7 - Genesis 1 and Science Reconciled - Part 1

Doug Nommisto
Sep 25, 2024
8 min read

Date: 9/25/2024

Thread: 1 - Ancient Civilizations

Sub-thread: 1 - Old Testament

Sub-sub-thread: 6 - Genesis

Christians say six days, while scientists say 13.8 billion years. Is it possible to close this extremely wide gap? We know, or at least we should know, that astrophysicists and geologists have a mountain of data to support their Big Bang theory. Christians hold a firmly, perhaps fanatically, maintained belief that Scripture tells them God created the heavens and the Earth in six days. Is that what Genesis 1 really says? We will now deconstruct Genesis 1 to see what it truly conveys and whether we can reconcile it with our scientific understanding. We will be using the New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible.

Back when, at some indeterminate point in early human history, a person—or more likely a group of people—received information that was eventually reduced to words and ultimately ended up in what we read as Genesis 1. Genesis 1, much less the Bible as a whole, did not simply pop into existence. Humans, like us, wrote the words, however “inspired” they might be. In this analysis of Genesis 1, we will examine where this inspiration came from.

Genesis 1

Verse 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Hebrew word translated as “God” is actually Elohim, which is the plural form of El. Possible translations of Elohim from the original Hebrew include “rulers,” “judges,” “gods,” “superhuman beings,” “angels,” “children of God,” “mighty ones,” “deity,” and “those from above.” Nowhere in this list is the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God—the God with whom generations of Christians have been indoctrinated.

“Bara” is the Hebrew word translated as “created” in this verse. “Bara” is typically used exclusively for divine creation, emphasizing the unique creative power of the Elohim. It is never used in the context of human creation or making something from existing materials. The use of “bara” in Genesis 1:1 is often interpreted to mean that Elohim, or God, created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, a fundamental concept in many theological traditions.

We know from Biglino’s work that Elohim and Yahweh have been mistranslated as the monotheistic God found in current translations of the Bible, and that the creation of the space-time continuum could not possibly have been accomplished by the Elohim, much less by Yahweh, who, quoting Biglino, “was just a minor local ruler.” The creation of space-time needs to be separated from Yahweh and the Elohim in general.

The scientific theory regarding the “creation” of the known universe—encompassing all of space and time—is called “The Big Bang theory.” The Big Bang theory is the leading scientific explanation for the origin of the universe. It posits that the universe began approximately 13.8 billion years ago from an extremely hot, dense state, which is often described as a singularity—a point where all matter and energy were concentrated. This singularity underwent a massive expansion, causing space itself to stretch and cool, which led to the formation of the universe as we know it.

Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have sparked discussions and debates among scientists regarding certain aspects of the Big Bang theory. While the Big Bang theory remains the dominant framework for understanding the universe’s origin, these new findings challenge some details of the model.

The JWST has detected galaxies that appear to be more mature and massive than they should be if the mathematics and physics behind the Big Bang theory are sound. Other newly discovered artifacts, including well-defined “disks” and “bulges” that are typically associated with more mature galaxies, as well as stars that are older and more evolved than expected, also call into question the underpinnings of the theory.

The religious concept of “creation out of nothing” and the scientific concept of “creation out of the singularity” are effectively the same; therefore, they are not in contention. However, the Elohim need a new role in Genesis 1.

Verse 2: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

In the beginning—pun intended—the contents of what is now Genesis 1, as well as the Bible in general, have evolved from being communicated orally from one generation to another to being committed to written text. Each of these generational transfers of knowledge and understanding has resulted in possible consolidation, simplification, and modification from the previous generation. This verse, verse 2, is an example of a great deal of information condensed into a single verse; it will require unpacking to be fully understood.

Before we begin this unpacking, let’s look at the Christian Gap Theory, which seeks to address the obvious difficulty in explaining Creation in verse 1 and the generation of light in verse 3, with verse 2 in between them. Verse 2 is, at first glance, an anomaly, as the Earth did not exist before there was light. Science is quite convinced of this fact.

Thomas Chalmers first presented his initial concepts of the Gap Theory during the early part of the 19th century in his lectures and sermons. Therefore, the theory has been in existence for approximately two hundred years. The basic tenets of the theory and my counterarguments are as follows:

Genesis 1:1 should be interpreted as a complete and finished act of creation, not directly connected to the subsequent verses. Oh, how I wish the Bible read as I would like it to! It is either the inerrant Word of God, or it isn’t. You can’t have it both ways. Verse 2 is a thorn in the side of Christian apologetics.
A long, indefinite period of time, perhaps measured in millions or billions of years, occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, during which the fall of Satan resulted in a judgment on the Earth, causing it to become “formless and empty.” God should have informed us that millions or billions of years elapsed, rather than requiring us, thousands of years later, to infer this from the text. One would think that there would at least have been a mention that Satan had his way during this gap, given the profundity of his activities. The nature of Satan, as it is actually presented in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, is discussed in “6 - Gods of the Bible by Mauro Biglino - Part 5.” Please refer to this episode if you haven’t already. Satan is not the evil being that Christianity has made him out to be.
Verses 3-31 of Genesis 1 are interpreted as a re-creation or restoration of the Earth. A restoration of the Earth, or at least a part of it, did occur, but not for the reasons explained above.

Let’s start the unpacking with, “Now the earth...” First, the verse does not say, “Yesterday,” “Tomorrow,” or “A million years ago.” It says “Now,” but whose “now”? In order for us to be reading this text, someone had to hear it and eventually record it. Therefore, it was the “now” of the people hearing the information given to them, and that “now” was several thousand years ago.

What did “the Earth” mean to people who lived several thousand years ago? Was it perceived as the nearly spherical ball of blue and white that we picture in our minds today? Unless they were military personnel or merchants, people living several thousand years ago were fortunate if they could travel more than a day or two of walking from where they were born. The small patch of Earth that they knew about was incredibly tiny compared to the actual size of our planet. Therefore, the proper context for this verse is the Earth as they experienced it in their immediate area or as it was described to them by merchants and soldiers. They had no way of knowing the condition of the Earth’s entire surface.

Continuing with verse 2, the Hebrew word translated as “was” is “hayah.” The verb “hayah” can be translated in various ways, depending on the context. It can mean “was,” “became,” or “has been,” among other possibilities, based on the tense, mood, and context within the passage. Translators for the Church determined that translating “hayah” as “was” best reflected their intentions. However, I have found that using “has been” works much better. Therefore, “Now the earth has been formless and empty.”

Moving on to “formless and empty,” the Hebrew words are, respectively, “tohu” and “bohu.” Taken together, in relation to the region where the people who received this information lived, the most likely meaning of this phrase is barren, desolate, and uninhabited, at least for the most part, since there were people present who experienced it.

Next, we have, “darkness was over the surface of the deep...” Analyzing these terms in reverse order, we begin with “tehom,” the Hebrew word for “the deep.” Tehom refers to “the deep,” “abyss,” or “great depths,” which imply one or more large, deep bodies of water, such as lakes or oceans.

The surface of the deep would refer to the surfaces of the lakes or oceans in their region. Lastly, “darkness was over” is where the Hebrew word “choshekh” is translated as darkness, signifying the absence of light, obscurity, or a state of being hidden.

Putting it all together, there was one or more people who, in their “now,” experienced their region as desolate and uninhabited due to some recent or even historical event that they still had to contend with. Additionally, the large bodies of water in their region had murky surfaces that they could not see through, as if something had stirred up the sediment and made the water cloudy.

The last part of the verse, “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters,” requires similar deconstruction. “Spirit” is the Hebrew word “ruach,” which has been extensively discussed in Episode 3 - Gods of the Bible by Mauro Biglino, Part 2. It most likely represents one type of aerial technology that the Elohim used for transport. This aerial transport was hovering, or “m’rachefet” in Hebrew, over the waters. The ruach was seen by the person or people experiencing this event, indicating that the craft was over the water but within sight of those on the shore.

What could have made the local region so desolate and uninhabited? We are almost certainly not told this because it would have been common knowledge among the people; therefore, there was no point in stating what everyone already knew. One possibility that comes to mind is that the region suffered the effects of a small meteorite that struck the far eastern Mediterranean Sea, causing the inundation of the western Mesopotamian region, but that’s just my guess. It would, however, account for both the desolation of the local land and the stirring up of sediment, which would have caused the waters to become murky.

We conclude verse 2 with a reasonable understanding that does not conflict with verse 1 or the verses that follow. Long ago, at an unspecified time, a person or people—probably in the western Mesopotamian region, where most of the Old Testament narratives are set—witnessed a major desolation that rendered the waters murky. They saw a ruach—an aerial transport used by the Elohim—hovering above the waters.

We will continue this analysis of Genesis 1 in episode 8 - Genesis 1 and Science Reconciled Part 2.

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