When we read Genesis 1, most of us probably focus on the way God creates the world and everything in it by divine word. For example, we overhear God saying:
- “let there be light” (1:3)[1]
- “let there be a dome” (1:6)
- “let there be lights” (1:14)
The verb forms here are third person jussives, which are “used to express the speaker’s desire, wish, or command.”[2] In each instance, the jussive of “to be” ushers in the existence of certain created things. “Let there be . . .” begins a creative event.
In one instance of “let there be,” we receive a follow-up report explaining God made the intended objects:
- “God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars” (1:16).
God’s creative word here is attended by God’s creative action.
These verses catch our attention and rightly enable us to recognize God’s benevolent, effectual, and purposeful creative powers. However, if we were to concentrate on these verses alone, we’d miss key elements in this fundamental passage on creation.
When we look a little more carefully at the wording on days three, five, and six, we discover that God does not work alone. The writer of Genesis 1 again uses jussives but directs these jussives to the water and land. We hear God exclaim:
“Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it” (1:11)
“Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky” (1:20)
“Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind” (1:24)
In these verses, the jussives function as invitational commands. We find a similar use of a jussive in 2 Sam 14:11 when the woman of Tekoa requests help from King David. She uses a jussive as a polite command or invitation, saying “Pray let the king remember the LORD your God.”
In Genesis 1:12, we’re told the earth responds to the first invitation and “brought forth vegetation.”
Then, with respect to animate life forms, two of the invitations are followed up with an announcement that God too created the intended living things:
- “So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind” (1:21)
- “God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind” (1:25)
When considered in this way, we find that Genesis 1:11-12, 20-21, and 24-25 portray God as inviting the water and earth to collaborate in the creation of living things, living things that are endowed with the capacity to thrive and propagate. The creation poem of Genesis 1 certainly depicts God as the powerful Creator. But it also reveals to us that this God does not always work unilaterally.
God invites the “inanimate” creation itself to bring forth life as well as all the plants that will sustain life.
If you’re still not convinced, consider how the writer of Genesis 1 might have narrated this first creation account. Instead of “let the earth bring forth vegetation,” the author could have depicted God saying, “Let there be plants.” In place of “let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures,” we might read, “let there be living creatures in the water.” Rather than “let the earth bring forth living creatures,” the omnipotent God might have said, “let there be living creatures.”
But that’s not what this scripture passage says.
So, what do you make of the text as it stands?
- How do these details in Genesis 1 confirm or challenge your views of God? Of creation? Of God’s relationship with creation?
- How does this passage lead you to consider the water and land themselves as sources of life in a way that is not simply based on science but also scripture?
If the land is such a central participant in God’s creation of aquatic and terrestrial animals on days five and six, according to Genesis 1, what role might it have in the creation of humankind at the end of day six? To find out more, stay tuned for: “Let us make”: An address to the land in Genesis 1:26. For a more detailed exposition of Genesis 1, you can also keep your eyes open for my “In the Image of Heaven and Earth: ‘Let Us Make’ and the Agency of Earth in Genesis 1:26.”
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[1] Unless indicated otherwise, I quote the NRSV.
[2] Page H. Kelley, Biblical Hebrew : An Introductory Grammar (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992), 131.
What’s inspired me to think about Genesis 1 this way: Terence E. Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation (Nashville: Abingdon, 2005). Ellen F. Davis, Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture : An Agrarian Reading of the Bible (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
© Presian Renee Burroughs and Scripture, Creation, and Life, 2019-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Presian Renee Burroughs and Scripture, Creation, and Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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