The Truth about Science and Religion. Fraser Fleming
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third day.
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.
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.
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.17
The opening line of Genesis is unique among creation stories. In this and only this story God brings the universe into existence seemingly out of nothing. God’s actions and the world’s response, emphasized in the quotation with different type, demarcate an underlying pattern. The clear declaration that the God of the early Hebrews has made all of creation stands apart from the pagan myths of the neighboring prehistoric cultures. This statement of God’s creative activity has always been understood as “out of nothing,” a creation of matter and energy and time itself. Unlike the pagan gods who worked with pre-existing materials, God spoke and creation occurred.
The repeated phrase “And God said” appears at the beginning of each creative event and is followed by creation’s obedience: “And it was so.” Capping these creative events is the declaration: “And God saw that it was good.” Although the sections vary in length and minor details, they follow the same pattern to reiterate that God created everything and made all things well.
The poetic structure of Genesis has been recognized for at least two millennia. As with much poetry, it has a repetitive form at several levels. On the first day God makes light and three days later he makes the heavenly lights, the sun and moon. On the second day God makes the sky and sea and three days later, the birds and fish to populate those realms. On the third day, God makes land and vegetation, the prerequisites for the land creatures and people that appear three days later on day 6. The first three days parallel the second three days: light and darkness/sun and moon, waters above and below/birds and fish, land and ocean/animals and humans. In the first three days the world is formed, while in the following three days the world is filled. The point of this unraveling symmetry is order. Each part of creation is linked together in a beautiful plan in which creative acts bring forth ecological diversity in an integrated, interdependent structure. Day seven is God’s crowning glory consistent with the veneration of many ancient cultures for the number 7.
Understanding Genesis 1
Numerous controversies have arisen from interpretations of Genesis. The two most prevalent stem from a literal reading of the poetic style: how did God make the universe and how long did this take? A literal reading of Genesis 1 as a scientific description of God’s action seems inappropriate given that the message was for a people living some time between 1500 and 500 BC. The early Hebrews’ knowledge of science was minimal, but they did have a keen understanding of how God expected them to live even if they did not always follow directions! As poetry, broad statements conveying order and place in creation could truthfully provide some insight into how God made the universe without describing the precise sequence or mechanism. An advantage of couching how the universe came into being through a poetic description is that the essence of God’s actions are captured in a medium that can be understood thousands of years later by modern, scientifically oriented cultures and still ring true. As poetry, Genesis is unlikely to contain specifics on the mechanism by which the universe came into being, but the language may allude to how long creation required.
Genesis implies that some creative acts were instantaneous: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”18 Some commands imply a process of unspecified duration: “‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so.” 19 Other commands initiated a creative progression: “‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds . . . .’ And it was so.” 20 The creative processes appear to require different amounts of time even though each creative event is bounded as taking a “day,” which differs from the typical use of “day” to refer to a twenty-four-hour period. Words such as day, evening, and morning are still used today in broad, non-precise ways. For example, in proposing to spend the day at the beach people do not plan on arriving at midnight and staying twenty-four hours.
A non-literal interpretation of the word “day” as used in Genesis overcomes analogous problems stemming from belief in a literal twenty-four-hour day, problems such as God’s work schedule. For example, if God created light instantaneously, what did he do for the rest of the day? Each creative event ends with “And there was evening and there was morning—the xth day.” Understanding this phrase as closing each creative event, rather than a literal description, alleviates the problem of a first “day” before the creation of sun and moon on “day” four. A poetic reading of each creative act views each day as bounding the creative periods, some short while others perhaps requiring eons.
Throughout the first half of the Bible the word “day” (yom) is loosely used in a variety of ways. Usually meaning a “day” of the week, the word can also mean “time,” a specific “period” or “era” or a season. A natural interpretation is to view the Genesis days as metaphors for geological ages. Each Genesis day broadly correlates with a time for each creative event whether requiring millions of years or milliseconds. Reading each of the Genesis days as periods of differing creative events overcomes difficulties with a literal interpretation while preserving the intent of the chapter; God created the world.
The description of creation in Genesis 1 ends with humanity. In Genesis 2 the focus of the story is on the first man, Adam, and his companion, Eve. There are no additional depictions of “creative days,” but rather events happening to humans with time being expressed in terms of a human life. Before the creation of mankind, Genesis is told from the perspective of God. After the creation of mankind, Genesis is told from the perspective of people. A reasonable interpretation of this difference is that time is described from God’s perspective during days of creation and from man’s perspective after creation. Einstein demonstrated that perspective means everything when considering time.