College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Genesis 1:2-19
PART SIX: THE FIRST FOUR DAYS OF THE COSMIC WEEK OF BEGINNINGS
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The verb bara, translated create, writes Skinner (ICC, 15) is used exclusively in Scripture of Divine activity, a restriction to which perhaps no parallel can be found in other languages; expresses the idea of novelty, extraordinariness; expresses the idea of effortless production (such as befits the Almighty) by word or volition (as another puts it, the verb emphasizes the unconditioned Creatorship of God; cf. Psalms 33:6; Psalms 33:9; Psalms 148:1-6; Romans 4:17). With this introduction which, apparently, is a caption to the Cosmogony that follows, or, it may be, a designation of the activity by which the first form of undifferentiated energy-matter was called into being by the Divine Will and Word, the writer proceeds to the description of the successive steps by which this first form of energy-matter was arranged into an organized cosmos.
REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART SIX
1.
What is the import of the word bara in the first chapter of Genesis?
2.
What Was done on Day One of the Creation?
3.
State the probable meaning of the phrase, formless and empty, as descriptive of the original state of the earth.
4.
What is suggested by the first syllable, form, in the word formless, as used in Genesis 1:2?
5.
What is the probable meaning of the term, the deep?
6.
What is the meaning of the word chaos in Greek?
7.
How does the picture of the primeval chaos suggest the state of the unregenerate soul?
8.
What does the word brooding suggest, as descriptive of the work of the Spirit of God in the Creation?
9.
Point out the correlation between the Spirit's brooding at the beginning of the physical Creation and His brooding at the beginning of the spiritual Creation.
10.
List some of the Scriptures which identify the Spirit of God of the Old Testament with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ, of the New Testament.
11.
Cite some examples from everyday life of the transmutation of psychical energy into physical energy.
12.
What light does this throw on the origin of the first form of physical energy?
13.
What is presupposed in the application of energy in terms of force?
14.
What probably was the kind of light indicated in the third verse of Genesis?
15.
What reasons have we for concluding that this was not solar light?
16.
With what formula is the description of each epoch of Creation introduced in the Genesis narrative?
17.
In the light of the entire Bible what is the significance of this formula?
18.
Point out some of the Scriptures which identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Eternal Logos.
19.
What is the twofold meaning of the term Logos in Greek, and how does Jesus fulfill this twofold aspect?
20.
State the historical, eternal, and temporal names of our Savior. What is His official title and what is its import?
21.
What is the significance of the repeated formula, Let there be, etc.?
22.
What reasons have we for thinking that the first form of light was an elementary kind of radiant energy rather than solar energy?
23.
What does the word good imply, as God is represented as using it, in the Genesis account?
24.
What was done on Day Two of the Creation?
25.
Explain what is meant by the law of accommodation.
26.
List the contrasts between the Babylonian and the Mosaic Cosmogonies.
27.
Why do we reject the theory that the Genesis account was borrowed from Babylonian sources?
28.
What are the grounds on which we accept the Genesis account as divinely inspired?
29.
What does the word firmament mean, as used in Genesis 1:6-7?
30.
What is probably meant here by the separation of the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament?
31.
State the monoparental and biparental hypotheses of the origin of the earth.
32.
What is the import of the word Heaven as used in Genesis 1:8?
33.
What was done on Day Three of the Creation?
34.
By what processes were lands and seas probably differentiated?
35.
Explain what is meant by secondary causation.
36.
What do we mean by saying that God probably operated through secondary causes throughout most of the Creation? By what formula is this method indicated?
37.
What is the import of the phrase each after its kind?
38.
What was done on Day Four of the Creation?
39.
Why. do we reject the view that sun, moon and stars were created at this stage?
40.
Correlate Genesis 1:17 with Genesis 9:8-17 and with 1 Corinthians 11:23-33.
41.
State some of the aspects in which the primordial darkness was a metaphor of the unconverted soul.
42.
State the aspects in which light is a metaphor of the Gospel.
43.
What do we learn from the first chapter of Genesis concerning the Word-Power of God?
44.
Where is this Word-Power to be found today?