My study on Genesis begins with the beginning – Genesis 1 (you can read the full chapter here) and the story of the 7-day creation. I’ll focus on the first 4 days of creation in this post.
Day 1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 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.
So on day 1, God created light, and separated it from darkness. Light was called day, and darkness night. There was evening, morning, and the first day was complete.
Day 2:
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
A vault/firmament to separate the water?
On day 2, God created the sky (called a vault, or firmament in different translations) to separate the waters above from the waters on the earth. This sounds like it’s describing a different model of the earth, universe, and atmosphere than we understand today.
Looking into this a bit further, I found information about an ancient flat-earth theory which includes a solid surface in the sky, and which to many scholars is clearly what Genesis is describing, and which is clearly not aligned with our modern knowledge of the earth and the atmosphere (see links below for more information about this). I wouldn’t expect the ancients writing Genesis to write something aligned with modern science, but I also wouldn’t expect the Word of God to include words describing an inaccurate model of the earth’s atmosphere.
Some defenders of the Bible-as-God’s-Word suggest different interpretations of Genesis 1 in order to keep it aligned with today’s science. Other theologians insist that it is theologically problematic to expect scientific accuracy from an ancient writing because God’s Word was written for the people of the Bible’s time. I’m not going to attempt to reach a conclusion with on this topic in this post. What I want to demonstrate here is how the task of finding the truth is challenging, right from the start.
More reading on this:
https://biologos.org/articles/the-firmament-of-genesis-1-is-solid-but-thats-not-the-point
https://answersingenesis.org/contradictions-in-the-bible/underneath-a-solid-sky/
Day 3:
Continuing in Genesis 1:
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
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.
Plants Without Sun?
On day 3, God gathered the waters on earth together to form seas and land. God also created plants: vegetation, plants with seed and fruit.
Although the sun was not yet created, the plants were created on day 3. Genesis 1 says that “the land produced vegetation.” The wording implies that plants with seeds and fruit were able to grow out of the ground from the nutrients in the soil. But how did the plants get the nutrients they needed enough to grow and give fruit without the sun? And how did they grow so quickly?
Some argue that the plants didn’t have to grow without sun because God could have created mature plants, and they would have been able to survive for a day without sun. But the way it’s described in Genesis sounds like they literally grew and matured in the soil, and not like they were created as fully mature plants without the environment they needed to survive. I’m not saying that this proves anything, but it definitely leaves me scratching my head.
Day 4:
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault 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 vault 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.
Evening and Morning without a sun
It was not until day 4 that God created the sun and moon, to give light and help keep track of time. But each day of creation concludes with “there was evening, and there was morning”. During the first 3 days, before the sun was created, what does this even mean? How can evening and morning exist when there is no sun to rise and set?
Light separated from Darkness, twice
On day 1, God separate the light from darkness (verse 4: “God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.”). On day 4, he created the sun and moon to separate light from darkness (verses 17-18: “God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.”). It sounds as though he separated light from darkness twice – why?
The sun and moon set in the sky
On day 4, The sun and moon are described as lights set in the sky created to give light to earth. But if I am to take this account literally, then I feel the need to point out that the moon is not a source of light. It reflects the sun’s light, but is not a light source in itself. The sun, moon, and stars are grouped together in the creation account as lights that were created, but the moon is not at all like the sun or the other stars.
Also, given what we know about the solar system, what does it mean to say that the sun was set in the sky? The sun is not “set in the sky”. The sun is not in the earth’s atmosphere (the sky), and if anything, it’s as if the earth was set around the sun, not the other way around.
The author of the Genesis 1 creation account seems unaware of how the solar system actually works. This makes complete sense given that the creation account was written thousands of years ago. But if it is supposed to be the literal Word of God (not the word of man), then the fact that it was written by men thousands of years ago shouldn’t result in writing that are scientifically inaccurate, or misleading.
Hi Jenn, it appears that you may be placing limits on God’s ability, that are in line with your own experiences and what school teachers and scientists have taught you, supposing them to be correct. For example, you are thinking about what you see happening outside your window when you think of how fast a garden, plant, tree, fruit can grow, assuming that things are the same now as they were then. Then also, you are imagining that God, who created it all from nothing anyway, could not determine the speed of its growth. It is not bad that you are asking questions, but there are other things you may not be taking into consideration also.
Some of them are:
1. The heliocentric model (little earth rotating and orbiting the sun) of the universe is not proven, although it is taught in school as if it is. It is a theory. And the geocentric model (earth is the fixed main thing, and the sun is moving around the earth) has not been disproven. People (schools, gov, media) decided what they were going to teach us, and speak of things like they are facts, although they are not facts, just theories. P.s. Geocentric and flat-earth aren’t the same thing. I’m not referring to flat earth. That’s a whole different thing.
2. The ground was cursed in Genesis 3, so it would not be the same as it was when first created. It has been compromised.
3. The great flood, which Noah survived, probably depleted the soil further, and messed up how efficiently things grow, or what even survived. Some plants can drown too.
4. Half of the stuff growing now is probably from soil that has been overfarmed, and not given it’s time to replenish (why nothing from the ground tastes too good anymore).
5. God created a talking man and woman; He can create anything at any stage of its development that He wants.
6. Genesis is very brief; there are a lot of things it doesn’t mention or explain, because it’s just too much stuff, and we don’t really need to know, just like someone’s house-cat doesn’t need to know how their house was built. It is amazing that God told as much as He did.
7. God created the laws of nature. For example, light and shadow, from which we get evening and morning, etc, is His idea. They work like that because He made them to work like that; He didn’t create light, and then notice a shadow. He created the concept of light, the direction it moves, it not being able to pass through or an object, and what a shadow, or absence of light would be. We have difficulty thinking beyond what we already know or believe to exist.