A few weeks ago I wrote a series of blogs about the first verses of Genesis. I want to pick that up again now, because there is much more to say about the creation story. For example, about the six days in Genesis 1, which are generally seen as the six days in which God created the heavens and the earth. But is this reading correct?
first book of Genesis
The first part of Genesis (1:1-2:4) is a document of the creation of heavens and earth and is called in some translations: the births of heavens and earth (Gen. 2:4; Statenvertaling and Naardense Bible). We will return later to the Hebrew concept of toledoth, which is translated here as births. We find this word 13 times in Genesis and it turns out to be a key concept.
For now, suffice it to say that toledoth is usually a conclusion to the previous section, a caption stating some data, such as the writer: Adam (5:1), Noah (6:9), Isaac (25:19). ), etc. Similar to our concept of colophon, but a very concise one. The book of Genesis is therefore a collection of books, written down by different writers, the main characters themselves, and later combined by Moses.
not six days of creation
Genesis 1 is usually read as a description of the six days of creation in which God created the heavens and the earth. But that reading raises quite a few problems. I therefore want to show why Genesis 1 cannot be about how God created the heavens and earth in six days and of course also what it is about.
Genesis 1 is an account of how God revealed His works of creation to Adam in six days. God told Adam in six days how He once created the heavens and earth in the beginning and recorded this in a record: Genesis 1:1-2:4.
problems
The reading that Genesis 1 is an account of the six days in which God accomplished His creation poses a number of problems, and these are also classic issues that are often raised to challenge the reliability of Genesis.
1. On the first day God speaks: let there be light (1:3-4), but there is also talk of day and night. Yet it is not until the fourth day that the creation of the sun is mentioned (1:16). How can there be day, night, evening and morning (1:5) on the first day?
2. Each time it says: there was evening and there was morning, the first (second, third, etc.) day. Why is there activity only during the day? If the six days are days of creation, did God only do His work in daylight?
When we speak of day and night, it presupposes local time and sunrise and sunset. After all, it is the opposite on the other side of the earth. Is God bound to place?
3. And is God bound by the night? Did He need to rest? And did God rest on the seventh day? Was God tired then?
4. Ten times it is said: and God said. To whom was He speaking?
5. If Adam and Eve were both created on the sixth day, this conflicts with Genesis 2. Find there
we:
- Adam is formed from the dust of the earth (2:7)
- God places him in the garden (2:8)
- God teaches and instructs Adam (2:15-17)
- God brings all the animals to Adam and has him name the animals (2:19-20)
- However, Adam finds no helper to complement him (2:20)
- Then God causes a deep sleep to fall on Adam, takes a side from him, and makes Eve out of it (2:21-24)
This should all have taken place within 24 hours. And that seems unlikely.
the six days as a revelation to Adam
The solution to the problem of all these points is surprisingly simple: Genesis is not the description of how God created the heavens and earth in six days, but is a description of the six days in which God makes known to Adam His works of creation. God taught Adam regarding his creations.
Let’s look at the above points in this light:
1. On the first day of God’s teaching to Adam in Genesis 1, the sun was already there. After all, God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. On the fourth day of God’s revelation to Adam, God told Adam how He had made lights, such as the sun and the moon, to distinguish between day and night, but also other times, such as years.
2. God told Adam of His works of creation. God did that during the day. Then night came and Adam could rest. God is not local, but Adam was. He was in one place and God taught him.
3. Of course God does not get tired, He is not a man (Isa.40:28; Ps.121:4), but Adam did. Therefore he was given rest at night and God stopped (> stopped), as it literally says in Gen.2:2-3, on the seventh day and sanctified this day.
4. Adam was created by God and placed in a world that God created in the beginning. God spoke to Adam and named things for him. Adam needed instruction, God educated him and taught him the names of things. God called the light day, the darkness night, etc.
5. Therefore, Adam and Eve could not possibly have been created on the same day. On the sixth day God told Adam how He had made him. But when did God create Eve? That must have been the same day that God told Adam of the creation of Adam, the sixth day of God’s teaching on creation. For it is written: And God finished His work which He did on the seventh day (Gen.2:2).
This made creation, and therefore also that of Eve, complete. It also says that the creation of Eve took place after God had created all the animals (2:18-19). On the sixth day, as the conclusion of His revelation, God told Adam how God had made him. But God also completed His creation that day by making Eve from one side of Adam (2:22).
created in six days?
Finally, I must comment on a passage from the law, as described in Exodus 20. For it is usually read that God made the heavens and the earth in six days. But a close reading shows it to be different:
Exodus 20
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you serve and do (>asah) all your work,
10 and the seventh day is a sabbath to YAHWEH your God. You shall not do (>asah) any work , you and your son and your daughter, your servant and your maidservant and your beast and your sojourner who is within your gates.
11 For in six days Yahweh made (>asah) the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And He stopped on the seventh day. Therefore YAHWEH blesses the Sabbath day and sanctifies it.
done in six days
The Hebrew asah (H6213) appears three times in these verses. This means doing and has a broad meaning. You can “do” anything and the word appears more than 2600 times in the Old Testament.
If it had been translated consistently in these verses, it would have read: for in six days YAHWEH did the heavens and the earth. What did YAHWEH do in six days concerning the heavens and the earth? He reported to Adam in six days. Then He stopped and blessed and sanctified the seventh day.
Genesis 2
Also in Genesis 2 where the seventh day is spoken of, we find something similar. The word asah is also used there a number of times. The translation is quite suggestive in most views. Below are the verses in the NKJV:
Genesis 2
2 When God had completed the work that He had made (>asah) on the seventh day, He rested (lit: ceased) on the seventh day from all the work that He had made (>asah).
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because on it He rested (lit. ceased) from all the work that God had accomplished in creating (>asah).
conclusion
Genesis 1 is not a record that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. It is an account of how God taught Adam about His works of creation. God made Adam and He revealed to him that He is the Creator of everything Adam saw around him.
God gave Adam His word! We read “and God said” ten times in Genesis 1. That of course determines us to those other ten words of God’s revelation, which God gave to Moses (Ex.20:1).
We do not know how long it took God to create. We only know that God reported His creation to Adam in six days. Scripture also makes no statements about how old the earth is. We only know that in (the) beginning God created the heavens and the earth.