Words
do not always mean what you or I think they do. We learn to use words
to refer to various things and events through the ordinary
experiences of daily life. But what happens when a person has an
extraordinary experience which no one else has ever had? In order to
communicate that experience to others, words will have to be drawn
from the ordinary experiences of life and applied to this
extraordinary experience in a such a way that they will mean
something that is in some way different from their ordinary meaning.
Now
let us suppose that someone has a series of visions of the creation
of the universe and sets out to communicate to others what he saw and
what it all means. I believe that that is precisely the problem that
the writer of Genesis chapter one was faced with. Even if he chooses
his words very carefully, it is still the case that many if not all
the people who read them will not understand what he intends them to
mean. People will draw on their own experience and interpret his
words in a way in which he never intended.
Is
there any way to avoid this trap? Yes, but you must proceed slowly
and carefully and avoid the temptation to impose your own
understanding on these words, or the meaning which some other
interpreter has given them, and seek only to discern what the
original meaning was.
Genesis
1:1-2
In
the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth
was formless and void and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Before
the creation begins, God first reveals that even though the heavens
and the earth do not yet exist in reality, they do pre-exist in the
vast field of possibilities and potentialities which constitutes the
deep that only the mind of God can fathom. The words 'deep', 'wind', and 'waters' normally refer to physical things, but here they do not
because those material things do not yet exist. These words refer to
the state of affairs which exists prior to the creation of the
material universe, and that is their original meaning in this
passage.
Genesis
1:3-5
Then
God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw
that the light was good; and God 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.
So
the stage is set, and where there was only darkness, God creates
light. Now light is a form of energy and energy can be converted
into matter in accordance with the well known principles of modern
physics. This whole processes as it happened during the first moments
of the creation of the universe is what is now commonly called the
Big Bang. However, the creation of matter remains implicit here
because our visionary only tells us about what he can see and
individual particles of matter are too small to be seen. What happens
next is that the matter begins to clump together and massive stars
are formed surrounded by luminous clouds of hydrogen and helium. As
the universe continues to expand these stars and the nebula around
them become more distinct and separate as darkness reappears between
them.
This
is the first generation of the universe and it lasts until the
beginning of the second generation. The vision, however took place in
one day. What began in darkness concluded in light and there was
evening and morning the first day.
Genesis
1:6-8
And
God said, “let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let
it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and
separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that
were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And
there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
The second day of revelation begins in the evening with
a vision of a vast swirling cloud. There is only one word available
to describe something that is not a solid and that is 'water'. This
cloud condenses to form an inner core that we would call a planet
surrounded by an atmosphere that looks like a dome covering the
planet. The first planets to be formed probably looked something like
Neptune or Venus. The surfaces of these planets appear to be flowing
because of the dense layers of clouds which cover them. There is no
solid earth anywhere that can be seen. These planets are important
however because they mark the beginning of a new generation in the
creation of the universe. Most of the old giant stars have exploded
into supernovas and the elements created by nuclear fusion inside
them like oxygen, carbon, silicon, and iron are being released to
form smaller more stable stars surrounded by planets. This is the
second generation of the universe. And there was evening and there
was morning, the second day.
Genesis 1:9-13
And
God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into
one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called
the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he
called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the
earth put forth vegetation; plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of
every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it
was so. The earth brought forth vegetation; plants yielding seed of
every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in
it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was
morning, the third day.
The vision of the third generation of the universe is of
a different kind of planet. It has a surface of rock and an abundance
of water. Over time tectonic forces raise up continents and leave
basins between them that fill with water. It is worth noting that God
names the dry land Earth and the large bodies of water Seas. He does
not name the planet 'Earth' nor does he name it 'Seas'. This is the
first planet in the universe able to support life as we know it. God
said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation.” This implies a
natural process that can be repeated where ever life is possible.
Genesis 1:14-19
And
God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate
the day from the night; and and let them be for signs and for seasons
and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky
to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two
great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light
to rule the night, and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky
to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the
night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that
it was good. And there was morning and there was evening the fourth
day.
The fourth generation of the universe is marked by the
creation of the sun, moon, and most of the stars that make up our
galaxy. The interesting thing is that the Earth was also created at
this time, but our visionary assumed that he saw the creation of the
Earth in the preceding visions. The Earth, however was not a part of
the early universe. It is essentially the same age as the Sun and the
rest of the planets in the solar system. Our visionary was thinking
in accord with the ancient geocentric cosmology that has the Earth at
the center of the universe and everything else going around it. But
that is just the way in which things appear to someone looking out at
the rest of the universe from the Earth. Since the Earth is not
at the center of the universe it does not have to be created first
either. It can be created with the rest of the solar system when
the universe is a lot less violent. This has enabled the Earth to
produce an abundance of life over a relatively long period of time.
Genesis 1:20-23
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of
living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome
of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living
creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and
every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God
blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters
in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth .” And there
was evening and there was morning the fifth day.
The fifth generation of the universe involves the
creation of the first sentient creatures. First those that live in
the sea, and then the amphibians and reptiles, and finally the birds
which are the most highly developed members of this line of living
things. As sense organs and nervous systems developed to produce a
brain, animals have gained an ever increasing levels of consciousness
and have exhibited more complex patters of behavior.
The Earth may not be the only place in the universe that
has animals, but it is the the only place that we know of that has an
abundance of animal life that has managed to not only survive but
thrive over a long period of time.
Genesis 1:24-31
And
God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every
kind; cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of
every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth
of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that
creeps upon the earth of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then
God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over
the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild
animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of
God he created them, male and female he created them.
God
blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that
moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every
plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to
every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath
of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The sixth generation of the universe was marked by the
creation of mammals and human beings. God again commands the earth to
bring forth living creatures. In contrast, God creates humankind
directly with a nature that goes beyond just the ability to respond
to material things through our senses. Humans are given a share in
the divine life which includes the intellectual power to understand
abstract ideas and immaterial concepts. And because we can understand
the principles of goodness, truth, and freedom, we are not merely the
end product of material forces. Rather, we can choose to act
according to what we know is right. In this way, we participate in
the divine life that is immaterial and timeless. Human beings are the
bridge that spans the gap between the immaterial and the material. We
are animals, but animals created in the image and likeness of God.
Genesis 2:1-4
Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished,and all their multitude. And
on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he
rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God
blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested
from all the work that he had done in creation.
These
are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were
created.
The work of creation is now complete. There is no vision
of the seventh day because it is not a new generation and there is
nothing new to be seen. The writer of Genesis One is inspired however
to link the seventh day with the concept of the sabbath that was
revealed to Moses. He concludes by affirming that each of the days of
creation marked the beginning of a new generation. We are a part of
the sixth generation, and it will continue until it has fulfilled
God's plan for creation.
