"In the Beginning" in Hebrew is all one word...and a bit of a stretch for most translators who are loathe to put more than a word for a word translation but none would suffice. But we, in view of the entirety of scriptures, know that God here just created the construct of time. There wouldn't be any beginning without God. (There won't be an end without Him either.)
God is timeless.
God created the Heavens and the Earth.
The words used in Hebrew here (contrary to popular opinion) are not a complete sentence. The reader is left dangling in want of a material used to create the Heavens and the earth out of. "Bars" is the root verb in Hebrew and demands a material...
I can bara a wooden table, a marble table or even bara a paper table...but here in this fragment there is no materials used in the construction of the Heavens and the Earth.
He explained this
- Genesis 1:1 is a complete stand-alone sentence in the Hebrew. The word "creation" ("bara" - Heb.) is not used again until God made the living creatures.
- The rest of Genesis 1 uses the word "asah" which means "to build or make out of existing materials". That means, except for the living creatures, everything done in Genesis 1:2 onward is with materials that were already in place
I can ponder on the different perspectives and interpretations here
Where you say its an incomplete sentence he calls it a stand alone sentence. Could it be evidence that some time passes after 1:1?
Where ur left asking what materials did he use he says thats the difference between creating and building.
He goes on to explain the difference "bara" and "asah" and that "bara" is only used in the first verse while "asah" is used from then on.
This is were the knowledge of Hebrew translation is beneficial...
Can u explain "bara" and "asah" and how they were used?
The Earth (and universe) was shapeless and void and the Spirit of God was hovering/shaking over the face of the waters.
Ok...God hasn't created water yet in this narrative...so how can there be any water?
Unless the scriptures are saying something else not readily understood by our westernized mindset.
How about that in the ancient near eastern mindset that "Water" is a symbol for Law and that this hovering/shaking over the face is God picking each and every natural law that is going to govern this universe. God is intimately aware of all of them. He is in the rule's face as it is sometimes said
This is the part i thought u misunderstood.
Genesis 1:2, when literally translated is; "But the earth became a chaos, and empty; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." This strongly indicates that the earth was in good order and something catastrophic happened
The condition of being covered by water and in darkness strongly suggests God's judgement, especially when the heavenly lights were still in place
So he's saying that its like a figure of speech, a metaphor, and that it indicates evil. "formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep". Is God the author of darkness and emptiness?
U made a good point "God hasn't created water yet in this narrative...so how can there be any water?"
Ok if we take it literally, are told when water was created... It occurs to me now that is was already there... Isn't it?
You could say that creating earth includes the water, air and elements.
You could say that a length of time passes after 1:1, like we suggest.
But can u say that water was created on the 2nd day??? It doesn't specify that so id have to say no
Thats interesting but. He never says when water was created , instead it is treated as a given...
Now thats got me thinking about other things as well, unrelated to this.
God's understanding of Quantum mechanics and physics is way beyond any scientific community's dreams
Hahaha off course... Our feeble minds have unlocked only a fraction of knowledge i think...
I love it when scientists make a discovery that dumbfounds them, it happens all the time.
It just shows that our knowledge is only finite while His knowledge is infinite
Now... about these "Days".
A "day" is to God what is thousands of millenia to us. Remember time itself is freshly made. So...God calling it a "day"...I'm not really in a place to disagree...He is God after all...but those words "evening" and "morning" frame the night time when hidden things happen. Also they mean "chaos" and "clarity/order" respectively. So it's a backhanded way of saying that God brings order out of chaos.
So do u think its 7 literal days?
Your interpretation into chaos and order is what he delves into as well...
So God shone His light in order to clear the chaos and bring order... U believe
I would ask myself how could there be chaos and darkness immediately after God created it?
And if Gods light flushes out this chaos and darkness isn't it possible this chaos and darkness was orchestrated by Satan?
The poetry of Genesis is lost on us poor schmucks who can't read and think in hebrew. But it's beautiful poetry conveying lots of ideas and thoughts in an extremely few amounts of words...
Paper and ink weren't recoded as being invented for a long time. Egyptian hyrigliphics are one of the first written languages. (Ugarit and one other are around the same time period)
So...when the Jews are running about in the Wilderness they were using the Torah as a guide to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and history and of course the Law. Child and adult alike were getting an edumakateshun.
Considering what they once were treated like (property) and now getting the very best and most complicated technology on the planet....huge stretch.
Job 38 is interesting as we're told the angels rejoiced when God laid the foundation for earth.
So we can confirm the angels were already there before earth
Also worth considering what the "prince of this world" could mean?
Prince. So is Satan son of God? How?
Of this world. But God created this world and Jesus is his son. How does Satan inherit it then?
Its puzzled me for a while. His explanation also appears to explain this
Ye so a few things there. U have me thinking about the water. I hope u give the light thing some thought cos if u think Gods light flushed out the darkness and chaos then i would ask where did the chaos come from, couldn't it be Satan?
It seems to me to be the most probable explanation and im a little surprised no one has heard of it...
To discredit it i would need a good counter argument for the light on days 1 and 4
How Satan manages to be there on day 7
Does anyone really have the whole truth? Many will claim to but i very much doubt it.
My understanding of scripture isn't great, its a work in progress