Genesis Vocabulary

Let’s look at Genesis and why it’s important. Let’s first of all look at some vocabulary that may need a little clarification.

Day

Read Genesis 1-2 and notice how the context defines the meaning of words. For instance, how is the word day defined at least three different ways in Genesis 1-2?

“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)

“This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4 NKJV)

How is the word day defined to plainly reveal the length of each creation day?

“the evening and the morning” (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 KJV)

We need to look at the context to see how a word is used. Here in the creation account, the word day has a variety of meanings just like in English. It is used to mean 1) daylight hours compared to night, 2) the whole 24 hour period of evening and morning, and 3) the period of time when God created everything, in a similar manner to which we would say, back in grandpa’s day.

Another use of the word day is also found in the accounts of Jesus' death, that He would be three days in the grave (Matthew 12:40; 26:61; 27:40, 63; Mark 8:31; 14:58; 15:29; John 2:19-20). This is different to modern English, because colloquially in ancient Greek, three days and three nights could include parts of 3 days, such as Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Do we also use the word day in several ways in English? At the later giving of the Ten Commandments, were the creation days understood as a metaphor or literal?

“Because the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days, but rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:11 CEB)

Expanse

How is the word “firmament” or “expanse” used to mean two separate things? (Genesis 1:6-8; 14-20) Notice it is used to describe the atmosphere between the oceans, rivers, and lakes on the earth and the clouds in the sky. Notice again that it is also used in a different manner to describe the expanse between earth and the sun, moon and stars.

Created

The word “created” in Genesis 1:1 is also a special word. In the Qal or simple conjugation of the Hebrew verb, it is “bara” and then is exclusively used for something that only God can do.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 NASB)

When humans “create” or make something, they do not create the material, but merely form or shape something that God has already created.

Light

How is it that light was created before the lights, the sun, moon and stars? One theory is that God “set” what He had created to be an astronomical clock on the 4th day, but that’s not what the text says. Another theory is that God removed the cloud cover on day 4 so that the sun, moon and stars could be visible, but that’s also not what the scripture says.

What the text actually says is that God created light on day 1 and generators of light on day 4. That leaves us with a mystery which I will place on a shelf until eternity. What we do know is that God is the Father of lights (James 1:17) and God is light (1 John 1:5).

Authorship

Now let’s look at the primary human author whose pen God inspired to write Genesis, historically accepted as Moses.

Contrary to modern skeptics, the Bible itself generally attributes the first five books of the Bible to Moses (Exodus 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Numbers 33:1–2; Deuteronomy 31:9–11; Joshua 1:8; 8:31–32; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; 21:8; Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 13:1; Daniel 9:11–13; Malachi 4:4; Matthew 19:8; John 5:45–47; 7:19; Acts 3:22; Romans 10:5; Mark 12:26). Why do skeptics ignore the Bible’s own testimony about who was the human author of the first five books, the Pentateuch? Perhaps Romans 1:16-32 has an answer, an important passage to take some time to read. It’s quite plain and it may shock you.

It’s obvious that Moses did not write about his own death (Deuteronomy 34:5-12) and it’s also possible that he redacted or included a couple of very ancient creation records into the text (Genesis 1:1-2:3; 2:4-25). If so, that would make the biblical creation accounts much older than other creation stories from ancient history.

Evidence

What do the Genesis creation accounts tell us? Ubiquitous forensic evidence declares loudly that there is a designer and creator of all things.