Genesis 1:2, the Bible does describe this planet, before God's creative action of the First Day of Genesis One, as –

The words 'deep' (תהום/tehôm) and the 'waters' (מים/mayim) are parallel expressions for the same world-ocean of this dark water-covered earth.

Six Days which now follow describe in summary the giving of – form to the 'formless', and – filling for the 'empty'.

Unfortunately, some 'Biblical' scholars have misread/misinterpreted this verse to mean that God's Six Days of forming/structuring and filling planet earth and its environment were His act of bringing order to a 'chaotic universe' (to support the gap-theory of an earlier creation), as though the Hebrew word ארץ/'erets (earth/land) could somehow mean 'universe', which it does not.

Bible does not teach order-out-of-chaos in the origin of our universe. This twist of Holy Scripture is a result of trying to find common ground between the Bible and pagan cosmologies (universe-origin theories) of the Ancient Near East.

Neither do the words 'formless' and 'empty' (the alliterative nouns תהו tohu, בהו bohu) describe the aftermath of a previous creation destroyed by God in judgment which now requires a second attempt by the Almighty.

word translated 'was' (היתה/hâyâh) cannot be translated 'became', as some allege (to explain the existence of fossils). Grammatically, the word hâyâh does not denote a change of status caused by some cataclysm! This verse simply describes the condition of our planet before the Six Days special creation of our earth's life-system.

The word translated above as 'hovering' (רָחַף râchaph 'flutter'/'move'/'shake') concerning the Spirit of God,

such as the wings of a hovering hawk poised to drop upon it's prey.

This is a picture of the Spirit of God 'anointing' this unique planet in vibrant anticipation of the imminent words of God about to come – words which would bring light, form, and life to this planet by the power of His Spirit in the coming Days One to Six which follow in preparation of the human environment.

this Genesis text describes the anticipatory state of the Spirit of God, prior to the first day of the Six Days, in His on-site presence over an already-existing dark water-covered earth.

in an effort to avoid understanding the Six Days as the special preparation of our planet, have regarded the first verse of our Bible as describing nothing, but as simply a title to all that follows in the Six Days. This does not fit the structure of the holy text as noted above.

this anticipatory behaviour of God's Spirit confirms that we should not understand the earlier phrase – "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" – as inclusive of the Seven Days that follow in which the Spirit will implement God's declarations. This simple phrase of the first verse ascribes existence of all things to God alone, including the dark water-covered earth awaiting its unique preparation for human history.

some sincere souls have even argued for a six-day (144-hour, or 8640-minutes, or 518400-seconds) creation of all that exists everywhere.

Of course God could do it! He is infinite in all respects! He could do it in all in one second. He does not need time, any time, for He is Infinite and Eternal, and He created time and space.

the description detail given by Him in Genesis has special meaning for us.

Therefore, to use the Bible's statements about 'six days' in order to contradict the so-called 'big bang' (singularity) theory of cosmic origin, as these persons do, is to miss the whole point of the Bible's summary of these Six Days. They are simply a description of God's unique and awesomely wonderful preparation of the human environment, in which God's own behaviour of resting on the Seventh Day is portrayed as the role-model for human behaviour.

This semantic (role-model) context of Genesis 1:2 should help translators understand why the phrase 'Spirit of God' (רוח אלהים), as hovering over a dark water-covered earth, should not be translated (as if part of an implicit relative clause) simply as 'the wind of God' or 'a mighty storm'.

universe is not a naturally human-friendly place. It is a very dangerous place, and the uniquely protected environment of our planet is a necessary part of earth's purpose as the moral seed-plot for the existential purpose of everything everywhere.

Current scientific theory, based on observed phenomena, estimates the time since that first creative moment (the Singularity or Big Bang) as at about 13.7 billion years, based essentially on the apparent size of the universe and the speed of its expansion. (This Hubble Time has been adjusted as new evidence for the amount of exotic matter in the universe has become better understood).

it should be noted that this 'Hubble Time' assumes a constant of both the speed of light and the strength of certain sub-atomic forces as represented in the so-called alpha constant. (Alpha is composed of 2 * phi * e² / h * c, where e is the charge of an electron, h is Planck's constant and c is the speed of light).

Recent observations of quasar light however (by astronomer Webb et al), have brought this into serious question (by physicists Banks, Dine, and Douglas). The implications of which may be, among other, that light has significantly slowed down during the expansion of the universe to the present. (See also work by Giovanni Amelino-Camelia of La Sapienza University, Rome, João Magueijo of Imperial College, London, and Lee Smolin of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada, on 'Double Special Relativity' theories). This could eventually result in a significant shortening of the universe's estimated 13 billion year age (as well as the size of our universe).

logical conclusion from the discovery of the Singularity or 'Big Bang' has troubled many eminent scientists, and so various attempts have been made to avoid this conclusion. These attempts, which have each been refuted by subsequent discoveries, are listed.

Our local group of galaxies, of which we are a part, is moving through the universe at more than 600 kilometres per second relative to the background of microwave radiation left over from the beginning of the Beginning.

'A good theory will describe a large range of phenomena on the basis of a few simple postulates and will make definite predictions that can be tested. If the predictions agree with the observations, the theory survives that test, though it can never be proven to be correct. On the other hand, if observations disagree with the predictions, one has to discard or modify the theory.' (Stephen Hawking 2001, 'The Universe in a Nutshell', p.31. Bantam Press). [emphasis mine].

origin of this theory, apart from the foolish idea of 'spontaneous generation', the concept of Evolution grew from the discovery of the ongoing natural processes that give us the beautiful adaptations of life: in particular, the genetic variation through sexual reproduction (in contrast to a-sexual), and also the further refining effects of this in the survival of the fittest whether by natural effects or by animal husbandry. The theory, in its various forms, has provided a useful framework for biological and paleological investigation.

This process of survival of the fittest has been an important factor in also producing the great variety within the human race. For instance – positively: the darker skin of African tribes provides a protection from damage by Africa's merciless sun; and negatively: the common sickle-cell* anaemia of West African populations arose from its high level of malaria infected mosquitoes in its ancient swamp lands meant that those with normal blood haemoglobin had a lower survival rate.

process has brought about much more than simply physical differences, for group psychological trends have also been affected. For instance: it has been shown that East Asian populations do comparatively better at American universities than their European-originated counterparts, and it has nothing to do with intelligence or aptitude. It is a tendency toward industriousness (they try harder) arising from a culture based on the most labour-intensive form of agriculture (rice-growing).

In addition, those populations whose ancient origins were in colder regions of our world with harsh winters have tended to be comparatively better at planning. (There is a trace of this truth in Disney's Scrooge being Scottish). Orinthology (study of birds) has provided evidence for this, through egg-swopping and hatchling-monitoring of offspring, for the genetic transmission of learned traits, such as in the migration-routes of geese between Europe and Africa.

This has absolutely nothing to do with racial superiority as Hitler and others have interpreted it. This is simply group adaptation to their varied environments over many generations which accentuated certain trends over others to survive in the long time before industrialization and the developments of technology enabled the previously impossible. With the modern mobility of humanity, improved educational opportunity, and fast developing communication methods, the mix of the variety of physiological and psychological facets of humanity can today become a beautiful symphony in service of our Awesome Creator. Hallelujah!

evolution as a theory of human origin is an irreconcilable problem for the Christian, which has almost nothing to do with biblical exegesis! To the Christian, evolution theory is actually –

example – evolution biology led directly to the German medical fraternity of the Weimar Republic terminating the lives of over 300,000 geriatric, mentally retarded, and incurably ill persons, by lethal injection. Later, Hitler's Nazis simply further developed and extended this existing practice into his vicious racial ideology. This is still Evolution's natural conclusion, if its principles are consistently applied to human society.

is important to note here, that the alternate title to the first editions of Darwin's famous work, Origin of the Species, was –

ideology is itself a sufficient answer to evolution's challenge of the Biblical account of human origins.

In contra-distinction to the marvelous mechanisms for variation of the species referred above, evolution's validation of racism is sufficient condemnation of a theory which relegates God to the role of a spectator, or at best to that of a facilitator of its mechanisms. This is true even if one tries to rationalize this dilemma by calling evolution a 'divine' mechanism, as so-called Theistic Evolutionists attempt to show.

(Please note: Jastrow's insightful comment on the relevance of the 'Big Bang' singularity in 'The Genesis Prologue' on this web site)

adverse reaction of some in the scientific community to even the possibility of Intelligent Design indicates that Darwinism, as a theory of origins, holds a quasi-religious position in the minds of many scientists.

As an example: Smithsonian Institute scientists of the National Museum of Natural History orchestrated such harassment of evolutionary biologist and editor Dr. Richard Sternberg (click for detail) for publishing an academic paper regarding 'intelligent design', that his employment was terminated.

So characteristically, to Professor Dawkins of the UK (who believes that God died when Darwin published his Origin of the Species), not to believe in Evolution and its random natural selection producing an illusion of design, one must be either –

Perhaps the forced sterilization of more than 60,000 Americans through into the 1970s is then still appropriate to this view of human life today.

Bible does not include the origin of the universe in the six days' summary overview in Genesis One. Nor does the Bible preclude the evolution/variation within species either by animal breeding or by natural selection.

Instead, it actually places human origins within the same context as animal origins (both created on Day 6, and both from the earth/ground, Gen.1:24; 2:7), except for their very special human role. This is – that (apart from species propagation) God commands the humans to rule, control, manage, their environment as His 'image' – His representative.

other words, they are specifically commanded to take charge of their environment! They are instructed not to be victims of their circumstances but to rule over them (Gen.1:28).

It is within this textual context that the phrase "image of God" is to be understood. It is not their human shape or size, or as some have fancifully claimed humans are three-in-one because God is such. It is the human representation of God's rule over His world (equally of both male and female, Gen.1:26).

Many explanations of the word 'image' (1:27) in this context have been attempted, but it must be remembered that as the granting of 'dominion' (1:28) is subsequent to this, this 'image' is creation-facing and not God-facing. In other words 'image' does not refer to spiritual qualities or moral capacity, but to humanity's designated relationship to creation. For instance, the angels of God worship God and communicate, but they were not created in the 'image of God'. This factor is a uniquely human design of God in creation.

The use of the plural ('us', 'our') by God concerning the decision to create humanity is neither a reference to the Trinity (as some Christians believe) nor is it simply a reference to His audience of angels in Heaven (as some rabbis believe). The Bible explains the use of the plural by God through the example given to us in Isaiah's vision of Heaven's Court.

Genesis One plural 'us' and 'our' in verse 26 refers to the authority of this Court. It is the same authority that is referred to in Daniel 4:17 as the decree of the holy ones, the watchers. These beings are presented in Revelation as twentyfour crowned-elders/seniors (they are not the church). They are real beings although their appearance is symbolic. They are the judicial assessors in God's Court, and decisions of this Court always involve them. Thus the plural is a reference to the authority of God's Court.

authority is therefore – a delegated authority for the welfare of all that God has made. This is not a carte blanche for exploitation of resources, as some have alleged, for as the Creator's representatives they are to treat His property according to His character.

must also be remembered that the Seven Days of Creation are not given to us in Scripture because God Himself needed six days to do the job and was tired at its end. The Seven Days presentation of this world's structuring and filling with life is to set the norm for human activity from the beginning. It is an instructive message addressed to human beings. God designed biological life for a cycle of labour and rest. This is the primary purpose of the planet's preparation being divided into a time-structure of Seven Days. God did not need it. It is a message to us that we need it.

is within this context then that God's role, in addressing and correcting the תּהוּ (tohu) and בּהוּ (bohu) of Verse Two, that the 'formlessness' to be structured and the 'emptiness' to be filled, on a dark but Spirit-anointed world, is given as the model for human behaviour. This is why, in establishing a social order among the freshly freed captives of Israel's exodus, God explains, in what we call the Ten Commandments –

This was not a commandment about being religious on this day, anymore that it is for 'livestock' to go to church! This was not even a new command to them.

is a command to 'remember' by their behaviour what they already knew, and to therefore follow the pattern of God's own behaviour in their conduct. This principle, from this first chapter of the first book of the Bible expresses the human responsibility to now carry out their function as God's direct representative-authority in His world in their personal and social behaviour.

Lastly, the male gender term used here for God does not mean that God has a sexual gender identity. God is infinite spirit. But in the biological pattern of God's Creation, the male carries primary (not sole) responsibility for leadership. The revelation in this chapter therefore spoke to its hearers within the framework of their own experience, for God is a good communicator, using forms of words and concepts that they would understand. So, 'He' and 'Him' are part of the concept of leadership, and so indicate this and only this when used of God.

chapter is the close-up view of human origin, emphasizing the uniqueness of human identity, in:

other words, animals and plants were naturally subject to the processes of ageing, death, and decay before humanity distrusted God and disobeyed. Freedom from death through the Tree of Life was an exemption given to humanity because of its unique representative relationship to God.

Death was and is built into the cell structure of all biological organisms. In other words, it is a design feature and not simply a mechanism failure. Death later came to represent the penalty of sin/disobedience to God because this is what it is in the human race, but it is not right to extend this to all creatures when the Bible indicates otherwise. Idealism and the Bible do not fit together in spite of some claims in so-called 'creation science'.

Garden in Eden has often been treated as purely symbolic or an exaggeration of some place in lower Mesopotamia whose canals were taken for rivers, but this does violence to Holy Scripture for two of the four rivers which flowed from the Garden are given clearly geographic names (Tigris and Euphrates).

Of these four, the Euphrates (פרת) alone is given no further description, certainly because it was the most readily known to Israel in Moses time. The Tigris (חדּקל) needed only the description 'east of Assyria'. But the Pishon (פישׁון) needed the description 'flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there', and the Gihon (גיחון) needed 'that flowed around the whole land of Cush'. But because 'Cush' has been traditionally identified with the 'Cush' of Ethiopia, the impossible geography has been cited to indicate that the Bible's description is either purely symbolic or ignorant error.

little humility among scholars however would have reserved opinion in the face of this difficulty, for East of Assyria and this headwater-garden of Eden, East of the Caspian Sea, lived an Indo-European people (the Kushan) whose land was known as Kush/Cush, referred to in ancient Parthian/Persian as the Kušanxšaθr. The text of Holy Scripture deserves to be understood within its own context.

The moral fall, described in this chapter, is really the violation of humanity's trust-relationship to their Creator, which affects all three of the above 'uniquenesses' presented in Genesis Two.

Hence, the eventual future fall-back of human identity to its common biological root (Genesis One), when the final ruler of our fallen history is termed the Animal in the prophecy of Revelation chapter 13.

(It may be of interest to some that the use of the word 'animal' in the English language, instead of its earlier used English term 'beast', arose directly as a reaction to the use of the latter to indicate the Antichrist of the book of Revelation).

it should be remembered that the Expulsion from the Garden was simply to prevent their access to the Tree of Life which would have neutralised aging and death in their fallen state. This expulsion, though a consequence of their distruct and disobedience, was God's mercy in the longterm, for death places a limit on human disobedience, and for the believers of all ages the loss of the Tree of Life opens the door in Christ to a better body, an intergalactic resurrection body rather than simply a restored biological body.

reply to Cain's fear dis-allows instinctual retaliation (revenge) in next-of-kin justice, so common in subsequent human history (4:15).

Cain creates the first urban environment and it is in this circumstance that his descendants develop new technologies (4:17-22), presaging the historical superiority of urban civilization over rural.

Thus after about 235 years, human awareness of God has now so deteriorated that they need to pray to communicate with Him.

(435-years according to the Septuagint Genesis, see previous page).

is unbiblical and a false interpretation, however, that tries to prove a racial/religious division between Sethites and Cainites, as though humanity was divided into two groups – the good and the bad. This abuse of Scripture reflects only the racial/religious prejudice of those who propagate this view.

(It may be helpful here to remember, concerning human history in the years ahead, that God has no limit in His array of agencies. Historical causation has pluralistic explanations. In other words, it is often not either-or but a mixture of causes that produce the subsequent events).

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