07 Specific points in Genesis 1 - 11

Specific points in Genesis 1-11 The definition of the word day Context always determines the meaning of a word. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew lexicon has the following definition for the word day as used in Genesis Chapter 1: d. day as defined by evening and morning⁴Gen 1:5; Gen 1:8; Gen 1:13; Gen 1:19; Gen 1:23; Gen 1:31

While day does have different meanings in different contexts, morning and evening always refer to morning and evening of a 24-hour day. Day, when used with morning, evening and a number emphatically means a 24-hour day.

Analysis of a few verses

“God called the lightday, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, oneday.” (Gen 1:5) In this verse, the word day is used twice. In the first case it refers to the daylight part of the day and in the second case when it is used with “evening and morning” and also a number, it can only mean a 24-hour day. Other verses which use “evening, morning and a number” are Gen 1:8, Gen 1:13, Gen 1:19, Gen 1:23, Gen 1:31.

Verses where day is used with a number or context to indicate a 24-hour day:

“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” (Gen 2:2)

Gen 2:2, Gen 2:3, Gen 5:1, Gen 5:2, Gen 7:4, Gen 7:10, Gen 7:11, Gen 7:12, Gen 7:17, Gen 7:24, Gen 8:3, Gen 8:4, Gen 8:6, Gen 8:10, Gen 8:12, Gen 8:14, Gen 15:18, Gen 17:12, Gen 17:23, Gen 17:26, Gen 21:4, Gen 21:8, Gen 21:26, Gen 22:4, Gen 24:55, Gen 30:32, Gen 30:35, Gen 30:36, Gen 31:22, Gen 31:23, Gen 31:43, Gen 31:48, Gen 33:13, Gen 33:16, Gen 34:25, Gen 39:11, Gen 40:7, Gen 40:12, Gen 40:13, Gen 40:18, Gen 40:19, Gen 40:20, Gen 42:13, Gen 42:17, Gen 42:18, Gen 42:32, Gen 48:15, Gen 50:3, Gen 50:10.

Verses where day is used to mean the daylight portion of a day:

“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;” (Gen 1:14)

Gen 1:14, Gen 1:16, Gen 1:18, Gen 3:8, Gen 8:22, Gen 18:1, Gen 24:12, Gen 24:42, Gen 26:32, Gen 29:7, Gen 31:39, Gen 31:40, Gen 41:9, Gen 48:20.

Verses where day is used for an undetermined amount of time or a specified long period of time:

“This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.” (Gen 2:4)

“The Lord God said to the serpent,“Because you have done this,Cursed are you more than all cattle,And more than every beast of the field;On your belly you will go,And dust you will eatAll the days of your life;” (Gen 3:14)

Gen 2:4, Gen 2:17, Gen 3:5, Gen 3:14, Gen 3:17, Gen 4:3, Gen 4:14, Gen 5:4, Gen 5:5, Gen 5:8, Gen 5:11, Gen 5:14, Gen 5:17, Gen 5:20, Gen 5:23, Gen 5:27, Gen 5:31, Gen 6:3, Gen 6:4, Gen 6:5, Gen 8:22, Gen 9:29, Gen 10:25, Gen 11:32, Gen 14:1, Gen 18:11, Gen 19:37, Gen 19:38, Gen 21:34, Gen 22:14, Gen 24:1, Gen 25:7, Gen 25:24, Gen 26:1, Gen 26:8, Gen 26:15, Gen 26:18, Gen 26:33, Gen 27:2, Gen 27:41, Gen 27:44, Gen 27:45, Gen 29:20, Gen 29:21, Gen 30:14, Gen 30:33, Gen 32:32, Gen 35:3, Gen 35:20, Gen 35:28, Gen 35:29, Gen 37:34, Gen 38:8, Gen 39:10, Gen 40:4, Gen 41:1, Gen 43:9, Gen 44:32, Gen 47:9, Gen 47:23, Gen 47:26, Gen 47:28, Gen 47:29, Gen 49:1, Gen 50:4, Gen 50:20.

Rapidly matured creation During the creation week, there are a number of things that needed to be matured very quickly.

• The food for the marine animals had to be mature or grow within a day.

• The vegetation for the animals had to grow quickly (as in a day or 2).

• The animals and birds had to be mature enough to fend for themselves.

• Adam had to be formed mature enough to take care of himself and tend the garden.

• Eve was fashioned mature from the rib of the man.

• The sun, moon and stars had to be created in a way so that the light from them was visible for them to serve as lights and signs for days, seasons and years. God, as the all-powerful creator, can cause all of the star formations to happen very quickly on day four of creation, and to cause the light to get to earth in an instant as well. After this, He could then cause the “natural laws” that He put into place to take over.

• The text specifically says that by the end of day six, the heavens, the earth and the heavenly lights were completed. (Gen 2:1)

Creation week processes

While Genesis is primarily a history book, it provides some clues as to what happened during the creation week. Miracles, including creation, are by definition not explainable by science.

• Godseparatedthe light from the darkness. (Gen 1:4) Separating would appear to refer to a process. When someone separates something, it is a process.

• God made the expanse, andseparatedthe waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse (Gen 1:7)

• Let the waters below the heavensbe gatheredinto one place, and let the dry land appear";(Gen 1:9) “Be gathered” refers to a process.

• Let the earthsprout vegetation: plants yielding seed,andfruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them" (Gen 1:11)

The earthbrought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; (Gen 1:12) In these verses, we again see a process. According to the text, it would appear that this process happened within a day.

• "Let the earthbring forthliving creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind" (Gen 1:24) “Bring forth” is a process

• Then the LORD Godformedman of dust from the ground, (Gen 2:7) “formed” is a process

• Out of the ground the LORD Godformedevery beast of the field and every bird of the sky (Gen 2:19)

• The LORD Godfashionedinto a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, (Gen 2:22) The word “fashioned” really means to build.

As we examine these verses, we see that in the six days of creation, God accelerated the growing and maturing process. The question is asked regarding the stars and galaxies. Did all of what we see in the heavens really happen as actual history, or is it just a deception? To answer this question, we must first look at some presuppositions that we may have. Some possible ones:

• Everything that has happened, has always done so in a uniform way.

• The physical laws were in place from the beginning (day 1) of creation.

• God is limited to doing things according to the physical laws that He has established for the universe.

While we do not know exactly how God created the heavens and what the actual explanation is for what we see (aside from what we are told – “God said or spoke” and it happened), there are some theories that people have come up with. However, we do get a possible explanation from Scripture which is likely a much better explanation:

It isHe who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He hasstretched out the heavens. (Jer 10:12)( Is 42:5; 45:12; 51:13; Jer 51:15)

It is highly likely, that on day four, when He created the sun, moon and stars, He created them, and caused all of what we see, to happen very rapidly on that day. Therefore, it is actual history in terms of what has happened; it is just that it happened extremely quickly on day four. As a side note, the secular model calls for the rapid expansion of the universe at the time of the “big bang” to have happened from about 10^-36 of a second to about 10^-32of a second⁵. During this tiny fraction of a second, the universe is supposed to have expanded from a singularity to many billion light years across. It would appear that the Biblical explanation is far more believable since it has a cause for all that happened. The whole of creation proclaims the attributes, power and divine nature of God.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Rom 1:20) The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. (Psa 19:1)

Since the creation had to be created mature (or rapidly matured) in order for it to function, it would have had the appearance of age. Some have said that God would be deceptive by saying that the universe is less than 10,000 years old when it would appear that it needs to be much older than this. There is no deception in this because He clearly states how long He took to create the earth and He provided us with a chronological record to date the universe. Everything that we see actually happened in history. He also states that His attributes and power can be seen in creation, but does not say that by looking at creation you can determine its age. Creation was a miracle, and just like other miracles, a scientific, naturalistic explanation is not going to work. Creation and miracles points to God.

Other Miracles in the Bible Miracles were frequently given for signs that point to God. Some examples:

• Moses was given the sign of his hand being made leprous. (Exo 4:6-7) Normally, the process of becoming leprous or being healed from it would take time, but here it happened very quickly.

• It would appear that God did not instantaneously make frogs, etc. appear, but rather that they reproduced very quickly.

  • The plague of the frogs (Exo 8:2-6).

  • The plague of the Gnats (Exo 8:16-19).

  • The plague of the Flies (Exo 8:20-24).

  • The plague of the Locusts (Exo 10:4-15).

• Regarding the dust of the earth that became gnats; was this deceptive? Were the gnats real or not? It is obvious that by the power of God, the sand became gnats.

• In Jos 10:12-14, God extended the length of the day about a whole day.

• In Jon 4:6-7, God made a plant grow up very quickly and whither very quickly.

• Jeroboam’s hand withered very quickly, and after the man of God prayed, it was restored quickly. (1Ki 13:4-6)

• Jesus turned water into wine. (John 2:6-9). This is a process that would normally take months, but it was done in a very short period of time.

• Jesus fed the 5000. (Mat 14:15-21) Note here that it does not seem that a huge mountain of food appeared all of a sudden. As they passed out the food, there was always more in their basket to give.

• Paul’s sight restored (Acts 9:17-18).

As we look at these and the many other miracles that are recorded, we can see that some of the reasons for them is to point people to God and verify God’s Word.

There is just no “scientific” way, and this includes our own observations, to explain miracles. What we call miracles are just a normal way of God working and we need to accept that. Creation itself is a miracle, so we cannot expect to be able to understand it.

If God were not telling the truth in His Word regarding the chronologies and the age of the earth, then He would be deceptive and lying. Jesus Himself said that:

““For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Mat 5:18) (Luk 16:17)

Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? (Mark 12:24) It is impossible for God to lie. in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, (Tit 1:2)

Paul writes:

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2Ti 2:15) Use of existing material for the composition of Genesis There are some indications that Moses had some sources that had been passed down to him.

• This is thebookof the generations of Adam (Gen 5:1) Here we have a specific mention of a source.

• As already pointed out, there are a number of references that indicate that “these are the generations of ….). We note that the formula used is somewhat different in the various accounts. For instance,

  • Adam’s list follows a formula of father lived XXX years and became the father of son. He then lived XXX years and all the days of father were XXX years.

  • Shem’s list is similar but leaves out the total years lived. Father was XXX years old when he had son. Father lived XXX years after he became the father of son.

  • Terah’s list gives even less information, but with referencing other passages, we can determine all the ages from Terah to Joseph.

  • The other accounts generally provide more of a historical narrative and do not focus on the ages so much.

• The verses that provide the data to establish approximately when creation happened is discussed in this PDF and in Appendix A

Genealogies – are there gaps?

Some claim that there are gaps in the genealogies of Genesis because there are gaps in other genealogies in other parts of the Bible. So, let’s take a look at that.

• The list in Genesis 5 from Adam to Noah always specifies that the father was a certain age when he had a specific son. There is no place in this list that a gap can be inserted.

• The list in Genesis 11 from Shem to Terah also always specifies the age of the father when he had a certain son.

• From Terah on, we do not have a list as such, but we do have the records in various passages that either tell us the age of the father at the birth of the son, or it can be calculated from information that is provided. The narratives make it clear that

  • Terah was the father of Abraham

  • Abraham was the father of Isaac

  • Isaac was the father of Jacob

  • Jacob was the father of Joseph (and the other brothers)

There are a couple of textual transmission problems that should be mentioned.

• In the Masoretic text, which we have in our Bibles, (though the early church generally used the Septuagint) the name of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad is left out. Luke was using the Septuagint version when he was writing. While this has been used to support a gap in the genealogies in Genesis it is simply not true. Cainan was in the original text and sometime in the transmission of the text, a copyist, whether accidentally or on purpose deleted his name. Even if Cainan was not original in the text, it does not show a gap, but rather a textual transmission issue.

• The Masoretic text and the Septuagint have some different numbers for some of the ages in the genealogies. It appears that the Masoretic text was changed (on purpose) sometime in the 2^nd or 3^rd century AD. There is enough textual evidence to get very close to reconstructing the original numbers. A brief overview is given in this PDF or in Appendix B. A more detailed discussion is found on the ABR Website. Regardless of which one is true, the possible range of creation is from about 4100 BC to about 5600 BC. This makes the universe less than 8000 years old.

There are places in other parts of the Bible where all the descendants are not listed. In each case, the age of the father at the birth of a son is not given since it is provided to show a lineage. For example, inMat 1:8, Joram is listed as the father of Uzziah, but he omits three descendants between them. The obvious purpose of Matthew is to show the lineage of Jesus back to David and Abraham as the promised Messiah. The obvious intent of the Genesis chronologies in their context is to provide an actual historical account. Along with the rest of the historical narrative, the purpose may well have been polemic to refute the other creation accounts and the gods that they worshipped. We are still facing the same issue today. If the secular worldview, evolution and long ages are true, then the Bible is false. If the Bible is true, then the secular worldview is false.

Gap betweenGen 1:1;Gen 1:3?

There are some that would suggest a long gap between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:3 in order to get some long ages inserted. Andrew Steinman refutes this:

Moreover, unless one posits an unmentioned (and, therefore, unlikely) gap in time between the creation of heaven and earth and God’s activity beginning at 1:3, the creation mentioned in 1:1 is part of the activity that is later summed up by 1:5 as one day.⁶ The way that the first five verses are written (remembering that verse divisions did not exist until sometime from about 900 AD to 1300 AD) indicates that they were describing one day. Additionally, Gen 1:8 says “second” day, Gen 1:13 says “third day” etc. The obvious, plain reading is that Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 describes the first seven days of creation.

Aside from this account, God again says in Exodus that He created in six days, so there can be no gap here. (Exo 20:11, Exo 31:17) In both of these accounts, it specifically says that God was speaking. The Flood and the geological column The layers in the “geological column” are often used to support an old earth, but does the evidence really support this? While there is a lot of evidence to support the account of Noah’s flood in the time period stated, we will list just a few examples. More can be found on websites such as Answers in Genesis or books such as “Earth’s Catastrophic Past”⁷.

• Marine fossils on high mountains.

• Evidence of rapid burial of animals and plants.

• Upright trees going through supposedly millions of years of sedimentation.

• Marine animals in the Grand Canyon area were fossilized in an upright position.

• Sedimentary layers were bent while still soft.

• The Mount St. Helens eruption and subsequent events show how sedimentation and erosion can happen very quickly.

• Flat coal seams.

• Complex creatures are at the “bottom” of the geological column.

• No evidence of transitional forms.

• Soft tissue in Dinosaur fossils.

Satan’s deception

Note the deception that Satan used with Eve: “Did God really say?” He is still using this same tactic in relation to the historicity of the 6 days of creation and the global flood. The Bible clearly says in more than one place that God created in six literal days and that the flood was global with only those in the ark surviving. Satan is sowing doubt and seeks to undermine the authority and the message (gospel) of the Bible. If the historicity of the creation in six days and the global flood is compromised, the rest of the Bible will also fall because it is based on Genesis.

4 - Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 398.

5 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology)

6 - Andrew E. Steinmann, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. David G. Firth, vol. 1, The Tyndale Commentary Series (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2019), 50.

7 - Snelling, Andrew A. Earth’s Catastrophic Past. Volume 1 & 2. Green Forest, AZ: Master Books, 2009