Every Woman's Bible Genesis sampler - Flipbook - Page 14
GENESIS 1
4
these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.”
And that is what happened. 16 God made two
great lights—the larger one to govern the day,
and the smaller one to govern the night. He also
made the stars. 17 God set these lights in the sky
to light the earth, 18 to govern the day and night,
and to separate the light from the darkness. And
God saw that it was good.
19And evening passed and morning came,
marking the fourth day.
The Account of Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth.* 2 The earth was formless and empty, and
darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit
of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
1
3
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was
light. 4And God saw that the light was good.
Then he separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light “day” and the darkness
“night.”
And evening passed and morning came,
marking the first day.
6
Then God said, “Let there be a space between the
waters, to separate the waters of the heavens
from the waters of the earth.” 7And that is what
happened. God made this space to separate
the waters of the earth from the waters of the
heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.”
And evening passed and morning came,
marking the second day.
9
Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky
flow together into one place, so dry ground may
appear.” And that is what happened. 10 God called
the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And
God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let
the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of
seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seedbearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the
kinds of plants and trees from which they came.”
And that is what happened. 12 The land produced
vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants,
and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds
produced plants and trees of the same kind. And
God saw that it was good.
13And evening passed and morning came,
marking the third day.
14
Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to
separate the day from the night. Let them be
signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let
20
Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with
fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with
birds of every kind.” 21 So God created great sea
creatures and every living thing that scurries
and swarms in the water, and every sort of
bird—each producing offspring of the same
kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 Then God
blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply.
Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds
multiply on the earth.”
23And evening passed and morning came,
marking the fifth day.
24
Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort
of animal, each producing offspring of the same
kind—livestock, small animals that scurry
along the ground, and wild animals.” And that
is what happened. 25 God made all sorts of wild
animals, livestock, and small animals, each able
to produce offspring of the same kind. And God
saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings*
in our image, to be like us. They will reign over
the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the
livestock, all the wild animals on the earth,* and
the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27
So God created human beings* in his own
image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
1:1 Or In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, . . . Or When God began to create the heavens and the earth, . . .
1:26a Or man; Hebrew reads adam. 1:26b As in Syriac version; Hebrew reads all the earth. 1:27 Or the man; Hebrew reads ha-adam.
1:1 Some Christians read Genesis as a description of how God
made the world. Other Christians see it as a poetic celebration
of creation that unveils God’s intentions without revealing his
methods. Whatever you conclude about the way God made the
world, Genesis leaves no room to see our world as an accident.
Other biblical accounts of creation agree (for example, Job 38;
Psalm 104).
1:11-12 The focus of the creation week is fertility. God told the
residents of creation to “be fruitful and multiply” and to “fill
the earth” (1:22, 28). He repeatedly emphasized the fruitfulness of plants (1:11-12, 29-30) and made each living thing
“able to produce offspring of the same kind” (1:11-12, 21, 25).
Like animals, people are residents of the world God made, but
unlike animals, people were made in God's likeness, according
to his image.
1:22 In the context of his creative work, God blessed a few
specific things: fish and birds (1:21-22), animals and humans
(1:25-28), and the seventh day (2:3)—later called the Sabbath.
This trilogy of blessings highlights the Creator’s plan: God made
humankind in his image to exercise stewardship over the creatures of the earth and to participate in God’s Sabbath rest.
1:26-27 Humans are not divine, but we share kinship with
our creator as the only creature made in his image. “Image of
God” is our human identity, expressed through the loving rule
of creation on God’s behalf (see Psalm 8:5-8). Men and women
share this role. Together we participate in the human task of
creating culture, maintaining order, and ensuring the flourishing of the natural world. Male and female sexuality is central
to what it means to be human because the perpetuation of the
human race depends on it.
