Jewish Lords' Witness
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Forensic Examination of Genesis 1 – First Will Be Last
Introduction
After presenting the recent VSL paper to my LW brothers, much discussion took place particularly in the areas where I had exposed errors on previous LW thinking. However, what became clear to us very quickly was that we, LWs and mankind in general, do not understand the first chapter of the bible adequately enough. After spending a little more time researching certain aspects of Genesis 1, I decided to carry out a more detailed forensic analysis on the whole of that first biblical chapter. I very quickly discovered that that was the mission I had been set by the Holy Spirit talking through my brother in Christ, Frank.
For the points made in the VSL paper, with particular reference to the age of the Earth, I provide no further comment here, since I am satisfied at the analysis already provided in that paper. However, when it comes to the Day 3 problem also highlighted in that paper, together with the vegetation issues downstream from that, I cover those further here.
For each verse of Genesis 1, I have selected below the translation that I think provides the best meaning for the original Hebrew text of that verse to help in that analysis. So let us make a start:
Verse 1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1 ASV)
1בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ. (Genesis 1 MM)
So, at the very start of creation, God made a home for the angels and for mankind in which to live. This occurred prior to God’s creation of the angels, so He needed to carry out this task by Himself. The next thing to note is that the heavens were created in the plural (Hebrew word ‘הַשָּׁמַיִם’). This could be interpreted to comprise the angelic home together with the three-dimensional universal space within which the Earth was placed. It should be noted that the plural only is used in Genesis 1 and, I understand, the plural is used throughout the bible.
Verse 2
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1 KJV)
Wow, there is an enormous amount of information provided here given some further insight being provided to me, once again, by Brother Frank. What are these deep waters that are referred to? From Frank’s input, I would argue that the flood waters must have been part of the originally created Earth. This would have provided a formless (perfectly spherical) and empty earth on Day 1. What was the darkness? Up to that point God had ‘only’ created matter that had the property of gravitational attraction. By moving over the waters God worked out, that by adding time to the existing space dimensions, He could create waves on the surface of the water with gravity. He then extended that principle to the creation of electromagnetic (EM) waves (light) as we will see in the following verse.
Verse 3
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Genesis 1 KJV)
So, as intimated in the previous verse, God added EM radiation (waves) to His creation. If we equate darkness with matter and the light with radiation we now have the matter/radiation universe with which we are familiar today.
Verse 4
4 And God saw the light, that [it was] good, and God separated between the light and darkness. (Genesis 1 GLT)
I think there are several meanings intertwined here. Why would God not think the light was good? I think the argument here is that in creating light He had to create the fourth physical dimension of time. This is fundamental to God’s modus operandi in that He lives outside time (Time paper) and so time was an entirely new entity which would enable Him to chart the moral progress of both angels and mankind alike. Compared to the darkness of God’s already existent abode (check out my new Gravity paper) the light represented something entirely new and necessary for His plan. No wonder He thought it was good.
The ‘separation’ of light and darkness represented the two products of matter and radiation that exist down to this day. Einstein’s famous equation demonstrates their interchangeability e=mc**2 and their separation by the time-dependent speed of light. Perhaps God used that process to move some of His matter at light speed to create EM radiation thereby ‘separating’ the light from the darkness.
Another meaning for future reference could well be the association of light with righteousness and darkness with evil. This does however come with something of a conundrum in that God Himself hides in the darkness (covered in the new Gravity paper). Perhaps that is the point in that the evil ones who would play god do just that through their lies and deception. Lucifer is the perfect example; as God’s first son and the bringer of light, did He originally live in God’s timeless and dark abode prior to his sinning?
12How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (KJV)
12אֵיךְ נָפַלְתָּ מִשָּׁמַיִם, הֵילֵל בֶּן-שָׁחַר; נִגְדַּעְתָּ לָאָרֶץ, חוֹלֵשׁ עַל-גּוֹיִם (MM)
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (KJV)
13וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ בִלְבָבְךָ, הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶעֱלֶה--מִמַּעַל לְכוֹכְבֵי-אֵל, אָרִים כִּסְאִי; וְאֵשֵׁב בְּהַר-מוֹעֵד, בְּיַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן (MM)
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14 KJV)
14אֶעֱלֶה, עַל-בָּמֳתֵי עָב; אֶדַּמֶּה, לְעֶלְיוֹן (Isaiah 14 MM)
Here the KJV derives Satan’s original name Lucifer. Whilst not a true translation of the Hebrew ‘הֵילֵל’ a better meaning is ‘Morning Star’ i.e., a giver of light.
In Genesis 1:3 we have God’s command to make light followed by the execution of that command in verse 4. That execution was presumably carried out by His original first-born son, Lucifer. Lucifer, aka Satan, also demonstrates the first lies and deception recorded in scripture and thereby illustrates the spiritual separation between the true light and darkness.
Verse 5 and The End of Day 1
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1 KJV)
Having created time, God was then able to identify the key unit of human time; the 24 hour day split into the phases of light and darkness. Since the darkness existed before the light, it supports the Jewish tradition of recognising the start of a day as sunset on the previous calendar day as compared with the Gregorian calendar which starts the new day at midnight.
Verse 6
6 And God saith, 'Let an expanse be in the midst of the waters, and let it be separating between waters and waters.' (Genesis 1 YLT)
This is where we come back to Frank’s Spirit-provided insight and confirmation of the meaning of verse 2 above. The flood waters were removed from the Earth presumably to some dark heavenly place. This provided the separation of the flood waters from the earthbound waters which latter form the seas that we know today. During the flood, these heavenly- based waters were rained back down on the Earth (Heavens Above) to reform the state of the original virgin Earth of verse 2 as it was before mankind corrupted the planet. After the flood those waters were returned to their heavenly realm.
Verse 7
7 And God maketh the expanse, and it separateth between the waters which {are} under the expanse, and the waters which {are} above the expanse: and it is so. (Genesis 1 YLT)
In verse 6, God gave the command to separate the waters. In verse 7 that command was executed, by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 8 and The End of Day 2
8 And God called the expanse, Heavens. And there was evening, and there was morning the second day. (Genesis 1 GLT)
Having stated He created the Heavens in Day 1, God now defines those heavens as the expanse between the two separated waters, hence my comment of the flood waters of verse 6 being placed in a heavenly realm of some description.
Verse 9
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (Genesis 1 ASV)
Having removed the waters above the expanse, God then commanded the exposed land masses of the continents to be separated by the seas remaining on the Earth.
Verse 10
10 And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good. (Genesis 1 KJV)
As for the heavens previously, God now named the dry land and the seas. He also saw that it was good. In this case, I imagine that His determination that it was good was that He deemed this newly formed planet to be fit for it’s sole intended purpose: a suitable habitation for the support of plant, animal and human life.
Verse 11
11 And God saith, 'Let the earth yield tender grass, herb sowing seed, fruit-tree (whose seed {is} in itself) making fruit after its kind, on the earth:' and it is so. (Genesis 1 YLT)
11 וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, תַּדְשֵׁא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב מַזְרִיעַ זֶרַע, עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ, אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ עַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיְהִי-כֵן (Genesis 1 MM)
Since this is the verse that has been troubling me since I wrote the VSL paper, I have now been even more selective about the English translation that I have used. The Young’s Literal translation is the only one that correctly translates the Hebrew word ‘מַזְרִיעַ’ as ‘sowing’. I would continue with the arguments, from the VSL paper, that this was God's commanding that the Earth become fertile through its soil with a description of how plant life would be propagated from ‘sowed’ seeds. I still do not think this was an act of God's creation to plant actual growing vegetation but a preparation of the land for plant life, given the prospective future provision of both sunlight and rain.
Verse 12
12 And the earth bringeth forth tender grass, herb sowing seed after its kind, and tree making fruit (whose seed {is} in itself) after its kind; and God seeth that {it is} good; (Genesis 1 YLT)
As we have seen in verse 7, this is the execution by the Holy Spirit of God’s command given in the previous verse. Whilst the bulk of man’s understandings of Genesis would propose this verse meant the actual growth of plants, I again continue my campaign (started in the VSL paper) to argue that this was ‘only’ the preparation of the earth for plant life through its having been sown with seeds in fertile soil awaiting the rain of the seventh day:
1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host.
2 And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because He rested from all His work on it, which God had created to make.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that Jehovah God was making earth and heavens.
5 And every shrub of the field was not yet on the earth, and every plant of the field had not yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not sent rain on the earth, and [there was] no man to till the ground.
6 And mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. (Genesis 2 GLT)
Genesis 2 clearly states that plant growth had not fully started during the six creative days. It was awaiting the provisions of Day 7.
Verse 13 and The End of Day 3
13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. (Genesis 1 ASV)
So, the end of Day 3 brought the environment for a fertile Earth with its dry fertile land, seas and planted seeds.
Verse 14
14 And God said, Let luminaries be in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day and the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. (Genesis 1 GLT)
This is God’s command to create the heavenly bodies that would emit and reflect EM waves and would form the basis of man’s notion of time.
Verse 15
15 And let them be for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth. And it was so. (Genesis 1 GLT)
This is God’s further command that the light from those heavenly bodies should fall on the Earth.
Verse 16
16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. (Genesis 1 JPS)
This is the Holy Spirit’s execution of God’s two previous commands. In response they made the sun and the moon to shine upon the Earth in the daytime and the night-time respectively, as we know today. Also, the multitude of stars in the heavens were also made, a greater meaning for which is that the second generation of angels were ‘born’.
Verse 17
17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth, (Genesis 1 NWT)
Having made the great lights, the Holy Spirit then placed them in the Heavens according to God's command.
Verse 18
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good. (Genesis 1 KJV)
The role of those heavenly bodies to divide the day from the night is repeated here. But so also is the division between the light and darkness which is again thought by God to be good; a repeated notion from verse 4. God must have been really pleased with His work in creating light from the darkness! With the added implications of day and night, the concept of time was massively important to His grand plan for His angelic and human children. Time kept them both in their playpens which keeps the harm they can do, to themselves and to each other, to a minimum. Again, the universe being a simulation (Variable Speed of Light) comes to mind; God had built a safe environment in which His children could learn moral sustainability before attaining their rightful heritage as fully-grown gods, as Jesus Christ has achieved ([26] When Jesus gave his life for us, he became the second God to be worshipped like his father Jehovah) and ([27] Our destiny is to become Gods like Jehovah and Jesus).
Verse 19 and The End of Day 4
19 And there was evening, and there was morning the fourth day. (Genesis 1 GLT)
So, at the end of Day 4, we have the universe complete with all its heavenly bodies casting light on the Earth and providing the basis for man’s measurement of time.
Verse 20
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. (Genesis 1 KJV)
Here we have God’s command to start to populate the Earth with living creatures. The variety of English translations available for this verse suggest that those creatures would comprise the fish and bottom feeding creatures of the sea and the birds flying above land and sea. Now is there a problem here in that we have argued that the land’s plant life does not start growing yet? What provides the food source for these creatures? We have seeds and sea-life for the winged creatures to eat and re-fertilise the land. Water-based plants and algae do not require rain, only sunlight, so I believe this would provide a food basis for the sea-life.
Verse 21
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. (Genesis 1 KJV)
The execution of the command at verse 20. God again thought the provision of the first forms of living creatures to be good and therefore saw it as a major step in His creation plan.
Verse 22
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. (Genesis 1 KJV)
Here God is confirming His provision of the reproductive capability of all the species living in the seas and the air. This verse also confirms that we are only talking about sea life and birds which could survive without land-based plant life.
Verse 23 and The End of Day 5
23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. (Genesis 1 ASV)
So, at the end of Day 5 we have reproducing sea life and birds.
Verse 24
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so. (Genesis 1 ASV)
All land-based creatures are commanded to be created in Day 6. This begs the question of how herbivores and insects were able to sustain themselves prior to plant life being fully established in Day 7.
Verse 25
25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1 ASV)
The execution of the command from the previous verse. Again, God was pleased with the work to create all the land-based lifeforms.
Verse 26
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1 KJV)
The command for the creation of mankind but still with no plant-life for food?
Verse 27
27 And God created the man in His own image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female. (Genesis 1 GLT)
We have a command to the Holy Spirit to create mankind in the previous verse but no execution of that command, or do we? Then we have the creation of Adam but with no preceding command because God created Adam, the man, directly Himself since Adam was His human son. Who is the 'them' of this verse? I would argue that is both mankind in general and God's son Adam by the Ambiguity Principle of the True Bible Code. In making 'them' both male and female, God is providing for the reproductive ability of Adam while the Holy Spirit is carrying out God's earlier command by creating mankind complete with their reproductive capability.
Verse 28
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1 KJV)
Again this verse begs the question of who is ‘them’. Is it Adam and Eve or all of mankind or both? As for the previous verse, according to the Ambiguity Principle of the True Bible Code, God blessed them all. The whole of mankind was given dominion over our physical world which has certainly been the case since man walked the Earth. Not that we seem to be capable of managing our planetary home!
Verse 29
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: (Genesis 1 ASV)
God tells man of His ‘future’ provision of plant-based food. Does this mean it will be available shortly? Also, without rain, man will not have any drinking water which is a rather more urgent requirement than solid food!
Verse 30
30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeping thing on the earth, in which {is} breath of life, every green herb {is} for food:' and it is so. (Genesis 1 YLT)
We are also told that green vegetation is available as food for the animals and creatures to eat. Sea-life is excluded from this verse given that algae and sea-plants already exist without rain. It would also seem that birdlife might like more to eat than seeds and fish!
Verse 31 and The End of Day 6
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1 ASV)
So, at the end of Day 6 we have land creatures and mankind with the promise of food available in plant form. So now we have the whole of creation in place and God was clearly very pleased with His handiwork since he adds the emphasis of it being 'very' good. But His living land life were still awaiting their first meal!
Day 7
Let us consider Day 7 again:
1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host.
2 And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because He rested from all His work on it, which God had created to make.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that Jehovah God was making earth and heavens.
5 And every shrub of the field was not yet on the earth, and every plant of the field had not yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not sent rain on the earth, and [there was] no man to till the ground.
6 And mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. (Genesis 2 GLT)
We are told here that God watered the ground with rain and allowed all land-based plant life to grow for food and presumably to provide fresh water for drinking (unstated) on Day 7. I suppose that if God actually placed the land animals and mankind on the Earth at the very end of Day 6 and enabled the rain to fall at the very beginning of Day 7, then this would have been timely enough to provide the food and drink for God’s creatures’ first meal? This would require that the first generation of edible plant food would need to have grown or be put in place with immediate effect; not beyond God's capabilities I think!
Conclusions
In the above sections I have attempted to give a forensic level of detail to the whole of the Genesis 1 creation account. It certainly comes with challenges to the believer in God’s description of His creation, but not challenges that cannot be addressed in a reasonably rational manner. In conjunction with the VSL paper, the two main issues faced were that of the old age of the Earth, addressed in the VSL paper, and that of the Earth’s not sustaining land-based plant life for food until Day 7. I hope I have adequately addressed the latter point in this current paper.
Again, with our currently close proximity to the end-times with a new man-made version of Noah’s flood on the horizon, I hope I am not too previous in considering this paper to be my last word, in the current system of things, on God’s first words to mankind. The first of God's words being last to be properly understood, at least by this poor student, according to Matthew, as originally suggested in my VSL paper:
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last. (Matthew 20 ASV)
Date of Publication: 11th September 2021