We’ve now worked very carefully through the first paragraph of Version 1 of the creation story, bringing Day One of creation to an end. As I wrote earlier, one of the things that prompted me to start this series was my puzzlement at the quite different ways creation happens on the different days. So let’s take a careful look at what we’ve seen so far on Day One. Here’s a quick summary:
v. 1 is more or less the title of this entire section, Gen 1:1-2:3
v. 2 shows us what the world was like as the curtain rises on our story
v. 3 describes the first two actions of the story: God “says” (that is, decides) and light “is” (that is, comes into being)
v. 4 describes two more actions: God “sees” (that is, evaluates) and “separates” (that is, distinguishes)
v. 5 describes one more action: God “calls” (that is, names) the two (!!!) things there now are in the universe
v. 6 describes the next two things that occurred: first an evening “was” (came into being, the same terminology used for the light) and then a morning “was”
one more isolated phrase announces: Day One
If you have joined us more recently, please do go back to the earlier posts to see the discussion that this brief survey is based on, including the reasons I’ve translated the text as I have. Here it is once more:
1 When God began to create the sky and the earth —
2 at the time the world was a tohu-bohu, with darkness over Deep and a God-wind hovering over the water —
3 God thought, Let there be light, and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good, and God distinguished light from darkness.
5 God named the light Day and the darkness Night. There was an evening and there was a morning: Day One.
You will find the Hebrew text and my recording of it in this earlier post.
The overall perspective on Day One, as I’ve come to see it in this discussion, is as follows:
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