"God called the light 'day,' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day." Genesis 1:5 (NIV)
Here God names the light and darkness he separated. It's curious that evening is listed before morning, we always think of morning being first in a day and evening being last. Did God really order evening as the beginning of a day and morning at the end? Or is this a grammar issue? Apparently many cultures started their days at sunset including the Jews. The Jews, of course, start their days at sunset following God's example from this verse.
I've seen no variations in translations. They all agree with the way this translation reads. The only discussion I really see is whether "the first day" meant an actual physical day or if it was a figurative day. I don't see any reason this couldn't be an actual physical day, after all this is God creating. With him all things are possible. If he had wanted he could've snapped his fingers and caused the universe to come into being, but for whatever reason he took his time. This day may have been longer than a 24-hour-day, I don't understand enough of the science behind it to argue one way or the other, but whatever the case, God is the one that created it.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Genesis 1:4
"God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the
darkness." Genesis 1:4 (NIV)
Here is where something is first called good, and where God separates light and darkness. The Bible Lexicon and the QBible both have the figurative meaning of darkness as misery, destruction, death, wickedness, sorrow, or ignorance. So by separating the light maybe that caused the darkness to be created, since darkness is the absence of light. Perhaps this is when evil came into being. Maybe evil is the absence of good. Not that it can't be purposefully, even light can be blocked or darkness created on purpose.
I don't believe this is saying darkness equals evil, but it could be a symbolism purposely put in the Bible for us to see and use. God does specifically call the light good, but says nothing about the darkness. Really this is a very simple verse that says what it means and means what it says.
Here is where something is first called good, and where God separates light and darkness. The Bible Lexicon and the QBible both have the figurative meaning of darkness as misery, destruction, death, wickedness, sorrow, or ignorance. So by separating the light maybe that caused the darkness to be created, since darkness is the absence of light. Perhaps this is when evil came into being. Maybe evil is the absence of good. Not that it can't be purposefully, even light can be blocked or darkness created on purpose.
I don't believe this is saying darkness equals evil, but it could be a symbolism purposely put in the Bible for us to see and use. God does specifically call the light good, but says nothing about the darkness. Really this is a very simple verse that says what it means and means what it says.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Genesis 1:3
"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Genesis 1:3 (NIV)
I like this verse, simple and straight to the point. God said it and it was so. I haven't found anything that disagrees with this translation. In fact everything I find seems to indicate that that's what the original Hebrew meant. It shows the power of the spoken word. It doesn't say he got out his tools and went to work to make light, just that he spoke it into existence.
I like this verse, simple and straight to the point. God said it and it was so. I haven't found anything that disagrees with this translation. In fact everything I find seems to indicate that that's what the original Hebrew meant. It shows the power of the spoken word. It doesn't say he got out his tools and went to work to make light, just that he spoke it into existence.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Genesis 1:2
"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Genesis 1:2 (NIV)
Interesting that it's already referring to water while the earth is still formless. It's hard to quite know what to do with this verse. If it's building on verse one it makes sense to me.
An interesting tid bit Bible Lexicon says that the word "formless" is translated from can mean "unreality" which really seems to emphasis the pre-designing of the very molecules of the earth. It gives me the mental picture that it's there (because he created it) but not quite there yet. The "darkness" can also refer to obscurity which flows perfectly with that thought.
Now here's where we get to the waters. It's strange to think that creation has started but the earth has been given no form, but there's already water. But then looking at water, it doesn't really have any form, but takes the form of it's container instead. So maybe when God began he started with water and then created the containers for the waters. This seems to make the most sense to me, but it is difficult to wrap my brain around the whole idea of there just being water - no horizon, no land, no nothing else. BibleArchaeology and GodandScience both seem agree with this assessment.
Every source I find agrees that the original word meant "water." The interesting thing is in the QBible, it also gives a figurative translation of that word as "semen." It's like God telling us that this water is the seed he planted that all creation has grown from. He's setting up the blueprint that he uses over and over again. Living creatures, plants, ideas, etc. start as seeds that grows and mature.
The most important thing to get from this verse is that God was there close by as he created everything. This isn't some hands-off-I'll-check-on-you-when-I-have-nothing-better-to-do sort of God, this is a God that gets up close and personal with his creation, not afraid to get his hands in the mud.
Interesting that it's already referring to water while the earth is still formless. It's hard to quite know what to do with this verse. If it's building on verse one it makes sense to me.
An interesting tid bit Bible Lexicon says that the word "formless" is translated from can mean "unreality" which really seems to emphasis the pre-designing of the very molecules of the earth. It gives me the mental picture that it's there (because he created it) but not quite there yet. The "darkness" can also refer to obscurity which flows perfectly with that thought.
Now here's where we get to the waters. It's strange to think that creation has started but the earth has been given no form, but there's already water. But then looking at water, it doesn't really have any form, but takes the form of it's container instead. So maybe when God began he started with water and then created the containers for the waters. This seems to make the most sense to me, but it is difficult to wrap my brain around the whole idea of there just being water - no horizon, no land, no nothing else. BibleArchaeology and GodandScience both seem agree with this assessment.
Every source I find agrees that the original word meant "water." The interesting thing is in the QBible, it also gives a figurative translation of that word as "semen." It's like God telling us that this water is the seed he planted that all creation has grown from. He's setting up the blueprint that he uses over and over again. Living creatures, plants, ideas, etc. start as seeds that grows and mature.
The most important thing to get from this verse is that God was there close by as he created everything. This isn't some hands-off-I'll-check-on-you-when-I-have-nothing-better-to-do sort of God, this is a God that gets up close and personal with his creation, not afraid to get his hands in the mud.
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