The most apparent feature about Genesis is that creation takes place in seven days. This obvious element is a defining foundation for many interpretations of this account. Some argue that these are literal days; everything was made in six 24-hour periods.[1] Others argue that the Hebrew word for ‘day’ can be interpreted as an indefinite period of time.[2] Debates rage on how to marry this account with science. Things seem out of order: the earth already exists before light is even created. Stars are made on day 3, after the earth already has oceans and land![3] This stands in opposition to how modern astronomy explains the origins of our universe. So much gymnastics is done to explain these features and marry them with our modern scientific knowledge.
In the last post, we discussed this tendency to read Genesis from a 21st century mindset. So, let us consider this question: if there is a God, how would he speak to people from long ago? People who don’t have science or modern technologies. Would he sit them down and say, “OK, here’s the deal: stars are giant masses of extremely hot glowing gas held together by gravity. They make light and heat by fusing atoms together”? What would be that people’s context to understand what any of this means? Would God be interested in explaining to these people how our universe works? Or even chronologically how it was created?
Why tell them the world is not a flat disk if they cannot even grasp that stars aren’t gods? This is one of the remarkable things about God. He seems to work with us where we are at. He meets us with language we can understand. His thoughts might still seem incredible or unbelievable to us, but he comes to our level. Why would God do that? Probably because he really wants to talk to us.
When we read through the days of creation, we immediately assume they explain how it happened. We assume we are reading a chronological scientific account that will show us the order, amount of time, and fashion that God chose to make everything. We expect this because that is simply what we would do. But, to bring science or chronology into this passage misses entirely what it is saying. The structure itself gives compelling evidence that we are not looking at a scientific account. That said, it communicates radical ideas to the people who first read it. Ideas that are still relevant today.
One needs to return to the beginning where it reads “the earth was formless and empty”.[4] Ancient people looked out and saw an ordered[5] world full of things. They studied the stars and saw that they move in rhythms. They farmed and understood the cycle of seasons, phases of the moon, and movement of the sun. It was so ordered they could predict and knew what would happen. In fact, they were so intimate with these things, they became the underlying structure of their religious holidays and rituals.
How is this order maintained and what is its source? Many Ancient Near-East creation accounts are incredibly violent.[6] Gods warring, things being born out of death, rebellions, and conflict.[7] Violence is chaos and they believed that from this chaos came order. Ancient people saw this delicate balance as being maintained by gods whose powers were checking one another. When there is a flood or drought the rain god is battling and triumphing or losing to another god. Order was born from a balance of opposing forces.[8]
The ancient mind dwelled on questions like: Why is the world ordered and structured? Why is it here? What makes it go? Their answers to these questions affected how they lived. In the same way, what we believe affects how we choose to live today. Some of you may not eat meat because you believe it harms our planet. Or that it causes suffering. Or that it harms your body’s health. Your beliefs guide your actions. So, Genesis starts with these deeper questions. It is not interested in how things work because why everything is here is so much more important. Genesis’ answers to these deeper questions probably sounded totally alien to ancient people.
Genesis claims that the order of our universe has one designer. Then it shows that ordering in a way that might make sense to an ancient person. The narrative opens with:
“The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”[9]
We start with something: an empty, dark, chaotic world. As we continue, we notice that on the first three days God is ‘separating’ or ‘gathering’. He is ending the chaos. Light and dark are no longer mixed. Land and sea each get their ordered places. All these ‘spaces’ are placed within precise boundaries.
The following three days, God goes about ‘filling’ those spaces. The moon and stars populate the night. Day becomes the domain of the sun. And the tidy places of earth, sea, and heavens get filled with wonderful fish, birds, and animals. Things that move! Looking at the graphic below you can see how the structure of the day is the vehicle to answer the question: how chaos (formless) and emptiness was ended.[10] You will also notice how the days are paired: day 1 & 4, day 2 & 5, and day 3 & 6. One day is the separating of the space, the other the filling of that place with things that move.[11]
You might notice the total absence of violence in this account. It is so thorough, that God even precludes animals from killing each other. Humans are permitted only to eat from every tree that bears fruit. Everything else – literally “everything that breaths” – is given every green plant for food.[12] You may be tempted to think that we know healthy ecosystems need predators. Or that even ancient creatures had sharp teeth for eating meat. Like elsewhere, we must not read this as a scientific claim about how things worked in the past. Rather, the author is giving us pictures that teach us who this God is. Here it is the thoroughness of His peace. The complete absence of violence: not even animals kill each other. The gods of the Canaanites, Sumerians, Egyptians and Phoenicians are violent. But this God is not a god of violence.
Much of human history is incredibly violent. And people have viewed violence as inherent and necessary. Yet, this account is saying that order does not come from gods ruling with might. Order does not come from that kind of chaos and violence. Which sounds astoundingly relevant today. How often do we think in this way? To return to order we need to violently overthrow what exists. That rebellion and violence will restore rightness. That in order to build, one must tear down. That to repair what is broken, we must exact revenge.[13] Or that everything around us is simply born from chaotic chance.[14]
It seems to me that our beliefs are not so different from ancient man. That we have not come that far. And that Genesis still has things to say. Yet, there is still a nagging question: why would a week be chosen as the structure to communicate the creating, ordering, and filling of the world? What might it mean? This will be the theme of the next post!
[1] Generally called Young Earth Creationism. In the 17th century, Archbishop James Ussher calculated that the world is approximately 6,000 years old using a literal interpretation of the creation week and the genealogies that are included in Genesis. Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, world-renown scientists, also calculated similar chronologies of the world. All of these assume that the 6 days of creation are literal days. This view has percolated through Christian and popular culture. Today we even have the Creation Museum in Kentucky which holds a similar position on the earth’s chronology.
[2] This view is called Day-Age Creationism. It is built on interpreting Yom, the Hebrew word for day, as longer period of time. This could be a problematic interpretation because Hebrew has other words for longer periods of time such as ‘olam or ‘et. Why not use those? Furthermore, there is no indication in the passage that this should not be interpreted as a day. Quite the opposite, in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 the 7th day (when God rested) is tied to the Hebrew practice of Sabbath. That seems to say that the Jews interpreted it as a day, just like our days.
[3] Light is created on the first day in Genesis 1:3-5; however, in reading Genesis 1:2, one notices that the earth already exists, and it is covered in water.
[4] Genesis 1:2
[5] For example, the Greek word kosmos meant both world and order. Greeks saw the whole universe as a harmonious arrangement; a perfect order where every object has a purpose (telos). We can see the remnants of this meaning in our modern word cosmetics.
[6] The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh or the Babylonian Enuma Elish, for example.
[7] In fact, these gods acted like humans: killing, raping, marrying, and battling each other.
[8] Yin and yang might be a modern way to think of this. Or the “balance in the force” if you are a Star Wars fan like me. These are still common contemporary ideas.
[9] Genesis 1:2
[10] I am not proposing something new or radical here. Many have noticed this same pattern. For a deeper read, check out Henri Blocher’s book, In the Beginning. Specifically, pages 54-55 show this literary structure. This is also a chiastic structure (ABC-ABC rather than the more common ABC-CBA), a mnemonic device found commonly in oral tradition. It is aesthetic and functional, a tool to help the oral poet memorize the story.
[11] You may wonder why plants and vegetation are on day two. Why are they not made on day six with the animals when God was filling the land? The sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, animals, and creatures all move. We might think that stars don’t move, but from the perspective of the ancients they constantly moved around in the sky, just like animals on the land or fish in the sea. Whereas plants are fixed. Perhaps for this reason vegetation is considered part of the land. Not something that fills it, like all the moving things made on days 4, 5, and 6.
[12] Genesis 1:29-30
[13] The basis of SO many stories and movies like Braveheart or John Wick. Really any revenge story ever made.
[14] This is the essential belief of evolution. I am a designer by trade. It takes incredible focus, training, and sophistication to design a product or graphic that looks good and people like (and sometimes much angst and sweat). Our world is filled with things that are far more ordered and complex than anything I will ever create. If my simple work takes so much intentionality, why would I expect that more complex things would not have a designer?
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