Bibliotheca Sacra 133 (1976) 28-41.
Copyright © 1976 by
The Creation Account
in Genesis 1:1-3
Part V: The Theology of Genesis 1--Continued
Bruce K. Waltke
The preceding article in this series
discussed some of the
activities of God revealed in the creation account
in Genesis 1.1 This
present article continues the discussion of the
theology of Genesis 1
and then considers the relationship of other Old
Testament creation
passages to the interpretation of Genesis 1
suggested in this series.
GOD'S DIVINE ATTRIBUTES SEEN IN
GENESIS 1
Genesis 1 revealed to
Savior, and Ruler. But it also revealed
something of His attributes,
including His greatness, wisdom, and goodness.
HIS
GREATNESS
What splendid power and greatness
God displayed by His
creation. The Creator is a fortiori greater than
His creation. Isaiah
declared that
water of the sea, and with the outstretched fingers
of His other hand
measures the expanse of the sky. Isaiah then
added that God could
take all the dust of the earth and pour it into His
little basket and
weigh all the mountains of the earth on His scales (Isa. 40:12).
1 Bruce K. Waltke, "The Creation Account in Genesis 1: 1-3; Part
IV: The
Theology
of Genesis 1," Bibliotheca Sacra 132 (October-December 1975):
327-42.
EDITOR'S
NOTE: This is the final installment in a series of five articles first
delivered by the author as the Bueermann-Champion
Foundation Lectures at
Western
Conservative Baptist Seminary,
and adapted from I(
Baptist Seminary, 1974).
28
The
Theology of Genesis I - Continued / 29
If God was great to
universe, how much greater He ought to be to
modern man. Today
we know that our galaxy is spinning like a
gigantic pinwheel extend-
ing for 104,000 light-years
from one end to the other. Our sun is
25,000
light-years from the center of this gigantic spiral and rotates
around its center once every one million years. Above
and below the
spiral of our galaxy are about one hundred clusters of
stars with
one million stars in each cluster, and some of them
have a diameter
of 16 million miles. And to think we are but part
of one of thousands
of galaxies! Certainly God's vast creation reveals
something of His
own greatness.
HIS
WISDOM
In the creation God's wisdom is
displayed. He achieved the
cosmos by first establishing the separation of the
supportive systems
necessary for life and man's existence, and by
then filling these with
moving and living creatures. On the first three days
He overcame
the lack of form, the Uht, and on the next three
days, and parallel
to them, He overcame the emptiness of space,
perhaps the Uhb. The
following well-known model of creation illustrates
this creative work.2
Uht - Unformed Uhb - Unfilled
Day Day
1 Light 4 Luminaries
2 Water 5 Fish
Sky Birds
3 Land 6 Beasts
Vegetation Man
Instead of having been produced by
gods locked in deadly con-
flict, the universe is the
beautiful and orderly product of the one
wise, creative Mind. On the first day temporal
separation was
achieved by the separation of light from
darkness. On the second
and third days spatial separation was achieved. The
sky was sepa-
rated from the water on the second day, but no
pronouncement of
good was given because spatial separation was not
yet complete.
Only
with the separation of land, the third life supportive system,
did God pronounce the spatial separation as good or
complete.
The
parallelism of the last three days with the first three is
2 Ronald Youngblood,
"Moses and the King of
Evangelical Theological
Society
16 (Fall 1973): 219.
30
/ Bibliotheca Sacra - January 1976
apparent. Whereas on the first day there was
light, on the fourth
day the light was localized into luminaries;
whereas on the second
day the water and sky were separated, on the fifth
day the fish were
created to fill the seas and the birds to fill
the skies; whereas land
and vegetation were created on the third day, on
the sixth day the
land animals and man were formed to live on the land
and to be
sustained by its vegetation.
Unlike Marduk
who needed the wisdom of his father Ea in
order to effect the creation, Yahweh acted alone in
His sublime
intelligence. Isaiah inferred this
contrast when he asked:
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has
informed Him?
With whom did He consult and who
gave
Him
understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of
justice
and
taught Him knowledge,
And informed Him of the way of
understanding?
(Isa. 40:13-14).
Isaiah's point, however, is not
clear in this translation found in
the New American Standard Version. The following
translation by
R.
N. Whybray more accurately captures Isaiah's thought:
Who has understood the mind of Yahweh,
or
who was his counselor, who instructed him?
Whom did he consult for his guidance,
and
who taught him the way to achieve order,
And showed him how to exercise
creative skill?3
Four
crucial differences separate the two translations:
Comparison of Whybray and NASB
Hebrew NASB Why bray
NKT directed understood
HUr Spirit mind
FPwm justice to achieve order
tvnUbT understanding creative
skill
The verb NKT can be translated
"directed" or "understood"
(Ezek.
19:25, 29; 33:17-20; Prov. 16:2; 21:2; 24:12; 1 Sam.
2:3).
The
translation "understood" is preferred here to "directed"
because
3 R. N. Whybray, The Heavenly Counsellor in Isaiah xl 13-14 (
At
the University Press, 1971), p. 18.
The Theology of Genesis
I - Continued / 31
in verse 12 the same verb undoubtedly means
"to measure." In fact,
in verse 12 the NASB translated NKT "to measure."
One would nor-
mally assume that the word
would have the same meaning in the
next verse. Moreover, the notion of
"measure" fits this passage
better. Isaiah is asking, "Who has measured the
mind of Yahweh?"
i.e.,
"Who has comprehended it?" or as the Septuagint correctly
interpreted it, ti<j
e@gnw nou?n kuri<ou: "Who has known
the mind
of the Lord?" In another connection Paul
asked that same question:
"Who
has known the mind of the Lord?" (1 Cor. 2:16).
As to the second difference, Whybray follows the Septuagint
translation of "mind" rather than the more
normal rendering "spirit"
for the word HUR. In deciding this issue
it should be noted first that
HUR can mean "mind." In Ezekiel 20:32 it
is in the HUR
that a
thought or plan is formed. Similarly 1
Chronicles 28:12 refers to
the plan which David "had in mind" to
build the
Second,
it should be noted that the principal verbs in these verses
are fdy ("to know")
(40:13, 14b), Nyb ("to
understand") (40:14a),
dml ("to train").
The emphasis in these verbs is on "knowing,"
"understanding," "thinking." Therefore, the
Septuagint once again,
followed by Paul, has probably given us the true
sense by opting for
"mind" rather than "spirit."
A third difference between Whybray and the NASB is in the
rendering of FPwm. The basic meaning of
this word is "to establish
the heavenly norm or pattern on earth."
Normally this concept is
applied to society, i.e., the bringing of
society into the right order or
arrangement. In this sense it is translated
"justice." But in three
passages its meaning is applied to a building. In
Exodus 26:30; 1
Kings
6:38; and Ezekiel 42:11 this word is used in reference to the
design of the tabernacle, the
temple prophesied by Ezekiel, respectively.
Significantly, in all these
passages it refers to the design or arrangement
of God's dwelling
place. Once again, Whybray
has opted for the better sense, though
unquestionably it is the more unusual
one, for in this passage Isaiah
is speaking of God as the Creator, the Designer of
the world. For
example, in verse 12 he speaks of God holding
the whole creation in
His
hands; in verse 22 he says that God has stretched out the heavens
like a curtain; and in verse 26 he says that Yahweh
created the stars.
The
notion of social justice does not fit the context, but the unusual
notion of constructing a building according to a design
fits easily.
Isaiah
is asking in effect, "under whom did God serve as
an appren-
tice to learn how to fashion
this building, this temple, if you please,
32
/ Bibliotheca Sacra - January 1976
namely the cosmos?" In effect, the earth is God's
temple where He
can fellowship with man.
Regarding the fourth difference, tvnUbT can be used of those
who have technical skill in constructing God's
buildings. It is used
of Bezaleel who had
responsibility for the artistic designs of the
implements of the tabernacle (Exod.
31:3; 35:1); it is used of
Oholiab and every skillful person engaged in the
tabernacle (Exod.
36:1);
and it is used of Hiram who built Solomon's temple. This
sense parallels precisely the suggested sense for FPwm. Isaiah spoke
of God's skill in building His temple, the cosmos.
It is concluded, therefore, that the
intent of Isaiah's questions
is to show that God acted alone in the designing
and fashioning of
this cosmos, His temple.
Whybray
has pointed out that in this passage we have another
polemic against the Babylonian creation myth.
According to the
Enuma elish, Marduk,
the storm god who was credited with the
creation, was counseled by his father Ea, the god
of wisdom.
Whybray noted:
One of the most striking features of
this poem is the role of Ea, the
father of Marduk. In several respects his influence outweighs that
of Marduk, in spite of the latter's frequently proclaimed
kingship.
It is Ea "the all wise"
(1:60) who devises and executes the scheme
for slaying
Apsu, "the begetter of the gods," and who
renders power-
less his
adviser and vizier, Mummu; and it is he who begets Marduk.
When Anshar,
the president of the assembly, proposes that Marduk,
as a young
and vigorous god, should be chosen to avenge the gods
against Tiamat, it is again Ea who gives advice to Marduk before
the
interview (II: 96ff.).4
But in Yahweh's court there is none
who can measure the
extent of His mind and serve as His counselor. By
Himself and in
His
supreme intelligence God fashioned the harmonious symbiotic
cosmos. In the light of this expression we can better
understand what
we are in Christ: "We have the mind of
Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16).
HIS
GOODNESS
The narrative recorded in Genesis 1
also taught God's people
the Creator's goodness. All that He made He called
good; but more
than that, He gave it all to man as a gift. All was
under the dominion
of Yahweh and He in turn had committed the
dominion of the earth
to man. Here indeed was a benevolent Despot.
4 Ibid.,
p. 76.
The Theology of Genesis
I - Continued / 33
The separation of the elements into
their life supportive systems
enabled man to live. The heavenly bodies not
only served as an
example of rulership
but also served to enable man to observe the
seasons and times as he took part in the
historical process, in which
sphere the Creator was pleased to display His other
sublime moral
attributes of justice, righteousness, grace, and
truth. The animals
were under man's sway, and the herbs, vegetation,
and fruit provided
for his physical needs. It was not good that man
should be alone,
and so God made him a counterpart equal with
himself.
Moreover, whereas everything else
was created remotely from
God,
man came directly from the heart, hand, and nostrils of God.
The
vegetation sprang from the earth, the sea creatures originated out
of the sea, and the beasts likewise trace their
origin back to the earth.
All
these were created through the mediacy of other
agents. But not
man. At the chronological pyramid of creation
stands man, and
nothing stands between him and God. He
originated from the hand
and breath of God. The Creator resolved in His
heart to make him:
"Let us make man in our own image and our
likeness" (Gen. 1:26).
Here
then is God's counterpart; not His equal, but one sharing His
nature and dominion. Man too is crowned with glory and
honor, as
the psalmist stated (Ps. 8). As God is a plurality
so also is man a
plurality. "Let us," said the Creator
and He made "them." Both are
a plural unity. On him the Creator pronounced His
effective word of
blessing. The same word that brought the heavens
and the earth into
existence placed His word of blessing on the head
of man: "Be
fruitful and multiply." Surely
that psychological necessity for mental health. Then
the Creator
gave man, His image, the Sabbath rest.
How different all this was from the
Israelites' pagan neighbors.
The
scriptural story is a breath of fresh air in a stagnant room; it is
light in the midst of darkness. According to Tablet
VI of Enuma
elish, man was created from
the blood of Kingu, a rebel deity, and
for the purpose of doing the work of the gods. The
text reads:
They bound him Kingu]
holding him before Ea,
They imposed on him guilt and
severed his blood (vessels).
Out of his blood they fashioned
mankind:
He [Ea] imposed the service and let
free the gods.
After Ea, the wise, had created
mankind,
Had imposed upon it the service of
the gods
That work was beyond comprehension
....5
5 James B. Pritchard,
ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating
to the Old
Testament (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1955), p. 68.
34
/ Bibliotheca Sacra - January 1976
The creation myth, then, underscored
in the minds of its cele-
brants that they were slaves. Sarna observed, "The position and
function of man in the scheme of creation
paralleled precisely the
status of the slaves in
Moreover, one should note the
contrast in viewpoints toward the
seventh day. In contrast to the blessed nature
and refreshment of
luck. Those pagans feared that their work would not
prosper on the
seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and
twenty-eighth days of the
month, days which were connected with the four phases
of the
moon. Concerning these days Cassuto
wrote: "These days, to which
must be added the nineteenth of the month, which
occurs seven
weeks after the beginning of the preceding month,
were regarded as
unlucky days on which a man should afflict
himself, eschew plea-
sures, and refrain from
performing important work, for they would
not prosper."7
It is against this environment and
background that one can
appreciate the Bible and the God of grace who
revealed His benevo-
lent virtues to man.
OTHER CREATION PASSAGES
Having considered the basic text
bearing on creation and chaos
and its theological implications, the writer now
turns to other texts
of the Old Testament to test and to clarify his
conclusions about
creation and chaos. Most writers regard the
divergent texts about
creation as contradictory and make no attempt to
harmonize them.
But
this skepticism is unworthy of a book that bears the earmarks
of an Author in whom there is no confusion.
PSALM
104
An analysis of Psalm 104 reveals
that the author celebrates the
works of God essentially according to the six
creative days
of Genesis.
Psalm 104
and Genesis 1
Day Text Ps.
104 Gen. 1
1 "covering yourself with
light" 2a 3-5
2 "stretching
out the heaven" 2b-4 6-8
6 Nahum M. Sarna, Understanding
Genesis (
1972),
p. 7.
7 Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the
Book of Genesis, trans.
Abrahams, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1961 and 1964), 1:66.
The Theology
of Genesis I - Continued / 35
3 He established the earth/set
a boundary
for [the deep] 5-9 9-10
(Description of rain and springs] 10-11
He causes the grass to grow 14-18 11-13
4 He made the moon . . . sun 19-20 14-19
6 the young lions roar/man goes forth
to his work 21-23 24-31
5 "There is the sea/and leviathan,
which you
formed to sport in it." 24-26 20-23
It
is apparent that the poet-psalmist has signaled out the sea
and its creature, leviathan, for special emphasis
by placing the
creation of the fifth day after the sixth. In the
light of the pagan
myths it is quite clear that his intentions are
polemical. Whereas
in the pagan creation myths the sea and its
monster were dreaded
manifestations of the hostile cosmic
forces, the inspired poet cli-
mactically declared that these,
too, are the work of God.
But the crucial verse in this
discussion is verse 6. Here
it is stated that in the creation God covered the
earth with the MvhT.
("the deep") as with a garment. At first glance this
seems to con-
tradict this writer's analysis
of Genesis 1:2, for it seems to say that
God
created the deep referred to there. Psalm 104:6 reads: "Thou
didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the
waters were
standing above the mountains." The waters
referred to here, how-
ever, are not the flood mentioned in Genesis 1:2,
but the flood men-
tioned in connection with
Noah, recorded in Genesis 6:9. Several
reasons are suggested in support of this view:8
First, though the psalm is structured
after Genesis 1, it is not a
cosmogony. It is a description of the earth as it
is now. The per-
spective is not that of the
origin of creation, but of a man living
after the events of the early chapters of Genesis.
For example, the
psalmist speaks of the cultivated grains:
"He causes the grass to
grow for the (domesticated cattle, and vegetation
for the labor of
man, so that he might bring forth bread from the
earth" (v. 14).
According
to Genesis 2:6 and 3:17-18, however, cultivated grains
and the bread from them did not originate until
after the Fall of
man. Moreover, the psalmist speaks in verse 13 of
God watering
8 For a contrary analysis
see Arch Rutherford, "The Relationship of Psalm
104
to the Doctrine of Creation" (Th.M. thesis, Dallas
Theological Seminary,
1971), pp. 27/ff.
36
/ Bibliotheca Sacra - January 1976
the mountains from His upper chambers--again a
situation that
did not prevail until after the Fall of man,
according to Genesis 2:5-6.
Then,
too, he speaks of God's creatures dying and returning to the
dust: "You hide your face and they are
dismayed; You take away
your spirit and they expire and return to the
dust" (v. 29). On the
other hand, he insists that creation continues now.
Verse 30 reads:
"You
send forth Your spirit and they are created; and You
renew
the face of the ground." The psalmist, then,
is not giving a cos-
mogony, but a description of
creation as it is now.
Second, the psalmist states that
this flood will never again cover
the earth. "You set a boundary that they [the
flood waters of v. 6]
may not pass over; that they may never again cover
the earth" (v. 9).
How
could he have the flood of Genesis 1:2 in mind when later in
the time of Noah, God once again unleashed the
destructive sea and
once again covered the earth? Surely, the psalmist
must have had in
mind the deluge at the time of Noah, for it was only
after this flood
that God promised never again to destroy the earth
with a flood
(Gen.
9:11).
Third, the terminology of Psalm
104:6 is precisely the same
as that used in connection with the flood in
Genesis 7:19: "And the
water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that
all the high
mountains everywhere under the heavens were
covered." This view
agrees with Morris and Whitcomb, who interpret verse 6
in connec-
tion with the Noahic flood.9
Fourth, it is significant to note
that the psalmist begins crea-
tion with light, not with an
earth devoid of form and covered with
darkness. This psalm, then, does not differ from
the proposed
exegesis of Genesis 1.
But the point of the psalm should
not be missed. The purpose
of creation is doxological: "Bless the LORD,
oh my soul! Oh LORD
my God, Thou art very great" (v. 1).
JOB
38:4-11
This passage may be divided into two
equal parts, with four
lines in each stanza: the creation of the earth (vv.
4-7), and the
creation of the sea (vv. 8-11).
The issue here is whether this poem
can be harmonized better
with the state described in Genesis 1:2 or with the
creation of the
dry land and sea on the third day as described in
Genesis 1:9-10.
9
John
C. Whitcomb, Jr., and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood
(Phila-
delphia: Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Co., 1964), p. 77.
The Theology of Genesis
I - Continued / 37
To
put it another way, is the earth referred to in Job 38:4 the
unformed earth or the dry land separated from the
sea?
The key to the correct harmonization
of Job 38:4-7 with
Genesis
I is found in the metaphorical word dsy "to found,"
"to
establish" (v. 4). In this highly evocative
poem God is likened to a
builder, an architect, constructing His magnum
opus. He begins by
preparing its footings and finally finishes the
foundation by laying
the chief cornerstone. It seems impossible to
harmonize this imagery
with the Uhbv Uht of Genesis 1:2, which
means precisely the oppo-
site. In Isaiah 34:11 the metaphor of building was
used but with the
opposite intent. Instead of using the line and
plummet for erecting
the house, God was there using them to dismantle
the house. After
He
had dismantled it He ended with Uhbv
UhT, which means "not
built." How, then, could Job's imagery of
building refer to the
unformed state of Genesis 1:2? The notions are
contradictory. On
the other hand, there is nothing inconsistent here
with applying the
metaphor to the triumphant command, "Then
God said, Let the
waters below the heavens be gathered into one place,
and let the
dry land appear" (Gen. 1 :9).
This harmonization is further
confirmed by the description of
the seas. The poet does not have in mind the
formation of a deep
which covered the unformed earth as depicted in
Genesis 1:2. He
means precisely the opposite. He has in view a sea
under very
restricted limits. Using the figure known as hypoctastasis, God asks,
"Who
enclosed the sea with doors?" (v. 8), and then He continued,
"I
placed boundaries on it, and I set a bolt and doors, and I said,
‘Thus
far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud
ways stop' " (vv. 10-11 ). This imagery can
only be harmonized with
the command in Genesis 1:9, "Let the waters
below the heavens be
gathered into one place." The mention of
darkness with the sea
(which might cause one at first to think of the unformed
state in
Genesis
1:2) must be associated from the context with the darkness
under God's creative design after the first day.
As the Creator calmed the turbulent
sea, so this revelation from
God
quieted the temptuous spirit of Job.
PROVERBS
8:22-31
By means of soliloquy the wisdom
poet seeks to show the
primacy of wisdom. In the poem, wisdom claims to
have existed
prior to and at the time of God's first created acts.
The issue is, What
does wisdom include among God's creative acts? By
implication the
38
/ Bibliotheca Sacra - January 1976
"depths and springs" mentioned in verse 24 are included
among
God's creative acts.
Many commentators assume that the
"depths" spoken of in
verse 24 refer to the MvhT mentioned in Genesis
1:2. If this is so,
then wisdom is including the state mentioned in
Genesis 1:2 as
among God's creative acts, and the present writer's
analysis of
Genesis
1:1-3 must be wrong. On the other hand, it should be noted
that MvhT is used over thirty
times in the Old Testament to designate
the oceans which came into existence on the second
and third days
as part of God's creative process in separating
out the spatial ele-
ments of the cosmos. Indeed,
the mention of "deeps" as plural in
the passages favors this latter interpretation, for
the "oceans" formed
on these days are mentioned frequently in the
plural.
An analysis of the structure of the
Proverbs passage will con-
firm the thesis that the "depths" should
be understood as those
formed on the second and third days, and not the
depths covering
the unformed earth mentioned in Genesis 1:2.
Gemser
noted the formal resemblance of verses 22 to 31 with
the Egyptian and Babylonian hymns of creation.10
That is helpful,
but even more helpful is the realization that the
structure is pre-
cisely like that of Genesis
1:1-3,11 as seen in the following analysis:
I. Summary statement 8:22-23
(2 vv.)
The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
before
His works of old.
From everlasting I was established
from
the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
II. Circumstantial clauses 8:24-29
(6 vv.)
A. Negative situation: "when-not-yet" sea or land.
8:24-26
(3 vv.)
1. When there were no
depths I was brought forth,
when there were
no springs abounding with water.
2. Before
the mountains were settled,
before the hills
I was brought forth;
3. While He had not yet
made the earth and the fields,
for the first
dust of the world.
10 Cited by William McKane, Proverbs: A
New Approach (
11 Cf. Bruce K. Waltke, "The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1-3; Part
III:
The
Initial Chaos Theory and the Precreation Chaos
Theory," Bibliotheca
Sacra 132 (July-September
1975): 226-28.
The
Theology of Genesis I - Continued / 39
B.
Positive situation: "When He made" heaven, sea, land.
8:27-29
(3 vv.)
1. When He established the heavens,
I was there,
when
He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
2. When He made firm the skies
above,
when
the springs of the deep became fixed,
3. When He set for the sea its
boundary,
so
that the water should not transgress His command,
when
he marked out the foundations of the earth.
III.
Main clause: waw consecutive with prefixed
conjugation form.
8:30-31
(2 vv.)
Then I was beside Him, as a master
workman;
and
I was daily His delight,
rejoicing
always before Him,
Rejoicing in the world, His earth,
and
having my delight in the sons of men.
It is clear that in five of the six
lines of the circumstantial
clauses, wisdom has in mind the creative acts of
the second and third
days when God achieved the spatial separation of the
universe. The
positive circumstantial clauses (vv. 27-29) speak
of the separation
of the heavens from the springs of the deep and of
the separation
of the earth from the sea. Here too is further
confirmation that the
analysis of Job 38:4 is correct because the same
imagery of a
builder laying a foundation is used, and here it
is clearly in con-
nection with the separation of
the waters from the dry land.
Moreover, it is also certain that in
the negative circumstantial
clauses of verses 25 and 26 the poet,
characterizing the earth by
mountains and hills, fields and dust, obviously
does not have in
mind an earth unformed and unfilled. So then the
earth in view
is the earth that appeared on the third day of
creation. If five of
the six lines clearly speak of the creation that
occurred on the
second and third days, and the one remaining line (v.
24) can refer
to that time, is it not probable that this is actually
the case? Should
not an ambiguous line be interpreted by the
unambiguous ones?
In
a word, nothing in the context suggests that the poet has in mind
the state described in Genesis 1:2. It is therefore
concluded that
Proverbs
8:24 is best harmonized with the creation of the sea on
the second and third days.
40
/ Bibliotheca Sacra - January 1976
Once again the text can be
harmonized, and it need not be
concluded that the scriptural accounts of creation
are incompatible
with one another.
ISAIAH
45:7
This is the only verse in Scripture
which states that God created
darkness. He is said to be "the One forming light and creating dark-
ness, causing well-being and creating
calamity." How can this state-
ment be harmonized with the
view that in Genesis 1 God did not
create the darkness? Two answers may be given in
response to this
question. Since God incorporated the darkness as
part of His crea-
tion (in order to provide
temporary separation), He may well have
had in view this act of the first day. In this
sense one can say that
God
formed the light and even created the darkness. This writer,
however, prefers a different solution--an answer
that views this
verse in its larger context as part of the conclusion
to the Cyrus
oracle in Isaiah 44:24-45:4. In 44:24-28 God calls
Cyrus His
shepherd who would release His people from the
restraint of the
Babylonian
captivity and in 45:1-4, He calls Cyrus His Messiah
("anointed") who would smash
hand, then, Yahweh's servant brings peace for God's
people; and
on the other hand, Cyrus brings destruction on
Cyrus
is the author of both peace and calamity; or to use meta-
phorical terms, he is the author
of both light and darkness. But the
one who called Cyrus to his twofold task is none
other than Yahweh,
the Author of both.
CONCLUSION
The creation account of the Old
Testament finds its full expli-
cation in Jesus of Nazareth,
the God-man. As God, He is the
Creator,
the One full of light, life, wisdom, and goodness. As
man,
He
is the One who is bringing the earth under His dominion. The
earth that the first Adam lost to Satan through his
disobedience
to the command of God is being reclaimed by the
Second Adam
through His obedience to the Cross. He is
presently winning it back
by His spiritual victories in the lives of men and
He will finally
put all things under His feet at the Second Advent.
John wrote about Him as the Creator: "In
the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
He
was in the beginning with God. All things came into being
through Him; and apart from Him nothing came
into being that
The Theology of Genesis
I - Continued / 41
has come into being. In Him was life; and the life
was the light of
men. And the light shineth
in the darkness; and the darkness did
not comprehend it" (John 1:1-5).
Paul also wrote about Christ as the
Creator: "For Him all
things were created, both in the heavens, and on
earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers
or authorities-
all things have been created through Him and for
Him. And He is be-
fore all things, and in Him all things hold
together" (Col. 1:16-17) .
And
the writer of the Book of Hebrews spoke of Him as the
man who will bring all things under His dominion:
"He did not
subject to angels the world to come, concerning
which we are speak-
ing. But one has testified
somewhere, saying, ‘What is man, that
Thou
rememberest him? Or the son of man, that Thou art
concerned
about him? Thou hast made him for a little while
lower than the
angels; Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor,
and hast
appointed him over the works of Thy hands; Thou
hast put all
things in subjection under his feet.’ For in
subjecting all things to
him, He left nothing that is not subject to him.
But now we do not
yet see all things subjected to him" (Heb.
2:5-8).
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
www.dts.edu
Please report any errors to Ted
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