Understanding Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning" - what does this really mean?

"1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

God says exactly what he means and means exactly what he says, and his use of even the simplest of words cannot be overlooked, assumed, or taken for granted without careful consideration.

Having said that, and to provide clarification of the aforementioned subject verse, Gen 1:1, consider this analogy: If someone were to say, "in the kitchen I made the table and chairs". What is this saying and what does it imply? It's saying that within the kitchen the table and chairs were made (created) by the individual. This implies that the kitchen was already there, and inside of it was made the table and chairs (not created along with or at the same time that they were).

If you superimpose the word God in this analogy and said, "in the kitchen God made (created) the table and chairs", this would imply that God made or created the table and chairs inside of, or within the kitchen, meaning that the kitchen was already there, and he simply made the items within it.

Extrapolating this logic further to the biblical verse Gen 1:1, it becomes clear that "the beginning", which equates to 'the kitchen', was already in existence, and God simply made or created the heaven and the earth within or during it, and not that they all were created at the same time; it does not say that nor does it infer that, when you look closely at the words. It doesn't say "at the beginning", but rather says "in the beginning". The beginning had already begun and at some point in or within it, the heaven and the earth were created. The next verse then goes on to describe the nature of the newly formed earth at that point in time.

This is not 'gap theory', nor theory at all, but rather clarifies 'gap theory' by simply looking closely at the very minute word "in", and applying its proper meaning and intent within the scriptural context.

"In" is used in virtually all biblical translations

"in", a few definitions

1. expressing the situation of something that is or appears to be enclosed or surrounded by something else.
"dressed in their Sunday best"

2. expressing a period of time during which an event takes place or a situation remains the case.

3. "they met in 1885"—used as a function word to indicate inclusion, location, or position within limits

The phrase "the beginning" does not 'equate' to "the kitchen" - one is a place and the other is a time.

The phrase "In the beginning" in Genesis 1:1 is referring to our beginning - the human race - our world.

The place is - our world - that God created. The time is - "when it all began" - when God created it.

And, I do not believe that there was any 'gap' at any time during the creation of our world.

Streeee (*pop*)

Nope, it broke. I guess logic just doesn't stretch that far.

And kudos. Any post with appropriate sound effects should be noted.

Here is a little of what I have on the subject.

Definitions:

Create = bara in Hebrew - The word created is to bring something into existence that did not exist before, or to make something out of nothing. Only God can create; man can fabricate, build, construct, design, make, assemble, etc.… but man cannot create. Once God creates something He does not need to create it again, because it now exists…. He can just speak it into being.

**Made = asah in Hebrew – a substance required of which the thing made, consists.

**Formed = yatsar in Hebrew - fashioned out of something that was already in existence.

** (The words formed & made will both come into play)





Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created (bara) the heaven and the earth.

It does not state when the heavens and earth were created or if they were created at the same time. It could have been the same time, but it could have been a few, a few hundred, even thousands of years apart. It doesn’t say …..so we don’t know.

But what it does say is that both the heavens and the earth were created. Additionally the Hebrew particle ‘eth before both “the” heavens and “the” earth emphasize the article “the”, which distinguishes them both from the proceeding event of verse 2.

Genesis 1:2

And the earth was (hayah) without form, and void (tohu va bohu); and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.


The first WAS in verse 2 is the Hebrew word hâyâh and has been translated various ways (75x in the OT) including both was and became


Critics point: The first was in Gen 1:2 should not be translated became ….because it is rendered “was” in most English version as well as the LXX → and it is semantically unsound in that usage.

Response: While hayah has been translated was in most English versions including the LXX. In the original Hebrew ….there was no verb “to be” (which is translated was) ....However, there is a verb “to become”, which is how this should be translated. The second was in this verse was added by translators as there is no corresponding Hebrew word in that place.
As for it being semantically unsound: Failure to recognize the figure of speech polysyndeton (many ands) that God uses in the consecutive 34 verses from 1:1 to 2:3; using “and” 102 times to accentuate the acts of God… must be taken into consideration when dealing with syntax….. A figure of speech is a legitimate departure from the laws of language in order to emphasize and draw attention to what is being said. Of the 219 documented figures of speech ….God uses at least 212 different figures in the scriptures some with as many as 40 different variations to them.

“And the Earth became without form and void” ….Is how the text should read. God had created both the heavens and the earth, but it was the earth that became an empty wasteland.

Isaiah states that God created the earth not in vain tohuw (wasteland), but formed it to be inhabited.



Although I can speculate and theorize (based on scripture) as to what took place between Genesis 1:1 & 1:2 the Word does not specifically say…..so I do not know. What I do know is, from Genesis 1:2 to 1:21, God did not create anything again until the 5th day when He created soul life in “great whales and every living creature (chay nephesh) that moveth”…



I could at this point get into soul life of man and the possibility of there being Paleolithic man and creatures that fall into that time span between verse 1 and verse 2 which would not have been mobilized by what we know today as soul life … …..but I’ll spare ya.

Why is this so hard to understand? God is pointing to His SPOKEN WORD that created al things. So, when He says in the Beginning He is simply pointing to when His command brought forth creation. Starts are still formed (created) today, well how is that? God is at rest on the "7th day" !! That is because ALL CREATION stems from "THE BEGINNING" words God spoke to bring forth creation. You pointing to a kitchen just not very insightful at all. Now if you pointed unto how your kitchen came into being, you and a contractor sit down and drew up plans, that would be more like it, but God is giving us an overview to things only modern men can understand somewhat, He does not need to go into detail and try to explain billions of years and trillions of stars, because it is not important tbh.

If people can not understand the Universe is 13.7 billion some odd years old, its on them, its not even debatable. The First YOWM (time period) lasted 9.2 billion years. Then the sun & earth came into existence. It took many millions of years to cool, lol, people do not even get that reference, if the earth was 6000 years old you would be on fire, because nothing could sit on the lava crust. Then we started getting Green Grasses and trees at like the 900 million year mark. Then on day four God gave us our SEASONS, you know how? The Earth and Moon were two planets about the same size, God crashed them into each other and the Earth got the largest part of the mass, AND also got a "Satellite Moon" that stabilizes our Weather, else the earth would not be habitable (except maybe on the equator). Thus our days and Seasons came from a clash, (AND God created the Stars is not Got recreating the Stars, God is telling us stars continued being created, alas the Sun came around much later than the first stars, and Stars are still created until this very day !!

On the 5th Day 600-900 million years ago God created the Sea Animals, then 300-350 million years ago God started creating the Land Animal, and 70 million or so years ago an Asteroid hit down in Mexico that killed off all the Dinos, whence we get much of our oil today. God continued creating animals, then at just the right time in God's understanding, God created the Human Being, about 6000 years ago, still on the 6th YOWM (Time Period....Day) God created mankind...BUT, but, but men and "Scientists" will say, we know men were crested 50,000 and 100,000 years ago, well, this is how I destroy all of these atheists and so called "Scientific guys" (SMILE) I simply say how can you measure exactly WHEN God placed His Spirit into Adam creating Human Beings with intellect and with eternal souls? So, "Human Beings" were only created when God placed His Spirit into mankind and said lets create Man in OUR IMAGE and in OUR LIKENESS, the others were not Human Beings, they were merely animals. They science types and atheists get all flustered when I hit them with this gem.

We are now in the 7th Day and have been for 6000 years, why does no one question the 7th Day of God's rest as not being ONE DAY? Smile.

Use logic guys, when we can't answer these simple things with truth we lose souls. Its like advocating for Santa as being real. You will never win a guy who understands the universe is not 6000 some odd years old by telling him this thought process.

Here is the thing, if we read Gen. 1:1-2 we can see that the WMAP that mapped out the Universe BACKS UP God's Holy Word, yet we will not take advantage of this truth. There was 400 Million Years of Darkness according to the WMAP which mapped out the Universe with simple RADAR !!!

So, the scientists AGREES with the Bible WATCH.....(400 Million years before the Stars were created)

Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void(means it is NOT THERE YET); and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.





The Map which used Radar to map out the whole Universe show 400 Million Years of NOTHING BUT DARKNESS !! So it proves the Bible correct, yet we can not use this because we are stuck on what the word DAY means, when it really means YOWM and YOWM has 50 meanings, year, season, day, X WHOLE, a TIME PERIOD in general. The way YOWM was used is you place the word YOWM in the verse then DESCRIBE what it means, well in Gen. chapter 1 we get the description of Creation in six time periods.

By the way, Light can not illuminate a planet, light comes unto us in a straight beam, it MUST BE Reflected or Refracted in order to illuminate, that is why just outside out Atmosphere it gets much, much darker, because God created our earth with an Atmosphere that ENTRAPS Moisture, that thus illuminates our planet, and He told us this in verse 2 above, He says

And God moved on the "FACE OF THE WATERS" then he said in verse 3 "Let there be Light" so He told us Light came after the DARKNESS, but will we listen? Who knows.

You're missing the point, being the "beginning" was already created before day one not as part of day one.

He didn't miss it. He disagrees with it.

Are you his official spokesman? What do you know??? Not much!

I didn't know you would behave in such a condescending and hostile way. Did you believe when you wrote the post that everyone would agree with it?
P.S...is he looking for a spokesman? What's the pay?

Send him a private message and inquire about it.

I would, but according to you, he would miss the point.

Goodbye

At least loosen your belt and laugh once in awhile. And smile...it will improve your face value.

I apologize for my earlier posts. I was just jesting, but should have stopped rather than frustrate you. Grace and peace.

Well, I prefer when you just go ahead and make the jokes... we all need a laugh.

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I need to do them at my own expense. But I might be persuaded if you agree to stand beside me at the Bema seat and take the hit.

I always upvote onamonapia.

Joking aside for a moment, satire and irony are important and useful tools for communication, insight, and clarity.

These kinds of tools, if used without a bitter spirit, often have a wholly unique ability to point out problems, and crack open areas of understanding.


There you have it... my very unfunny analysis on being funny.


- G'night

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I'm considering including alliteration as well.