Creationist Day-Age Theory Commentary: Genesis 1:1-2:3 – JPS 2004 Study Bible

Original posting Date:  January 2, 2011 at 3:42 pm (edited)

Pre:

“The correlations between things created on the various days exhibit a high degree of symmetry”

“First three” days … “generalities or domains” …

“Next three” days … “specifics”

“FISH/BIRDS (DAY 5)” “SKY (DAY 2)” – Conclusively, fish swim in the sky, which will be explained.

The creation week has seven of Gd’s days, “Seven signifies completeness” – ex. menorah has 7 candles, week has 7 days etc.,

“Was good or very good occurs seven times, but not on every day of the primordial week.  Missing on the second and the seventh it appears twice on the third and sixth days” – Stealing has a ratio of 2:1 or 1:2.  Not everything is good.

“God does function here in ways reminiscent of a Kohen” – Science is a discipline for priests.

Verses referred below are according to JPS 2004 Bible.

1:1 the first word of the translation is, “when.”

1:1 the second word of the translation is, “God.”

This suggests that time and creation existed before G-d created them.

1:2 “Darkness” – A 24 hour day begins with darkness.  The primordial darkness is a black hole.

“In the midrash, Bar Kappara upholds the troubling notion that God created the world out of preexistent material.”

Compare with Gen. Rab. 1:5

“In the ancient Near East, however, to say that a deity had subdued chaos is the highest praise.”

1:3 “The Big Bang” (Zohar shows medieval Cabbalists had already conceived of this idea out of their interpretation of Genesis 1.)

3-5: “Since the sun is not created until the fourth day (1:14-1:19), the light of the first three days is of a different order from what we know” from experience in this universe

1:4 we begin to see a pattern in that G-d is powerful: that from His utterances, we are the residue of His spit.

1:5 “Day” “Night” “evening” “morning” – These were all a part of the first age (Yom).  Evening and morning are a part of each age.

1:6 “Separate water” – There are layers of atmosphere, as well as layers of the ocean.

1:7 by the authority of G-d there is density, and buoyancy.

1:8 “Sky” – Liquid (water, oil, or air) are all very similar, except that they different in resistivity.  This means that we should treat air and water as being very similar.  For example, one can pass an alternating current through them.

1:9 “Land” – Solids

1:10 “Earth” – Pangaea, the land is completely connected.

 1:10 “Seas” but “the” – Indicates that all the Seas were connected.

1:11 “Vegetation” – This is cyanobacteria that could live without the sun.  Or the ancestors of chloroplasts, an organelle within a eukaryote plant that was once a separate bacterial cell.

1:12 “Two great lights” – The sun and the moon “Stars” – Ours is not the first sun.

1:20 First there were fish.  Then, there were insects, including those that are winged.  These insects are, “Owph,” meaning flying things, not inclusive of birds. 

1:21 “creep,” amphibians

1:24 “cattle,” mammals, then “creep” dinosaurs [Probably not “cattle,” but mammals (hairy creatures not “cattle”), such as the first monotremes (egg laying mammals, such as platypuses)] [Mammals existed in the fossil record at the same time dinosaurs supposedly walked the earth.]

26-28: “Some have seen in that commission a license for ecological irresponsibility.  The fact is, however, that the Tanakh presents humanity as not the owner of nature but as its steward,”

“Be fertile and increase.  In Jewish law, this is a positive commandment, although it is obligatory only on Jewish men, not women (b. Yebam. 65b)” The Lubavitcher Rebbe disagrees, and professed belief that Jews are to encourage gentile men to procreate.  There is no context suggesting that this only implies Jewish males, and not all males of humankind.

1:26 “Us” – G-d is a collective singular.  This possibly explains how G-d may appear both merciful and punitive and/or good or evil.  “Man” – Meaning humankind.  The first creation story of Genesis 1 is exactly according to the fossil record. “Image” – That of creation in that creation is visible.

1:28 the first command of the Torah.  It is for men only, and it does not imply make a baby every chance that you get.  This command has been accomplished (Bill McKibben – ref. book Maybe One).  The world population has an estimated 6 billion humans. We now need for our charity to extend to animals, such that human’s don’t crowd out the beautiful biodiversity of our planet.  That is that we need to be careful not to make earth the above mentioned vast waste dump upon which G-d sits as king.

2:2 “Rested” – This is Shabbat or in other pronunciations “Shabbos.”  The 7th day is never mentioned as having ended even up to the time of King David (Psalm 95:11.)  The next part of the text of Genesis is another creation story with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  It is my opinion, that mankind originated in the Garden of Eden on the 6th day before G-d entered His rest.   There are laws of Shabbat that require transgressing Shabbat, such as saving a life, such that it is correct to use medicine to save a life on Shabbat.  Thus, it is such that if we are still in a period of the 7th age, then there is a certain degree of deism relative to G-d’s interactions with the world, such that Gd intervenes primarily to heal, in the same way that Doctors/Rabbi’s often do.  Additionally, it is such that G-d might take a break to rest even if the Lord’s Sabbath has ended, which also suggests a certain degree of deism.