Genesis creation narrative

First narrative: Genesis 1:1–2:4a

Background

The first creation account is divided into seven days during which God creates light (day 1); the sky (day 2); the Earth, seas, and vegetation (day 3); the Sun and Moon (day 4); animals of the air and sea (day 5); and land animals and humans (day 6). God rested from his work on the seventh day of creation, the Sabbath.

The use of numbers in ancient texts was often numerological rather than factual – that is, the numbers were used because they held some symbolic value to the author. The number seven, denoting divine completion, permeates Genesis 1: verse 1:1 consists of seven words, verse 1:2 has fourteen, and 2:1–3 has 35 words (5×7); Elohim is mentioned 35 times, "heaven/firmament" and "earth" 21 times each, and the phrases "and it was so" and "God saw that it was good" occur 7 times each.

The cosmos created in Genesis 1 bears a striking resemblance to the Tabernacle in Exodus 35–40, which was the prototype of the Temple in Jerusalem and the focus of priestly worship of Yahweh; for this reason, and because other Middle Eastern creation stories also climax with the construction of a temple as a house for the creator god, Genesis 1 can be interpreted as a description of the construction of the cosmos as God's house, for which the Temple in Jerusalem served as the earthly representative.

Pre-creation (Genesis 1:1–2)

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

— Genesis 1:1–2 (NRSVue)

The opening phrase of Genesis 1:1 is traditionally translated in English as "in the beginning God created". This translation suggests creatio ex nihilo ('creation from nothing'). The Hebrew, however, is ambiguous and can be translated in other ways. The NRSV, published in 1989, translates verses 1 and 2 as, "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void ..." This translation suggests that earth, in some way, already existed when God began his creative activity. The NRSV Updated Edition, published in 2021, represents the evolution of the majority scholarly position, that the initial Hebrew word b'reshit (which does not use the definite article) is in the grammatical construct state, specifying that the beginning of the acts in question are being described – rather than being its own clause that indicates an absolute position in time.

Scholars such as R. N. Whybray, Christine Hayes, Michael Coogan, Cynthia Chapman, and John H. Walton argue that Genesis 1:1 describes the creation of an ordered universe out of preexisting, chaotic material, as creatio ex nihilo is thought to be a philosophical concept alien to the text's original audience. Others, including John Day and David Toshio Tsumura argue that Genesis 1:1 describes the initial creation of the universe, the former writing: "Since the inchoate earth and the heavens in the sense of the air/wind were already in existence in Gen. 1:2, it is most natural to assume that Gen. 1:1 refers to God's creative act in making them."

The word "created" translates the Hebrew bara', a word used only for God's creative activity; people do not engage in bara'. Walton argues that bara' does not necessarily refer to the creation of matter. In the ancient Near East, "to create" meant assigning roles and functions. The bara' which God performs in Genesis 1 concerns bringing "heaven and earth" from chaos into ordered existence. Day disputes Walton's functional interpretation of the creation narrative. Day argues that material creation is the "only natural way of taking the text" and that this interpretation was the only one for most of history.

Most interpreters consider the phrase "heaven and earth" to be a merism meaning the entire cosmos. Genesis 1:2 describes the earth as completely unordered, alternatively translated as "formless and void". This phrase is a translation of the Hebrew tohu wa-bohu (תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ). Tohu by itself means 'emptiness' or 'futility'. It is used to describe the desert wilderness. Bohu has no known meaning, although it appears to be related to the Arabic word bahiya ('to be empty'), and was apparently coined to rhyme with and reinforce tohu. The phrase appears also in Jeremiah 4:23 where the prophet warns Israel that rebellion against God will lead to the return of darkness and chaos, "as if the earth had been 'uncreated'".

Verse 2 continues, "darkness covered the face of the deep". The word deep translates the Hebrew təhôm (תְהוֹם), a primordial ocean. Darkness and təhôm are two further elements of chaos in addition to tohu wa-bohu. In Enuma Elish, the watery deep is personified as the goddess Tiamat, the enemy of Marduk. In Genesis, however, there is no such personification. The elements of chaos are not seen as evil but as indications that God has not begun his creative work.

Verse 2 concludes with, "And the ruach of God [Elohim] moved upon the face of the waters." There are several options for translating the Hebrew word ruach (רוּחַ). It could mean 'breath', 'wind', or 'spirit' in different contexts. The traditional translation is "spirit of God". In the Hebrew Bible, the spirit of God is understood to be an extension of God's power. The term is analogous to saying the "hand of the Lord" (2 Kings 3:15). Historically, Christian theologians supported "spirit" as it provided biblical support for the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, at creation.

Other interpreters argue for translating ruach as "wind". For example, the NRSV renders it "wind from God". Likewise, the word elohim can sometimes function as a superlative adjective (such as "mighty" or "great"). The phrase ruach elohim may therefore mean "great wind". The connection between wind and watery chaos is also seen in the Genesis flood narrative, where God uses wind to make the waters subside in Genesis 8:1.

In Enuma Elish, the storm god Marduk defeats Tiamat with his wind. While stories of a cosmic battle prior to creation were familiar to ancient Israelites , there is no such battle in Genesis 1 though the text includes the primeval ocean and references to God's wind. Instead, Genesis 1 depicts a single God whose power is uncontested and who brings order out of chaos.

Six days of Creation (1:3–2:3)

Creation takes place over six days. The creative acts are arranged so that the first three days set up the environments necessary for the creations of the last three days to thrive. For example, God creates light on the first day and the light-producing heavenly bodies on the fourth day.

Each day follows a similar literary pattern:

1. Introduction: "And God said"
2. Command: "Let there be"
3. Report: "And it was so"
4. Evaluation: "And God saw that it was good"
5. Time sequence: "And there was evening, and there was morning"

Verse 31 sums up all of creation with, "God saw every thing that He had made, and, indeed, it was very good". According to biblical scholar R. N. Whybray, "This is the craftsman's assessment of his own work ... It does not necessarily have an ethical connotation: it is not mankind that is said to be 'good', but God's work as craftsman."

At the end of the sixth day, when creation is complete, the world is a cosmic temple in which the role of humanity is the worship of God. This parallels Enuma Elish and also echoes Job 38, where God recalls how the stars, the "sons of God", sang when the corner-stone of creation was laid.

First day (1:3–5)

Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

— Genesis 1:3–5 (NRSVue)

The process of creation illustrates God's sovereignty and omnipotence. God creates by fiat; things come into existence by divine decree. Like a king, God has merely to speak for things to happen. On the first day, God creates light, separates the light from the darkness, and names both concepts. God therefore creates time.

Creation by speech is not found in Mesopotamian mythology, but it is present in some ancient Egyptian creation myths. While some Egyptian accounts have a god creating the world by sneezing or masturbating, the Memphite Theology has Ptah create by speech. In Genesis, creative acts begin with speech and are finalized with naming. This has parallels in other ancient Near Eastern cultures. In the Memphite Theology, the creator god names everything. Similarly, Enuma Elish begins when heaven, earth, and the gods were unnamed. Walton writes, "In this way of thinking, things did not exist unless they were named." According to biblical scholar Nahum Sarna, this similarity is "wholly superficial" because in other ancient narratives creation by speech involves magic:

The pronouncement of the right word, like the performance of the right magical actions, is able to, or rather, inevitably must, actualize the potentialities which are inherent in the inert matter. In other words, it implies a mystic bond uniting matter to its manipulator ... Worlds apart is the Genesis concept of creation by divine fiat. Notice how the Bible passes over in absolute silence the nature of the matter—if any—upon which the divine word acted creatively. Its presence or absence is of no importance, for there is no tie between it and God. "Let there be!" or, as the Psalmist echoed it, "He spoke and it was so", [Psalm 33:9] refers not to the utterance of the magic word, but to the expression of the omnipotent, sovereign, unchallengeable will of the absolute, transcendent God to whom all nature is completely subservient.

Second day (1:6–8)

And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

— Genesis 1:6–8 (NRSVue)

On the second day, God creates the firmament (rāqîa), which is named šamayim ('sky' or 'heaven'), to divide the waters. Water was a "primal generative force" in pagan mythologies. In Genesis, however, the primeval ocean possesses no powers and is completely at God's command.

Rāqîa is derived from rāqa', the verb used for the act of beating metal into thin plates. Ancient people throughout the world believed the sky was solid, and the firmament in Genesis 1 was understood to be a solid dome. In ancient Near Eastern cosmology, the earth is a flat disc surrounded by the waters above and the waters below. The firmament is a solid dome that rests on mountains at the edges of the earth. It is transparent, allowing men to see the blue of the waters above with "windows" to allow rain to fall. The sun, moon and stars are underneath the firmament. Deep within the earth is the underworld or Sheol. The earth is supported by pillars sunk into the waters below.

The waters above are the source of precipitation, so the function of the rāqîa was to control or regulate the weather. In the Genesis flood narrative, "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth" from the waters beneath the earth and from the "windows" of the sky.

Third day (1:9–13)

And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

— Genesis 1:9–13 (NRSVue)

By the end of the third day God has created a foundational environment of light, heavens, seas and earth. God does not create or make trees and plants, but instead commands the earth to produce them. The underlying theological meaning seems to be that God has given the previously barren earth the ability to produce vegetation, and it now does so at his command. "According to (one's) kind" appears to look forward to the laws found later in the Pentateuch, which lay great stress on holiness through separation.

In the first three days, God set up time, climate, and vegetation, all necessary for the proper functioning of the cosmos. For ancient peoples living in an agrarian society, climatic or agricultural disasters could cause widespread suffering through famine. Nevertheless, Genesis 1 describes God's original creation as "good" – the natural world was not originally a threat to human survival.

The three levels of the cosmos are next populated in the same order in which they were created – heavens, sea, earth.

Fourth day (1:14–19)

And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

— Genesis 1:14–19 (NRSVue)

On the first day, God makes light ('ôr). On the fourth day, God makes "lights" or "lamps" (mā'ôr) set in the firmament. This is the same word used elsewhere in the Pentateuch for the lampstand or menorah in the Tabernacle, another reference to the cosmos being a temple. Specifically, God creates the "greater light", the "lesser light", and the stars. According to Victor Hamilton, most scholars agree that the choice of the wording "greater light" and "lesser light", rather than the more explicit terms "sun" and "moon", is anti-mythological rhetoric intended to contradict widespread contemporary beliefs in sun and moon deities. Indeed, Rashi posits that the account of the fourth day reveals that the Sun and the Moon operate only according to the will of God, and so demonstrates that it is foolish to worship them.

The account of the fourth day introduces the language of "ruling". The heavenly bodies will "govern" day and night and mark seasons, years and days. This was a matter of crucial importance to the Priestly authors, as the three pilgrimage festivals were organised around the cycles of both the Sun and Moon in a lunisolar calendar that could have either 12 or 13 months.

In Genesis 1:17, God sets the stars in the firmament. In Babylonian myth, the heavens were made of various precious stones with the stars engraved in their surface (compare Exodus 24:10 where the elders of Israel see God on the sapphire floor of heaven). (In Job 38, God's first-person depiction of the creation-process implies that some stars (actual or metaphorical) already existed at or before the preparations for laying the foundations of the earth: Job 38:4–7: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?")

Fifth day (1:20–23)

And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

— Genesis 1:20–23 (NRSVue)

On the fifth day, God creates animals of the sea and air. In Genesis 1:20, the Hebrew term nepeš ḥayya ('living creatures') is first used. They are of higher status than all that has been created before this, and they receive God's blessing.

The Hebrew word tannin (translated as "sea creatures" or "sea monsters") in Genesis 1:21 is used elsewhere in the Bible in reference to chaos-monsters named Rahab and Leviathan (Psalm 74:13, Isaiah 27:1 and 51:9). In the Egyptian Instruction of Merikare and Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, the creator-god has to do battle with the sea-monsters before he can make heaven and earth. In Genesis, however, there is no hint of combat, and the tannin are simply creatures created by God. The Genesis account, therefore, is an explicit polemic against the mythologies of the ancient world.

Sixth day (1:24–31)

And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, "Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

So God created humans in his image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

— Genesis 1:24–31 (NRSVue)

On the sixth day, God creates land animals and humans. Like the animals of the sea and air, the land animals are designated nepeš ḥayya ('living creatures'). They are divided into three categories: domesticated animals (behema), wild herd animals that serve as prey (remeś), and wild predators (ḥayya). The earth "brings forth" animals in the same way that it brought forth vegetation on day three.

In Genesis 1:26, God says "Let us make man ..." This has given rise to several theories, of which the two most important are that "us" is majestic plural, or that it reflects a setting in a divine council with God enthroned as king and proposing the creation of mankind to the lesser divine beings. A traditional interpretation is that "us" refers to a plurality of persons in the Godhead, which reflects Trinitarianism. Some justify this by stating that the plural reveals a "duality within the Godhead" that recalls the "Spirit of God" mentioned in verse 2; "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters".

The creation of mankind is the climax of the creation account and God's implied purpose for creating the world. Everything created up to this point was made for humanity's use. Man was created in the "image of God". The meaning of this is unclear but suggestions include:

1. Having the spiritual qualities of God such as intellect, will, etc.;
2. Having the physical form of God;
3. A combination of these two;
4. Being God's counterpart on Earth and able to enter into a relationship with him;
5. Being God's representative or viceroy on Earth;
6. Having dominion over Creation like the angels in Psalm 8:5;
7. Moral excellence and the possibility of glorification.

When in Genesis 1:26 God says "Let us make man", the Hebrew word used is adam; in this form it is a generic noun, "mankind", and does not imply that this creation is male. After this first mention the word always appears as ha-adam, 'the man', but as Genesis 1:27 shows ("So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."), the word is still not exclusively male.

God blesses humanity, commanding them to reproduce, 'subdue' (kbš) the earth and 'rule' (rdh) over it, in what is known as the cultural mandate. Humanity is to extend the Kingdom of God beyond Eden, and, imitating the Creator-God, is to labour to bring the earth into its service, to the end of the fulfilment of the mandate. This would include the procreation of offspring, the subjugation and replenishment of the earth (e.g., the use of natural resources), dominion over creatures (e.g., animal domestication), labor in general, and marriage. God tells the animals and humans that he has given them "the green plants for food" – creation is to be vegetarian. Only later, after the Flood, is man given permission to eat flesh. The Priestly author of Genesis appears to look back to an ideal past in which mankind lived at peace both with itself and with the animal kingdom, and which could be re-achieved through a proper sacrificial life in harmony with God.

Upon completion, God sees that "every thing that He had made ... was very good". According to Israel Knohl, this implies that the materials that existed before the Creation (tohu wa-bohu, "darkness", tehom) were not "very good". He thus hypothesized that the Priestly source set up this dichotomy to mitigate the problem of evil. However, according to Collins, since the creation of man is the climax of the first creation account, "very good" must signify the presentation of man as the crown of God's creation, which is to serve him.

In Catholic exegesis, God's view that everything created was "very good" implies that "all those things which make up the temporal order, namely, the good things of life and the prosperity of the family, culture, economic matters, the arts and professions, the laws of the political community, international relations, and other matters of this kind, as well as their development and progress, not only aid in the attainment of man's ultimate goal but also possess their own intrinsic value. This value has been established in them by God, whether they are considered in themselves or as parts of the whole temporal order."

Seventh day: divine rest (2:1–4a)

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

— Genesis 2:1–4a (NRSVue)

These verses belong with and complete the narrative in chapter 1. Creation is followed by "rest". In ancient Near Eastern literature, the divine rest is achieved in a temple as a result of having brought order to chaos. Rest is both disengagement, as the work of creation is finished, but also engagement, as the deity is now present in his temple to maintain a secure and ordered cosmos. The word used in the original Hebrew Texts that has been translated as "rested" is "way·yiš·bōṯ". This word is used only twice in the Old Testament, the other occurrence being Joshua 5:12. In Joshua 5:12, the word is not used to indicate a temporary suspension but a permanent cessation:

And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

— Joshua 5:12.

Compare with Exodus 20:8–11: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy GOD, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Second narrative: Genesis 2:4b–25

The Garden of Eden story, which occupies the remainder of Genesis 2, was probably authored c. 500 BC as "a discourse on ideals in life, the danger in human glory, and the fundamentally ambiguous nature of humanity – especially human mental faculties". The Garden in which the action takes place lies on the mythological border between the human and the divine worlds, probably on the far side of the cosmic ocean near the rim of the world; following a conventional ancient Near Eastern concept, the Eden river first forms that ocean and then divides into four rivers which run from the four corners of the earth towards its centre. According to Meredith Kline, who represents covenant theology and the framework interpretation, the narrative establishes the site of the "climactic probation test", which is also where the "covenant crisis" of Genesis 3 occurs.

The pericope that constitutes the second narrative is usually analysed as beginning with Genesis 2:4b ("In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens"). A minority position interprets the whole of Genesis 2:4 as being one self-contained unit, largely consisting of a chiasmus with the structure:

These are the generations
(a) of the heavens
(b) and of the earth
(c) when they were created
(c′) in the day that the LORD God made
(b′) the earth
(a′) and the heavens.

Origin of humanity and plant life (2:4b–7)

Genesis 2:4b is a set introduction, similar to those found in Babylonian myths. Before the man is created, the earth is a barren waste watered by an 'êḏ (אד). The King James Version has the translation "mist" for this word, following Jewish practice – since the mid-20th century, Hebraists have generally accepted the real meaning as being "spring of underground water".

In Genesis 1 the characteristic word for God's activity is bara, 'created'; in Genesis 2 the word used when he creates the man is yatsar (ייצר yîṣer), 'fashioned', a word used in contexts such as a potter fashioning a pot from clay. God breathes his own breath into the clay and it becomes nephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁ), a word meaning 'life', 'vitality', "the living personality"; man shares nephesh with all creatures, but the text describes this life-giving act by God only in relation to man.

Garden of Eden (2:8–14)

The word "Eden" comes from a root meaning "fertility": the first man is to work in God's miraculously fertile garden. The tree of life is a motif from Mesopotamian myth; in the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1800 BC) the hero is given a plant whose name is "man becomes young in old age", but a serpent steals the plant from him. Kline regards the tree of life as a symbol or seal of the reward of eternal life for successful fulfilment of the covenant by humanity. What type of knowledge is given by the second tree has been subject to much scholarly discussion: suggestions include human qualities, sexual consciousness, ethical knowledge, and universal knowledge, with the latter interpretation being most widely accepted. In Eden, mankind has a choice between wisdom and life, and chooses the first, although God intended them for the second.

The mythic Eden and its rivers may represent the real Jerusalem, the Temple and the Promised Land. Eden may represent the divine garden on Zion, the mountain of God, which was also Jerusalem; while the real Gihon was a spring outside the city (mirroring the spring which waters Eden); and the imagery of the Garden, with its serpent and cherubs, has been seen as a reflection of the real images of Solomon's Temple, with its copper serpent (the nehushtan) and guardian cherubim. Genesis 2 is the only place in the Bible where Eden appears as a geographic location: elsewhere (notably in the Book of Ezekiel) it is a mythological place located on the holy Mountain of God, with echoes of a Mesopotamian myth of the king as a primordial man placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life "in the midst of the garden" (verse 9).

God's covenant with Adam (2:15–17)

Kline states that the terms of the covenant (a divine legal transaction with divinely sanctioned commitments), specifically the Covenant of Works, are summarised in verses 15–17. In verse 15, humanity is to "dress" and "keep" the garden (KJV), or to "work it" and "take care of it" (NIV). In verse 17, God gives the "focal probationary proscription", that Adam must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which refers to "judicial discernment" and a curse is attached if the proscription is transgressed, which is said to be death, although Kline interprets this to be spiritual death or eternal perdition rather than physical death. The Hebrew behind this is in the form used in the Bible for issuing death sentences. "Good and evil" can also be interpreted as a merism, which would refer simply to knowledge of all things.

Creation of woman (2:18–25)

After God's observation that it is "not good that man should be alone" in verse 18, but before he causes Adam to sleep, then creating the woman from his side in verses 21–22, Adam's first recorded action is carried out alone, his naming of each of the other creatures brought to him by God. This appears to be an exercise of the authority and the dominion given to Adam in Genesis 1:28. Verse 20 also states that, among all the animals, none was found to be a suitable helper for him, which leads into the account of the creation of the woman (named Eve in the following chapter).

The first woman is "built" out of one of Adam's ribs, to be an ezer kenegdo (עזר כנגדו 'êzer kəneḡdō) for him – a phrase that is particularly difficult to translate. Kəneḡdō means 'alongside', 'opposite', or 'a counterpart to him', and 'êzer refers to active intervention on behalf of the other person. God's naming of the elements of the cosmos in Genesis 1 illustrated his authority over creation; the man's naming of the animals illustrates Adam's authority within creation. The woman is called ishah (אשה 'iš-šāh), 'woman', with an explanation that this is because she was taken from ish (אִישׁ 'îš), 'man', but the two words are not connected. Adam rejoices at being given a helper, exclaiming (or singing) that she is "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh". Henri Blocher refers to Adam's words as "poetry"; Alistair Wilson proposes that they should be treated as song.

Following the Eden narrative, in Genesis 3 the woman receives the name Ḥawwāh (חוה, Eve). This means 'living' in Hebrew, from a root that can also mean 'snake'. Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer connects Eve's creation to the ancient Sumerian myth of Enki, who was healed by the goddess Nin-ti, "the Lady of the rib"; this became "the Lady who makes live" via a pun on the word ti, which means both 'rib' and 'to make live' in Sumerian. The Hebrew word traditionally translated 'rib' in English can also mean 'side', 'chamber', or 'beam'. A long-standing exegetical tradition holds that the use of a rib from man's side emphasises that both man and woman have equal dignity, for woman was created from the same material as man, shaped and given life by the same processes.

Interpretations

Hexameral literature

The Genesis creation narrative inspired a genre of Jewish and Christian literature known as the Hexameral literature. This literature was dedicated to the composition of commentaries, homilies, and treatises concerned with the exegesis of the biblical creation narrative through ancient and medieval times. The first Christian example of this genre was the Hexaemeron of the 4th-century theologian Basil of Caesarea, and many other works went on to be written by authors including Augustine of Hippo, Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Edessa, and Bonaventure.

Framework interpretation

The framework interpretation (also known as the "literary framework" view, "framework theory", or "framework hypothesis") is a description of the structure of the first creation narrative (more precisely, Genesis 1:1–2:4a). Biblical scholars and theologians present the structure as evidence that the first creation narrative constitutes a symbolic rather than literal presentation of creation.

Two triads and three kingdoms

Kline's analysis divides the six days of creation in Genesis into two groups of three ("triads"). The introduction, Genesis 1:1–2, "In the beginning... the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep...", describes the primal universe containing darkness, a watery "deep", and a formless earth, over which hovers the spirit of God. The following three days describe the first triad: the creation of light and its separation from the primal darkness (Genesis 1:3–5); the creation of the "firmament" within the primal waters so that the heavens (space between the firmament and the surface of the seas) and the "waters under the firmament" can appear (Genesis 1:6–8); and the separation of the waters under the firmament into seas and dry land with its plants and trees. The second triad describes the peopling of the three elements of the first: sun, moon, and stars for the day and night (Genesis 1:14–19), fish and birds for the heavens and seas (Genesis 1:20–23), and finally animals and man for the vegetated land (24–31). This framework is illustrated in the following table.

Differences exist in classifying the two triads, but Kline's analysis is suggestive: the first triad (days 1–3) narrates the establishment of the creation kingdoms, and the second triad (days 4–6), the production of the creature kinds. Furthermore, this structure is not without theological significance, for all the created realms and regents of the six days are subordinate vassals of God, who takes his royal Sabbath rest as the Creator on the seventh day. Thus, the seventh day marks the climax of the creation week.

Supporters and critics

The framework interpretation is held by many theistic evolutionists and some progressive creationists. Some argue that it has a precedent in the writings of Augustine of Hippo. Arie Noordzij of the University of Utrecht was the first proponent of the Framework Hypothesis in 1924. Nicolaas Ridderbos (not to be confused with his more well-known brother, Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos) popularized the view in the late 1950s. It has gained acceptance in modern times through the work of such theologians and scholars as Meredith G. Kline, Henri Blocher, John H. Walton and Bruce Waltke. Old Testament and Pentateuch scholar Gordon Wenham supports a schematic interpretation of Genesis 1:

It has been unfortunate that one device which our narrative uses to express the coherence and purposiveness of the creator's work, namely, the distribution of the various creative acts to six days, has been seized on and interpreted over-literalistically ... The six day schema is but one of several means employed in this chapter to stress the system and order that has been built into creation. Other devices include the use of repeating formulae, the tendency to group words and phrases into tens and sevens, literary techniques such as chiasm and inclusio, the arrangement of creative acts into matching groups, and so on. If these hints were not sufficient to indicate the schematization of the six-day creation story, the very content of the narrative points in the same direction.

The framework view has been successful in the modern era because it is seen as a resolution of the traditional conflict between the Genesis creation narrative and contemporary science. It presents an alternative to literalist interpretations of the Genesis narratives, which are advocated by some conservative Christians and creationists at a popular level. Creationists who take a literalist approach reject symbolic or allegorical interpretations of the Genesis creation narrative as conceding to scientific authority at the expense of biblical authority. Advocates of the framework view respond by noting that scripture affirms God's general revelation in nature (see Psalm 19; Romans 1:19–20); therefore, in the search for the truth about the origins of the universe, we must be sensitive to both the "book of words" (scripture) and the "book of works" (nature). Since God is the author of both "books", we should expect that they do not conflict with each other when properly interpreted.

Opponents of the framework interpretation include Old Testament scholars James Barr and Andrew Steinmann, Robert McCabe, and Ting Wang. Additionally, some conservative systematic theologians, such as Wayne Grudem and Millard Erickson, have criticised the framework interpretation, deeming it an unsuitable reading of the Genesis text. Grudem states that "while the 'framework' view does not deny the truthfulness of scripture, it adopts an interpretation of scripture which, upon closer inspection, seems very unlikely."

Literal interpretations

The meaning to be derived from the Genesis creation narrative will depend on the reader's understanding of its genre, the literary "type" to which it belongs (e.g., creation myth, historical saga, or scientific cosmology).

While biblical criticism has deconstructed many traditional views on the Bible, conservative evangelical traditions have tended to interpret the Genesis creation narrative in a literal way but have also engaged in (sometimes heated) disputes on the interpretation of Genesis.

According to biblical scholar Francis Andersen, misunderstanding the intention of the authors and the culture within which they wrote will result in a misreading. Reformed and evangelical scholar Bruce Waltke cautions against one such misreading: the "woodenly literal" approach, which leads to "creation science", but also to such "implausible interpretations" as the "gap theory", the presumption of a "young earth", and the denial of evolution. Scholar of Jewish studies Jon D. Levenson goes further in doubting whether historicity can be attributed to Genesis at all:

How much history lies behind the story of Genesis? Because the action of the primeval story is not represented as taking place on the plane of ordinary human history and has so many affinities with ancient mythology, it is very far-fetched to speak of its narratives as historical at all.

Historian Conrad Hyers likewise wrote: "A literalist interpretation of the Genesis accounts is inappropriate, misleading, and unworkable [because] it presupposes and insists upon a kind of literature and intention that is not there." Nonetheless, according to John Day, there is no reason to say that the authors of Genesis 1 did not believe that it happened as presented. The creation story matches other ancient near eastern structures of the cosmos, and is etiological, so positing poetry and metaphor does not necessarily have to be the case.

Biblical scholar John J. Collins argues that trying to harmonize the relation between modern sciences and Genesis does a disservice to the Bible. He considered it no better to force any contemporary and alien understandings onto the texts, especially when they conceived of the world in a totally different way.