בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ
Beresheet bara Elohim et ha-shamayim ve'et ha-aretz
In (the) beginning God created the heavens and the earth. What are the secrets behind the creation stories in Genesis? Is Genesis literal, allegory, or majestic prose? What are the forgotten purposes of the creation stories? Purpose: Let’s discuss creation. Plan: We’ll look at Genesis 1-2, pros and cons of some creation theories and more importantly, some secret purposes.
A Few Notes
Beginning
The Hebrew literally says “in beginning” or “in (a) beginning.” Some scholars believe that “In the beginning” should be better translated “in a beginning”. The traditional translation has been followed by most scholars. (Kass, Leon R. The Beginning of Wisdom, University Of Chicago Press. 2006. 27.)
Created
This singular masculine verb “bara” (created) is used with a plural noun, “Elohim” (God). It is a verb that is used only of God. When we human beings fashion anything, we are using pre-existing materials that God already created.
Elohim
A plural intensive word for God is used. The ending “im” is a plural word-ending in Hebrew. We may be familiar with cherubim and seraphim, groups of angels from two distinct classes. A singular verb with a plural noun. This idea of God in the plural is possibly repeated in verse 26 with the word “us.” This is often seen by Christians as the first hint of the Trinity.
The Heavens and the Earth
This is a Hebrew expression meaning the equivalent of the universe, or everything.
Let Us make Mankind
Who are the “us”? Some popular theories are that this represents God and the angels, that this is a leftover from earlier polytheistic accounts, or that God uses the royal plural as in the famous expression “we” are not amused, said by a king or queen. These are all speculation. However, the use of a singular verb with a plural noun is grammatically unique to describing God. For Christians there is another very real possibility, that the word “us” adumbrates (indicates faintly) the Trinity.
The Earliest Account
Hasty thinking has led some to dogmatically and gleefully state that the two complementary creation accounts in Genesis 1-2 are not the earliest. This feeds into a popular desire to prove the Bible as myth. Even if Moses personally wrote all of Genesis including the two creation stories under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then we too must admit that creation accounts from Babylon and Sumeria were earlier. This does not necessarily mean that Moses borrowed mythological stories. It could simply mean that these were memories passed down through many generations, even as a version of the flood story exists in hundreds of cultures.
However, if Moses was one of several editors or redactors of Genesis and not the sole author, that leaves room for the inclusion of very early creation documents and writings handed down by the Patriarchs. If so, we don’t know how ancient these creation stories may have been. Recent archaeology proves that writing came along much earlier in human history than previously speculated, and so old arguments about the patriarchs being illiterate are now seen as irrelevant prejudice.
Creation Theories
Let’s now examine a few of the many, many creation theories and some of their strengths and weaknesses:
Godless Evolution
A popular theory today is evolution without God. It has roots in ancient eastern and western philosophies often called naturalism and materialism. A strength is that it attempts to be honest with popular interpretation of the geological record. This paradigm also exposes science’s greatest weakness, ignoring divinity.
Theistic Evolution
A popular theory is God-directed evolution. This is one of several “old earth” theories. A strength of this theory is that it also tries to be honest with the prevailing paradigm interpreting the geological record. A weakness is that it elevates potentially dishonest and fallible human testimony and demotes God’s Word. Also microevolution within a kind is observable, as dog breeding shows, but proof of macroevolution, into another family entirely, has never been observed and remains elusive.
The Day-Age Theory
Another popular “old earth” theory is that the days of Genesis 1 are not literal days but ages, possibly millions of years. A strength of this theory is that it acknowledges popular interpretation of the geological record. A weakness is ignoring the context where the length of a creation day is defined as being evening and morning.
The Gap Theory
Yet another “old earth” theory is that the devil ruined things after Genesis 1:1. This is also called the ruin-restoration or restoration theory, and postulates a gap of perhaps millions of years followed by a re-creation in verse 2. A strength is attempting to harmonize popular paradigms of the geological record with the Bible, with some limited scriptural backing: the Holy Spirit “renewed” the face of the waters (Psalms 104:30) and angels were a previous creation (Job 38:4-7). Some weaknesses are that Romans 5:14 says that death reigned from Adam to Moses, and geologists have difficulty with a worldwide cataclysm 6,000 years ago. The gap is pure speculation.
The 6 Day Theory
This is the most literal interpretation and often referred to as a “young earth” theory. Some strengths are that a creation “day” is clearly defined by the context as evening and morning, not an allegorical day. Some creation scientists claim that carbon dating is grossly distorted and that the geological record can be interpreted in a manner consistent with a young earth.
One scientific weakness of a literal understanding is how to explain light coming from distant stars millions of light years away. Various theories by creation scientists attempt a clarification but are in the realm of pure speculation. We simply don’t know enough. A linguistic weakness is explaining the creation of light before the sun’s creation. The common explanation is that they were covered by clouds until the fourth day. But this seems to be contradicted by the words, “And God made two great lights” (KJV). Another weakness is that popular paradigms of the geological record and carbon dating point to a much older world, though that is disputed and not all scientists agree.
Though use of the word expanse has clearly two different meanings, the atmosphere and the universe, this seeming contradiction is clarified by the understanding of context. Like the word day, “expanse” can also have different meanings in different contexts.
A Polemic Theory
A polemic is a hostile attack. Was Genesis 1 an attack upon nature worship showing that God created what people worshipped as gods? A strength of this theory is that ancients did worship nature as many gods. A weakness of this theory is that if this is a polemic, the genre is not obviously so.
Augustine’s Allegory Theory
Augustine and others taught that Genesis was a creation allegory. A strength of that idea is that it could explain some of the internal puzzles. A weakness of that argument could be Jesus’ acknowledgement that from the beginning God made them male and female (Mark 10:6). Many Christians have also interpreted Genesis as history.
Majestic Prose
Another theory is that Genesis is stylized history (the original meaning of the word myth), majestic prose, elevated prose, or a festive overture. Some strengths of this view are rhythmic parts in days 1,2,3 parallel to days 4,5,6 and its stylistic use of the number 7. A weakness is that if it was only stylized prose, then many people throughout history have missed that point.
Intelligent Design (The Teleological Argument)
Intelligent design challenges science as deliberately ignoring God. Scientists ignore their own forensic scientific methods when it comes to the existence of God. One strength of this teleological argument (evidence of design in nature) is that it is older than Socrates’ term “nous” (νοῦς, divine “intelligence”) and Plato’s “creationist manifesto”. A fine-tuned universe demands a tuner. Natural selection has great difficulty explaining irreducible complexity without a designer. Even specified complexity such as in DNA is hard to explain without a designer.
There are some weaknesses in the intelligent design movement. Some Christians believe that intelligent design reduces God to a mere engineer. Many intelligent design proponents avoid including the Bible in their arguments. Many scientists reject intelligent design as not able to be tested empirically. Scientists who are Christians complain of discrimination which excludes opinions of those who believe in intelligent design.
Postlude
This is the beginning of a lifelong journey, as we begin our study of the words that God breathed into ancient texts, still relevant today. Some have called the Bible the instruction book from our Maker. Let's enjoy learning about the blessings He has in store for us.
