Rejoice in creation’s first season
interpreted by nature! The structured
circular poetry conveys an outline of our universe viewed by science. Without the overburden of unbiblical “perfectionism,”
the ancient text matches the evidence perfectly.
Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (NIV)
The poet starts with a creed of
faith, of worship. One line conveys the entire poem’s content. One
line tells it all.
In early human knowledge, heaven
and earth (up and down, spiritual and physical) were the basic elements of
everything. Today, we lump these into the singular concept of
“universe.” Creation is one, as its
Creator is one.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, … (NIV)
The poet began at a point before
anything he knew existed. No matter his vision, his words describe the
scientific understanding of the initial singularity. Such “space” is dimensionless,
it contained no width, length, or depth.
What could be more formless? It contained no type of matter, thus an
empty void.
… darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering (moved, fluttered) over the waters. (NIV with KJV, YLT)
The writer may have envisioned
the “primal ocean” common in the creation stories of the region. However,
God’s inspiration lets the words express the Big Bang.
The initial expansion (the force
that moved outward) was so hot that no particles existed, thus the universe was
dark. As everything began to cool, plasma
was the initial form of matter. This kind of energy acts like a fluid, in
poetic form, water.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (NIV)
With expansion, the plasma
cooled enough to form photons. For a short time, the entire universe
glowed brilliantly and uniformly. There
was no darkness.
4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the
darkness. (NIV)
As particles and atoms formed,
they absorbed the photons and the universe became dark again. More
expansion and cooling let gravity clump atoms together. Mass collapsed
enough to start fusion, the first star. This second light separated from
darkness. Biblically and scientifically, there were two first lights.
5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” (NIV)
This verse hints at the poetic
structure of Genesis One. Instead of going straight to day 2, the poet
opens the universe in Day 1 then fills it in Day 4, which continues the same concepts
of day and night. Similarly, the content
of Day 2 pairs with Day 5, and Day 3 with Day 6. The main details within
these pairings complete poetic circles.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (NIV)
The Hebrew word “day” is not exclusively 24-hours. Its length is defined by the context. Proverbs 25:13 is often translated “harvest time,” but literally it is “day of harvest,” an unspecified number of days. Or as in, Isaiah 4:2 a future era of undetermined length, not just one day. With this definition of “day,” the words interpreted as “evening” and “morning” are simply the “end” of one epic and the “beginning” of the next, no matter how long that “day” lasted.
To be continued:
[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard
Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]
Genesis Revised –
Day 3, Opening Land
Genesis Revised –
Day 4, Filling the Universe
Genesis Revised –
Day 5, the Evolution of Life
Genesis Revised –
Day 6 v24-25, the Land Animals
Genesis Revised –
Day 6 v26-27 and “God’s Image”
Genesis Revised –
Day 6 v28-31 “Dominion”
Genesis Revised –
Day 7
Genesis Revised –
The Second Genesis
Genesis Revisited
Also in this series:
Genesis Revised – Day 2, Opening Sky and Ocean
Genesis Revised –
Day 3, Opening Land
Genesis Revised –
Day 4, Filling the Universe
Genesis Revised –
Day 5, the Evolution of Life
Genesis Revised –
Day 6 v24-25, the Land Animals
Genesis Revised –
Day 6 v26-27 and “God’s Image”
Genesis Revised –
Day 6 v28-31 “Dominion”
Genesis Revised –
Day 7
Genesis Revised –
The Second Genesis
Also see series: