GEN2c
During the first three days God creates spaces by separation, and in the second three days he populates the corresponding spaces with creatures/entities. Days three and six each have two creative words.
Genesis 1 presents a parallel structure of the creation of spaces and then of the creatures that fill those spaces, climaxing in the Sabbath.
Each day is declared good, with the exception of the second, which is Monday! Particularly puzzling for modern readers is the creation of sun, moon, and stars after the creation of the earth’s clouds and oceans, land and vegetation. But this feature will become comprehensible once we consider the ancient Semitic perspective below. The day that stands apart from this parallel structure is the climactic seventh day, the Sabbath.
Readers often assume that the creation of humans forms the narrative’s climax, and that their creation “in God’s image” should be central to the Bible’s theological anthropology. But any OT reference to the image of God disappears after Gen 9:6. On the other hand, the single issue of Genesis 1 that gets the most attention throughout the OT canon is Sabbath: in the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, and the Prophets. It is of particular interest in exilic and postexilic books: Ezekiel, 1–2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, and the Priestly strands within the Pentateuch (embedded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers). Most significantly, Genesis 1 is the passage that informs us when Sabbath begins and ends: “there was evening and there was morning.”
The Priestly “Agenda” of Genesis 1. Contrary to modern expectations, the Genesis 1 account focuses on a different agenda than detailing the means and sequence of the creation event. A close reading reveals a special connection to the vocabulary and themes that are important to priestly literature, such as Sabbath.
A close reading of Genesis 1 reveals its priestly fingerprints, whereby it sets the stage for Israel's liturgical calendar and food laws.
The principal function of the lights/lamps created on day four is “for signs and for seasons/appointed times and for days and years,” that is, to establish the calendar and the liturgical calendar in particular. Sabbath was to be a perpetual “sign” of the weekly cycle that Israel was to observe as a confirmation that God had consecrated them (Exod 31:13, 17; Ezek 20:12, 20). The same Hebrew word rendered as “seasons” in Genesis 1 is translated as “appointed festivals” in priestly liturgical texts (Lev 23:2, 4, 37, 44; Num 10:10; 15:3; 29:39; Ezek 36:38; 44:24; 45:17; 46:9, 11). Outside of Genesis, reference to the “kind/species” of animals appears in the dietary regulations of Leviticus 11 (Lev 11:14–16, 19, 22, 29; cf. Deut 14:13–15, 18), where the Israelites are to “make a distinction” [the same Hebrew verb rendered “separate” in Gen 1: 4, 6–7, 14, 18] “between the unclean and the clean and between the creature that may be eaten and the creature that may not be eaten” (Lev 11:47; cf. 10:10; 20:24–26). In other words, judging by the echoes found elsewhere in the Bible, the principal function of Genesis 1 is to lay the foundation for Israel’s liturgical and dietary observances. The terminology of Genesis 1:1-2:4a aligns with that found in other ritual texts concerning Sabbath observance and festivals (Exod 20:8-11; 31:12-17; Lev 23) and clean and unclean foods (Lev 11).
Genesis: "On the seventh day God rested from all his work" (Gen 2:2-3).
Ritual: "On the seventh day you shall not do any work" (Exod 20:8-11).
"On the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest... You shall not do any work... From evening to evening you shall observe your Sabbath" (Lev 23:3, 32).
Genesis: Heavenly lights are "for signs ... and for days" (Gen 1:14).
Ritual: Sabbath observance is a "sign" (Exod 31:13, 17).
Genesis: Heavenly lights are "for appointed times [mow'adim]" (Gen 1:14).
Ritual: "These are the appointed times/festivals [mow'adim] of Yahweh" (Lev 23:2, 4, 37, 44).
Genesis: God orders creation by "separating" entities (Gen 1:4, 6-7, 14, 18) and by making each plant and creature "according to its kind" (Gen 1:11-12, 21, 24-25).
Ritual: Leviticus lists creatures according to their "kind" (Lev 11:14-16, 19, 22, 29) to "separate between the unclean and the clean" for dietary purposes (Lev 11:47).
(The connections between Genesis 1 and these ritual texts would have been more self-evident in the original Priestly document of the P source, before its combination with the JE narratives in Genesis–Numbers.)
The seven-day account of Genesis 1 provides a theological basis for Israelite rituals. Israel honors their Creator by resting on the seventh day because he declared it “holy” (Gen 2:3; Exod 20:8, 11; 31:14–15; Lev 23:3; cf. Lev 11:44–45).
So what does the text mean when it says, “And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he did” (Gen 2:2-3)? This wider context of the Pentateuch sheds light.
“In six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh he rested and took a breather” (Exod 31:17), just as “the son of your servant woman and the sojourner may take a breather” on Sabbath (Exod 23:12).
Does God, in fact, really need to do “work” for six days and then “rest” and “take a breather” on the seventh, like humans? Isaiah 40:28 speaks very much to the contrary.
In light of this wider OT context, the seven-day creation account speaks anthropomorphically about God in order to explain Israelite ritual. The “days” of God’s “work” and the notion of God “resting from all his work” are anthropomorphic depictions to provide a model for how Israelites are to observe Sabbath and honor the Creator. It would be inappropriate to read this account as a literal description of God’s “working” six “days” and “resting” on the seventh. (When the Bible uses the anthropomorphism, "The Lord is my shepherd" [Ps 23:1], most readers do not assume God uses a literal "staff" to protect his sheep.)
Genesis 1 should be read in the context of ritual. How did Israel know that Sabbath is to be observed on the seventh day and begins at sundown? Because of the seven-day account in Genesis 1.
Genesis 1 as Countertext to “Enuma Elish.” As noted above, the Priestly document likely stems from the exilic period of Judah’s history, when their leaders and scribes resided in Babylon.
Genesis appears to mimic and then overturn the Babylonian Enuma Elish, which the Jews would have overheard during their exile in Babylon.
To grasp the full significance of Genesis 1 readers should try to imagine its original historical and social setting in the exile. The kingdom of Judah had failed twice in its declarations of independence against the Babylonian Empire. In 586 BCE Nebuchadnezzar’s army destroyed Jerusalem and Yahweh’s temple, and forced a substantial portion of Judahites to migrate to Babylon. According to the ground rules of their shared Semitic culture, one would assume that Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, vanquished Yahweh, Judah’s patron deity. Now living under the shadow of empire, the exiles would have been intimidated by the massive city of Babylon, along with its processional highways for the gods to be paraded to their temples. On the fourth day of the Akitu Festival, the myth, Enuma Elish, was recited to explain the rise of Marduk as king in the divine pantheon.
Given this contact, it should not surprise us that Genesis 1 has significant parallels with the Enuma Elish (more so than the older Atrahasis Epic, which parallels Genesis 2). The Genesis 1 account mimics and yet overturns Enuma Elish by making the profound and counterintuitive claim that true Deity (’elohim) is not located in Babylon, nor even in Jerusalem. In fact, he does not need a temple or sacred space. Instead, he establishes sacred time. As such, he could still be worshiped by the Judahites, even in exile, through the rite of Sabbath observance.
A tablet from Enuma Elishdiscovered in Ashurbanipal's library.
Tiamat then seeks revenge—with Kingu as her commander. In the second battle Ea and Anu (sky-god) are repelled. A divine assembly appoints Ea’s son, a young god, Marduk (storm god) as king. In the third battle Tiamat appears as a sea monster who opens wide her mouth to swallow Marduk. As the storm god, “he released in her face” “the ill wind he had held behind him,” which “bloated her belly.” He then “shot off the arrow” (i.e., lightning), which “pierced the heart.”
Info Box: Enuma Elish
This myth, at least as old as the 12th century BCE, explained the rise of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, as king in the divine pantheon. The text would have been recited on the fourth day of the Akitu Festival in Babylon.
It begins with a “theogony,” that is, the birth of the gods by the primal couple Apsu (abyss of fresh water) and Tiamat (salt water), whose waters commingle. The noise of the younger gods deprives Apsu of sleep, who decides to “silence” them. Tiamat opposes the plan. The stage is now set for a battle between younger and older gods. In the first battle Ea (god of streams/wisdom) kills Apsu after casting a sleeping spell.
An early second-millennium B.C.E clay plaque depicting Marduk splitting Tiamat open
Now midway through the myth there appears a “cosmogony,” that is, the creation of the cosmos. Marduk “split her in two, like a fish for drying, half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven. He stretched out the hide and assigned watchmen, and ordered them not to let her waters escape. He crossed heaven and inspected (its) firmament.” From her body he forms the sky and seas, organizes the stars and moon, whose purpose is to “mark” the 12 months of the year.
After the gods acknowledge Marduk as their king, he resolved to “create humankind” to “bear the gods’ burden that those may rest.” Taking Kingu, Tiamat’s commander-in-chief, “from his blood he made mankind, he imposed the burden of the gods and exempted the gods.”
In gratitude the gods build a temple and a ziggurat in Babylon. Enlil, the former ruler of the gods, bestows on Marduk the lordship of the universe. The myth closes with Marduk’s fifty honorific titles.
Given the bizarre synopsis of Enuma Elish above, one may wonder, “So where exactly does this myth parallel Genesis 1?” Indeed, the civil war among the gods that dominates much of the myth’s plot is reduced to a brief reference to chaos: “now the earth was willy-nilly” (Gen 1:2).
These ancient echoes help us moderns understand why Genesis 1 begins with disorder, refers to a firmament, and orders the sun, moon, and stars after the earth and the firmament.
The parallels are related more to theology and worldview than to plot details, and they actually help explain some of the anomalies within Genesis 1 for modern readers. As already noted, particularly puzzling in Genesis 1 is the creation of sun, moon, and stars (day 4) after the creation of the earth’s clouds and oceans (day 2), and its land and vegetation (day 3). Its most significant echoes with Enuma Elish appear on days 2 (firmament), 4 (stars and the moon), and 6 (humanity), following the same sequence.
In both accounts, one of the first acts of creation is the separation of waters, those in the skies from those in the oceans, by the construction of a “firmament,” that is, a solid dome to secure the waters above (day 2). Contrary to some modern English translations, an “expanse” (i.e., the vertical expanse of the atmosphere) is not a legitimate rendering of this Hebrew word, raqia‘, which denotes a metal plate that is beaten/hammered out (rq‘, i.e., the horizontal expanse of a metal dome; cf. Job 37:18).
In both accounts, once the waters have been separated and secured, the stars and the moon are created for the purpose of marking the appointed times of the annual calendar—as both texts are foundational to the ritual observances of their respective peoples (day 4). The Genesis 1 account is explicit that the heavenly lamps are set “in the firmament” (Gen 1:14, 15, 17). Clearly, the firmament is a prerequisite for the sun, moon, and stars because that is the object that fixes them in the skies above.
Genesis functions as polemic, arguing that God is one, nature is demythologized, and humans are created as God's agents to rule over nature.
Yet, while the constellations mark the likenesses of the great gods in Enuma Elish, they are simply “lamps” in Genesis 1. Sun and moon are not even named, perhaps because their names in Hebrew (shemesh and yārēaḥ respectively) echo the names of the corresponding Semitic deities (e.g., Akkadian Shamash and Ugaritic Yariḫu).
And the stars, so significant to the Babylonians, are mentioned as a virtual afterthought in Genesis 1:16. Herein lies the most radical departure of Genesis 1 from Semitic theology and worldview: monotheistic theology and demythologized nature. On stage there is only one deity, Elohim, so there is no cosmic battle among the gods. The sun, moon, and stars are not divinized manifestations of separate deities; they are simply objects of God’s manufacture. They are not “he” and “she” gods to be feared and worshiped; they are “its,” which God deems “good.” In the language of the New Testament, Genesis 1 strips “the principalities and powers” of their fearful grip on humanity.
While both accounts mark the creation of humanity as distinct, Marduk resolves to create humanity “to bear the gods’ burden that those may rest.” He proposes to Ea, his wise father, “I shall compact blood, I shall cause bones to be.” Ea then advises Marduk of a plan to bind the god who incited Tiamat to wage war on the younger gods: “Let him be destroyed so that people can be fashioned.” A trial is convened, and Kingu is found guilty. Then “they imposed the punishment on him and shed his blood. From his blood he made mankind, he imposed the burden of the gods and exempted the gods.” Enuma Elish thus has a ready answer for the problem of evil and why humans act so violently towards one another: they were made from the blood of a god who wages war on his own kind. By contrast, God creates humanity to rule as virtual kings (Gen 1:26–28). Unlike both Enuma Elish and the Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis 1–2, no mention is made of the materials that God uses; he simply “created” humanity—most remarkably “in his image.”
The close reading above demonstrates that Genesis 1 was composed for an ancient Semitic audience. In this respect, modern interpreters read Genesis 1 as someone else’s mail. It was addressed to their concerns not ours. Hence, accurate interpretation of the Bible requires a fuller “translation” than one provided by English translations of the Bible. Modern readers must go beyond the translation of words and sentences and consider the further translation of concepts, symbols, and storylines that were inherent in the language and culture of the Hebrew Bible.
Chaos in Creation and “the image of God.”
And God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, so they may have dominion over …
And God created the man in his image,
in the image of God he created him,
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them and God said to them, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over …
(Gen 1:26-28).
Given the Priestly background to this seven-day creation account, it may seem odd to suggest that anything in creation could reflect God’s “image” (ṣelem), especially as this term can be applied to idols (Num 33:52; 2 Kgs 11:18; Ezek 7:20; Amos 5:26).
As God's "image," humans represent God's royal rule over the creatures.
The term “likeness” (dĕmût), however, appears in one other biblical book in reference to God. Ezekiel, a priest, has a profound vision in which he sees enthroned “a likeness like a human appearance,” which he later describes as “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh” (Ezek 1:26, 28). Clearly, Ezekiel strives to maintain God’s transcendence in his vision: he does not see Yahweh himself, only the appearance of the likeness of his glory. He is thus very measured in his use of “likeness,” but the term “image” he uses only of idols (Ezek 7:20). The juxtaposition of “image” and “likeness” in reference to God is difficult to explain within the OT itself. Fortunately, a recent archaeological discovery may help clarify the meaning of these expressions.
Info Box: Tell Fakhariyeh Statue
The Tell Fakhariyeh statue (mid-9th BC) commemorates the installation of the king's statue in the temple of the god Hadad of Sikan
In 1979 a farmer uncovered what came to be known as the Tell Fakhariyeh statue in Syria, along a branch of the Habur River just south of the Turkish border. The mid-ninth century BCE king, named Hadad-yithʿi (which means “Hadad is my salvation,” comparable to Isaiah, “Yahweh is salvation”) had installed the statue of himself in the temple of the god Hadad of Sikan. Upon his skirt was inscribed a bilingual text, first written in Assyrian cuneiform and then in Aramaic.
“This is the likeness [dmwtʾ] of Hadad-Yithʿi which was placed before Hadad-Sikkan” (line 1).
“Before Hadad who dwells in Sikkan, the lord of Habor, he placed his image/statue [ṣlm]” (lines 15–16).
The term “likeness” introduces the section where the king serves as supplicant to the deity. “Image” introduces the section where he serves as governor to the people. The statue thus serves a mediating role between the king’s rule of his people and his god.
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