WARNING: The text
used for my commentary is my own paraphrase and must not be
considered
“a translation” or authorative in any way. It is, in fact, simply my commentary.
Maps, when used, are from
BibleAtlas.org. Created
using BibleMapper 3.0.
Additional data from OpenBible.info. Source of Dates Used
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית • B'resheet
(“In Beginning” or “At First”)
The First Book of Moses,
Commonly Called
Genesis
Blessed are You, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has chosen us from all peoples
and given us His Torah.
Blessed are You, O Lord, Giver of the Torah.
Rishon (First)1In the beginning,[1a]
Elohim[GN] created[1b]the heavens[GN]
and the earth.[1c]
3. Satan Cast out of Heaven: Isaiah 14:12-18;
Ezekiel 28:13-18
4. Judgment of Creation (v 2a)
(Jeremiah 4:23-25)
2The
earth was[2a] formless and
empty.[2b] Darkness was on
the surface of the deep.
5. Creation for Habitation: Isaiah 45:18;
Genesis 2:4
I. From the Creation to the Flood
[3975-2319 BCE]
A. Creation
1 The Six Day of Creation
a. First Day (2b-5)
[Sun Mar 27, 3976 BCE]
The Spirit[2c]
of Elohim was hovering[2d] over the surface of the waters.
3Elohim said, “Let
there be light,”[3a] and there was light.[3b]4Seeing that the light was good,
Elohim separated the light from the darkness.
5Elohim called the light “day,” and
the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning,
day one.[5]
b. Second Day (6-8)
[Mon Mar 28, 3976 BCE]
6Elohim said, “Let
there be an expanse[6] between the waters
to separate the waters from the waters.”
7Elohim made the expanse, and
separated the waters which were beneath it from the waters which
were above it; and it was so.
8Elohim called the expanse
“sky.”[8] There was evening and there
was morning, a second day.
c. Third Day (9-13)
[Tue Mar 29, 3976 BCE]
9Elohim said, “Let
the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, so
that the the
dry land may appear;” and it was so.
10Elohim called the dry land “earth,”
and the collection of waters he called “seas.” Elohim saw that it
was good.
11Elohim said, “Let the earth sprout
vegitation,[11a] seed-bearing herbs,[11b] and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according
to its species”[11c] and it was so.
12The earth
produced vegitation and seed-bearing plants according to their
species, and trees bearing fruit with seed
according to their species; and Elohim saw that it was good.
13There was evening and there was
morning, a third day.
d. Fourth Day (14-19)
[Wed Mar 30, 3976 BCE]
(A: ii)14Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the
sky to distinguish between day and night, and to mark seasons, days, and years;[14]15and let them
serve as lights in
the expanse of the sky to
shine upon the earth;” and it was so.
16Elohim made two great lights:
the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.
He also made the stars.
17Elohim set them in the expanse of
the sky to shine upon the earth,
18and to rule over the day and
over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. Elohim saw that
it was good.
19There was evening and there
was morning, a fourth day.
e. Fifth Day (20-32)
[Thur Mar 31, 3976 BCE]
20Elohim said, “Let
the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth
in the open expanse of the sky.”
21So Elohim created the large sea
creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters
teemed, according to their species, and every winged bird after its
species.
Elohim saw that it was good.
22Elohim blessed them, saying,
“Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let
birds multiply on the earth.”
23There was evening and there
was morning, a fifth day.
e. Sixth Day (24-31)
[Fri Apr 1, 3976 BCE]
(A: iii)24Elohim said,
“Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kind, livestock,
creeping things, and wild animals of the earth accordiing to their
kind;” and it
was so.
25Elohim made the animals of
the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their
kind, and
everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. Elohim saw that
it was good.
26Elohim said,
“Let us make humans in our[26a] image, after
our likeness,[26b]
to have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky,
and over the livestock, and over all the earth itself, and over every
creature that crawls upon the earth.”
27Elohim created
humankind in His
own image. In Elohim’s image He created him; male and female He created
them.
28Elohim blessed them
and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue
it.[28a]
Have dominion[28b] over the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every creature that moves
on the earth.”
29Elohim said,
“Hinneh,[GN] I have given you every
seed-bearing plant on the surface of all the earth, and every tree
whose fruit contains seed. They will be your food.
30To every animal of the
earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps
on the earth in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green
plant
for food;” and it was so.
31Elohim
looked upon
everything that he had made, and it was very good indeed.[31a] There was evening and there was morning,
a sixth day.[31b]
Before you continue with your reading in
chapter
two, please take a couple of hours to watch and listen carefully to these
two extremely important videos from
Answers in Genesis.
Your overall worldview is critically important to a correct
understanding of the Word of God.
Here’s What Christians
DON’T Realize About Dinosaurs[GN]
Answers in Genesis
Science Has LIED to Us About the Age of the Earth
Answers in Genesis
1a. Hebrew בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית (bə·rê·šîṯ), “in the beginning” or
“at first.” The text is speaking about before the beginning of space/time
(before the alleged “Big Bang”), in all eternity before anything except
God existed. “Science” is now saying that God is no longer needed because quantum physics
allows for the universe to be created spontaneously out of nothing.
But in order
for quantum physics to allow for the creation of something from nothing, it
requires particles known as “quarks.” But the Bible text is talking about an eternity
past before even quarks existed! So who created quarks? What caused
the quantum fluctuation? “Science” is embarrassingly silent.
[BACK]
1b. Hebrew
בָּרָ֣א, bara', to shape, fashion, or create, always
with God as the subject. It is often taught that bara'
means to create out of nothing. While it is true that God
did create everything from nothing, that is not the meaning
of the word, and so it may not be legitimately used to form
the basis of a point of doctrine. The primitive root
bara' has the basic meaning “to create.”
It differs from עָשָׂה 'asah, “to fashion,
accomplish” in that 'asah primarily emphasizes the
shaping of an object or accomplishment of an objective, whereas
bara' primarily emphasizes the initiation of something new.
[BACK]
1c. Two Jewish versions of this phrase are
somewhat different and create a different sort of picture in the
mind when they are read. The
Sefaria reads “When God began to
create the heaven and earth …” and the
Artscroll Translation
reads “In the beginning of God’s creating the heaven and earth
…” It is critically important to study the text very carefully
and open your mind to the possibility that the Hebrew text does
not alway say what we have been taught and conditioned to
believe it says.
[BACK]
2a. Some claim that the word translated
“was” — הָיְתָ֥ה (hā·yə·ṯāh) — may also be translated “became.” If this is the case, it opens
the possibility of a pre-Adamic creation over which Lucifer, the Anointed
Cherub, was appointed ruler. This is known as the “Gap
Theory,” which has many problems discussed in
this article (and its related liknked articles). It is of little importance when
Lucifer fell, only that he did. (Ezek 28:13-14).
However, nowhere in Scripture is הָיְתָ֥ה
translated “became” so it should not be translated that way in this
sentence. [BACK]
2b. Unformed and empty. Hebrew תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ
tohu v'bohu. Tohu, unformed, denotes
a total state of confusion and lack of order; a condition of utter chaos; bohu
indicates a void or emptiness, a total waste.
[BACK]
2c. Spirit: Hebrew רוּחַ,
Ruach is the same word for breath or wind. In correct Trinitarian theology there are
absolutely not three separate Gods, as some would understand it, but rather there
is one, and only one, absolutely indivisible and eternally unchangeable God
as declared in the
Shema (Deut.
6:4), Who, from our
extremely limited understanding, appears to function or manifest as three primary
“Persons” — the Father (haAbba), the Son (haBen), and the Holy Spirit
(Ruach haKodesh). HaAbba is all the fullness of HaShem[GN] invisible; HaBen is all
the fullness of HaShem manifested; Ruach HaKodesh is all the fullness of HaShem acting
immediately upon creation. Thus, what the Father decrees, the Son declares, and the Spirit
executes. In the first two verses of the Torah, in fact of the
entire Bible, we have the first indication of God’s triune nature. (MORE HERE)[BACK]
2d. The picture here
is of a mother bird flying stationary above a nest full of chicks.
Many think that when Yeshua walked on the surface of the sea of
Galilee, He was reenacting the time when, as pure Spirit, He hovered
over the primordial oceans of the newly-formed and featureless
earth.
[BACK]
3a. Many modern translations of the
so-called “New Testament” present the words of Yeshua/Jesus in red letters.
Since Yeshua/Jesus is Yehovah come in the flesh, as of
early July 2023 I am going through my entire paraphrase and placing all the
words of Yehovah in red letters.
[BACK]
3b. “Let there be light,“ Hebrew
יְהִ֣י (yə·hî) א֑וֹר (’ō·wr); literally, “Light, be!” HaAbba
(the Father) decreed that there would be light, HaBen (the Son,
also called the Word, or Greek Logos, in Greek philosophy the
eternally pre-existing intelligence) declared (spoke) the Father’s
decree, and Ruach HaKodesh (the Spirit) executed that decree by
brining light into being from nothing through the power of the Son’s spoken
Word. Astrophysics claims that following the “Big Bang” the first particles to exist were photons, so that for the very earliest
portion of the Creation event there was nothing but light.
[BACK]
5. The phrase
translated “first day” can also be rendered as “one day” or “day one.” Note that in the creation account, “day one” begins with
evening followed by morning. Thus in the Hebrew method of time
reckoning, the day begins and ends at sunset. Since the Torah
clearly states that this day and the five which immediately follow
all begin with evening followed by morning, we can safely assume
that “day” refers to a single 24-hour day. In the phrase, “The earth
was unformed and empty” in verse 2, some say that the word “was”
(הָיָה, hayah
can also be translated as “became,” leaving the possibility of a vast
expanse of time between verse 1 and verse 2. This “accommodates” the so-called
“Gap Theory” of creation
[also here], which has many problems
discussed in
this article. I do not personally subscribe
to the Gap Theory, but you are certainly welcome to disagree with me.
[BACK]
6. Expanse: Hebrew
רָקִ֖יעַ, raqiya', an extended solid surface, a
support, base, or firmament. This suggests that originally there
was a solid enclosure of ice around the entire planet literally
separating the waters below it from the waters above it. It is
theorized that much of the water from the Flood of
Genesis 7 came
from this shell of ice suddenly melting. The fact that it is now
known that cosmic radiation is the leading cause of aging supports
the idea that because this shell of ice was very effective at
filtering out radiation, people typically lived 600-900 years or
even longer
before the flood. Since reptiles continue growing during their entire
life span, this may also explain how reptiles grew extremely large before
the flood. Consider how large a
Komodo dragon, for example, might grow
if it lived to be 500 or 600 years old.
[BACK]
11c. “After their
kind”: מִין, min, species? (maybe, but I don’t
think so). I have rendered
this phrase as “according to its/their kind” throughout. God ordained
that each life form reproduces within its own particular “kind.” Science
has created six “taxonomic categories” of all living things (in descending
order largest grouping to smallest): Kingdom, Phylum/Division, Class, Order, Genus,
and Species. If biblical “kind” refers to the “genus” level, new species or sub-species
(variations on the original species) may develop from
environmental conditions. However, science has yet to produce a single
iota of evidence that one species has ever transformed into
another. If “kind” refers to genus, then Noah had a lot fewer
animals to deal with.
Groups of living organisms belong
in the same created 'kind' if they have descended from the
same ancestral gene pool. This does not preclude new species
because this represents a partitioning of the original gene
pool. Information is lost or conserved, not gained. A new
species could arise when a population is isolated and
inbreeding occurs. By this definition a new species is not
a new ‘kind’ but a further partitioning of an existing ‘kind’.
[“according to its kind”, לְמִינ֔וֹ (lə·mî·nōw) Strong’s
Hebrew 2233 defined at
biblehub.com/strongs/ genesis/1-11.htm,
accessed 27 June 2021]
[BACK]
14. This does not mean that God
created the sun, moon, and stars after He created the
plants. It does mean, however, that He specifically ordained
that humanity should use them to tell time and to “mark
seasons, days, and years.” That is, to serve as the basis for our calendar and the timing of
the Moadim, or Appointed Times of YeHoVaH.[GN][BACK]
26a. To whom was God speaking when He said,
“Let us make humans in our image”? It may shock
you to learn that God has other children in His family. See “The
Divine Council Worldview.”
[BACK]
26b. Consider for just a moment
what it means
to be created
in the image and likeness of God. What does man have that all the
other creatures do not (so far as we know)? We have self-awareness —
the ability to have “conversations” with ourselves, like, “Oh my!
What was I thinking?” Of course “made in the image of God” cannot possibly mean that God
is a bipedal humanoid. God is invisible (Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:15; 1Tim.1:17),
but He is able to take any form He desires: a burning bush, a
humanoid (the Angel of Yehovah, Yeshua), a pillar of fire, a pillar
of smoke, etc. So His “image and likeness” cannot be referring to
visible, physical attributes. But God is sentient; He has intellect,
will, and emotion. Mankind is sentient: we have intellect,
will, and emotion. God is tri-partite: He exists invisibly as the
Father; He manifest visibly and physically as the Son; His Spirit
interacts directly with His creation. Man is tri-partite: we exist
invisibly as mind, will, and emotion; we exist visibly in a physical
body of muscle, bone, and blood; we exist spiritually as that part
of us which interacts directly with our Creator. For a simple
example, GO HERE.
Watch
this part of the video [the book he mentions is
here] and see why this paragraph fails to adequately articulate
what “the image of God” really is.
Another reason that “the image of God” has not been adequately
explained here is that if life begins at the moment of conception,
the newly-created being is immediately “the image of God” but has
yet to develop any of the attributes of personhood.
[BACK]
28a. “fill the earth and
subdue it”; the original plan was for Adam and Eve to be
the managers/ custodians of the earth and to make the entire earth
like Eden with the assistance of their descendants.
[BACK]
28b. Dominion, Hebrew רדה,
radah, is to have dominion, rule, subjugate. Adam was
created to rule over the earth and everything in it.
“Ruling over” includes the responsibility for properly caring
for that which is ruled over.
God created Adam and Eve with the original intent that they would
live forever with Him on Earth, and make the entire world just like
Eden.
[BACK]
31a. As God finished each phase of creation, He
paused, looked at what He had created, and declared that
it was good. But after He created humanity, He declared that it was very good.
[BACK]
31b. Nuclear physicist
Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., has demonstrated in The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth
(May 9, 2002) how by using Einstein’s Theory of Relativity he has calculated that when
viewed from the point of creation looking outward (God’s perspective) the Bible’s six days
of creation are identical to the 14 billion years since the “Big Bang” as
viewed from earth looking back toward the center of the universe.
“We look at the universe, and say, ‘How old
is the universe? Looking back in time, the universe is approximately
14 billion years old.’ That’s our view of time and those years went
by. But what is the Bible’s view of those billions of years looking
forward from the beginning? How does it see time? …
“We look back in time, and measure of
the universe to be 14 billion years old. But as every scientist
knows, when we say the universe is 14 billion years old, there’s
another half of the sentence that we rarely bother to state. The
universe is 14 billion years old as measured from the time-space
coordinates of the earth, that is, from our current position in the
universe.
“The key is that from the creation of
the universe to the creation of the soul of Adam, the Bible looks
forward in time, from time-space coordinates when the universe was
vastly smaller than it is today. Since then, the universe has
expanded out. Space stretches, and that stretching of space totally
changes the perception of time. …
“Today, we look back in time and we see
approximately 14 billion years of history and those years went by.
But how would they be perceived from the Bible’s perspective of time?
Looking forward from when the universe was very small – billions of
times smaller – the Bible teaches that six days passed. In truth,
they both are correct. … The biblical text shows us (and the Talmud
confirms) that the soul of Adam was created five and a half days after
the big bang creation. That is a half day before the termination of the
sixth day. At that moment the cosmic calendar ceases and an earth based
calendar starts. How would we see those days stretched by a million
million? Five and a half days times a million million, gives us five
and a half million million days. Dividing that by 365 days in a year,
comes out to be 15 billion years. NASA gives a value of just under 14
billion years. Considering the many approximations, and that the Bible
works with only six periods of time, the agreement to within a few
percent is extraordinary. The universe is billions of years old but
from the biblical perspective those billions of years compress into five
and a half, 24 hour days.”
However, we must be very careful of our worldview.
The text and grammatical structure of chapters 1 thru 5 of
Genesis clearly indicates that the earth was not created
in the 13.8 billion years that modern scientists claim, but
rather in six literal days of 24 hours each
approximately 6,000 years ago. In
chapter 5 of Genesis we are given “the family records of Adam”
(Gen. 5:1, CSB) and Genesis 11:10-31 gives us
“the family records of Shem” to Abraham, allowing us to calculate the
time from Adam to Abraham at approximately 2,000 years. Then
from Abraham to Yeshua is approximately 2,000 years, and
from Yeshua to present is approximately 2,000 for a total of
roughly 6,000 years. If Genesis is wrong then the Bible is
flawed and cannot be trusted. If Genesis cannot be trusted then
John 3:16 cannot be trusted. If the Bible cannot be trusted then
we have no salvation and no hope.
[BACK]
Originally posted on Sunday, 09 August 2020
Revised outline, some text and notes on Sunday, 27 June 2021
Added additional notes on Sunday, 1 May 2022
Page revised on Shabbat 03, June 2023
Page last updated on
Monday, 02 October 2023 12:52 PM
(Updates are generally minor formatting or editorial changes.
Major content changes are identified as "Revisions”) ANXIOUSLY WATCHING FOR MASHIACH’S RETURN,
SPEEDILY AND IN OUR DAY. MARANA, TA!