Understanding
Genesis Chapter 1The first chapter of the Bible gives partial details of some vital steps that God took to prepare the earth for human enjoyment. The chapter does not give every detail; as we read it, we should not be put off if it omits particulars that ancient readers could not have comprehended anyway. For example, in writing that chapter, Moses did not report the function of microscopic algae or bacteria. Such forms of life first came into human view after the invention of the microscope, in the 16th century. Nor did Moses specifically report on dinosaurs, whose existence was deduced from fossils in the 19th century. Instead, Moses was inspired to use words that could be understood by people of his day—but words that were accurate in all they said about earth’s creation.
As you read Genesis chapter 1, from verse 3 onward, you will see that it is divided into six creative "days." Some claim that these were literal 24-hour days, meaning that the entire universe and life on earth were created in less than a week! However, you can easily discover that the Bible does not teach that. The book of Genesis was written in Hebrew. In that language, "day" refers to a period of time. It can be either a lengthy one or a literal day of 24 hours. Even in Genesis all six "days" are spoken of collectively as one lengthy period—‘the day in which Jehovah made earth and heaven.’ (Genesis 2:4; compare 2 Peter 3:8.) The fact is, the Bible reveals that the creative "days," or ages, encompass thousands of years.
A person can see this from what the Bible says about the seventh "day." The record of each of the first six "days" ends saying, ‘and there came to be evening and morning, a first day,’ and so on. Yet, you will not find that comment after the record of the seventh "day." And in the first century C.E., some 4,000 years downstream in history, the Bible referred to the seventh rest "day" as still continuing. (Hebrews 4:4-6) So the seventh "day" was a period spanning thousands of years, and we can logically conclude the same about the first six "days."
The
First and Fourth "Days"It seems that the earth had been established in orbit around the sun and was a globe covered with water before the six "days," or periods, of special creative works began. "There was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep." (Genesis 1:2) At that early point, something—perhaps a mixture of water vapor, other gases, and volcanic dust—must have prevented sunlight from reaching the surface of the earth. The Bible describes the first creative period this way: "God proceeded to say, ‘Let there be light’; and gradually light came into existence," or reached the surface of the earth.—Genesis 1:3, translation by J. W. Watts.
The expression "gradually . . . came" accurately reflects a form of the Hebrew verb involved, denoting a progressive action that takes time to complete. Anyone who reads the Hebrew language can find this form some 40 times in Genesis chapter 1, and it is a key to understanding the chapter. What God began in the figurative evening of a creative period, or age, became progressively clear, or apparent, after the morning of that "day." Also, what was started in one period did not have to be fully completed when the next period began. To illustrate, light gradually began to appear on the first "day," yet it was not until the fourth creative period that the sun, moon, and stars could have been discerned.—Genesis 1:14-19.
The
Second and Third "Days"Before the Creator made dry land appear on the third creative "day," he lifted some of the waters. As a result, the earth was surrounded by a blanket of water vapor. The ancient record does not—and need not—describe the mechanisms used. Instead, the Bible focuses on the expanse between the upper and surface waters. It calls this the heavens. Even today people use this term for the atmosphere where birds and airplanes fly. In due course, God filled this atmospheric heavens with a mix of gases vital for life.
However, during the creative "days," the surface water subsided, so that land appeared. Perhaps using geologic forces that are still moving the plates of the earth, God seems to have pushed ocean ridges up to form continents. This would produce dry land above the surface and deep ocean valleys below, which oceanographers have now mapped and are eagerly studying. (Compare Psalm 104:8, 9.) After dry ground had been formed, another marvelous development occurred. We read: "God went on to say: ‘Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds, the seed of which is in it, upon the earth.’ And it came to be so."—Genesis 1:11.
As discussed in the preceding chapter ("The Handiwork—What Is Behind It?"), photosynthesis is essential for plants. A green plant cell has a number of smaller parts called chloroplasts, which obtain energy from sunlight. "These microscopic factories," explains the book Planet Earth, "manufacture sugars and starches . . . No human has ever designed a factory more efficient, or whose products are more in demand, than a chloroplast."
Indeed, later animal life would depend upon chloroplasts for survival. Also, without green vegetation, earth’s atmosphere would be overly rich in carbon dioxide, and we would die from heat and lack of oxygen. Some specialists give astonishing explanations for the development of life dependent on photosynthesis. For example, they say that when single-celled organisms in the water began to run out of food, "a few pioneering cells finally invented a solution. They arrived at photosynthesis." But could that really be so? Photosynthesis is so complex that scientists are still attempting to unravel its secrets. Do you think that self-reproducing photosynthetic life arose inexplicably and spontaneously? Or do you find it more reasonable to believe that it exists as a result of intelligent, purposeful creation, as Genesis reports?
The appearance of new varieties of plant life may not have ended on the third creative "day." It could even have been going on into the sixth "day," when the Creator "planted a garden in Eden" and "made to grow out of the ground every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food." (Genesis 2:8, 9) And, as mentioned, the earth’s atmosphere must have cleared on "day" four, so that more light from the sun and other heavenly bodies reached planet Earth.
The
Fifth and Sixth "Days"During the fifth creative "day," the Creator proceeded to fill the oceans and the atmospheric heavens with a new form of life—"living souls"—distinct from vegetation. Interestingly, biologists speak, among other things, of the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom, and they divide these into subclassifications. The Hebrew word translated "soul" means "a breather." The Bible also says that "living souls" have blood. Therefore, we may conclude that creatures having both a respiratory system and a circulatory system—the breathing denizens of the seas and heavens—began to appear in the fifth creative period.—Genesis 1:20; 9:3, 4.
On the sixth "day," God gave more attention to the land. He created "domestic" animals and "wild" animals, these being meaningful designations when Moses penned the account. (Genesis 1:24) So it was in this sixth creative period that land mammals were formed. What, though, about humans?
The ancient record tells us that eventually the Creator chose to produce a truly unique form of life on earth. He told his heavenly Son: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26) Man would therefore reflect the spiritual image of his Maker, displaying His qualities. And man would be capable of taking in huge amounts of knowledge. Thus, humans could act with an intelligence surpassing that of any animal. Also, unlike the animals, man was made with a capacity to act according to his own free will, not being controlled mainly by instinct.
In recent years, scientists have researched human genes extensively. By comparing human genetic patterns around the earth, they found clear evidence that all humans have a common ancestor, a source of the DNA of all people who have ever lived, including each of us. In 1988, Newsweek magazine presented those findings in a report entitled "The Search for Adam and Eve." Those studies were based on a type of mitochondrial DNA, genetic material passed on only by the female. Reports in 1995 about research on male DNA point to the same conclusion—that "there was an ancestral ‘Adam,’ whose genetic material on the [Y] chromosome is common to every man now on earth," as Time magazine put it. Whether those findings are accurate in every detail or not, they illustrate that the history we find in Genesis is highly credible, being authored by One who was on the scene at the time.
What a climax it was when God assembled some of the elements of the earth to form his first human son, whom he named Adam! (Luke 3:38) The historical account tells us that the Creator of the globe and life on it put the man he had made in a gardenlike area "to cultivate it and to take care of it." (Genesis 2:15) At that time the Creator may still have been producing new animal kinds. The Bible says: "God was forming from the ground every wild beast of the field and every flying creature of the heavens, and he began bringing them to the man to see what he would call each one; and whatever the man would call it, each living soul, that was its name." (Genesis 2:19) The Bible in no way suggests that the first man, Adam, was merely a mythical figure. On the contrary, he was a real person—a thinking, feeling human—who could find joy working in that Paradise home. Every day, he learned more about what his Creator had made and what that One was like—his qualities, his personality.
Then, after an unspecified period, God created the first woman, to be Adam’s wife. Further, God added greater purpose to their lives with this meaningful assignment: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth." (Genesis 1:27, 28) Nothing can change this declared purpose of the Creator, namely, that the whole earth should be turned into a paradise filled with happy humans living at peace with one another and with the animals.
The material universe, including our planet and life on it, clearly testify to God’s wisdom. So he obviously could foresee the possibility that, in time, some humans might choose to act independently or rebelliously, despite his being the Creator and Life-Giver. Such rebellion could disrupt the grand work of making a global paradise. The record says that God set before Adam and Eve a simple test that would remind them of the need to be obedient. Disobedience, God said, would result in their forfeiting the life that he had given to them. It was caring on the Creator’s part to alert our first ancestors to an erroneous course that would affect the happiness of the whole human race.—Genesis 2:16, 17.
By the close of the sixth "day," the Creator had done everything necessary to fulfill his purpose. He could rightly pronounce everything he had made "very good." (Genesis 1:31) At this point the Bible introduces another important time period by saying that God "proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made." (Genesis 2:2) Since the Creator "does not tire out or grow weary," why is he described as resting? (Isaiah 40:28) This indicates that he ceased performing works of physical creation; moreover, he rests in the knowledge that nothing, not even rebellion in heaven or on earth, can thwart the fulfillment of his grand purpose. God confidently pronounced a blessing upon the seventh creative "day." Hence, God’s loyal intelligent creatures—humans and invisible spirit creatures—can be certain that by the end of the seventh "day," peace and happiness will reign throughout the universe.
