chronological. Its purpose is far beyond mere nuts and bolts, it addresses those questions which are impossible to disassemble in a test tube.
Genesis 1 is poetry, in its broadest sense. It is trying to convey the impossible - trying to get our heads round eternity and beginnings - always things that make our minds boggle.
But whether you see Genesis as literal or literary, it offers a glimpse of beauty and purpose. So this is not a post concerned with science/religion debates. It's looking at what's there in the text, whatever your take on the rest.
In the beginning, God created. In the beginning, God. One God. The only God. A great shout of monotheism in a generally polytheistic culture. It is he who creates the world - when he says something, it happens. His words carry extraordinary power. He names things - gives birth to their very identity.
There are no gods before him - the sun and moon are not even mentioned here by their proper names, to disassociate them from godhood (I have mentioned this before). They are not to be worshipped, they are part of the creation. They are good, yes. But they are not God. (Nor are the great sea creatures, mentioned in verses still to come.)
God creates life - and that which is living carries not only the present but the future - the trees and plants are seed bearing, full of potential beyond themselves.
And it is all good. (Sometimes I think we hammer on about perfection too much, instead of using the biblical word of goodness in relation to creation.) Goodness - genuine, dynamic, goodness is a vibrant reality. It is not random or disconnected, it is not purposeless. It is good, and its potential lies within it.
The repetition affirms these things - God speaks, and it is so, God sees that it is good.
And there was morning, and there was evening - a series of beginnings, a series of new cycles in what was previously chaos - that 'deep', those 'waters' - all cultural symbols of the chaotic. The whole amazing liturgy weaves into its very structure a new ebb and flow of life and light where previously there was only darkness.
God speaks. And chaos becomes intricacy, purpose, design.
* Heaven here is understood as sky
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