As I discussed in the previous post of the Christianity and Science series, much of the controversy surrounding Genesis 1 revolves around two issues: the timing of the events of creation and the mechanism of creation. Did God create over a period of 6 literal days or did creation occur over a much longer period of time? Did God create through a series of miraculous acts or through a natural process which he created? While these are interesting issues, the focus on this controversy can cause us to miss the main message of Genesis 1 which revolves around four great themes:
- God and God alone created all things,
- God is sovereign over his creation,
- God created with wisdom and order,
- God created man as the pinnacle of his creation.
Genesis 1 gives an overview of what God has created. We see God creating living thing (plants, animals and man) as well as non-living things (heaven and earth, the sun, moon and stars to give light and mark the passage of time as well as the sky, dry land and seas as dwelling places for living things).
God’s sovereignty is shown by the fact that when God spoke what he commanded occurred. For example verse 3 states, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” This pattern is also seen for the creation of sky, dry land, plants, heavenly bodies, fish, birds, land animals and man (verses 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). God’s sovereignty is also seen in the naming of parts of creation (verses 5, 8, 10). For example the statement, “God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night” (verse 5)
That God created with wisdom and order is shown by his declarations that what he created was good (6 times) or very good (1 time at the end of the creation account). We also see this in the gradual giving of structure to a universe that was originally without form and void (verse 2). Finally, the creation is presented as an ordered series of events. For example the creation of spaces for creatures to dwell in (sky, land and seas) before the creation of the creatures themselves. Genesis 1:26 states,
Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing the creeps on the earth.”
This places man at the pinnacle of creation since none of the other parts of creation are referred to in this way. Moreover man was given the responsibility of ruling over creation as God’s representative on earth (verses 26, 28-30).
One of the purposes of Genesis 1 was to serve as a polemic against pagan religions. The people of Israel were surrounded by pagan cultures in Egypt, where the people spent 400 years as slaves, in Canaan the promised land and in Mesopotamia. One of God’s major concerns was that the people of Israel would begin to worship the pagan gods of these cultures. We see this explicitly stated in God’s first two commandments in Exodus 20:3-4.
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
The four themes of Genesis 1 are in marked contrast to these pagan beliefs. Whereas Genesis 1 teaches that there is one God who is creator of all, the pagan cultures worshiped multiple gods that mostly represented the forces and elements of nature. In the pagan creation stories the earth and man were created out of the chaos of war between the gods. This is in contrast to the Genesis 1 theme of God creating with wisdom and order. Genesis 1 teaches that creation occurred at God’s command whereas in the pagan creation stories creation resulted from a power struggle among the gods. Finally Genesis 1 teaches that man is the pinnacle of creation, created in God’s image to serve as God’s regents on earth. By contrast in the pagan creation stories had a low view of man. Mankind was created as an afterthought to do the menial work that gods did not want to do.
The importance of the four main themes of Genesis 1 is further indicated by the fact that they appear over and over again in creation passages in both the Old and New Testament (Genesis 2, Job 38-41, Psalms 8, 19, 33, 74, 104, 148, Proverbs 8, Isaiah 40, John 1, Romans 1, Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1). All the passages point to God as the creator of all things. The passages in John, Colossians and Hebrews expand on this by proclaiming Jesus as the member of the Godhead who was the agent and sustainer of creation. He not only created the universe but he keeps it running in a consistent, orderly and faithful manner.
Isaiah 40 emphasizes God’s sovereignty in his creation. God speaks words of comfort for his people in exile in Babylon. He reminds them of his power and sovereignty demonstrated by his work in creation.
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing (verse 26).
Proverbs 8:22-31 and Job 38-41 emphasize God’s wisdom and order in his creation. In Proverbs 8:22-31 God’s wisdom is personified as a woman who was with God at the beginning and throughout all of the events of creation.
The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old . . . When he established the heavens I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. (Verses 22, 27-31).
In Job 38-41, God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind in response to Job’s complaints about his suffering. The passage also speaks about God’s wisdom in creation in contrast to man’s limited understanding. It also speaks about God’s sovereignty and power in creation.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements — surely you know (38:4–5)?
Genesis 2 and Psalm 8 emphasize and expand on the theme of man as the pinnacle of creation. Genesis 2 is a second account of creation which focuses on man, his covenant relationship with God and his relationship with other humans in contrast to the cosmic perspective of Genesis 1. The Genesis 2 account sees man as the pinnacle of creation, created with loving care by God from the dust of the earth. The passage elaborates on man’s role as God’s regent on earth.
In Psalm 8 David questions man’s significance when compared with the magnificence of the rest of God’s creation, what is man that you are mindful of him (verse 4)? But then he realized that man is significant because he was created in God’s image with a purpose:
you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet . . . (Verses 5-6)
To summarize, there are four great themes that represent the main message of Genesis 1 both for the original audience and for today. These themes are found throughout the other creation passages in the Old and New Testament. One of the purposes of the creation themes in Genesis 1 is to serve as a polemic against the pagan beliefs of the cultures that surrounded the people of Israel in the promised-land. While there is controversy among Christians about the timing and mechanism of the events of creation there is no controversy about the main message of Genesis 1.
Next in the Christianity and Science series: Does Genesis 1 Teach Modern Science? When we read Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 we are tempted to view and try to interpret the text using modern, 21st century eyes. But Genesis was written to an ancient, pre-scientific people, the Hebrews.
Questions for further reflection:
- Is the message of Genesis 1 important in a modern scientific world?
- If God created the universe with wisdom and order why do we see death, destruction and chaos in nature today?
- What does Genesis 1 mean by the statement that man was created in the “image of God”?
- Genesis 1 states the man was given “dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”. What does this mean for Christians today?
Suggestions for further reading:
- How to Read Genesis, Tremper Longman III. InterVarsity Press, 2005.
- Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins, Richard F. Carlson and Tremper Longman III. InterVarsity Press, 2010.
- Added by the editor: PDF with the titles and links to the posts in Tom Ingebritsen‘s Christianity and Science series. Yes, this was created to meet the requests of readers and will be updated. Your interest in and encouragement of this series is much appreciated.
Notes added by the editor
- Tremper Longman III (Ph.D., Yale University) is Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is also Visiting Professor of Old Testament at Mars Hill Graduate School, Visiting Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary and adjunct of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. He lectures regularly at Mars Hill, Regent College in Vancouver and the Canadian Theological Seminary in Calgary.Longman is the author or coauthor of over twenty books, including How to Read Genesis, How to Read the Psalms, How to Read Proverbs and Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation, and coeditor of A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible. He and Dan Allender have coauthored Bold Love, Cry of the Soul, Intimate Allies, The Intimate Mystery and the Intimate Marriage Bible studies. — From http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/author.pl/author_id=667. For Tremper Longman’s contributions to BioLogos visit http://biologos.org/blog/author/longman-tremper. ↩
Update (1/14/2014, 10:49 am): How to Read Genesis cover and Notes.
Tom Ingebritsen is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology at Iowa State University. Since retiring from Iowa State in 2010 he has served as a Campus Staff Member with InterVarsity Graduate & Faculty Ministry at Iowa State University
Great again, Tom! I appreciate that you include other biblical passages on creation beyond just Genesis (as Dick and Tremper do in suggested reading #2). Those who like Tremper may also like the New Living Translation of the Old Testament, which Tremper worked on. For some Christian groups, I actually start with John 1, Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 as the first biblical creation texts we look at (Christ-centered folks rarely complain about starting with Jesus). Then I look at Job, Psalms, etc, and finally get to Genesis. By that time it’s clear that there are a variety of biblical voices about creation and the quality of conversation is improved. Thanks for pointing out some of the main themes for us.
Starting with Jesus who stated the words he speaks are his Father’s in him aligns with the entirety, Alpha and Omega. Lucifer was the most beautiful created being. In the telling of biblical statements it is necessary to hear what Jesus says rather than interpret a meaning. Adam forsook the position of God’s pronouncement. The proof of self determination is the account of human that is the bible.
How did Jesus obtain the ability to become the propitiation, to accept the consequences of sin for all? God prepared a body in the only way to enter this world. He took on flesh to become brother to all, to become one of us. As one of us He then made the life and death decision necessary for His purpose. The controversy over the baptism of John attests to the severity of this act. The Son of Man, Jesus accepted the consequences of the flesh for all at His baptism to fulfill all righteousness. Mat 3:15
This work of God prefigured in sacrifices of the innocent and memorialized in the Passover was initiated when Jesus accepted the consequences of sin at His baptism by the Levite, John. In a figure this was Elias. Mat 11:14
Jesus truly became one with us as He accepted the consequences of sin by His baptism. Mat 3:6, 14-15
Now this Son of Man came under the curse of death for sin. This Son of Man also obtained all the intention of God Who created man in His Image if He completed His life and sacrifice without sin. Through living without sin Jesus accomplished the satisfaction of sins’ consequence at His sacrifice in the crucifixion. Jesus risked all and was not deterred by insult, torture, even death to attain all righteousness. Jesus owns the keys of hell and death. Jesus is the King of all by right of accomplishment. Mat 28:18, 1Cr 2:6-10, 1Cr 1:24
Common sense and a reading of the Gospels makes it absolutely clear that Jesus cannot be the Creator. Read here :
https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/why-jesus-cannot-be-the-creator-of-the-universe/
I’m sorry, Gary, but I don’t find your post to be compelling. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, and you can find strong evidence in John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 that Jesus was (and is) involved in creation. It seems that your issue is with theodicy, the problem of evil. That appears to be the consequence, or price, of freedom. The picture of Jesus with a sappy grin sitting on a cloud is perhaps less appropriate than a picture of him weeping at the brokenness of our lives and our world. He calls us to participate in redeeming and renewing the world with God. Will we answer the call?
Just because the anonymous authors of three first century books believe that Jesus was the Creator does not mean he is. You must deal with the fact that the Jesus of the Gospels would never have allowed little children to suffer. Yahweh may be the Creator, but Jesus? No way. It is not in his character to allow children to suffer. Christianity is false.
1. the general cosmos and the special Earth.
  2. The Earth, as its own general subject, implying that which we all intuit is most valuable about the Earth unto itself in all the cosmos: its abiding maximal abundance of open liquid water.
    3. that water and its special relation to the Sun’s light, hence the water cycle;
      4. The water cycle and its special beneficiary and member, biology;
        5. biology and its special category, animal biology (plant/animal/mineral = animal);
          6. Animal biology and its special category, human;
7. The man and his wife (Genesis 2:21-23)
Genesis 1:1 does not begin with, ‘In the beginning God’. It begins with ‘In the beginning created… The Hebrew syntax is not trivial. It is key to the whole account as anticipatory. The verse, in the Hebrew, puts God in the center, between two parts, the later part being ‘et ha-shamayim ve-et ha-erets’.
The phrase ‘ve-et ha-erets’ does not amount to ‘the Earth’. It amounts to ‘something something the Earth’. It has a compound ‘something’, whereas ‘et ha-shamayim’ has only a singular ‘something’. In other words, ‘the Earth’ has more information than has ‘the heaven’.
So this seven-fold recursion shows that, contrary to either a godless or a Platonic outlook, Genesis 1:1 can be seen to be entirely concerned to affirm the fact that, since the Living God designed and created us, we not only are not insignificant, we are the central value of the entire account and the entire cosmos. For, this view of v. 1 sets the theme for the rest of the account.
Even more, the above seven-fold recursion fits the fact that the account conspicuously lacks mention of any material origin for humans, and only for humans. This uniquely human lack of such mention at once (A) poses humans as transcending the Earth and (B) as implying that such mention is to be anticipated, as a completion to the first chapter. Per 7, this anticipation is fulfilled in Genesis chapter 2.
So God is not a static subject in v. 1. We even are called to anticipate both Him and the Creation. And, regarding the Creation, we are called to anticipate its Divine Design. In short, we are called to read the account so that we are active regarding its meaning. It is not simply something we passively receive, as if it spells out everything its author wants us to know from it.