Evidence for God from Science

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Volumes have been written about the first verse of Genesis. There are a two main interpretations of what this verse really means. Some say that the verse is a summary of the rest of the Genesis creation account. Others say that the verse represents the first creative act of God. How can we tell which interpretation is correct?

Day 1
The answer is really quite simple - keep reading! Reading Genesis 1:1 or any other Bible verse outside its context is one of the worst things that a person can do.2 When we look at Genesis 1:2,3 we see that it begins with the conjunction "and." This fact immediately tells us that Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 are part of one continuous thought. Remove the period at the end of Genesis 1:1 and read it as originally intended:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and void...

Holman QuickSource Guide to Understanding CreationThe conjunction at the beginning of Genesis 1:2 tells us that Genesis 1:1 is not a summary of the creation account! This verse is a factual statement of what God did at the beginning of the first day. There are other context clues that tell us that this is not a summary statement. If we continue reading the Genesis creation account, we come to the real summary at the end (Genesis 2:1).4 It would be superfluous to have a second summary at the beginning. As we continue to read Genesis one, we will notice how succinct the creation account really is.

So, we conclude that the text claims that God created the heavens and earth on the first day. What do the heavens consist of? Stars, galaxies, etc. So, we know that God created, at minimum, the stars and the earth. Actually, the Hebrew phrase translated "heaven and earth" refer to the entire created universe. Some people claim that God created the earth first and that the rest of the heavenly bodies were created later. However, we are led to contemplate why God said that He created the "heavens and the earth." To accept this interpretation, we would have to say that God created "nothing" and the earth. If God had only created the earth, the Genesis 1:1 would have said, "In the beginning God created the earth." So, we can safely say that God created the entire heavens and earth at the beginning of the first creation day.

neo-x wrote:Because that is not what it says, all it says is that in the beginning God made the tent (Heb: shamayim) the heights, and the land-soil, a place to set foot on. Nothing beyond that.

I have two questions:
1. Why does it say "earth" and not "Earth"?
2. Why does it say heavens, plural?

The homesite appears to be in grave error. It is ignorant of the view of the author and his direction. To the author, land, where he dwells comes first, then comes the sun/stars and heavenly bodies etc. Since it is on this land where God has placed humans therefore it is this place which was made foremost and the rest followed. That is his order.

And further, to him land is a flat disk, surrounded by water and with the firmament above like an inverted dish, a tent/covering, and below them the land of the dead, Sheol.

It was not until the middle ages when the church adopted a spherical earth, suspended in space instead of a flat one, which the Bible authors originally alluded to.

That is the technical problem that such generalizations such as you are making, devoid the text of its context.

The traditional translation of Genesis 1:1 is well known, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It is called the traditional translation because it has been the dominant rendering of Genesis 1:1 since the Greek Septuagint, the first major translation of the Hebrew Bible (into Greek), produced by Jewish scholars in the third century BC. Does the traditional translation describe the absolute beginning of the universe? Does it communicate the idea that the heavens and the earth were created out of nothing? Throughout history, Jews and Christians have overwhelmingly said, “Yes!”

neo-x wrote:I am not representing AIG or YEC's, I am simply showing you the text and what it actually says. You or Rich or AIG or anyone for that matter are free to read and insert into it whatever you think it may mean. I am just showing you how that is irresponsible in the least and well, blunder in the worst.

Think about what you wrote, you are holding up an English phrase as genuine and questioning its Hebrew source?

And did you have had a chance to look at my two questions? here they are again:
1. Why does it say "earth" and not "Earth"?
2. Why does it say heavens, plural?

Thanks.

RickD wrote:

neo-x wrote:I am not representing AIG or YEC's, I am simply showing you the text and what it actually says. You or Rich or AIG or anyone for that matter are free to read and insert into it whatever you think it may mean. I am just showing you how that is irresponsible in the least and well, blunder in the worst.

Think about what you wrote, you are holding up an English phrase as genuine and questioning its Hebrew source?

And did you have had a chance to look at my two questions? here they are again:
1. Why does it say "earth" and not "Earth"?
2. Why does it say heavens, plural?

Thanks.

Neo,

I'm really not seeing the issue with heaven or heavens. Some translations use the singular, some the plural. Here's different translations of Genesis 1:1
http://biblehub.com/genesis/1-1.htm

Earth, or earth. I don't see the issue.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lex ... H776&t=KJV

Strong’s Definitions [?](Strong’s Definitions Legend)
אֶרֶץ ʼerets, eh'-rets; from an unused root probably meaning to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land):—× common, country, earth, field, ground, land, × natins, way, + wilderness, world.

RickD wrote:Neo,

I'm not reading science back into it. I'm reading the Meaning of "earth" from the blue letter bible:

Strong’s Definitions [?](Strong’s Definitions Legend)
אֶרֶץ ʼerets, eh'-rets; from an unused root probably meaning to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land):—× common, country, earth, field, ground, land, × natins, way, + wilderness, world.

It can mean the earth, or land.

Please stop accusing me of reading science into it. It's dishonest, and tiring. If you disagree with my literal interpretation, that's fine. But the reading science into scripture garbage, is getting old.

RickD wrote:K,

Thanks for explaining it in more detail.

I just thought it was pretty much accepted, that the phrase, "heaven and earth" means all of creation. I mean, at least this is something YECs and OECs agree on.

Rich Deem wrote:1) The Heavens and the Earth

The verbs used in Genesis 1:1-2 (i.e., God “created” and earth “was”) are in the perfect tense32 and distinct from the wayyiqtol verb form used in the remainder of Genesis 1. As Hebrew linguist C. John Collins33 notes, the wayyiqtol verb functions as “the backbone or storyline tense of Biblical Hebrew narrative discourse,”34 while the perfect verb “denotes an event that took place before the main storyline got underway.”35 Thus, the verb forms indicate the creation of “the heavens and the Earth” was separate from, and preceded, the events of the first creation day.

The Hebrew phrase “the heavens and the earth” (hashamayim we ha ‘erets) is known as a merism, where words coupled together have a different meaning than the individual words. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines hashamayim we ha ‘erets as “all the raw materials needed to make sun, planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies, molecules, atoms.”36 Similarly, Vine and Grudem each equate hashamayim we ha ‘erets with “the entire universe” and “entire creation.”37 This further supports the old-earth view that the entire universe–including the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars–were created prior to the first creation day.

abelcainsbrother wrote:I'm really not trying to give ya'll a hard time but based on what I've read so far there is some confusion somewhere.I'm not so sure YEC's and OEC's really believe "the heavens and earth" in Genesis 1:1 means the entire Universe and the earth,because once we get past verse 1,it suddenly seems to be forgotten and then we hear explanations of how it was not the entire Universe after all because God then works on it and finally completes an imperfect earth and universe in Genesis 1. Meanwhile I really believe what it says" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." I truly believe in its entirety,a perfect creation in the beginning of the entire universe and earth.However I also believe something happened to the entire Cosmos and the earth that caused it to be in the state it is in,in verse 2