Page 8 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

Study Section 2: Pentateuch: Part II:
Creation and Marriage: Genesis 1:1-2:25
2:1 Connect.

When we open the Bible and begin reading, we are confronted immediately with the
miraculous work of God in creation. God “created” is a Hebrew word bārā’ that is only used
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with God. Later in the chapter this word is used also of God’s creation of sea creatures
(1:21) and three times of the creation of humans (1:27). The verses emphasize an activity
only God can do (2:3; 5:1,2; 6:7). The word is only used in connection with the product of
creation never of the materials of creation, as if to say in these cases that God used no materials. He
created out of nothing. See also Ps. 51:10; Ps. 102:18; 148:5; Isa. 40:26, 28; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 15; 45:7, 8, 12,
18; 48:7; 57;19; 65:17,18.

2:2 Objectives.

You should be able to:
1. identify the key parts of creation: out of nothing, man in God’s image,

God’s character, Sabbath rest, and marriage

2. contrast the Biblical account with other ancient and modern teachings on
how the world began

3. be encouraged to work through the implications of instructions in this chapter with events in later
parts of the Bible. Can we understand, for example, the multiple wives of men who come later without
going back to Genesis 2?

2:3 Learning about creation.

Verse two adds to our understanding with the phrase “formless and empty.” The original
creation of the “stuff” of the universe is not yet organized. As an illustration, we might think
of the confused condition of a land destroyed by God’s judgment (Isa. 34:11; Jer. 4:23). We
have no clue about time in either of these verses. We do not know how long God allowed
the heavens and the earth to continue this way before purposefully changing it for humans
to live on. We only know of his miraculous work and continued presence.

Now we come to a series of simple commands, “And God said,” followed rapidly by the appearance of
light (1:3), firmament or vault (1:6), seas and vegetation (1:9, 11), sun and stars (1:14), fish and birds
(1:20), and animals and humans (1:24, 26). Each takes one day to create, “the evening and the morning”
(1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). As miracles of God, what is created has the appearance of age. Humans were
created as adults, and we should assume the same for the stars and the trees.

7 Tomas E. McComiskey, “brh” in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, eds. R. Laird Harris, Archer, and
Waltke, (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1980), 1:129.

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