Here is a literal synthesis of Genesis 1:1-19 that shows that the Biblical account of creation is in perfect harmony with the scientific one. In fact, it makes a very strong case for the inspiration of the Bible.
Genesis 1 under Fire
1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The Bible starts off with God creating the universe. It should be noted that the existence of God is assumed and never argued in the Bible. This statement immediately catches our attention as it proclaims a beginning. It tells us that the universe did not always exist. God existed before the universe and created it. This tells us that the God of the Bible transcends space and time. He is the transcendent personal creator that formal arguments like the Kalam Cosmological one require. A being not limited by space and time. An uncaused first cause that violates no formal rule or logical principle.
Anyone with any science training in science should see a direct corrolary between Genesis 1:1 and Big Bang Cosmology. Science has unequivocally demonstrated that our universe had a beginning from General Relativity to the Big Bang to the second law of thermodynamics. Not to mention all the philosphical problems that arise in an infinite universe.
It should also be noted that the word used for create in Genesis 1:1 (bara) is used only in describing divine activity. The subject of this verb is always God. It is a type of creating that only God can do. On a side note, reading verses like John 1:1 we see that Jesus Christ also created all things. Clearly evidence of his Deity.
Hebrews 11:3 "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."
"[T]he universe we can see, detect, and measure was made from that which we cannot see, detect, or measure." (Ross, The Genesis Question, pg 20.)
The Biblical declaration of a transcendant creator who created the the entire universe goes unchallenged when placed next to other "holy books." Hugh Ross on page 20 in the Genesis Question tells us that, "No other "holy book" makes such a claim on its own. The concept appears elsewhere only in those books that borrow from the Bible, such as the Koran and the Mormon wrtiings. Ross also goes on to say that, "New scientific support for a hot big-bang creation event, for the validity of the space-time theorem of general relativity, and for ten-dimensional string theory verifies the Bibles claim for a beginning."
It should also be noted that the words translated "heavens and earth" (shamayim and erets )have many different meanings in Hebrew. Hebrew is a very small language. The english language has millions of words while Biblical Hebrew has just over 3,000. But these two words form a coumpound noun and consistently refer to the entire physical universe when found together.
On a side note here are some of the definitions of shamayin and erets.
samayin (shamayin is the plural form hence heavens)
heaven, heavens, sky, visible heavens, sky, as abode of the stars, as the visible universe, the sky, atmosphere, Heaven (as the abode of God)
"Erets is applied in a more or less extended sense-- (1) to the whole world, (Genesis 1:1) (2) to land as opposed to sea, (Genesis 1:10) (3) to a country, (Genesis 21:32) (4) to a plot of ground, (Genesis 23:15) and (5) to the ground on which a man stands. (Genesis 33:3)" [Smith's Bible Dictionary]
erets
land, the entire earth, country, territory, district, region, tribal territory, piece of ground, land of the living
You should be able to find these definitions in any concordance or dictionary. The reason I gave the definitions is because of the importance of the meaning of the word erets in determining the extent of the Genesis Flood. It shows that a localized flood can also be literally gleaned from the Bible and that the waters need not cover the entire earth but a small portion of it according to the acccount. The Flood account is often labeled 'an exaggeration of history" because there is a lot of evidence for localized floods like the one described in the Bible. But I fear I am starting to chase rabbits and must get back on course.
We are now moving on to Genesis 1:2 which is a very important verse that changes our reference frame during the creation account. We started off with God creating everything. We now jump to the earth.
Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Our reference frame is now on the earth's surface not in the starry realm. The text says "darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Ross in the Genesis Question on pg 24, (figure 3.1) tells us that ,"The events of the six Genesis creation days are described from the point of view of the surface of the ocean, underneath the cloud layer, as the second verse of Genesis clearly states." This is a crucial shift as we will soon see.
Genesis 1:3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light."
Is this the creation of electromagnetic radiation? The first appearance of light? According to science it cannot be as the sun was around before the earth. Light was created in the beginning. The initial conditions of the earth's surface was darkeness. There were still planetesimals and all kinds of debris from our original solar nebula surrounding the earth. New evidence in planetary formation shows that all planets start off with thick layers of gases surrounding them. (info from Astronomer Hugh Ross) Planetary debris and these gases keep sunlight from reaching the surface of new planets. Planets start off with opaque atmospheres and this makes the surface dark. This is what the bible is describing. It is only referring to one small part of the electromagnetic spectrum: visible light. It is also not saying that electrons went up an orbital and came back down for the very first time. As verse 1:2 shows, our perspective is on the earth's surface and light appeared (aka sunlight was starting to break through the debris and gas).
The Hebrew supports this. "The Hebrew verb used in God's opening statement, "Let there be light," is haya, meaning "to exist; to be; to happen; or to come to pass." The verbs bara, asa, and yasar, meaning "create," "make," and "form," respectively are not used, and this word choice makes sense." (Ross, The Genesis Question pg 30-31)
Gravity would have over time cleared up some debis and stuff. Genesis 1:3 when understood properly accurately describes the early state of our atmosphere and its transition from opaque to translucent. We now move on to verses 4 and 5 which go together.
Genesis 1:4-5 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
Now that the atmosphere is no longer opaque we can tell that there is such a thing as day and night. The suns light wasn't able to reach the surface and therefore day and night were nonexistant on the earth until this time.But now that the light comes through we can tell that here is a day and night cycle. It should be noted that the sun still cannot be seen from earth at this time. The atmosphere has gotten more light-permeable but it is not until its transition from translucent to transparent that the outline of the sun can be seen.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the creation account between Christians is the length of the "days" in Genesis. Young-earthers argue that God created everything in 6 days. Old-earthers like myself would say God created this stuff over billions of years. Now I want to point out to young-earthers and others alike that I am not saying it is impossible for God to have created the universe in 6 days. If he wanted to I assume he could have. But I am distinguishing here between what God could have done and what God did do.
We all naturally (newtonian thinking) assume one day is exactly 24 hours no matter what. But one day on on Jupiter is about nine hours. On Venus, one day is longer than its entire year!!! It takes longer to rotate once about its axis than it does to traverse one complete revolution around the sun on Venus! To God a day is a thousand years.... Einstien came along and radically changed our newtonian view of space and time. Gerald L. Schroeder in his book "The Science of God" has argued that God could have created the universe in 6 days in his reference but from ours it took 15 billion years. This may sound like science-fiction but rest assured it is not. There is a time dilation formula that anyone who knows simple algebra can use. The postulates of relativity are the roots of time dilation. There are no absolute reference frames and the speed of light is always constant regardless of its source's motion (2 postulates of relativity). Using these facts we could create a "light clock" and very easily demonstrate in a thought experiment that time does dilate. Time is not universal. All of our times travel at slightly different rates. The difference in rates is so small that here on earth we call them negligible or zero. Traveling at relativistic speeds changes the picture entirely. There are a few parts of Shhroeder's work/interpretation that I disagree with but I generally find his info to be very interesting. Especially the time dilation stuff. I would suggest picking up a copy of that book. On a side note, I have quoted from Hugh Ross already and will continue to do so. I would definately suggest any of Hugh Ross' work/books as his material is very accurate, well researched, and up to date. You can visit his online ministry at
www.reasons.org as well.
We briefly touched on the "days" in Genesis up above. The Niv study Bible text note on verse 1:5 (first appearance of the word "day" in the Bible) says, "Some say the creation days were 24-hour days, others that they were indefinate periods." I want to delve a little deeper into the subject and look at the Hebrew meanings of the word translated "day."
The word for "day" in the Genesis account is yowm. Yom means a few things: sunrise to sunset, sunset to sunrise, a space of time (defined by an associated term), an age; time or period (without any reference to solar days). The third definition of yowm up above shows why the Niv text note says, "Some say the creation days were 24-hour days, others that they were indefinate periods." It says that because a literal interpretation of the text can also say 6 epochs instead of 6 days. There is noithing in the Genesis account that must be translated as 6 literal 24 hour days. Look up the word "day" in a concordance or Hebrew lexicon.
Look at Genesis 2:4 The word yowm can be found in there but it does not refer to a literal 24 hour period. It refers to God's creative week. "The word "day" sometimes signifies an indefinite time (Genesis 2:4; Isaiah 22:5; Hebrews 3:8, etc.). In Job 3:1 it denotes a birthday, and in Isaiah 2:12, Acts 17:31, and 2 Timothy 1:18, the great day of final judgment." [Easton's Bible Dictionary]
Some have suggetsed that because of the ordinal (ie fist day, second day etc) that the "days" must be interpreted as 6/24 hour periods. "This argument can be challenged on several counts. For one, it is true only for passages describing days of human activity rather than days of divine activity. For another, nowhere else does the Bible have the occasion to enumerate sequential epochs. More important, the rules of Hebrew grammar do not require that yôm must refer to twenty-four hours, even when attached to an ordinal.
Hosea 6:2 prophesies that "after two days he [God] will revive us [Israel]; on the third day he will restore us." For centuries Bible commentators have noted that the "days" in this passage (where the ordinal is used) refer to a year, years, a thousand years, or maybe more. [Ross, Creation and Time, chapter 5 which is available online]
We now move on to the "evening" and "morning" in the Genesis account. We have discussed a lot so I will quote the scripture I am referring to in case anyone has forgotten it: "And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day. (Gen 1:5)" We already went through the "day" but do "evening" and "morning" signify a literal 24 hour day? Well, here are the Hebrew words translated morning and evening and their definitions:
The words translated evening and morning in hebrew are the words 'ereb' and boqer'
ereb: the beginning of darkness; dusk, twilight, or nightfall; closing, ending, or completion.
boqer: the breaking forth of light; dawn, daybreak, or morning; dawning, beginning or origin.
If you look in a concordance you should see this stuff.
"The Hebrew word 'ereb, translated evening, also means "sunset," "night," or "ending of the day." And the word boqer, translated morning, also means "sunrise," "coming of light," "beginning of day," "break of day," or "dawning," with possible metaphoric usage.
In other words, evening and morning refer to the beginning and ending components of "day," however it is used. For example, "in my grandfather's day" refers to my grandfather's lifetime. So the morning and evening of his day would be his youth and old age." [Ross, Creation and Time, chapter 5, available online]
There is also a very unusual syntax regarding the wording of Genesis 1:5 and the other "days" mentioning "evening" and "morning" in Genesis 1 contain this very unusual syntax as well. The Bible, apparently, leaves the age of the earth and universe open. It should be noted that Christians argue way to much over the age of the Earth and universe. The Bible is much more concerned with who created the universe and why it was created than when this agent created the universe. I usaully avoid young earth/old earth debates. If you want to believe that the earth is 6,000 or 4.6 billion years old then you are free to do so. But as I have shown, it is Biblically ok to believe in a 4.6 billion year old earth and a 14.5 billion (as three new measurements in 1999 suggested) year old universe. You can read enthusiastically about the new findings in 10 Dimensional superstring thoery while being a Christian who humbly reads and follows God's word!
One other area of the "day" debate that I felt needed to be addressed is the use of the word "day" in one of the 10 Commandments.
Exodus 20:8-11, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Does this declare that the creation account must be interpreted as a literal seven 24 hour day week? No it does not. The Bible tells us to work 6 days and to rest one. The Bible teaches that God created everything in 6 epochs and had 1 "epoch" of rest. This commandment is pointing to God's creative week as an analogy. This point is further driven home by Exodus 23:10-12.
"For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. 12 "Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed."
6 days of work to one of rest.
6 epochs of creation to one of rest
6 years of sowing and harvesting and one of rest
The common ratio here is 6 to 1. As we see, there is nothing in the Bible requiring a 168 hour creative week. We are now moving on to verses 6-8.
Genesis1:6-8 "And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day.
I very rarely see objections raised about this verse so I will be brief. This verse seems to be a description of the formation of our troposphere. Remember the account is given from the reference from of a human observer on the earth's surface. God himself designed our atmosphere and the way it would work.
Genesis 1:9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.
Early earth had a primordial ocean covering the planet. The only land that existed was at the bottom of the ocean. Dry ground appeared. I rarely see anyone fuss over these verses either so I will move on to the next verses.
Genesis 1:11-13 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.
The Bible does not say all land vegetation was produced here. God chose this time for the earth to flourish with vegetation. It should also be noted that this land vegetation was created before the sun. I will go over that dilemna when we get to the 4th day.
"The words "seed," "trees," and "fruit" have much more specific meaning in English than in Hebrew, and this difference has laed to some misunderstanding and unwarrented criticism of the text. The Hebrew nouns used here, zera, es, and peri, mean, respectively, "semen" or "the embryos of any plant species," "any large plant containing woody fiber," and "the food and / or embryos produced by any living thing." Zera and peri could refer to any plant species that has ever existed. The es certianly includes all large plants containing cellulose and could possibly refer to all larger-than-microscopic plants whose fibers provide a measure of stiffness. Thus, these terms do include the relatively primitive plant species scientists have identified as the first land vegetation." [Hugh Ross, the Genesis Question, pg 39]
Genesis 1:14-19 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day."
Does the Bible really teach the sun came after the plants? How could the plants survive without the sun? Young earthers have attempted to discredit the "day age" interpretation of scripture saying that if each "day" (we already covered "day") were millions or billions of years then how could the plants survive without the sun until day four? THey claim that their literal 24 hour interpretation solves this dilemna in that the plants could have made it for one day. This is not true. Without the sun the tempreature would have been close to absolute zero. It would have been way to cold for plants to even survive one day. Young earth creationists must appeal to the God of the gaps and say God sustained the plants to resolve this dilemna. I will appeal to the Hebrew language and verse 1:2 which establishes our reference frame.
These verse do not describe the creation of our sun and moons for the first time but the transition of our atmosphere from translucent to transparent. As we pointed out, the earth started off dark. Verse two establishes our reference frame as the surface of the earth. Verse 3 describes the transition of our atmosphere from opaque to translucent. While translucent the surface could make out day and night but the sun and moon and stars were still not visible. On day four the visible outline of the sun was able to pierce through the earths atmosphere for the very fisrt time. Remember the atmosphere was a lot thicker at first. Part of the thinning is attributed to the slowing rate of the earths rotation and a few other factors. Verse 16 (a parenthetical note) may cause some to dispute what I just said but here is verse 16 and yet another quote from Dr. Hugh Ross,
Genesis 1:16 "God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars."
The Hebrew verb asa tranlated "made" appears in the appropriate form for completed action. (There are no verb tenses in the Hebrew language to parallel verb tenses in English, but threee Hebrew verb forms are used to denote action already completed, and commands.) [Hugh Ross, the Genesis Question, pg 44.]
Verse 17-18 tells us why the sun was created. "God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness."
This seems to hint that the sun was already in existence which helps drive home the point i am trying to make. On day three God made light on earth and we had evening and morning. This is the suns job. So far we have made it up to verse 19 and have found no contradictions between special and general revelation.
We are now moving on to God creating living creatures building up to the main event. the creation of man. I just wanted to mention before we procede that insects aren't mentioned anywhere in the Hebrew text. A few unwarranted criticisms of the text have resulted from a misunderstanding. The "creeping thing" as translated in the KJV (verse 24), refers to mammals, Not insects!
Genesis 1:20-23 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day."
The hebrew nouns used for the animals in these verses are sheres, nephesh, and op. Not every sea dweilling creature was made at this time. These verses mention the creation of sea mammals generically.
"This Genesis passage mentions only the water-dwelling sheres and does not specify which kinds of sheres appeared in the water on this fifth day. Water-dwelling sheres are the most primitive creatures that require the visibility of the heavenly boies to regulate their biological clocks." [Ross, genesis Question, pg 47]
This work is in progress still. This is as far as I have made it. I will update as I get the time.
Peace,
Vinnie