What was God's first creative act in Genesis?

[IvaQuestion]

“Let there be Light” from verse 3 would be the immediate response from most. The first part of our physical universe he created was Light. However, in verse 2 it says, “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.”

God then creates light and separates light from the darkness on the first day in verse 3. On the second day, in verses 6-8, he separates the water above (sky) from the water below. It doesn’t say he created it, and then separated it–the narrative is clearly implying the water was there already. On the third day, he gathered the water under the sky into seas and brought forth land and vegetation (verses 9-13).

What is missing here is any explanation as to when the water itself was created. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms and is undeniably part of the physical universe. It existed before the creation of Light, per verse 2. So when did God create the water that his Spirit hovered over in verse 2? If he created it on Day 1, why didn’t the author of Genesis explain that it was part of the Creation on Day 1? If it was prior to Day 1, then the whole narrative that God created the World in 6 days as commonly understood from Genesis would have to be revised. When did God create water?

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

Well that’s why Genesis is not intended to be entirely literal.
What Chapter One is intending to do is say,
“Look to the left, Look the Right, Up, Down, All Over . . . GOD DID IT!”
Is Genesis intended to be a science textbook used in High School? No, that
is not the purpose of even the Bible itself. There was a Big Bang, from which
everything that exists in the physical universe came to be, and no that does
not exclude God from the act of Creation. It would take too many posts for
me to tell you the rest of the story, but it’s not in Genesis, because that’s
not what Genesis is meant to do. The most basic way to understand is
to just read the first verse:
“In the beginning God created Heaven, and Earth.”
That is the entire point which Genesis is getting at, but suppose all the scientific-y
stuff is real? Big Bang and the lot. Now imagine God telling all this to Moses, what
would he and the rest of the Israelites have understood from all that? We must also
take into account that the Israelites already had a certain concept of the universe,
common to many cultures, flat earth, dome sky, Sun/Moon/Stars going around the
Earth, so God was working with their understanding of the cosmos in order to ex–
plain that it was ALL HIM.

Don’t worry about HOW God did it, just focus on THAT God did it.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

That’s why I believe that Genesis was God bringing the earth back from some cataclysmic event that happened and destroyed all life. In the **very very beginning God created the universe and the earth first. But in Genesis it’s like God is just restoring **the earth, that’s why it only took 6 days and why the earth is older than Genesis implies. That’s why the earth and water were already there. The history of what happened before Genesis is lost except in artifacts and by studying the planet itself and carbon dating etc. So Genesis is right, God created everything in the very beginning, but Genesis itself seems to tell of a restoring of the earth and God creating mankind.

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

OH BOY, that sounds a little kooky, sorry.
It’s an interesting idea, certain Jewish legends
suggesting that God did create several worlds
before ours, but that God destroyed them all,
because He was pleased with none until He
created ours. So it’s not SO out there, but
be careful, with that idea, okay?

 

[thistle]

That’s why I believe that Genesis was God bringing the earth back from some cataclysmic event that happened and destroyed all life. In the **very very beginning God created the universe and the earth first. But in Genesis it’s like God is just restoring **the earth, that’s why it only took 6 days and why the earth is older than Genesis implies. That’s why the earth and water were already there. The history of what happened before Genesis is lost except in artifacts and by studying the planet itself and carbon dating etc. So Genesis is right, God created everything in the very beginning, but Genesis itself seems to tell of a restoring of the earth and God creating mankind.

I disagree with that. Its creation and NOT restoration. Restoration would contradict Church teaching.

 

[The_Serpent]

In Revelation, 'waters" are used as a symbol for “peoples”; apply this interpretation to your Genesis quote. Then you have a vast pool of beings floating above the “deep”, perhaps the vastness of the universe, and the Spirit of God hovering over the beings. So the image I see presented is… a vast sea of angels with the Holy Spirit hovering over them, and they are all hovering together over the deep universe! This might be before the Fall of the Angels, who looked like a sea of water, all clear pure and holy.

 

[IvaQuestion]

We must also
take into account that the Israelites already had a certain concept of the universe,
common to many cultures, flat earth, dome sky, Sun/Moon/Stars going around the
Earth, so God was working with their understanding of the cosmos in order to ex–
plain that it was ALL HIM.

Don’t worry about HOW God did it, just focus on THAT God did it.

Even if God was talking down to the Israelites to their level of understanding, why not simply say he created water and light on Day 1? It is a simplified description of his creation. If the narrative is saying up front that there was water, why not simply say he created water?

Also, the creation narrative includes things that are inconsistent with the simplified concept of the universe you describe. I’m sure the ancient Israelites understood that light comes from a light source–the sun rises, it gets light out. You start a fire, you can see things that were hidden in darkness. So it doesn’t make much sense in a creation narrative to say that God created light on the first day, and the sun on the fourth day, as Genesis describes. A simplified description would have said that God created a light source, the sun. How then is the current Genesis narrative consistent with a simplified concept that the Israelites would have held?

 

[IvaQuestion]

The most basic way to understand is
to just read the first verse:

“In the beginning God created Heaven, and Earth.”
​

But if that is all that God wanted to communicate, why all the additional narrative as to how the Creation was carried out? I don’t have the verse in front of me, but there is a verse in the Bible that says every word in the Bible serves a purpose in teaching, guidance, reproach, etc. There’s also another verse that says we are not to add to or take out words of the Bible.

You seem to be suggesting that the bulk of the Creation narrative can simply be ignored, because it should not be taken literally, and people should just focus on the first verse.​

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

Even if God was talking down to the Israelites to their level of understanding, why not simply say he created water and light on Day 1? It is a simplified description of his creation. If the narrative is saying up front that there was water, why not simply say he created water?

Because they already would have understood that.

Also, the creation narrative includes things that are inconsistent with the simplified concept of the universe you describe. I’m sure the ancient Israelites understood that light comes from a light source–the sun rises, it gets light out. You start a fire, you can see things that were hidden in darkness. So it doesn’t make much sense in a creation narrative to say that God created light on the first day, and the sun on the fourth day, as Genesis describes. A simplified description would have said that God created a light source, the sun. How then is the current Genesis narrative consistent with a simplified concept that the Israelites would have held?

Again, they understood. It worked for them. It fit their ancient cosmology.
Why did it work for them? I really don’t know so much in that field.
Why are you criticizing how the ancients thought?

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

But if that is all that God wanted to communicate, why all the additional narrative as to how the Creation was carried out?

It WORKED for the Israelites, God knew what they needed so he told them.
Please keep in mind that I’m no scholar, give me a break.

I don’t have the verse in front of me, but there is a verse in the Bible that says every word in the Bible serves a purpose in teaching, guidance, reproach, etc.

Yes, I believe I’m familiar with what you’re talking about.

There’s also another verse that says we are not to add to or take out words of the Bible.

There is no such verse, sorry to have to point that out. There are books in the Bible
which demand that they not be altered in any way, like Revelation and Deuteronomy,
but when each book of the Bible was written, it did not have the whole Bible in mind.

You seem to be suggesting that the bulk of the Creation narrative can simply be ignored, because it should not be taken literally, and people should just focus on the first verse.

No, you’re suggesting that that is what I’m suggesting. What I’m saying is that it isn’t all
literal, but at what point did I say “Ignore Everything but that one little verse”? Genesis
was written at a certain time in a certain way for a particular audience…

I recommend this video for you:
youtube.com/watch?v=PzWK2rpLCwk

 

[Gloria_de_G]

“Let there be Light” from verse 3 would be the immediate response from most. The first part of our physical universe he created was Light. However, in verse 2 it says, “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.”

God then creates light and separates light from the darkness on the first day in verse 3. On the second day, in verses 6-8, he separates the water above (sky) from the water below. It doesn’t say he created it, and then separated it–the narrative is clearly implying the water was there already. On the third day, he gathered the water under the sky into seas and brought forth land and vegetation (verses 9-13).

What is missing here is any explanation as to when the water itself was created. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms and is undeniably part of the physical universe. It existed before the creation of Light, per verse 2. So when did God create the water that his Spirit hovered over in verse 2? If he created it on Day 1, why didn’t the author of Genesis explain that it was part of the Creation on Day 1? If it was prior to Day 1, then the whole narrative that God created the World in 6 days as commonly understood from Genesis would have to be revised. When did God create water?

May be this will help you to understand these apparent discrepancies that you are suggesting.

Before there was anything created before anything came into existance this is what there was:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” 1 Jn 1-5

In the love of Christ,
Gloria

.

 

[aragonjohn1]

only God and perhaps a number of His saints truly know the first act; but if one had to guess i’d say Love is His first creative act in creation.

God bless

 

[CalCatholic]

God’s first act of creation probably was creating the matter that he set in motion in the ‘Big Bang.’ Just ask any astronomer they will tell you the same thing, but they might leave out the part about God.

 

[Gloria_de_G]

Just because they do not know where came from the first gasses and whatever was needed for the Big Bang! So I do not have to believe them. I rather believe Saint John who told us exactly what was at the beginning before any thing was created:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” 1 Jn 1-5

With the coming of Christ, all the things that in the OT that were not clear, they became clear, and the ones that not, He told us how to take them: The law and the prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached". Lk 16:16
This is the must important!

In the love of God,
Gloria

.

 

[mikekle]

OH BOY, that sounds a little kooky, sorry.
It’s an interesting idea, certain Jewish legends
suggesting that God did create several worlds
before ours, but that God destroyed them all,
because He was pleased with none until He
created ours. So it’s not SO out there, but
be careful, with that idea, okay?

Yes, but God also later said he WAS displeased with what he had created (mankind).

God makes it clear he cannot ‘change his mind’ or change in anyway, so he would not be able to first be pleased by something he created and then be displeased, that is not possible.

 

[Croc]

That’s why I believe that Genesis was God bringing the earth back from some cataclysmic event that happened and destroyed all life. In the **very very beginning God created the universe and the earth first. But in Genesis it’s like God is just restoring **the earth, that’s why it only took 6 days and why the earth is older than Genesis implies. That’s why the earth and water were already there. The history of what happened before Genesis is lost except in artifacts and by studying the planet itself and carbon dating etc. So Genesis is right, God created everything in the very beginning, but Genesis itself seems to tell of a restoring of the earth and God creating mankind.

Sounds realistic! The earth was already there though in an amorphous form.