Genesis 1 - Creation

In this episode of the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast, the host delves into Genesis chapter one, highlighting the creation of the world in six days and the introduction of God as the main character. Discussions range from the nature of God to the purpose of human creation, with implications drawn to the Trinity and the image of God reflected in humanity.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. I am your host, Dan Snyder, and today we will be going through the book of Genesis chapter one.

First of all, we will start with an overview of the chapter. The chapter introduces the main character of the Bible, who is, of course, God. God is introduced in the very first sentence of the Bible. He is the main character beginning to end. Genesis to Revelation, God is the main character of the Bible.

So as we go through this chapter, we see that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. The first three days is marked by separation. So we see separation of light from dark. We see separation of water from water. And we see separation of land from water. And then in the last three days, we see that creation is filled with inhabitants. So we see the creation of stars, sea and sky creatures, land creatures, and of course, humans.

Then at the end of the chapter, humans are given a blessing, and that blessing involves being fruitful and multiplying to fill the earth, to subdue the earth, and to have a dominion over every living thing. And then they are also given plants for food. It's interesting to note they were not given animals for food, only plants.

So let's dive deeper into the chapter.

Very first verse. Chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God. So this word God in Hebrew is Elohim, which is a plural word, yet the verbs and pronouns around this word are singular. Many people use this as support for a Trinitarian doctrine. Very first sentence of the Bible, God is showing us that he is three in one. Many use this as support for that because again, the word Elohim is plural but the verbs and pronouns are singular. If you speak a language such as Spanish, you would recognize this in other languages that use this same sort of sentence construction where if a noun is plural, all the verbs also have to be plural. If a noun is singular, all the verbs have to be singular. Again, many will say that this is proof that God is three in one.

However, there are a couple counterpoints I would like to point out and that is that the same word is used for pagan gods in the Bible. In Judges 16 verse 23: Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, "Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand."

So they're referring to one god Dagon but the word Elohim which is a plural word is used to describe a singular god.

The 11th century Jewish commentator Rashi tells us that a plural word like this means it refers to all authority. So this is saying God Elohim has all authority rather than that it is a word that refers to plural gods.

Charles John Ellicott who is an 18th century theologian says thus in the name Elohim it included in one person all the powers, mights and influences by which the world was first created and is now governed and maintained. In the Bible alone, Elohim is one. Christians may also well see in this a foreshadowing of the plurality of persons in the Divine Trinity, but its primary lesson is that, however diverse may seem the working of the powers of nature, the worker is one and his work is one.

So whether or not this word Elohim tells us that God is three and one, I don't know. I don't know Hebrew well enough to know that. There's a lot of people that know Hebrew a lot more than I do that don't know that. So I'm not going to say that thi