We begin this study of “The Seven Days of Creation” (Gen. 1:1-2:3) with the beginning, verse one, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Here, we have the creation of the cosmos, the original creation, which was, in turn, the preliminary creation to the work of the six days. Verse one is basically an independent clause providing an introduction to this section of the Bible. The number seven is rather prominent in this verse: There are seven words in the Hebrew text. There is also a total of 28 letters, which, of course, is four times seven. One of the disagreements between the two schools of Pharisees – Shammai and Hillel – is that the school of Shammai said that the heavens were created first, while the school of Hillel said the earth was created first. Rabbinic debate is always interesting to note, but it really holds no particular significance where this study is concerned.

Let’s look at verse one, word by word. The first three words, In the beginning, are an English translation of just one Hebrew word, bereishit. It simply means “in the beginning,” but tells us nothing as to when the beginning was. It refers to the first phase of a step, and it is the beginning of the universe as we now know it.

If we were to rearrange things chronologically, we would say that John 1:1, which says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, actually precedes Genesis 1:1. We know this because we are told in John 1:3 that it was the logos, the Word, the Messiah, through whom the universe was created. Though John 1:1 begins the same way as Genesis 1:1 with In the beginning, chronologically speaking John 1:1 precedes Genesis 1:1.

The second Hebrew word in Genesis 1:1 is bara, which means created. In the Hebrew language there are certain words which are used only of God, and never of man. The English language uses the word “create” in regard to both God and man, but, in the Bible, this word for “create” is used only of God. It is a word used only of what God does, of a work that only God could do, and, in this case, it is creation out of nothing. At other times, it refers to creation out of something. In other words, the word “create” may be used to designate creation out of nothing or creation out of something. Either way, it is still a work that only God could do. Therefore, this creation is new, it is fresh and it is good. The word bara also contains within it the concepts of shaping and forming and transforming.

There is one and only one related word in Hebrew, the word briyah which has the same root. It is a feminine noun used in only one place in the entire Hebrew Bible: in Numbers 16:30, where it also refers to God fashioning something new.

In the Hebrew Bible, we find bara in its active stem, the kal stem, 38 times. In the passive niphal stem, it is used 10 times. In the first chapter of Genesis alone, the word is used three times in terms of God’s creation: In verse one, it is used of the universe; in verse 21, it is used of living creatures; in verse 27, it is used of man.

In total, this word is used 48 times in five different ways. The first way it is used in Scripture is of God’s creating the universe and its contents. Here, in Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth. It is also found this way in: Psalm 89:12 – the north and the south, You have created them; Isaiah 40:26 – God created the host of heavens; Isaiah 40:28 – God is the Creator of the ends of the earth; Isaiah 42:5 – Jehovah, he that created the heavens.

A second way the word bara is used is of the cosmos and the cosmos forces of nature, such as Isaiah 45:7, where it says God created darkness and calamity. And in Amos 4:13, we read that God created the winds.

A third way it is used is in regard to living creatures. For example, in Genesis 1:21, it is used of animal life. Six verses later, it appears three times regarding human life (Gen. 1:27). In Genesis 5:1-2, it is again used three times of human life. It is then used of both man and animal (Gen. 6:7).

In Deuteronomy 4:32, it is used of man, as well as in Psalm 89:47 and Isaiah 45:12.

The fourth way bara is used is in regard to Israel and the Remnant. In Ecclesiastes 12:1, it is used of the Remnant. In Isaiah 43:1, it is in the context of Israel. Then, in Isaiah 43:7, the word is used of the Remnant. It refers to Israel in Isaiah 43:12, and, then, again in Malachi 2:10.

The fifth, and last way, it is used concerns the transformation or renewal of things, and this is found in the following verses: Numbers 16:30, when God creates a new thing in the earth; Psalm 51:10, when God creates a clean heart; Isaiah 41:20, when God creates the waters in the desert; Isaiah 45:8, when God creates salvation; Isaiah 57:19, when God creates peace; Isaiah 65:17, when God creates the heavens and the earth, a renewal of the heavens and the earth for the Messianic Kingdom; Isaiah 65:18, when God creates a new Jerusalem; Jeremiah 31:22, God creates a new thing . . . A woman shall encompass a man.

These are the five categories of usage of the word bara, the Hebrew word that, again, emphasizes something only God can do.

One more point here is that bara in this context means that God called the universe into existence. God created the world ex nihilo, meaning “out of nothing.” Again, the word can refer to creation out of something or out of nothing, but here, in the context of Genesis one, it requires creation out of nothing. Romans 4:17, therefore, says, God, who calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Hebrews 11:3 tells us that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Here, God is viewed as the Creator of both the material and the immaterial universe, and it is through His creation that something does, indeed, exist.

The next keyword is the word Elohim, the Hebrew word for “God,” which shows that the Creator is the beginning of all things. God existed before all things. There is no attempt in Genesis to prove His existence, because His existence is assumed to be true. From a biblical perspective, only a fool says that there is no God (Ps. 14:1).

Throughout this section, the word God or Elohim is used 35 times, again showing the prominence of the number seven. The word Elohim is a plural Hebrew word. The standard Jewish view is that the plural emphasizes the “plural of the word majesty.” According to the Siddur, a Hebrew prayer book for the Sabbath, it denotes the plentitude of might. God comprehends and unifies all the ends of eternity and infinity.

I will not say that this word proves that God is the Triunity, but it does open the door for the concept of a plurality in the Godhead. The point of the word is that God is self-sufficient. There is no need of anyone or anything else. God is eternal and unchangeable. The phrase in Hebrew literally reads, In the beginning God, and this phrase is the foundation of all theology. God is self-existent. He is unknowable except where He reveals Himself. He is answerable to no one.

In the Genesis passage, God’s creation consists, first of all, of the heavens – all that constitutes the parts of the universe. It is plural because it includes the first heaven, the atmosphere, and the second heaven, that which we call outer space. It shows that matter is not eternal, that matter had a definite beginning with God.

God also created the earth, which becomes the center of God’s program. Psalm eight emphasizes that God’s program concerns man, who is found only on this planet.

The heavens and the earth are, in fact, two separate entities. As Psalm 115:16 points out, The heavens, even the heavens are the Lord’s; the earth he has given to the children of men.

Genesis 1:1 offers several repudiations of views opposing biblical faith. For example, it repudiates atheism, because Genesis postulates the existence of God. Furthermore, Genesis postulates a personal God, as well as a universe that was created by God.

Second, Genesis repudiates agnosticism, because in reality God does reveal Himself, as well as what He has done.

Third, Genesis refutes pantheism, because God is absolutely transcendent to what He creates.

Fourth, Genesis repudiates polytheism, as the Scriptures make clear that only one God created all things.

Fifth, Genesis repudiates materialism, because there was a clear distinction between God and His material creation. Matter did have a beginning; matter is not eternal.

Sixth, Genesis repudiates naturalism. We know that nature, itself, has its own origins.

Seventh, Genesis repudiates dualism, as God was certainly alone when He created.

Eighth, Genesis rejects humanism. It is God, and not man, who is the ultimate reality.

Ninth, Genesis repudiates evolutionism, because God did create all things.

Moving on now to the second verse of Genesis one, we find a clear description of a chaos. Verse two, by the way, contains a total of 14 words – which is 2 times 7 – again emphasizing the number seven. The verse also begins a new subject. It begins in Hebrew, ve ha-aretz, meaning “and the earth.” Now, when the subject comes before the predicate, the emphasis is on the subject, to tell us something new about the subject. Basically, it describes the circumstances of the world prior to Genesis 1:3, and not necessarily a result of the first verse in this first chapter of the Bible.

In the Masoretic Text, there is a disjunctive, and the verse begins with a vav disjunctive, meaning “now,” rather than a vav conjunctive, meaning “and.” This tells us that the verse is not sequential, i.e., “and then.” It shows that chapter one, verse two is not the result of chapter one, verse one, nor is it a development of chapter one, verse one. The disjunctive argues against the chaos being some kind of an intermediate state in God’s work at the time of creation. Isaiah 45:18 makes that same point. God did not create the world waste and void. Rather, what verse two is describing is the state of the world prior to the first day of creation that begins with verse three.

Interpreters have generally chosen to resolve the disjunctive “predicament” here in two ways. The first is called “initial chaos.” The initial chaos view teaches that: chapter one, verse one gives the general account and summary of the whole chapter; verse two follows by giving a description of a chaos at the beginning of creation; then, verse three relates the beginning of God’s work of creation. In this view, the original creation is not itself in the account, only a re-creation of it.

I prefer the second option, often referred to as the “gap theory,” but I must make a clarification of the actual meaning of that term. The gap theory teaches that in Genesis 1:1, there was an original creation in a perfect state. Between that point (1:1) and verse two, there was a gap of time during which there was one key event: the fall of Satan, which resulted in the chaos of verse two. The gap theory, then, views verse one as the original creation before the fall of Satan caused it to become a chaos, and views verse two as a chaos resulting from divine judgment. I do believe there is a gap of time between verses one and two, but we must be very careful not to ascribe a gap there for poor reasons – such as for “dinosaur space” – as people have so often done. People have also used it as a convenient place to fit in the geological ages, the fossil record and the like. I do not believe the gap allows for dinosaur space, because I hold that the Bible teaches that there was not any kind of physical death until Adam’s fall. Rather, the gap is there for only one reason, the fall of Satan, which will, in turn, account for the chaos described in verse two.

Verse two goes on to read, And the earth was waste and void. Opening with the word “earth” shows that it is the earth that is the focus and not the universe. The Hebrew word is haita or hayta. It is the feminine form of the Hebrew hayah, and the normal primary meaning is “was.” Here, though, it is better taken in its secondary meaning of “became.” Normally, it does require a different kind of construction to mean “became.” However, in other places, even within Genesis, we see that the word means “became” when used in the same kind of construction as here in verse two: For example, Genesis 3:20 says, Eve became the mother of all living; in Genesis 3:21, man has become as one of us; Ishmael became an archer in Genesis 21:20; and Genesis 37:20 reads, what will become of Joseph’s dream? Back to verse two, the earth became desolate and waste. It was not always that way. Something caused it to become that way, and this harmonizes very well with Isaiah 45:18, which says, God did not create the earth waste and void. In other words, He did not create the earth in the form which we find it in Genesis 1:2.

These two words, “waste” and “void,” are a translation of two Hebrew words, tohu and vohu. The phrase tohu vavohu (va means “and”) is used twice elsewhere. In the two other places where the words are used together, it obviously refers to divine judgment: For example, Isaiah 34:11 teaches that God caused confusion and emptiness; in Jeremiah 4:23, “waste and void” is the antithesis to the Genesis creation account.

The word vohu is only found in these three passages, and always in connection with tohu. You will not find vohu by itself, though tohu is used by itself 20 times in the Old Testament, and translated in the following ways: Deuteronomy 32:10, as “wasteland”; Job 6:5-18, as “perish”; Job 26:7, as “empty space”; Isaiah 24:10, as the “city of confusion”; Isaiah 29:21, as “empty words”; Isaiah 34:11, as “confusion and emptiness”; Isaiah 40:17, as “nothing”; Isaiah 40:23, as “nothing”; Isaiah 41:29, as “confusion”; Isaiah 44:9, as “uselessness”; Isaiah 45:18, as “waste”; Isaiah 45:19, as “vain”; Isaiah 49:4, as “vain”; and Isaiah 59:4, as “empty words.”

By itself, the word does not always carry a concept of divine judgment but, rather, a concept of something that is quite negative. The whole sense of the passage is one of chaos and desolation. In Genesis 1:1-2, we find two examples of what we call “syntagmes,” which are words that occur together to denote one unique concept. One such example here is “heaven and earth,” which is the totality of the ordered universe. Second, tohu vavohu – waste and void – the totality of judgment and chaos.

Our conclusion here is that we have a disorderly chaos and an orderly cosmos; of course, these cannot apply to the same thing at the same time. In other words, Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 cannot be contemporary, but must be chronological in sequence. In Genesis 1:1, the earth and the heavens are created in a perfect order. Then, sometime later came this chaos as a result of Satan's fall – the chaos of unformed matter which caused it to become undifferentiated, unorganized, confused and lifeless. The earth, thus, became formless and empty.