{"id":355415,"date":"2024-02-22T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/?p=355415"},"modified":"2024-02-22T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T13:00:00","slug":"an-exposition-of-genesis-11-3-part-2-setting-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/creation\/earth\/an-exposition-of-genesis-11-3-part-2-setting-the-stage","title":{"rendered":"An Exposition of Genesis 1:1-3, Part 2: Setting the Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In \u201cAn Exposition of Genesis 1:1\u20133, Part 1: Replacing the Cultural Myth<\/a>,\u201d I explained that Genesis 1 replaces the cultural myth on how the human story began. Now, we\u2019ll turn to the question: Does Genesis 1 teach young-earth creationism (YEC)? The key issue is not, as many assume, the meaning of the word \u201cday\u201d (yom<\/em> in Hebrew) but whether the initial creation in Genesis 1:1 happens on or immediately before day 1. When was day 1?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Statement of Stage Setting<\/strong>
We know that Genesis 1:1\u20132<\/a> is stage setting\u2014like arranging a stage before a play begins\u2014for four reasons. First, the word \u201cbeginning\u201d is not a title for the following account but God\u2019s original creating act. Old Testament professor John Sailhamer noted it does not refer \u201cto a point in time but to a\u00a0period<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0duration<\/em>\u00a0of time which falls before a series of events.\u201d1<\/sup> Second, the verbs in 1:1\u20132 are for stage-setting. Another Old Testament professor, John Collins notes that in typical Old Testament \u201cdiscourse grammar,\u201d the perfect tense (i.e., qatal <\/em>verbs), such as b\u0101\u00b7r\u0101\u2019<\/em> (\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0) in 1:1, in the opening of a narrative describes an event that occurred prior to it.2<\/sup> Third, the refrain that begins each day\u2014\u201cand God said\u201d\u2014is in 1:3. Fourth, the waw<\/em> consecutive that begins 1:3 moves the narrative forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four statements of stage setting. First, \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens\u201d (meaning the universe) \u201cand the earth\u201d (this planet). So, the first statement is that God created all things, all matter, all stars, galaxies, the solar system, everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By beginning with God we see God was already there in the beginning. The \u201cbeginning\u201d in Genesis 1:1 is not the beginning of God but the beginning of creation, of us. God is the only One without a beginning. God, by definition, is the beginner. He is uncreated. Everything else is created. That makes God infinitely higher\u2014transcendent\u2014over everything else, including ourselves. This division between God and us can\u2019t be erased. We will always be created beings and God will always be our uncreated Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Statement Refutes Myth, Materialism<\/strong>
When God first inspired Genesis 1, it was a bold statement that all things\u2014the sky, seas, Sun, Moon, stars, etc.\u2014were mere created things and not gods themselves. The pagans believed in a god-filled universe. The Egyptians, for example, sometimes worshipped the Sun. So here in Genesis we are told that the Sun is created; it isn\u2019t a god. The Sun isn\u2019t Apollo making his daily rounds in his chariot across the sky. The stars aren\u2019t gods. Mercury isn\u2019t the messenger of the gods. Venus isn\u2019t the goddess of love and Mars isn\u2019t the god of war. They\u2019re all creations, like us. Except they\u2019re just objects. We, however, have been created in the image of God. As theologian R. C. Sproul<\/a> said, \u201cGenesis is already demythologized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That God created the universe means that he created matter. There are two extreme errors people can fall into with regard to creation. First is materialism, the belief that matter is all there is. Popular science communicator Carl Sagan began his 1980 Cosmos: A Personal Voyage<\/em><\/a> program by declaring that the cosmos\u2014the material universe\u2014\u201cis all that is or was or ever will be.\u201d That wasn\u2019t a scientific statement because it\u2019s not a claim he could prove. It was a statement of faith. It\u2019s materialism and it tells us to live for money, for the stuff you can buy, for your body, what it can feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second error is the pseudo-spirituality that matter doesn\u2019t matter. Some people think that nothing \u201cnatural\u201d is spiritual. The church has struggled with, and sometimes surrendered to, this problem since it was introduced into Greek culture in the ancient world. For nearly a millennium, the highest form of spirituality was seen in the monk or nun who fled from this world and sought God in secluded monasteries or convents. The idea was that truly spiritual people should escape from as many natural concerns as possible. Pseudo-spirituality holds that the spiritual and natural realms have no connection to each other, no Creator who made them both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Puritans didn\u2019t believe that because they didn\u2019t find such a separation in the Bible. Puritan pastor Increase Mather taught \u201cthe Works of God [i.e. nature] have a voice in them, as well as his Word.\u201d3<\/sup> Mather was president of Harvard and was the first person to write a book on comets. His son, Cotton Mather, also a Puritan pastor, was a pioneer in developing inoculations\u2014he\u2019s one of the fathers of vaccines.4<\/sup> Biblical Christians are proscience because we believe God made nature and invites us to study and master it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three More Stage-Setting Statements<\/strong>
The second, third, and fourth scene-setting statements are contained, meaningfully, in fourteen Hebrew words in Genesis 1:2<\/a>, after the seven in 1:1. That is, the purposeful numbers of words in the verses before \u201cAnd God said\u201d set them apart from the days that follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second scene-setting statement (1:2) is \u201cThe earth was without form and void,\u201d or \u201cvoid and desolate.\u201d It was disordered and uninhabited. Earth was not fit for living immediately after creation. To make it so, God worked on it. He made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a distinction between two words we often confuse: creating<\/em> and making<\/em>. In verse 1, God created\u2014out of nothing\u2014everything. There\u2019s a special word there in Hebrew for create: b\u0101\u00b7r\u0101\u2019 (<\/em>\u05d1\u05e8\u05d0). The Hebrew and English lexicon Brown-Driver-Briggs notes that b\u0101\u00b7r\u0101\u2019<\/em> (\u05d1\u05e8\u05d0) is \u201calways of divine activity.\u201d In the Old Testament (OT), \u201ccreate\u201d (b\u0101\u00b7r\u0101\u2019<\/em>) is used exclusively with God as its subject. By contrast, \u201cmake\u201d (\u2018\u0101\u00b7\u015b\u0101h, <\/em>\u05e2\u05b8\u05e9\u05b8\u05c2\u05d4) is not so specific.5<\/sup> God is the only One who creates but humans can make. To \u201cmake\u201d is to manufacture something out of preexisting material. Construction workers make a building out of wood, brick, glass, and other materials. A cook makes a meal out of rice, grain, meat, vegetables, water, etc. But only God can create out of nothing. In the beginning God created everything out of nothing and then started to make it fit for us. Exodus 20:11 describes God \u201cmaking\u201d the previously created world (\u201cFor in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth. . .\u201d), but not the initial creation of Genesis 1:1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third scene-setting statement (1:2), \u201cAnd darkness was over the face of the deep,\u201d implies that the earth was covered with water and, probably, had such thick clouds that light couldn\u2019t penetrate. It was dark and watery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth scene-setting statement, concluding verse 2, \u201cAnd the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.\u201d The verb here\u2014hovering\u2014is used in Deuteronomy 32:11, \u201cLike an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters\u2014or hovers\u2014over its young . . .\u201d It evokes the image of a hen brooding over her chicks. It suggests nurturing, care, attention. Nurturing, by definition, requires time. It is an activity transpiring over an unspecified length of time. In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God is nurturing the earth. Now, the stage is set for the scene to begin. Earth is the stage for this divine drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then day 1 starts in Genesis 1:3<\/a> with \u201cand God said.\u201d First, the phrase starts with a waw<\/em> consecutive (which I discuss here<\/a>, on pages 156\u2013159). Weston Fields, in his seminal young-earth creationist book Unformed and Unfilled<\/em>, labored to show that the waw<\/em> disjunctive which begins 1:2 cannot allow for a gap.6<\/sup>\u00a0But, in so doing, he showed that the waw<\/em> consecutive that begins 1:3 does allow that gap. Second, every day starts with this refrain. Consistency demands that day 1 starts in 1:3, not 1:1. So, the initial creation and the nurturing of the earth to prepare it for the six days happens before the first day.7<\/sup> How long before? The text doesn\u2019t say. Nevertheless, sound exegesis of Genesis 1\u2014the biblical text alone\u2014shows that it teaches that the earth was created and nurtured for an undisclosed time before day 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Endnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. John Sailhamer, Genesis Unbound: <\/em>A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account<\/em><\/a> (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1996), 44.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4, A Linguistic, Literary and Theological Commentary<\/em><\/a> (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 51.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Increase Mather, \u201cThe Latter Sign Discoursed of, in a Sermon Preached at the Lecture of Boston in New-England,\u201d<\/a> August 31, 1682, 22.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. John B. Carpenter, \u201cWhen Puritan Theology Helped Develop Immunology<\/a>,\u201d The Gospel Coalition, April 30, 2020.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled: A Critique of the Gap Theory<\/a><\/em> (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1976), 81\u201383.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon<\/em><\/a>, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing, 1979), 135, 793b.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. For further exegesis establishing that Genesis 1:1\u20132 is the \u201cscene setting\u201d before the days start with \u201cand God said,\u201d see my essay \u201cWhen Was Day One? An Exegetical Answer to the Key Issue with Young Earth Creationism<\/a>,\u201d in Sy Garte and Anik\u00f3 Albert\u2019s God and Nature<\/em> online magazine (Fall 2023).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Explore how Genesis 1:1-3 sets the stage for creation, emphasizing God as Creator and refuting materialism and myth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":588,"featured_media":355428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_person_authors":[402152],"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":"","_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_scheduled":false},"categories":[63985,63993],"tags":[67152,69875,70663],"discipline":[64075],"reading-level":[64149],"class_list":["post-355415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth","category-universe","tag-young-earth-creationism","tag-creator","tag-old-testament","discipline-biblical-studies","reading-level-advanced-deep-dive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Exposition of Genesis 1:1-3, Part 2: Setting the Stage - 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