How should Genesis 1 be understood and I will argue that it should be viewed a literally as possible.Let us start with the basics and the Greek word Genesis which means beginings as does the Hebrew word b’reishit mean literally “from the head” but in practical terms also means beginnings as well.Now let us look at Genesis 1:1-2
| בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ: 1 |
| וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָֽיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם 2 |
Here is what I think is truly said:
” In the begining of Gods creation of the heavens and of the earth and the earth was profoundly empty and darkness was upon the face of the abyss/the deep and the spirit of God hovered on the face of the water”
The word used for heavens is rooted the the word for water, mayim, and so shamayim for heavens sort of means the water over there or in other words sky or atmosphere and although not yet organized the atmosphere was created.
The t’hom means literally abyss but most English translations yield it as “the deep” sort disorganized water.
The word vohu means emptyness or desolation and the word tohu means about the same so when you see the phrase “tohu ve’vohu” that expression means profound or astonishing emptyness or desolation.Here is the ESV
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
It says the same thing although the original Hebrew is richer and more vivid.
Many of the pre Adamic people argue the universe was astonishingly empty because of a first word age and earlier word destruction from satan’s rebellion.I believe old earth age insults Gods power and God is fully powerful to create a universe in a short period of time and that God can control time.They stopped the speed of light 20 years ago in a Danish Lab(Lene Vestergaard Hau) and if people can change the speed of light so can God and the SOL is intrinsically related to time itself.Don’t believe pre Adamic nonsense ,God created the universe in 6 periods of days or era’s and used natures forces to make an universe that dates to 13.8 billion years.Remember that if the speed of light has varied over time so has the very nature of time itself.So 13.8 billion years can happen in a bubble of 6 days and with a all powerful God that is possible!So the universe was empty because God had not yet used disorganized matter to form the universe and the universe was a super massive black hole at this point.A lot of people read into the Holy Spirit or the Sh’kinah hovering upon the water as meaning that Gods was putting his spirit into the waters and making them pregnant with the seed of creation.Maybe this is true ,the text does not explicitly say that but could mean that but it does seem that the text wanted us introduced to the Sh’kinah or Holy Spirit.
One thing many people ask or say is was Jesus/Yeshua a part of creation and does that fact that the word for God used in Genesis 1 is Elohim which is masculine plural for god.So does the plural Elohim and the mentioning of the Holy Spirit hovering on the waters introduce the Holy trinity.Maybe ,the text does not explicitly say that and Elohim as a plural is often meant as higher God and not two gods.Yes this could be true ,Elohim as the father and son together and the Holy Spirit hovering on the water,yes a possible theory.
Is Jesus in the first word of Genesis 1:1 ? I don’t know for sure but this has been presented like this ,here is the first Hebrew word in Genesis:
בראשית this word is pronounced b’reishit or be’ray sheet I write it in Latin letters as b’reishit but it means from the head literally but generally in the beginning.And this is sort of mystical but interesting:
The first two letters beit and reish בר this spells the Aramaic word Bar meaning son(as in Bar Mitzvah) hence Jesus the son.
The meaning of the word reishit is plural of reish or rosh meaning head(the b’ in front means in and is a prefix to reishit) this father who is the head.
The letter shin ש has an ancient pictographic meaning of sharp which is the nails of the cross.
The next letter yod י means hand and is the hand or hands on the cross.
Finally tav the t in breishit ת had a pictographic meaning of mark or sign or cross ,so tav is the crucifix itself.
So that is a mystical take on the word B’reishit ,just food for thought ,something I saw on youtube and I’m not sure if I explained it perfectly but that is the gist of it.
This is what is most important is that science now agrees that the universe had a beginning and before the big bang all of matter was in one place and formless and Genesis 1:1-2 nails that down well.
Gen 3
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר:
Let there be light! This is the big bang where all of space and time rapidly expands and we have a universe folks and if you notice the first letter in the “or” Hebrew for light is Alef the first letter of the Alef-Beit אור the word “or” meaning light.And today scientists define the big bang as not a huge explosion but a expansion of space and time and of coarse matter.This makes sense if God then used all the matter and energy to mold a universe like sculpture with clay as opposed to a random explosion.And then it basically says that God separated between the light and darkness and that there were days and nights and that was day 1 of creation.
Gen 1:6-8
| וַ יֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַמָּ֑יִם וִיהִ֣י מַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין מַ֖יִם לָמָֽיִם:6 |
| ז וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֘ אֶת־הָֽרָקִיעַ֒ וַיַּבְדֵּ֗ל בֵּ֤ין הַמַּ֨יִם֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ מִתַּ֣חַת לָֽרָקִ֔יעַ וּבֵ֣ין הַמַּ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר מֵעַ֣ל לָֽרָקִ֑יעַ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן: 7 |
| ח וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֱלֹהִ֛ים לָֽרָקִ֖יעַ שָׁמָ֑יִם וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שֵׁנִֽי: 8 |
6: “And God said,may there be a (raki’a) amongst the waters and may there be a separation between the water and the water”
So what is raki’a ,in most translations it’s “firmament” however in modern terms firmament is an outdated term and more modern translations say “expanse”.The literal meaning of raki’a means to hammer out as they would expand bronze by hammering the bronze.So the expanse or firmament was some type of separation between water in the atmosphere.The precise meaning of the expanse ,raki’a,firmament thing is unclear but for now lets go with expanse.So now we have water taken from the t’hom and we have organized water to be on earth and in the atmosphere and in outer space too, because a lot of water in our atmosphere comes from evaporated comets and things,space water is very important for water replenishment on earth.So the t’hom ,the great abyss of unorganized water is organized into earthly,atmospheric and space water.
7-8
“And God made the expanse to separate between the water which is below the expanse and between the water which is above the expanse,and it was so”
“And God called the expanse the heavens and it was evening and morning on the second day”
Then in verse 8 it actually calls the raki’a the heavens but later in Genesis the raki’a is used again as expanse along with shamayim which means heaven or heavens.The raki’a is still a mystery but were getting the general gist of it’s meaning.The Bible is still ahead of the game and in step with science in that water came before life on earth was created.
Gen 1:9-10
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ 9
אֶל־מָק֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵֽרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן:
“And God said may there be a meeting of the waters that are from below the heavens in one place and may dry land be seen,and it was so”
Verse 10 basically gives a recap of 9.
At that time there was one continent ,what is called Pangea , and so now all dry land or earth is in one place and all the gathered waters are in one place as well.And most likely fresh water also because there had not been time for the seas to mix with the minerals that would make sea water salty.Here is another reason not to buy old earth JRR Tolkien Dungeons and Dragons pre Adamic stuff because if the world was already destroyed then why not cause rain to sprout vegetation and move on.The fact that here dry land and water are separated shows to me this is a new creation.If God did destroy the dinosaurs and and naughty angels in an old earth then just repair the old earth ,why the need to gather the water in one place so dry land appears?Next after dry land is abundant then grass ,weeds vegetation and trees producing fruit become abundant throughout the world.
We will skip to Gen 1:14 and this is super important:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יְהִ֤י מְאֹרֹת֙ בִּרְקִ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם
לְהַבְדִּ֕יל בֵּ֥ין הַיּ֖וֹם וּבֵ֣ין הַלָּ֑יְלָה וְהָי֤וּ לְאֹתֹת֙ וּלְמ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים
וּלְיָמִ֖ים וְשָׁנִֽים:
“And God said may there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to separate between the day and between the night and there will be luminaries as signs for appointed times and for days and years”
We already have day and night from the first day of creation but it is a abstract disorganized days but here we have the invention of time as we know time today.The word מ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים mo’adim which means appointed is used and so the stars and planets are now in formal orbits to make the 30 day month and 360 day year.If you turn your Bibles to verse 16 you will see the moon was created with orbit so that people could measure months and years.All calendars up to the Roman Julian calendar were all lunar not solar calendars.And years were 360 days not 365 days ,5 hours,48 minutes and 45 seconds as is today.Many believe such as the Chuck Missler that the “long day of Joshua” was when a orbital catastrophe changed an exact 12 month 360 day year,to the 365 day,5 hour,48 minute and 45 second year we have today.
No now time exists as it exist as we know time ,so the first three days of creation were not 24 hour days but era’s or periods of abstract time.But now on day for we have a 24 hour day and a 30 day month and 360 day year.Then in about 1200 BCE or thereabouts a orbital catastrophe caused the years to be 365 days and some change.(possibly the result of the long day of Joshua)
Gen 1:20-23
| וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יִשְׁרְצ֣וּ הַמַּ֔יִם שֶׁ֖רֶץ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֑ה וְעוֹף֙ יְעוֹפֵ֣ף עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רְקִ֥יעַ הַשָּׁמָֽיִם: 20 |
| כא וַיִּבְרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים וְאֵ֣ת כָּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ הַֽחַיָּ֣ה | הָֽרֹמֶ֡שֶׂת אֲשֶׁר֩ שָֽׁרְצ֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם לְמִֽינֵהֶ֗ם וְאֵ֨ת כָּל־ע֤וֹף כָּנָף֙ לְמִינֵ֔הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב: 21 |
| כב וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹהִ֖ים לֵאמֹ֑ר פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֗וּ וּמִלְא֤וּ אֶת־הַמַּ֨יִם֙ בַּיַּמִּ֔ים וְהָע֖וֹף יִ֥רֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ: 22 |
| כג וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם חֲמִישִֽׁי: 23 |
“And God said ,may the waters run with living creatures and flying birds upon the earth and upon the face of the expanse of the heavens”
Verse 21″ And God created the great monsters of the waters (whales likely) and every living creature that creeps to which swarm the waters in according to their kind,and all the flying fowl according to it’s kind, and God saw that is was good”
Verse 22 “God blessed all of them and said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas (and oceans),and may birds multiply upon the earth”
Verse 23″ And it was evening and morning on the fifth day”
The Bible was well ahead of science in saying that life came first from the sea!And the Taninim or monsters may have been whales or even dinosaurs and dinosaurs may have died in the Noachian flood for whatever reason it was just for that to happen.Some animals after the angels mated with human women may also been corrupted by inter species breeding and lost their place on the Ark of salvation.So science will never dispute that fish,birds and lizards came before large mammals.
I think we will stop here and we have discussed what I feel is most crucial and important.I think we can say that creation happened as Genesis/B’reishit has written and if you have any further questions please leave them in the comments.Thank you and God bless!
“
Truth in Mikra 
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