THE CREATION

Hugo McCord

A Bible student believes that (1) there was a prior creation of some kind of material element(s) in Genesis 1:1 that preceded the actual creation days of Genesis 1:2ff.; and that (2) the creation days actually should be counted from “morning to morning.”

But, biblically, no creation of anything material preceded “the beginning” (bere’shith) that was spoken of by Moses and Jesus and Peter (Genesis 1:1; Mark 10:6; 2 Peter 3:4), nor before “day one” (yom ‘ehad (Genesis 1:5), nor before the “six days” (shesheth-yamim) in which Yahweh made “the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them” (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:11; 31:17).

Biblically, the creation days (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) were not from “morning to morning,” but each day began with approximately 12 hours of darkness (“darkness covered the roaring oceans,” Genesis 1:2). The darkness was called “evening,” a translation derived from `arabh, meaning “TO SET, as the sun” (Gesenius); “Arabic, to be black, to become dark, drawing toward evening” (Davidson); “the time of sunset (BDB).

The hours of darkness were followed by approximately 12 hours of light, which Moses called “morning” (from baqar, “to cleave, to open,” as applied to “the breaking forth and arising of light” (Gesenius); “to break forth (as light)” (Davidson); “to split, to penetrate, as the dawn the darkness” (BDB).