Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created* the heavens and the earth.

Per James Ussher (1581-1656), this was 4004 B.C. Jewish calendar: 3760 B.C.

Moses obtained this information indirectly from Adam’s writings which were passed on. Additionally, God also revealed this to him.

No space or time before this. All other religious books begin with preexisting matter or energy in some form.

Per Job 38:4-7, the angels were present when the earth was formed, so they must have been part of this creation.

“beginning” – What existed before? The Word did! God did! When time began. No time before! The big bang? This is the beginning of time itself.

“God” – God is the author of & the subject of the Bible. God here is “Elohim” which is plural, “created” is singular. 3-in-1! “im” is the plural suffix in Hebrew. This is a “uni-plural” noun.

“created” = “bara” – to create something from nothing. Rest of “create” here = “asah”. How can you create something from nothing? Energy transformed into matter? No, because it would then be something from something. Only God is capable of this. Out of himself? No – that’s pantheism.

Heavens is plural – can be thought of as our term “space” – the space – mass - time continuum.

2 Peter 3:5-7 “They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth up from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the world with a mighty flood. And God has also commanded that the heavens and the earth will be consumed by fire on the day of judgment, when ungodly people will perish. But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” Or In the beginning when God created, or When God began to create.

This record in chapter 1 may have been written down by God Himself and given to Adam.

Eph 1:4 – “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”

Ps 93:2 – “Your throne, O LORD, has been established from time immemorial. You yourself are from the everlasting past.”

Col 1:15-17 “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation.* Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see-kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together.”
John 1:1-3 “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make.” The Word existed before creation, before time.
Revelation 4:11 – "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created."
Hebrews 11:3 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
Isa 48:14 – “It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth. The palm of my right hand spread out the heavens above. I spoke, and they came into being.”

Ex 20:11 - “For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”

Ps 89:11: “The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours - you created it all.”

Jer 51:15 “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.”

2 The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface.

Alt: “But the earth became wasteful and desolate”.

“was” = became. Gap theory – a gap between verses 1 & 2?

“empty, formless mass” = ‘tohu va bohu’

“Spirit” = “ruach in Hebrew – is also the word for “wind” and “breath”.

“hovering” – literally, “moving back and forth rapidly”, vibrating, creating waves of energy? Isa 45:18 KJV “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.“ - (not ‘tohu va bohu’).
Isa 45:18 NLT “For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos.”
3 Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Light is needed for life. Light came before the making of the sun and the stars! This is the beginning of energy. Present-day laws of the physical universe began.
4 And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. Separated is what sanctification means.
Isa 45:7 “I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness...” Darkness was created too.
5 God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." Together these made up one day.

Rev 21:25 – No night in the new earth. God also created darkness!: Isa 45:7 “I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness.”
6 And God said, "Let there be space between the waters, to separate water from water."

Space = firmament – a tent or tabernacle.

As the earth's atmosphere is clearing and transmitting more light resulting in more heating of the surface, there would be changes in the nature of the atmosphere. There has been many theories proposed concerning the "waters above", but the fact is, this could just simply be the hydrological cycle forming that we presently have with large amounts of waters contained in clouds at various heights above the earth. A very unique atmosphere for our solar system, no other planet has a atmosphere that is in any way similar to the one on our earth.
Isa 40:22 – “It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers! He is the one who spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.”

Psalm 104:2 “…You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved.”


7 And so it was. God made this space to separate the waters above from the waters below.

These waters in the sky were a blanket of moisture that surrounded the earth and protected living things from cosmic radiation and cell damage so that life spans were much longer. A greenhouse effect. Psalm 104:6-9 “You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains. At the sound of your rebuke, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it fled away. Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed. Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,
so they would never again cover the earth.”
8 And God called the space "sky." This happened on the second day. “Sky” in Hebrew means high, lofty. Translated “heaven” in KJV.
9 And God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky be gathered into one place so dry ground may appear." And so it was.
10 God named the dry ground "land" and the water "seas." And God saw that it was good. Rev 21:1 – No more sea (and no more sun) in the new earth.
11 Then God said, "Let the land burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant. And let there be trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. The seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And so it was. God created plant life that can reproduce itself. Plant life before there was a sun.
12 The land was filled with seed-bearing plants and trees, and their seeds produced plants and trees of like kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 This all happened on the third day.
14 And God said, "Let bright lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs to mark off the seasons, the days, and the years. Signs: The Zodiac. The sequence of the zodiac is the same in every language & culture.
15 Let their light shine down upon the earth." And so it was.
16 For God made two great lights, the sun and the moon, to shine down upon the earth. The greater one, the sun, presides during the day; the lesser one, the moon, presides through the night. He also made the stars. Ps 19:1-5: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”

Rev. 21:23 – No need of the moon and sun in the new creation.

Is 40:26 – “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And he counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away.”
17 God set these lights in the heavens to light the earth,
18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 This all happened on the fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind."
21 So God created great sea creatures and every sort of fish and every kind of bird. And God saw that it was good.
22 Then God blessed them, saying, "Let the fish multiply and fill the oceans. Let the birds increase and fill the earth."
23 This all happened on the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal-livestock, small animals, and wildlife." And so it was.
25 God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to reproduce more of its own kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make people* in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life-the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals,* and small animals." Hebrew man (Adam); also in 1:27; As in Syriac version; Hebrew reads all the earth
27 So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself;
male and female he created them.

Female – Eve not made yet! Image – Heb 1:4 “Son reflects God's own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly”
2 Cor 4:4 “…Christ, who is the exact likeness of God”
28 God blessed them and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals." Fill = “replenish”
29 And God said, "Look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. Adam and Eve were vegetarians! No eating of meat until after the flood.
30 And I have given all the grasses and other green plants to the animals and birds for their food." And so it was. Even the animals were vegetarians.
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way. This all happened on the sixth day. excellent in every way = “highly ordered”