BibleProject Classroom

It is helpful to be aware of our own assumptions and questions and pay attention to the intent of the biblical authors. These early chapters of Genesis form the introduction to the Hebrew Bible. The biblical authors crafted these stories to set the tone and expectations for what will come next.

Our modern views of Heaven and Earth are different from those of the biblical authors. A common modern view of Heaven is that it is a blissful place you go when you die. A common modern view of Earth is that it is a planet that revolves around the sun. In the Hebrew Bible, "heavens" means "sky" and also represents God’s space. In the Hebrew Bible, "earth" is the space of humanity and the animals. In the Hebrew Bible, the waters are a third space that can represent chaos or death.

The New Testament’s view of the universe is really similar to that of the Hebrew Bible. Jesus’ message was that he was joining Heaven, the sphere of God’s reign, and Earth, the space of humanity, within himself. Humans are to partner with Jesus in bringing Heaven to Earth by contributing to human flourishing.

All of our language about God, even the biblical authors' language about God, has certain limitations. But those limitations can be the vehicle for communicating what God wants his people to hear. The Bible is not science fiction, but it is an ancient text. Reading the Bible is a cross-cultural experience. And part of respecting and loving our biblical author "neighbors" well is opening our eyes to their way of seeing the world.

Although it can be a difficult task, it is valuable to remain open to perspectives different from our own. The Bible is an ancient text produced within a specific culture, but this does not diminish its capacity to speak to us. Awareness of the ancient cultural context of the Bible begins with maintaining intellectual humility, identifying our assumptions, opening ourselves to other perspectives, being aware of cultural differences, and having some understanding of how biblical literature works.

In Hebrew, the word for "earth" typically means "land," rather than a globe or sphere floating in space. So when you read Genesis 1, imagine the story communicating about the land the people live on. God names the raqia' the shamayim -- the Hebrew word for "skies" or "heavens." In the Bible, the raqia' is the solid dome above the land that holds back the waters above, and the creation of the raqia' creates a place where life can flourish. In the biblical view, God graciously sustains the raqia', keeping its floodgates closed so that the Earth will never again be destroyed (Gen. 9:11).

The creation of light and its separation from darkness generates the fundamental order of time that governs the rest of the chapter--day and night. The light of Genesis 1 is called "day." Day is a period of time that then gets used throughout the rest of the chapter. For example, "It was evening, it was morning, day one." Rather than recounting the creation of photons, the narrative portrays the creation of light as the fundamental order of time so that life can flourish and the narrative can progress.

Israel existed in the same cultural environment as its ancient neighbors. So the biblical authors speak from within their ancient Near Eastern perceptions of the world. They are making worldview claims about the God of Israel through their cultural constructs. Because of this, it can be helpful to compare Israel’s cosmology with its neighbors to see what stands out.

The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians believed that everything was in a chaotic, water state before the ordering of the universe. As in Israelite cosmology, creation is about ordering chaos. The ancient Babylonians also had a view of a multitiered universe, much like Israel. One of the most significant differences between Israel and Babylon is that in the biblical view, Yahweh is the God over all. In the Egyptian and Babylonian views, everything is god (a form of pantheism).

Ancient creation accounts are about function rather than material existence. Things are thought to exist only when they are given a purpose and a name. Genesis 1 then is mainly about the purpose of the universe rather than its material creation (While Yahweh is the creator of all things out of nothing, this may not be what Genesis 1 is about.)

The words used to describe the pre-creation state in Genesis -- tohu va-vohu -- mean "wild and waste" (e.g., Jer. 4:23). Wild and waste, darkness, and the deep waters are images for the pre-creation state of non-order. Jeremiah is activating day one of Genesis, but reversing it. He's talking about the ruin of their city and calling it an undoing of creation--a lack of order and of human flourishing. Using these Genesis 1 images heightens the sense of disaster. God is allowing humans to de-create Jerusalem.

Creation is more about giving order, purpose, and function than it is about material origins (see Ps. 104). In Psalm 104, creation is ongoing, sustaining work. Creating can be used to describe the beginning, the middle, and the whole sustaining process. In Genesis, this means that "created" doesn't necessarily have to mean made out of nothing. It could also mean giving life and purpose to something.

The six days of creation are framed by summary statements (1:1; 2:1) and descriptions (1:2; 2:2-3) that bring us from chaos to completion. Both parts of the frame begin with a summary about how God created "the skies and the land" (1:1 and 2:1). This clarifies for us what days one through six are all about. Both summaries are followed by an exposition or further description (1:2 and 2:2-3). The first one talks about the pre-creation state, and the second shows God resting on the seventh day after all has been completed.

Repeated words are a common literary device that authors use to structure their text and communicate their message. Pay attention to which words are repeated, how many times they are repeated, and where they occur.

Days one through three describe the environments that God creates, and days four through sixdescribe the inhabitants. Creation is all about ordering and populating the skies and the land. Days four and six repeat the similar theme of rulers. Day four is about the rulers above, and day six is about the rulers below. The story culminates in the creation of the human rulers below who will partner with God.

In the Bible, water can be life-giving (streams, rivers, rain) or deadly (the flood waters, the sea, the deep). The waters above the raqia' are not the source of normal rain but of the flood, mirroring the dark watersbelow (Gen. 7:11). The waters below, or the tehom (the deep), are chaotic waters often synonymous with death or the pit (Sheol).

The tannin, or mythical sea dragon, is created on day five with the other sea creatures. It symbolizes disorder, chaos, and death throughout the Bible, but the creation story shows that the tannin is simply one of Yahweh’s creatures. The forces of chaos in the Bible, represented by the waters and the sea dragon, affect human life, but ultimately, they are created things that will be overcome by God himself.

The biblical authors portrayed the dry land as a disc surrounded by and resting on the waters. It is setup on pillars that God upholds by his power. The dry land often symbolizes salvation, most notably, in Genesis 1 and the Exodus narrative.

The ultimate goal of creation helps define what is good, that is, human image-bearers on the dry land, farming and having families. Genesis 1 presents us with an ideal. When the narrative proper begins, the characters never attain the ideal. As the story continues, it points toward an ideal that has yet to be realized. There was potential in the garden of Eden, but not perfection as English speakers would typically define it.

Rivers and springs are life-giving in the Bible. A river flows out of Eden to water the whole Earth, and rivers flow down from holy mountains in Ezekiel, Psalm 46, and Revelation. Rivers, springs, and wells become divine gifts of life in the desert at just the right moment for Hagar, the Israelites, and the Samaritan woman when Jesus gives her living water. The book of Revelation also talks about a river of life flowing down.

Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus is portrayed as the true source of life—as the tabernacle dwelling among us (John 1:14), as the temple (John 2:21), and as the garden with rivers flowing out of him (John 7:37). The garden of Eden points to the reality of Jesus being high and lifted up, signifying that Jesus is the source of true and eternal life.

Psalm 36 displays the same ancient cosmology we’ve been looking at in Genesis 1—the heavens above, the deep below, and the dry land in between. In the psalm, the dry land can be used as an image for the space of the wicked even though, as the psalm says, God’s love and justice extend from the heavens all the way to the deep. The psalm exposes this tension between two realities.

In the Bible, the heavens represent God’s dwelling place, the source of life, and the ultimate reality. Although God’s presence permeates the whole universe (Ps. 36, 139), the heavens uniquely signify his dwelling place and the ultimate reality. The point of the biblical story is not that humanity will one day ascend up to Heaven but that the heavenly realm will come and transform Earth.

God consistently brings the heavenly reality into the earthly reality. We see this with Eden, Babylon, Moses on Mount Sinai, Jacob’s dream, the tabernacle, and the temple. Ultimately, this occurs in Jesus, the true human made in God’s image, who "dwelt (literally "tabernacled") among us" (John 1:14) like God’s glory in the tabernacle.

The cosmic mountain, Eden, the temple, and the tabernacle were all symbols pointing toward an ultimate reality. Jesus, in human form, claims to be this ultimate reality. Heaven is the ultimate cause and source of all life, but it is invisible and inaccessible unless we have our imaginations transformed.

The sun, moon, and stars of Genesis 1 are heavenly beings. Heavenly beings are called "signs" (Gen. 1:14) because they are symbols of the true source of light. Heavenly beings form God's divine council, his staff team who are under his divine command. The word "angel" in the New Testament broadly means "heavenly being," and these beings often look like people.

Humans are meant to image or mirror God (Gen. 1:26-27). Humans image God by their unity and diversity as one humanity made of male and female (Gen. 1:26-27). God is dianthropic—he desires and designs to work through (Grk. dia) human beings (Grk. anthropos).Humans image God by ruling, or cultivating, creation as partners with God. God imparts a huge amount of dignity to humanity by appointing them to rule as his partners.

The Hebrew word for "image" is tselem, which literally means "idol." In the ancient world, idols were said to embody a deity or a king. Idols can serve a priestly function by mediating for the deity they embody, or they can serve a royal function by representing the king. Human images do both as a kingdom of priests for the true King Yahweh (Exod. 19:4-6). God commands humans not to make idols because humans are the idol of God.

Daniel 7 is a meditation on Genesis 1-3, where humans give up their role as embodied divine rulers to an animal. They'd rather trust in themselves than in God. And by doing so, they become like beasts. Genesis 3:15 gives us hope in the form of a coming seed, who we learn will be the Messiah or an ointedone. In the New Testament, "Christ" means "anointed one." So Jesus is depicted as the true human and image of God, the seed of Genesis 3:15.

"Seven" (sheva) and "complete/full" (sava) are spelled with the same Hebrew consonants. Seven communicates a sense of fullness or completeness. There are two words used to describe God's Sabbath rest on the seventh day of creation: shabbat (Gen. 2:2-3) and nuakh (Exod. 20:11). Shabbat means rest in the sense of stopping all work. Nuakh means rest in the sense of settling and taking up residence. When God completes his work and rests on the seventh day of creation, the authors are saying that God's glorious presence fills the Earth. But he also takes up residence in creation with humanity -- Heaven and Earth are truly united in this moment.

The seventh day is the only day of creation that has no end. This tells us that God’s ideal is for his glorious presence to dwell among humanity forever. Jesus sees himself as inaugurating God’s ultimate Sabbath rest and the super Jubilee year (Isa. 61:1-2).