Genesis 1 Study Notes

1:14-15 The events of day four complement those of day one, filling the day and night with finished forms of light. The various lights, or “light-giving objects,” were worshiped as gods in the cultures that surrounded ancient Israel. In Genesis, however, the sun, moon, and stars are portrayed as servants of God that would fulfill three roles: separating the newly created realms of day and night; marking time so that those who worshiped the Creator could keep their festivals in each of the seasons (cp. Lv 23:4,44); and providing light on the earth.

1:16-19 Compared to the elaborate worship that all the other ancient nations give to the sun, moon, and stars, the simplicity of God’s creative word is striking. They are purely inanimate objects created and ruled by God.

1:20 The fifth day’s events complement those of day two, filling the newly formed heavenly domains above and the watery regions below.

1:21 The reuse of the verb created (Hb bara’; cp. v. 1) emphasizes God’s authority over the large sea-creatures. This point was especially significant to the ancient Israelites, whose neighbors worshiped Rahab, a mythical sea monster.

1:22-23 The first of three blessings God pronounced in the creation narrative occurred when God blessed the water animals and birds. This blessing is similar to the one for people, but lacks the commands to “subdue” and “rule” (v. 28).

1:24-25 The term living creatures in vv. 20 and 24 is the same as is translated “living being” in 2:7. The sixth day is for creating land creatures, including people. The three groups of animals are domesticated livestock, crawlers, and wild animals.

1:26 God’s use of plural pronouns (us . . . our . . . our) to refer to himself has raised many questions (3:22; 11:7; Is 6:8). At least five different suggestions have been put forward to explain them: they may be references to (1) the Trinity; (2) God and his angels; (3) God and creation; (4) God’s majesty as expressed by a literary device known as the “plural of majesty”; or (5) a polytheistic view of God. Since the Bible teaches elsewhere that there is only one God (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29; 1Co 8:4), the fifth option is not tenable.

The two Hebrew words translated as image and likeness are often understood as having the same meaning. But some interpreters suggest that “image” refers to the ability to reason, with “likeness” referring to the spiritual dimension. What exactly is the “image” of God? Since the Bible teaches that God is Spirit (Jn 4:24), many commentators believe it refers to the non-material aspects of a person—our moral sensibilities, intellectual abilities, will, and emotions. Based on God’s commands in Gn 1:28, others have suggested that it consists of the role humans are to play on earth—their rulership over the planet and its resources, and secondarily the physical, mental, and spiritual abilities that enable them to fulfill that role. The NT teaches that Christians will someday bear the image of Christ (1Co 15:49; 1Jn 3:2).

Yom means day, the Hebrew day lasting from one evening to the next (Gn 1:5). Yom describes a working day (Ex 20:9) or day of the month (Zch 1:7). It indicates a time (Pr 24:10) or occasion (Nm 10:10). In the day often appears as when (Zch 8:9). The plural can represent age (Jb 32:7), lifetime (Jos 24:31), or reign (Is 1:1). The plural denotes a number of days (Neh 1:4), a time period (Lv 25:8), some time (Gn 40:4), a year (Lv 25:29), or years (Ex 2:11). With the definite article yom suggests today (Dt 4:39), now (Neh 1:6), whenever (1Sm 1:4), one day (Jb 1:6), or by day (Neh 4:22). Yom could characterize a particular event such as the day of Jezreel (Hs 1:11). Similarly, the Day/day of Yahweh, or the Lord, is a time or day that belongs to the Lord in a special way (Zph 1:14).

1:27 The creation of humanity is the crowning event of chap. 1, as shown by the fact that created is repeated three times. The verb created (Hb bara’) is the same one used in 1:1, referring to a kind of creative activity that only God can do. The term man (Hb ’adam) is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible to refer to humanity in general, not just males (7:21); all people, both male and female, are created in the image of God (cp. Jms 3:9). It should not be concluded that God is both male and female. Christians are generally agreed that God does not have a literal physical body. He is in no way limited by space but is everywhere fully present (Ps 139:7-10; Ac 17:28). Therefore, he cannot be said to be literally either male or female, or both. People are the only beings that are created in the image of God (Gn 9:3-6). The Bible never lumps people into the category of animals. Instead, it separates the creation of people from all other beings and attributes the most privileged roles in creation to humans alone.

1:28 In this the longest of the five blessings found in the account of creation, God gave humanity five different commands. Implicit in the first three commands is God’s blessing on the institutions of marriage and the family. The final two commands, to subdue the earth and rule the animal kingdom, express God’s blessing on the use of the planet’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Of course, only the wise use of these resources permits people to fulfill God’s command to fill the earth. A similar command to the survivors of the flood is shorter, having only the first three verbs in it (9:1).

1:29-30 The repeated use of Hebrew kol, “all, every, entire,” in vv. 29-30 shows that the point is to emphasize God’s abundant and generous provision for all his creatures, rather than to specify what they were or were not supposed to eat. While seed and fruit are listed here, Kenneth Mathews explains, “God’s dietary standards for mankind specifically include meat in the postdiluvian world” (Gn 9:3).

1:31 This is the seventh, final, and most elaborate use of the word good in the account of the seven days of creation in that it adds very to good.