8 | Genesis 1:22
cord ing to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26
Then God said,“ Let us make man kind in our im age, in our like ness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the live stock and all the wild an i mals, a and over all the crea tures that move along the ground.”
27
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said,“ Be fruit ful and in crease in num ber and fill the wa ter in the seas, and let the birds in crease on the earth.” 23 And there was eve ning, and there was morn ing— the fifth day.
24
And God said,“ Let the land pro duce liv ing creatures ac cord ing to their kinds: the live stock, the crea tures that move along the ground, and the wild an i mals, each ac cord ing to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild an i mals ac cord ing to their kinds, the livestock ac cord ing to their kinds, and all the crea tures that move along the ground aca
26 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text( see Syriac); Masoretic Text the earth
of the aquatic kingdom. The term tannin occurs in Canaanite mythology for supernatural sea creatures who served the god Yam in his primordial battle with the god Baal. Yam was depicted as Leviathan, a chaotic monster of the primordial deep. Attributing the creation of the tannin to the God of Israel served to assert his superiority over the gods of Canaan, especially those symbolizing the watery chaos that existed before God brought order to the world. It was a message of hope that God was the Creator of even the chaos and thus could subdue it. 1:22 Be fruitful and increase in number God created life to be fertile. Here, the capacity for sexual reproduction is cast as a divine blessing.
1:26 – 31 The creation of man and woman is the climax of God’ s creative activity. This passage contains several key words and concepts: God’ s reference to himself in the plural, the concept of the“ image of God,” the separation of humanity into two genders— male and female— and the divine command for humanity to fill and rule the earth.
1:26 Let us make The occurrence of“ us” in this passage has been understood to refer to the plurality of the godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This understanding would have been unknown to the authors of the OT. Another possible explanation is the so-called“ plural of majesty,” but this type of grammatical usage is more common for nouns and adjectives than verbs. A simpler explanation is that“ us” reflects an announcement by the single God of Israel to a group in his presence— the heavenly host. Other OT passages support the idea of a heavenly host or divine council( Ps 29:1; see Ps 82:1 and note). This explanation also applies to Ge 11:7. The phrase“ our image” then means that the members of the heavenly host also reflect the divine image. 1:27 image of God Being created in the image of God distinguishes people from all other earthly creation. God’ s image is not described as being possessed in part or given gradually; rather, it is an immediate and inherent part of being human. The image of God likely does not refer to
DAY 5 DAY 6 NIGHT NIGHT NIGHT NIGHT
DAY
DAY
Small animals
Small birds
Small fish
Larger birds Larger fish
Larger animals Humans
And God said,“ Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” God blessed them and said,“ Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
And God said,“ Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” Then God said,“ Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” God blessed them and said to them,“ Be fruitful and increase in number.”