In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
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4 comments:
How could there be evening and morning on Days 1, 2 and 3 without the sun and moon, which weren't created until Day 4? Where did the light on Day 1 come from, if it wasn't from the sun?
Faithers (and Mike)...
This is something I've always wondered about particularly the creation account in Genesis. As Faith points out, there are some pretty bizarre inconsistencies in the author's account of creation if we take everything he says literally. Should we be?
Were the "days" of creation actual 24-hour days? Was this the actual order in which God created everything? In a nutshell, the question is ... Is the creation account literal or figurative?
Where did the light come from? The eternal energizer! He keeps going and going.
Here are a few thoughts from around the water cooler:
1. Notice God created the "heavens" and the earth. The "heavens" could have included all the celestial bodies that emtted light, sun included. Then in verse 14 creation gets more specific and organized.
2. Verse one is a general description of light creation while verse 14 is more indepth a description, similar to 1:26 creation of man, then 2:5 a more detailed description is given.
3. Here is what I believe. The light was light! A type of luminous energy that was no longer needed when God created the sun. It could have radiated directly from God. It could have had a seperate source that was then harnessed into the sun. This is not the only time we have light without a sun in the Bible. See Exodus 10:23. As far as the day, night and first day goes: remember we don't need the sun and moon to mark a day. We need the rotation of the earth. One rotation = one day.
But, the author said there was evening and morning -- the first day. Right? Yes, this energy of light although not the sun of verse 14 was fixed to cause the first day.
I had the same question as Faith - if the light was not from the sun, then what kind of light was it? Mike's #3 response was where I was leaning as I tried to understand this.
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