The Day Humans Were Created (Gen 5:1–2)

The Genealogy of Adam

¹ … At the time God created humanity, He made them as a replica of God. ² Male and female he created them; and he blessed them and named them adam.

בְּי֗וֹם בְּרֹ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אָדָ֔ם בִּדְמ֥וּת אֱלֹהִ֖ים עָשָׂ֥ה אֹתֽוֹ׃ ² זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בְּרָאָ֑ם וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָ֗ם וַיִּקְרָ֤א אֶת־שְׁמָם֙ אָדָ֔ם בְּי֖וֹם הִבָּֽרְאָֽם׃ ס

Bill Arnold, whom we mentioned last time, asserts:

At Gen 5:1, we arrive at the key to the compositional history of Gen 1–11. Gen 5 itself is devoid of the themes, phraseology, and stylistic characteristics of Gen 1. The exception to this statement is its introduction, or more precisely, vv. 1b–2.

Then he states the obvious:

It seems perfectly obvious that Gen 1 and Gen 5:1b-2 are dependent upon each other in some way, based on numerous lexical links (ברא, “create”; אדם, “humankind”; עשׂה, “make”; דמות, “likeness”; זכר ונקבה, “male and female”; ברך, “bless”), and the use of subordinate, temporal clauses to begin each text (“when God began to create […]” and “when God created […]”).

Our verse literally states: “on the day” of God’s creating humanity. Which day exactly was that? Day 6, of course: