Today we begin our study of Genesis Chapter One.

Click here for the Complete Jewish Bible translation.

Click here for the King James version.

So have you ever heard this argument?

“How could God have created the universe in just six days?”

“The Hebrews claim that by counting the generations we find the earth to be approximately six thousand years old.”

“How the heck do you reconcile that with…

…all of our scientific data that says the universe is billions of years old…

…to be more precise, around fifteen billion?”

What gives?

My answer:

READ THE TEXT PROPERLY HOMIE!!!

When we take a close look at what is said in the opening words of Genesis, the matter seems to resolve itself and we don’t have to engage in ridiculous scientific and theological debates.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.-Genesis 1:1

If you read carefully, you’ll see the creation of the heavens and the earth is not necessarily said to have occurred on the first day.

Rather, it says it occurred at a period of time called “the beginning."

The first day of the creation story may NOT be referring to “the beginning."

The first day could have been AFTER “the beginning."

If we read the opening words of Genesis literally, what happened on the first day was the creation of light and its separation from darkness.

The wording (in both the Hebrew and English) leaves open the distinct possibility that the heavens and earth were created sometime before the first day.

“The beginning” could have been a 10-minute period or it could have been 10 billion years.

Who knows?!

CONCLUSION: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and then after that, from the first day, He began shaping and organizing His creation, the details of which we will get into in the next post.

© Richoka