NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible CBSB_Digital Sampler | Page 7

Genesis 1:22  | 5
­there was ­light.  f 4  God saw that the
light was good, and he sep­a­rat­ed the
light from the dark­ness. 5   God ­called
the l ­ ight “day,” and the dark­ness he
­called “night.”  g And ­there was eve­
ning, and t ­ here was morn­ing — ​the
first day.
6 And God said, “Let ­there be a v
­ ault  h be­
tween the wa­ters to sep­a­rate wa­ter
from wa­ter.” 7  So God made the v
­ ault
and sep­a­rat­ed the wa­ter un­der the
vault from the wa­ter a ­ bove it.  i And it
was so. 8  God ­called the ­vault “sky.”
And t ­ here was eve­ning, and t ­ here
was morn­ing  — ​the sec­ond day.
9 And God said, “Let the wa­ter un­der the
sky be gath­ered to one p
­ lace,  j and let
dry g ­ round ap­pear.” And it was so.
10  G od ­
called the dry ­ground “land,”
and the gath­ered wa­ters he c ­ alled
“seas.” And God saw that it was
good.
11  Then God said, “Let the land pro­
duce veg­e­ta­tion:  k seed-bear­ing ­plants
and t ­ rees on the land that bear ­fruit
with seed in it, ac­cord­ing to ­their var­
i­ous ­kinds.” And it was so. 12  The land
pro­duced veg­e­ta­tion: ­plants bear­ing
seed ac­
cord­
ing to t ­ heir ­
kinds and
trees bear­ing ­fruit with seed in it ac­
cord­ing to ­their ­kinds. And God saw
that it was good. 13  And ­there was eve­
1:3 f  2Co 4:6*
1:5 g  Ps 74:16
1:6 h  Jer 10:12
1:7 i  Job 38:8-
11, ​16; Ps 148:4
1:9 j  Job 38:8-
11; Ps 104:6-9;
Pr 8:29;
Jer 5:22;
2Pe 3:5
1:11 k  Ps 65:9-
13; 104:14
1:14 l  Ps 74:16
m  Jer 10:2
n  Ps 104:19
1:16 o  Ps 136:8
p  Ps 136:9
q  Job 38:7, ​
31-32; Ps 8:3;
Isa 40:26
1:18 r  Jer 33:20, ​
25
1:21
s  Ps 104:25‑26
existence, not necessarily a physical existence (see the
article “Creation and Existence,” p. 4). In this case, though
we think of light as a having physical properties, the
ancients did not think in those terms. They also did not
think of all light as coming from the sun. “Daylight” was
not caused by “sunlight”; although the sun, moon and
stars were bearers of light, daylight was present even
when these were hidden by clouds or an eclipse. Light
was not considered something physical in the ancient
world; rather, it was a phenomenon. Here in Genesis, light
is identified with alternating periods of day and night.
Since light is called “day” and darkness is called “night”
(v. 5), the text indicates that the functional focus is time.
1:6  a vault. See the article “The ‘Vault’ and ‘Water Above,’ ”
p. 6.
1:9  dry ground. Nonexistence for the Egyptians was not
wiped out in the acts of creation, but was pushed to the
outer limits of the cosmos. Consequently their literature
speaks of the primeval hillock that emerged from the
primeval waters. Temples were sometimes understood
as containing the original primeval hillock in the center
of their sacred space. Mesopotamian literature does not
speak much of the emergence of the land, but there is dis-
cussion of the collection of the waters to their appropriate
place. In this feature, then, Genesis shows more similar-
ity to Egyptian literature. It was common in the ancient
world to think of the earth as a single continent in the
shape of a flat disc. Likewise in Genesis, the waters are all
gathered into one place, and land appears, presumably
in one place.
1:11  vegetation. The indication that the land produces
vegetation is not a statement about the land being
involved in creation. What is being created by God is a
ning, and t ­ here was morn­ing — ​the
third day.
14 And God said, “Let t ­ here be l ­ ights  l in
the ­vault of the sky to sep­a­rate the
day from the ­
night, and let them
­s erve as ­s igns  m to mark s ­ acred
times,  n and days and y
­ ears, 15  and let
them be l ­ ights in the ­vault of the sky
to give ­light on the ­earth.” And it was
so. 16  God made two g ­ reat ­lights — ​the
great­er ­light to gov­ern  o the day and
the less­er ­light to gov­ern  p the ­night.
He also made the ­stars.  q 17  God set
them in the ­vault of the sky to give
light on the ­earth, 18  to gov­ern the day
and the n
­ ight,  r and to sep­a­rate ­light
from dark­ness. And God saw that it
was good. 19  And ­there was eve­ning,
and t ­ here was morn­ing — ​the f ­ ourth
day.
20 And God said, “Let the wa­
ter teem
with liv­ing crea­tures, and let b
­ irds
fly a ­ bove the e ­ arth a ­ cross the v
­ ault of
the sky.” 21  So God cre­at­ed the ­great
crea­tures of the sea and ev­ery liv­ing
thing with w
­ hich the wa­ter t ­ eems and
that moves about in it,  s ac­cord­ing to
their ­kinds, and ev­ery ­winged bird
ac­cord­ing to its kind. And God saw
that it was good. 22  God ­blessed them
and said, “Be fruit­ful and in­crease
in num­ber and fill the wa­ter in the
function whereby the land regularly and characteristi-
cally produces vegetation — ​the principle of fecundity
whereby agriculture can exist and food can be grown.
1:14  signs. The Hebrew word used for “sign” has a cog-
nate in Akkadian that is used for omens, but the Hebrew
has a more neutral sense. The author has emptied the ele-
ments of the cosmos of their more personal traits, as he
did with the description of the precosmic condition; the
sun, moon, etc. are not depicted as gods as they are in
Near Eastern literature.
1:21  creatures of the sea. In the mythologies of the
ancient Near East a variety of terrible creatures inhabited
the sea, and these are occasionally associated with the
threatening forces of chaos that need to be defeated and
harnessed by creator deities. The OT also refers to a num-
ber of different cosmic sea creatures (e.g., Ps 74:13 – 15; Isa
27:1). In Ps 74:13 – 14 the sea creature (Hebrew tannin) is
portrayed with multiple heads and is parallel to Levia-
than. This depiction of battle is also seen in Isa 51:9, where
­ tannin, like “Rahab,” is defeated. Unlike the ancient Near
East creation texts, though, Genesis shows no indication
of a battle — ​only that tannin is created.
This is the first use of the verb bara (“created”) since
v. 1, perhaps emphasizing that tannin is not some prime-
val chaos monster that must be overcome, but a crea-
ture being given its role (see the article “Creation and
Existence,” p. 4) just like everything else in creation. Yet
it ought to be viewed as a cosmic creature rather than
a marine specimen. The passages in which the word
may refer to zoological specimens (Ex 7:9 – 10; Dt 32:33;
Ps 91:13) indicate a land creature or amphibian, not a sea
creature as here.