My Bible Journey: Genesis 1:1-2:3

The Creation of the World / The Seventh Day, God Rests

So, this is where it all begins.

My first question is likely obvious and uninspired – where did God come from? I imagine the religious among us have heard this question more than a few times. The answer is probably, simply, that humanity is not to know. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, why wouldn’t he have always existed? Perhaps more is explained later.

When reading through ‘The Creation of the World’ it stood out to me that there are two days when the phrase “God saw that it was good” (or something similar) isn’t used. Day two when God created Heaven, and day seven when God rested. Is there a specific reason it was omitted for these two days? Perhaps Heaven is known and considered to be good by default and therefore it didn’t need to be stated. And we all know that resting is good!

I am not entirely clear what it means when God blesses things. In one example passage (1:21-1:22) he blesses the sea creatures and winged birds. Then He says, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’[1:22] Is the blessing its own thing or are the spoken words the blessing? Why does he not bless the beasts and livestock?

God creates ‘man’ (human race) ‘in our image, after our likeness’ [1:26] on the sixth day. He then gives man ‘dominion’ over livestock, beasts and creatures that creep. I assume dominion means control or power, but it could also be a caretaker role.

‘In our image, after our likeness’ – Another sentence I am unsure of. I generally believe that God isn’t of one form and that He doesn’t look like man. The first part, ‘in our image’, suggests that it is how God acts, His personality or how He behaves. However, the second part, ‘after our likeness’ can only indicate to me how God looks. Perhaps my interpretation and/or my original assumption was wrong. Or possibly it has been lost in translation from the original text.

I think about how God covered the earth with plants and trees: ‘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.’ [1:29] – Note ‘ALL the earth’. If God populated the whole earth with plant life, why did He populate only a smaller Asian region with people? Why wouldn’t He have spread humanity wider? Maybe he did but this early on it just hasn’t been clarified. He does tell man to go forth and multiply so perhaps He created a much larger world for humanity to explore and expand. If, for argument’s sake, He did create more people across other lands then why is it not written in the Bible. If the Bible is the word of God Himself, it would seem a significant omission.

---

Afterthoughts

One thing to consider when reading this blog is when writing each post I have only read up to the chapter or verse I am writing about. This means I could fall into the trap of having answers to my questions provided in the chapter immediately after (or later). If this happens, I will try to write about it in the relevant post.

After researching some of the passages in Genesis 1 it seems like more is known about the events than the Bible indicates. Some of this appears to be assumption and speculation. The rest are answers from sections of the Bible I haven’t read, as well as other texts surrounding the same themes and mythology.

From a research perspective, it makes sense to take answers from all relevant sources. However, I can imagine many people take the standalone Bible at face value. No doubt this is why there can be endless interpretations of the text. I am trying to look at it from a hybrid view – take it at face value first and then do some research to get further understanding.

---

I am reading the English Standard Version (ESV).
Published by Crossway in Illinois, USA.
This edition printed 2016.