Genesis Chapter 1

Chapter: 1  has 28 verses

Author: P (According to Documentary Hypothesis)

Attributed Author: Traditionally Moses

Historical Context: P is attributed to a Priestly source. At the time of the writing, there are two regions known as the kingdom of Israel (E) and the kingdom of Judah (J). Probably written around 500 BCE

Theme: Origins and/or Creation Story

Content:

Day1

• God creates heaven and earth
• Earth was a formless void
• Darkness covered the face of the deep
• God creates light and separates light and darkness to create day, night, evening and morning

Day2

• God creates a dome to separate waters from above the dome (the dome is named Sky) and waters below the dome.

Day3

• God gathers the water under sky in one place (names it Seas)
• God lets dry land appear and calls it Earth
• God calls forth vegetation, seeding plants, fruit bearing trees “of every kind”

Day4

• God creates the “Greater light” to “rule” over the day and the “Lesser Light” along with stars to “rule” over the night
• God creates lights in the dome to separate night and day, the seasons, and for days and years

Day5

• God creates swarms of living creatures out of the waters
• God creates birds and sea monsters and every other creature that swarms in the water
• God blesses the creatures to be fruitful and multiply

Day6

• God creates creatures of all kinds including cattle and “creeping things” and all kinds of wild animals.
• God creates humankind according to His(plural) image and creates Male and Female
• God blesses the creatures to be fruitful and multiply
• God gives man dominion over all living things

Scholarly Annotations:

• God is referred to El or Elohim.
• The story has much in common with the Enûma Eliš which is the Babylonian Creation story.
• The word “deep” is the word “tehom” of which some scholars see as a variant of the word Tiamat

TSA Annotations:

• It is implied that a day begins at night and ends in the morning.
• Day 7 is in the first few verses of chapter 2.
• There are some things I found fascinating. God refers to created things as good after creating them, almost implying God isn’t certain. God “saw that it was good” appears several times throughout the story. This has some implications on Divine Command theory since God has to check and see if it is good. This also seems to resolve Euthyphro’s dilemma since it implies that an objective morality exists and that God has to refer to it.
• God creates man “in our image” which implies an early form of polytheism
• Day2 seems to be an explanation for rain.

Misc and or Trivia: It’s important to note that as far as kingdoms go,  at the height of each, the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah combined are about the size of NJ.

Funny Related Youtube videos:

• EbolaWorld.com – Messed-Up Bible Stories – In the Beginning
• DarkMatter2525 – Comedy for Atheists: Creationism
• DarkMatter2525 – If Man Obeyed God
• DarkMatter2525 – The Most Wrong Anyone Ever Was
• DarkMatter2525 – Atheist Comedy – Fine-Tuned Universe
• DarkMatter2525 – Creationists Fail Again
• NonStampCollector – Genesis (take #1)
• NonStampCollector – Genesis (take #2)