Interpreting the Genesis creation account is a controversial topic. Some groups take Genesis’ creation accounts to be literal; others take parts of the creation story to be metaphorical. However, both views seem to forget that Genesis was written a couple of millennia ago. Categories like literal or symbolic would not have been meaningful to the ancient Israelite community.
There needs to be a shift in views on the genre of the text that takes into account the time and cultural gaps between modern readers and the original audience who received the Scriptures. Christians generally agree that the Bible is inspired by God to reveal His will and to help people understand the nature of creation and humanity.
But the inspiration of Scripture seems to be a loose term that gets used without people properly understanding it. This becomes a major point of focus while interpreting the Genesis creation account.
Interpreting the Genesis Creation Account and God’s Authority
When contemporary readers engage with interpreting the Genesis creation account, they often assume that the Holy Spirit will reveal everything God intended for us in a manner that we can comprehend. That kind of contention runs into problems when people realize that God communicated with the ancient Israelite communities using ancient Israelite authors.
In order to understand the message, the author’s internal disposition, the community’s worldview, and the cultural setting of the time need to be studied. The authors of Scripture didn’t include hidden meanings in the text for present-day readers to discover later. They communicated with people of their time, who shared the same cultural background and norms, and didn’t require explanations of every context, unlike today’s readers.
If God shaped his message for the ancient people, then Christians must accommodate their readings to the ancient worldview. They should aim to extract the message about God and humanity from what was meant for the ancient Israelites.
The Creation Accounts and the Origin of the Universe
In the modern world, existence is understood to be constituted solely in material terms. It is no surprise that people often assume creation refers to the material emerging from nothing. Ancient Near Eastern cultures did not conceive of their creation accounts as material in nature, contrary to modern interpretations.
Genesis 1:1 presents the pre-creation state as containing matter, but in an undifferentiated and formless condition. This suggests that the materialist view, which assumes the pre-creation state to be one of absolute nothingness, is not applicable in this context.
Elsewhere in the Scriptures, the Hebrew terms translated as ‘formless and empty’ (tōhû wābōhû), are used to depict wilderness, desolation, and the emptiness or futility associated with idols. So, we can use the words to describe things that have no functionality or role in facilitating life.
The Hebrew word for ‘create’ (bārāʾ) is used in the rest of the Old Testament primarily to denote assigning a role or function to something. The Hebrew word for ‘made’ (ʿāśâ) appears 2,600 times in the Hebrew Bible. Its meaning is complex and can vary depending on the context. It has been used to refer to actions such as: do, work, make, provide, prepare, and establish. This refers not to the material aspect of creation, but to the act of constructing something by assembling its parts.
Ancient Perceptions of Space
In the ancient Near East, there was a distinctive focus on spaces that exhibited the divine presence of God or the gods. These places were typically the sites where the temples of their God were constructed. These spaces distinguish the sacred from the mundane, providing spiritual and communal orientation. It is a place where heaven and earth meet, imparting life and order from the gods to the surrounding community.
Jacob’s vision of the ladder in Genesis, along with his consecration of the place as the gate of heaven, exemplifies the sacred manifesting in the temporal world and sanctifying space. The Jerusalem Temple is a place that connects heaven and earth, serving as the spiritual heart of the world. From there, God’s laws and divine order emanate to the surrounding community, neighboring countries, and ultimately to the ends of the earth.
Beyond the ordered community space is the uncharted, unpredictable territory. The ancient people’s desire to live near the sacred stems from the lack of a guiding principle in the wilderness. Without a fixed point of reference, there is no objective truth, only fragments and relativity that hinder any forward movement.
These sacred spaces that bring life, and the uncharted, homogeneous world outside the ordered realm, provide the framework for interpreting the Genesis creation account.
Ancient Perceptions of Time
Just as there is sacred space, there also exists sacred time, the time contemporaneous with creation. This time is sanctified by the presence and activity of the gods. New Year festivals and ceremonies serve as portals to sacred time, in which participants are transported into the time of the gods and reenact the creation stories in dramatized, symbolic, and ritualistic ways. These ceremonies reinstate time as it was at its inception by the gods.
In Babylon, during the Akitu new year ceremony, the creation poem Enuma Elish is recited, and participants reenact the scenes of cosmic battle. Reenacting the defeat of the chaos monster Tiamat by the god Marduk, shaping the land from Tiamat’s dismembered body, and fashioning humans from the blood of the demon Kingu. Nawroz, the Persian New Year, celebrates the day the world and humanity were created, symbolizing the renewal of time
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Ancient Perceptions of the Pre-Creation State
The ancient Near East has a similar way of portraying the pre-creation state. Before creation, chaos existed as undifferentiated, untamed, and formless. These phenomena are expressed in the symbolic language of darkness, the sea, and the desert, much like the space beyond the sacred realm.
In Genesis 1:1, the ancient Israelites described the primordial state as ‘formless and empty’. It entails the absence of time, space, light, food, and a regulated climate, all of which are necessary to make life possible.
In one Egyptian creation account, before creation, there was a primeval water, personified as the god Nun. The god Atum floated in his egg on the waters, dormant yet with potential to develop and change. Then, this self-impregnating god gave birth to the different aspects of creation as we know it.
Ancient Near Eastern Views of Creation and Cosmic Order
Just as modern people instinctively assume the Earth is round, in the ancient Near East, there were common understandings about the world. Everyone believed there were waters above the sky, which sometimes came down, and waters below the ground, where one could dig to find water, along with springs where the waters emerged.
People in the ancient world believed in a solid sky that held back the waters above, creating space for habitation. In the ancient world, the stars were thought to be engraved on the underside of the solid sky. The world was generally understood to be divided into three primary domains: the heavens (or sky), the earth (or land), and the sea (see Exodus 20:11; Deuteronomy 4:39; Psalm 146:6; Philippians 2:10; Revelation 10:6 )
The sea, the underworld, and the deep are closely related domains. The sea and the deep express chaos and the untamed nature of the cosmos, while the underworld (Sheol) represents death, the grave, or the realm of the dead, often associated with darkness and separation from life.
In Noah’s time, the biblical authors employed imagery of decreation to convey the flood story. All the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened (see Genesis 7:11-12 ), as though pulling creation back into the chaotic waters. In many ancient Near Eastern mythologies, sea monsters symbolized the chaotic waters and were seen as opponents of the life-giving God.
Ancient Near Eastern Depictions of Sea Monsters
| Name | Culture | Domain | Description | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiamat | Babylonian | Sea | A primordial goddess and chaos dragon; embodies the saltwater chaos. | Marduk |
| Yam | Canaanite | Sea | God of the sea and chaos; associated with stormy and untamed waters. | Baal |
| Leviathan | Hebrew/Israelite | Sea | A twisting serpent-like sea monster symbolizing chaos and cosmic disorder. | Yahweh (God of Israel) |
| Rahab | Hebrew/Israelite | Sea | A poetic personification of the sea or chaos; sometimes equated with Egypt. | Yahweh (God of Israel) |
| Lotan | Ugaritic | Sea | A seven-headed serpent; very similar to Leviathan, tied to chaos and the deep | Baal |
| Apophis (Apep) | Egyptian | Underworld | A giant serpent representing chaos; threatens the sun god during his night journey. | Ra (the sun god) |
Unpacking Genesis One
Now, with all the cultural and historical background in mind, we can turn to interpreting the Genesis creation account. In the sacred time, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. On the first four days, God created time, space, weather, and food, which are the essential elements for life to exist. God commands light to come into existence. The act of God speaking things into existence highlights the power and authority of His word.
Naming and Separating differentiate the formless state, bringing structure to the cosmos and giving identity and purpose to its elements. He orders time by separating light from darkness, naming them day and night to function as such. This establishes the cycle of time, and there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Boundaries are established over the chaotic waters as the firmament is created and the sea is commanded to gather, creating space for living creatures.
He then names them to define their function. Next, plants are brought forth to provide food for everything that has the breath of life in it. On the fourth day, God creates the two lights to separate day from night, to mark signs, seasons, days, and years. The first day was about creating time. If this isn’t describing material creation, we shouldn’t expect it to list material events in order.
On the fifth and sixth days, God created animals across each of the three domains. He creates humans in His own image on the land, appointing them to rule over every domain.
God Rested in the Ordered Cosmos
The purpose of the six days of creation is for God to rest in his ordered universe. When a family first moves into their new house, the space is often filled with boxes and scattered furniture, giving it an unsettled and disorganized feel. They bring order and make the space their own, turning it into a place that is both meaningful and livable.
In the Hebrew Bible, the word rest (nwḥ) refers to a day when God protects His people from enemies who seek to attack and capture both them and their land, allowing them to live out their lives in peace(see Deuteronomy 12:10; Josh 1:13; 21:44; 2 Sam 7:1; 1 Kings 5:4). Through this divine protection, they are able to live out their lives in peace.
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God is depicted as enthroned in the temple, the place where He rests (see Psalm 132:14; Ezekiel 40–48; 43:7). This imagery conveys His presence with His people and establishes the temple as the center of His rule.
In Conclusion
Interpreting the Genesis creation account is a journey back in time. A shift in perspective is needed to recognize the cultural and historical context of Genesis rather than applying modern categories to its genre. Keeping their worldview in mind is essential to understanding the text. The central theme of the Genesis creation account is the bringing forth of order from chaos, and a habitable world from what was uninhabitable. It is important to recognize that what they depict is the incomprehensible, conveyed through familiar concepts and abstract language.