Genesis Chapter 1

From The Open Bible Project

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

  • The Argument - Moses in effect declares three things, which are in this book chiefly to be considered:
    • First, that the world and all things in it were created by God, and to praise his Name for the infinite graces, with which he had endued him, fell willingly from God through disobedience, who yet for his own mercies sake restored him to life, and confirmed him in the same by his promise of Christ to come, by whom he should overcome Satan, death and hell.
    • Secondly, that the wicked, unmindful of God’s most excellent benefits, remained still in their wickedness, and so falling most horribly from sin to sin, provoked God (who by his preachers called them continually to repentance) at length to destroy the whole world.
    • Thirdly, he assures us by the examples of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the rest of the patriarchs, that his mercies never fail those whom he chooses to be his Church, and to profess his Name in earth, but in all their afflictions and persecutions he assists them, sends comfort, and delivers them, so that the beginning, increase, preservation and success of it might be attributed to God only. Moses shows by the examples of Cain, Ishmael, Esau and others, who were noble in man’s judgment, that this Church depends not on the estimation and nobility of the world: and also by the fewness of those, who have at all times worshipped him purely according to his word that it stands not in the multitude, but in the poor and despised, in the small flock and little number, that man in his wisdom might be confounded, and the name of God praised forever.
  • (a) First of all, and before any creature was, God made heaven and earth out of nothing.
  • Due to the Mosaic usage of the phrase "in the beginning" here, the reader is led to conclude that the linear, sequential development (by God) of the various elements and entities of which natural creation is composed began with the formless, empty planet found in v.2 of this passage. In reality, before time as we know it in this realm began (with the introduction of the astral bodies and their inter-relationships to each other and this planet), God may well have spent countless millennia blueprinting, drafting and "lab-testing" the various creatures and other living things and their involvement with the planet itself, before bringing it all "online". The fact that Genesis seems to indicate the origination of this material, physical universe within a literal, six-day period (composed of 24 hours each) could well fit with the aforementioned scenario, if the entire creation was pre-existent in conceptual, realized form in another realm, ready to be initiated in this one at the command of the developer/creator. - JM

1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

  • The Hebrew for "was", here, permits the possible translation "became" (i.e. the earth became formless and empty). If this alternative rendering proves more accurate, the possibility exists that the planet is actually quite ancient and that some race of beings existed here previously, some great cataclysm occurred, and the planet became a dead, lifeless chunk of matter drifting in space before the Creator brought this current creation into being, in his acts recorded in Genesis. The other possibility, of course, is that the "Big Bang" produced this planet in a lifeless, sterile state (formless and empty) after which the Creator introduced actual life to it, in countless forms. - JM
  • (b) As an unformed lump and without any creature in it: for the waters covered everything.
  • (c) Darkness covered the deep waters, for the waters covered everything.
  • (d) He maintained this disordered mass by his secret power.

1:3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

  • (e) The light was made before either Sun or Moon was created: therefore we must not attribute that to the creatures that are God’s instruments, which only belong to God.

1:4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

1:5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning, one day.

1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

1:7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

  • (f) As the sea and rivers, from those waters that are in the clouds, which are upheld by God’s power, least they should overwhelm the world.

1:8 God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

  • (g) That is, the region of the air, and all that is above us.

1:9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so.

1:10 God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good.

1:11 God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth;” and it was so.

  • (h) So that we see it is the only the power of God’s word that makes the earth fruitful, which naturally is barren.

1:12 The earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

  • (i) This sentence is often repeated, to signify that God made all his creatures to serve for his glory and for the profit of man: but because of sin they were cursed, yet the elect, by Christ are restored, and serve to their wealth.

1:13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

  • (k) By the lights be means the sun, the moon, and the stars.
  • (l) Which is the artificial day, from the sun rising, to the going down.
  • (m) Of things belonging to natural and political orders and seasons.

1:15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so.

1:16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.

  • It is unfathomable to the human mind to contemplate the technology and creative power of a Creator capable of bringing the entire expanse of the universe and all that it contains into existence. Perhaps, in reality, this text refers specifically to our own galaxy, and the Creator's ordering of it. Even such a feat is beyond our comprehension. - JM
  • (n) That is, the sun and the moon, and here he speaks as man judges by his eye: for else the moon is less than the planet Saturn.
  • (o) To give it sufficient light, as instruments appointed for the same, to serve man’s purposes.

1:17 God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth,

1:18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

1:19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

1:20 God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of sky.”

  • (p) As fish and worms which slide, swim or creep.

1:21 God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

  • (q) The fish and fowls had both one beginning, in which we see that nature gives place to God’s will, in that the one sort is made to fly about in the air, and the other to swim beneath in the water.

1:22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

  • (r) That is, by the virtue of his word he gave power to his creatures to reproduce.

1:23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

1:24 God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so.

1:25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

  • The little pronouns us and our in this text suggest something more than God simply taking counsel with His own wisdom and virtue. Rather, there is a hint of a collaborative effort taking place here, and an emphasis upon plurality in the Godhead. Furthermore, God's bringing everything into being through the issue of "commands", could actually have amounted to directives being issued to angelic servants, who accomplished these tasks by supernatural power (i.e. the us e of ultra-advanced technology). For the primitive Hebrew author, the best expression of these activities is found in the wording of these texts in Genesis. - JM
  • (s) God commanded the water and the earth to bring forth other creatures: but of man he says, "Let us make..." signifying that God takes counsel with his wisdom and virtue purposing to make an excellent work above all the rest of his creation.
  • (t) This image and likeness of God in man is expounded in (Ephesians 4:24) where it is written that man was created after God in righteousness and true holiness meaning by these two words, all perfection, as wisdom, truth, innocency, power, etc.
  • Rather than viewing God's creation of man in his own image as some sort of spiritual perfection imparted to man (per Eph. 4:24), this text more likely refers to the intelligence, independence of will, self-awareness, creativity and the other elements characteristic of the mind and soul of man (distinguishing him from the brute beasts). - JM

1:27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.

1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

  • (u) The propagation.
  • Man's dominion (superiority and authority) over the rest of the created creatures on this planet is established here, and stands in stark contrast to the Darwinian ideal propagated by environmentalists who believe that man is no more than another living creature on this planet and really has no more rights than the other animals, where his survival and well-being are concerned. - JM

1:29 God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.

  • It is evident that God gave dominion of the entire creation to mankind.
  • (x) God’s great.

1:30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.

1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

  • God is pleased that His creation turned out so well. Is there the suggestion, here, that He is capable of an imperfect, flawed product/result? Certainly, God appears to have considered carefully whether His creation was according to His specifications and requirements. And it was. - JM

Next: Genesis Chapter 2

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