1.1-31

Genesis

Non-Christian religions will point to a place in history and the circumstances of their origin. Without even realizing it, they are testifying to the One True God, Yahweh. Because in their history, they must acknowledge a simple fact - "something happened BEFORE." The first sentence of the Holy Bible sets Yahweh apart forever because there is no history before God. Genesis opens with that foundation: Who? - God. What? - Created. Where? - Everywhere that exists. When? - THE Beginning. - "In the beginning God CREATED." The word for create used here is בָּרָא Bara’ – to shape, fashion, create "FROM NOTHING." This is completely different from the verb עָשָׂה asah - to do, make, or shape from existing matter, used six verses later "So God MADE the expanse" (v7). It is also completely different from the word יָצַר yatsar – to form, or fashion from existing matter (like a potter), used in the following chapter of Genesis "Then Yahweh God FORMED man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being." (2:7). A well-known scientist and atheist Herbert Spencer died in 1903. He is known for one great discovery. He was thought to be the first to discover that all reality and all that exists in the universe can be contained in five categories: Time, Force, Action, Space, and Matter. He even listed them in that order. But he wasn't the first. Moses wrote it as God delivered it in Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning (Time) God (Force) Created (Action) the heavens (Space) and the earth (Matter). Spencer wasn't even the second. The Apostle John said the same thing in different words 2,000 years ago "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." (John 1:3)

CHAPTER 1

Creation

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
7 So God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
8 And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
16 So God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and also the stars.
17 And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.”
21 And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.”
29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given to you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.