Genesis 1 explained
In the beginning
Genesis 1:1-2:3 · World English Bible
“God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.”
In short
Genesis 1 tells you who made everything, that God saw all he had made and it was very good, that people, male and female, are made in God's image and given the earth to rule, and that the first week ends with a day God blessed and made holy.
What's really going on
Shape, then fill
Verse 2 says "The earth was formless and empty." On days 1-3 God divides and gathers: he divides the light from the darkness (1:4), divides the waters with the expanse he calls "sky" (1:6-8), and gathers the waters so the dry land appears (1:9-10). On days 4-6 he fills: lights to rule the day and the night (1:14-18), creatures for the waters and birds for the sky (1:20-22), animals and people for the land (1:24-28). Set side by side, the days line up: day 4's lights "divide the light from the darkness" (1:18) as God did on day 1 (1:4); day 5 fills the waters and the sky of day 2; day 6 fills the land of day 3. Genesis doesn't say whether this pattern is about order in time or order by theme; readers take it both ways (see "Were these six 24-hour days?").
Easily missed
The word "seed" starts here
Verses 11, 12 and 29 are about plants "yielding seed". It looks like a detail. But the same Hebrew word, zera', comes back two chapters later, where the WEB translates it "offspring": "between your offspring and her offspring" (3:15). It is the word in God's promise to Abraham: "All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring" (22:18). And Paul reads the promises to Abraham's offspring as pointing to one person: "“To your offspring”, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16).
Genesis 1:11-12 · Genesis 1:29 · Genesis 3:15 · Genesis 22:18 · Galatians 3:16
Where it leads to Jesus
The Word was there in the beginning
Genesis 1:1leads toJohn 1:1-3
John opens with Genesis’s first words, “In the beginning”, and says who was there: the Word. “All things were made through him” (John 1:3). Then: “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14).
The Hebrew word behind it
בְּרֵאשִׁיתbereshitsay be-re-SHEET
The Bible’s first word. In the beginning is a single word in Hebrew: be (in) and reshit (beginning). Strong's gives reshit as "the first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically, a firstfruit)", from the same root as rosh, head. Exodus 23:19 uses it for "the first of the first fruits", and Jeremiah 2:3 calls Israel "the first fruits of his increase". John's Gospel, written in Greek, opens with the same words: "In the beginning" (John 1:1).
Talk about it
"God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (1:31). How does that change the way you see the world around you?
Read all of Genesis 1 with Favor
This is a taste. In Favor, the whole chapter explains itself as you read: 11 questions along the way, 12 more Hebrew words, 8 more sections on what's really going on and the honest questions, and a short check at the end. Alone, or with your people.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe