The Bible begins with the story of God creating the universe (“the heavens and the earth”).

Genesis gives no indication of how long ago “in the beginning” occurred. The popular date of 4004 BC was proposed by Bishop Ussher in the 17^th century, and was printed in some King James Bibles, leading some readers to believe this was the actual date. But the Bible itself provides no time frame. Since God created both time and space, it would not matter if creation occurred thousands or billions of years ago.  “A day for the Lord is like a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8).

Genesis describes creation using figurative language to communicate to the people in ancient times in ways they would understand. How can we understand these symbols today? Learning about the creation stories from other cultures helps us to recognize the common ideas held by people in the ancient world. They are not like our modern scientific understanding of the world, and were not meant to be read in that manner. God spoke to His people using their own sometimes primitive ideas.

Genesis uses similar ideas or word pictures as other cultures, but at the same time presents a very different story of creation. In Babylonian stories, gods battle each other; Marduk defeats the monstrous Tiamat and rips her body apart, out of which he creates the world. Gods mate, giving birth to other gods and parts of the world; in Japan, male and female gods give birth to the islands. But in Genesis there is only one God, who creates everything by His omnipotent will. This belief in monotheism sets the Hebrew scriptures apart from most other creation accounts.

As depicted in Genesis, before creation God’s spirit hovers over a body of water. Does this mean that the universe was filled with water before God began to create? Where did the water come from? These natural questions lead us to think that this must be figurative language. In ancient times, the sea was considered a fearful, uncontrollable force and represented primordial chaos, before God brought everything into order. Similar imagery is found in Babylonian, Greek, Asian, and Mayan creation stories.

People in ancient times imagined the world differently from our scientific view today. Many cultures thought the sky was a dome covering the earth. Egyptians pictured the sky as the goddess Nut whose body stretched over the earth. Persians thought the dome was made of crystal or metal. The Cherokee believed the sky to be solid rock, from which the earth hangs by four ropes.

Egyptian goddess Nut whose body forms the sky

The word translated firmament or expanse in our English Bibles is the Hebrew word raqia, meaning “that which has been hammered or beaten out” like a bowl or dome. This dome of heaven divides the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:6). Other texts describe how windows in the dome open to allow rain to pour through from the waters above (Genesis 7:11, 2 Kings 7:2, Psalm 104:13, 148:4). Obviously, none of this language should be read literally, as we know that outer space is not filled with water.

Other Old Testament texts use symbolism to describe heaven being supported by pillars (Job 26:11) or being stretched out like a tent (Ps 104:2, Isa 40:22).

The sun, moon, and stars are “set” in this dome like jewels, as the ancients thought these heavenly bodies were attached to the celestial spheres. If we read this verse literally it would not make sense to us today; we know now that the sun and moon are not set in our atmosphere.

Again, though, Genesis makes a sharp contrast with other creation accounts. The text avoids calling the sun and moon by name (referring instead to greater and lesser lights) as these were also the names of gods in pagan cultures. Genesis says that God created all the heavenly bodies; they are not deities in themselves and are not deserving of worship.

Illustration from Old Testament Today by John Walton (2004), p. 56

There are other clues that the details of the text should not be understood literally. God creates light on the first day before the sun and stars, the sources of light, on the fourth day. Christian theologians from the early centuries recognized this apparent discrepancy, and explained this as figurative.

The entire chapter follows poetic form, with repeated phrases “Evening and morning” dividing the sections. These are not 24 hour days. Periods of evening and morning depend on the earth’s rotation in relation to the sun, which was not created until the fourth day.

The Hebrew word yom, “day,” can signify more than a 24-hour period: Gen. 30:14, Prov. 25:13 refer to the day of wheat harvest, meaning a season; Isa. 4:2 refers to a future era; many prophecies speak of a Day of the Lord when He punishes Israel or their enemies, not restricted to a literal day.

Another poetic device is parallelism. The order of creation is recorded in symmetrical fashion to add to the beauty of the text.

There are actually two accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, which differ in details, depending on the author’s emphasis:

Ch. 2:4 begins not with watery chaos but parched, barren land. Where are all the plants created on day 3 if this chapter follows the first chronologically? The second account specifically indicates no vegetation of any kind: wild or cultivated, edible or inedible. These two accounts are meant to complement one another but are not identical. They are like two portraits drawn by different artists, each highlighting different aspects of the creation.

Both chapters place humanity in the proper context within the world. In Gen 1 man is the climax of creation brought forth on the sixth day. In Gen 2 man is the centerpiece of creation, and appears before plants and animals which are provided for him. (Some translations such as the New International Version obscure this distinction in 2:19 by adding the word "had formed"; "had" is not clearly the original meaning). Each version of the creation serves a different purpose but both contain theological truth.

God creates man from the ground. Note the wordplay in Hebrew: adam which means “man,” and adamah which means “ground.” Again, this is figurative language, similar to other creation stories worldwide. In the Sumerian Gilgamesh epic, the god Arura creates the human Endiku from clay. In Egypt, the god Khnum forms man on a potter’s wheel and goddess Hathor holds the ankh, symbol of life, to his mouth and nose to give him life. Earthmaker of the Winnebago tribes forms man in his image out of clay and breathes life into him. The Maori god Tane created the first woman Hine-ahuone which means “earthborn maid.” All these stories share the common idea that humanity is from the earth and did not fall from the heavens.

Potter and clay images elsewhere in scripture: Isa 29:16, 45:9, 64:8, Rom 9:21.

in Genesis God forms woman from man’s rib. Eskimos say woman was created from man’s thumb.

What does it mean to say that human beings are made in God’s image? The Bible never defines this specifically but there are many possibilities, including the ability to communicate and form relationships, to reason, to create (the first quality we learn about God). Human life has inherent dignity and value because of this divine image within us. All people, whether or not they acknowledge God as their creator, are made in His image and thus deserve our respect and fair treatment.

God created men and women who are different. Both sexes have equal dignity and value, but their differences are important to God. God created us to need one another; He created us for community. Human beings were designed to be incomplete without this community. We can serve one another, meet the other's needs with our different abilities and create a community of mutual interdependence. In the NT, Paul uses the image of the body to describe how the different parts of the church help and support one another (1 Cor. 12).

"The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel)

Genesis and modern science:

The use of figurative language in the Bible does not set Genesis in conflict with our modern scientific understanding of the world. The purpose of these first chapters is to affirm the belief that God created everything, not to give a precise explanation of how He did it. God’s creative power lies beyond human comprehension and scientific theory.

Unfortunately, some well-meaning Christians today have polarized the discussion into an either-or debate: creation versus evolution. According to this approach, one either believes in six 24-hour days of creation or one surrenders to the position of atheistic evolution. However, this distinction is not where the line should be drawn.

As we have seen, the Bible doesn’t give the age of the earth or how long God took to complete creation. The crucial difference between Darwinian evolution and Christian doctrine is not the length of time but that God directed the process with a purpose in mind; there was an intelligent design behind the process. Darwin proposed that all life developed by “natural” selection without the intervention of God. In contrast, Genesis teaches that human beings are not the result of a long chain of biological accidents. Our lives have meaning and purpose because God created us in His image. If we keep this distinction in mind, it does not matter how long the process of creation took. We can recognize the six days of Genesis 1 as poetic imagery and remain faithful to scriptural truth.

The doctrine of creation also speaks to us about our responsibility to maintain the earth in good condition. God gave Adam "dominion" over all other living things (Gen. 1:28). We are stewards of God's good creation, and should take pride in caring for the earth and preserving its natural beauty. Unfortunately, current political ideology has surrendered concern for the environment to the far left, whereas Bible-believing Christians should be at the forefront in our efforts to protect the world that God has put under our stewardship.

This chapter describes the origin of sin in the world. Many people throughout the ages have raised the question of how could evil appear in a perfect setting such as Eden?

A Christian theologian in the 2^nd century, Irenaeus argued that Adam’s original nature was not perfect, but instead innocent and childlike. Only God is unchanging perfection; everything else God created is in a state of becoming. “God creates and man is in process of being created. The one who creates is always the same … but the person who is found in God grows and advances toward God.” Thus Adam was not created perfect, but was designed to develop and mature towards perfection.

God intended humanity to grow more and more like Himself, but this process was halted by sin. The child ceased to progress towards the destiny God had planned for him.

Irenaeus describes the “fall” in terms of childhood: immature, weak, vulnerable, easily led astray. The fall was in a sense inherent in creation in that man as creature is finite and thus fallible: “Created things must be inferior to Him who created them. … Man could not achieve perfection, being an infant.”

God gave Adam and Eve free will, which implies a choice between good and evil. The gift of freedom comes with great responsibility to choose wisely.

Promising they would become like God, Satan offered Adam and Eve immediately what God intended to give them once they were ready for it.

More figurative language: notice in v. 8 the text describes God “walking through the garden.” The Bible often describes God in human form, a literary device called anthropomorphism, another example of figurative language not meant to be read literally. Other examples include references to God’s hand (Gen. 49:24, Ex. 7:4-5), arm (Num. 11:23), feet, nostrils, mouth (Ps. 18:8-9). All these are analogies to help us understand something about God in human terms, but not meant as literal descriptions (as if God had a body).

The text never identifies the forbidden fruit as an apple. This popular idea was imagined after the Christian era.

Genesis 4-11 continue to follow the development of human sinfulness, focusing on three stories: the murder of Abel by Cain, Noah and the flood, and the Tower of Babel. For the sake of our survey, we will next skip ahead to ch. 12 and the story of Abraham, father of the Israelites.

"The Temptation of Adam"

by Tintoretto (1552)

Notice to the right of Eve in the background,  the artist shows the future result of their sin as an angel casts the couple out of the garden