Genesis

Genesis 1

The Creation of the World

Book

Chapter

Introduction

The Book of Genesis tells the story of beginnings. It opens with God creating the heavens and the earth, forming a good world filled with life and order (Genesis 1:1-2:3). The narrative then traces the early history of the human race through key events such as the flood in the days of Noah (Genesis 6-9) and the scattering of people at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). From chapter 12 onward, the focus narrows to the patriarchal accounts of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (also called Israel), and Joseph, showing how God calls Abraham from his homeland and works through his family line, eventually leading them into Egypt (Genesis 12-50).

Genesis matters because it provides the essential foundation for the Bible’s overarching narrative. It establishes God as the Creator of all things and sets up the story of God, his people, and his dealings with humanity from the very start. Without Genesis, readers would lack the basic framework for understanding the continuity of God’s work throughout the rest of Scripture.

Its traditional authorship by Moses, who wrote it for the people of Israel whom he led out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers. The name “Genesis” comes from the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning,” while its Hebrew title is simply the first word of the text, Bere’shit (“In the beginning”). The book is structured around repeated phrases such as “these are the generations of,” marking distinct family lines and accounts.

In the beginning

Genesis 1:1–2

The Creation of the World

1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Read Genesis 1:1–2 on ESV.org

Commentary

vv. 1-2There is a debate about whether the creation account in the book of Genesis should be read literally or should be considered as a theological polemic against the surrounding religions and cosmologies in the ancient Near East; it is not a scientific book. I take the view that it is both. First and foremost, it is a literal account of a literal creation, and the truth of that matter is the best polemic against the surrounding cultures of the Hebrew people.
v.1In the beginning, God. God is the only uncreated being; He was there before anything else and He created everything else. John 1:1 alludes to this event: "In the beginning was the Word." This is not to say that Jesus was a created being, He is eternally with the Father. It simply is another indication of His divine nature.
v.1The Hebrew word for God here is elohim. This can be confusing and is often interpreted as an indication that this passage is referring to the trinity. It is better understood not as a proper name or as referring to attributes, but as a status of location, or a "place of residence." This verse is referring to Yahweh God, who is a resident of the divine realm (see Gen. 1:26).

Days one through five

Genesis 1:3–23

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Read Genesis 1:3–23 on ESV.org

The sixth day

Genesis 1:24–31

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then 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 heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27   So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

28 And 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens 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. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Read Genesis 1:24–31 on ESV.org

Commentary

v.26God said, "Let us make man in our image." The us in this sentence refers not to the trinity as most suggest, but refers to God's divine council. God made a council of elohim (Psa 82:1).
vv. 26-27Man is the pinnacle of God's creation. Man is to bear the image of elohim and is to have dominion over all things on the earth. These characteristics extend to both male and female.
v.27God created human beings as male or female. There is no in between. There are extreme outlier cases such as intersex, but we know these are aberrations of nature because we know what the natural design is: male and female.

Citations

Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2015), 32.