"a third day" (Gen 1:13)

Reading through the story of creation

Let’s sum up what we’ve seen in the creation story so far, as we did after the first two days.  We said then that, on both days …

1. God planned the day’s creation

2. The creation came into being

3. There was an act of separation or distinction (remember that both of these are וַיַּבְדֵּל in Hebrew)

4. God named the creation.

Now, on Day Three …

• God thought, Let the water gather in one place so the dry land can be seen

• it was so 

• God named the land Earth and the water Seas

• God saw that it was good

and

• God thought, Let the Earth sprout greenery

• it was so; the Earth did sprout greenery

• God saw that it was good

As before, there are similarities to the earlier days of creation and differences from them.  We said earlier that this is the first Day on which God had two ideas, not just one.  (Surprise!  He saw that each idea was good.)  It is the first time that the verb להבדיל ‘separate, distinguish’ does not occur, though God implicitly does distinguish the plants, in two ways:¹

- small plants

- fruit trees

There is a further, implicit distinction in that there are now many species of plants and trees which will reproduce their own kind and thus remain distinct.  We did not discuss the word מין min ‘species’ earlier, but it’s worth noting that with the exception of Ezek 47:10 it occurs only here, in Genesis 6 and 7 about the species that were to be taken on board the Ark, and in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, the two chapters that describe the species that are permissible to eat and those that are not.

Why might there be two ideas on Day Three and not just one?  A couple of possibilities come to mind:

• The creation of Earth did not actually involve bringing anything new into existence.  It was just a matter of moving some things around: more water over here, less over there.  One could imagine – if God had not named the Earth and Seas, if God had not seen that this was good, if Earth had not been promised in v. 1 as one of the stars of our show – one could imagine that the purpose of Day Three was the creation of plant life.

• If Day Three had come to an end after v. 10, the rhythm of the biblical text would have seemed fine.  We would not have been conscious of any deficiency.  But … we might have noticed that it took three full days, half of the six-day work week, for God to finishing controlling the water.  If any of us had been thinking about the version of the creation story that involved a great cosmic battle against the Sea, this might have seemed a little much.  As it is, clearing away the water is just introductory to the fantastic culmination of this day’s work.

Once plants begin to grow, the simplicity of the story up to now becomes evident.  (Not the simplicity of the ideas, simply of the plot.)  Light … Sky … Earth … and now such a great profusion of greenery that it is impossible to name every kind.  The world is starting to become recognizable.

Oh, and …

13 There was an evening and then a morning, a third day. וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שְׁלִישִֽׁי׃

Another evening and morning have passed.  Enjoy them while you can, because on Day Four, for the first time, the sun will come out.

1. It is probably not a coincidence that these two categories are reflected in the two traditional Jewish blessings before eating plant food: “Blessed art Thou … Creator of the fruit of the earth” and “… Creator of the fruit of the tree.”