This is a continuation of the previous post, which can be read here.
This post will probably not make much sense if you haven't read the previous one.
Quick Recap: After the first day of God's creation, there was a universe, completely filled wall-to-wall with matter called 'waters'. There was visible light and dark, morality was created, and good was linked to the light, bad to the dark. God chose to embody all things light, bound Himself to goodness for eternity, of his own freewill, and threw away the key. God then left to allow his creation to simply exist for a while, bringing about the end of the first day, or era. He now returns, bringing the light back with Him, and thereby the dawn of the second day of creation.
Genesis 1:6
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”
This verse shows that previously there was not a vault; so therefore all the water was joined together with nothing in-between. The created matter is now spread out at God's command, and a 'vault' placed between the various bodies of matter. It doesn't seem to say that any of the matter was removed, but merely separated into parts. The only logical way for a vault to appear between the matter without removing some of the matter would be if the universe itself expanded, leaving some vacuums of unfilled space. Isaiah 40:22 is one of many places in scripture which talk about God causing the universe to expand in such a way, stating: 'He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.' With the rapid expansion of the universe, bodies of matter clung together in the void, that would eventually become planets, stars and asteroids.
As the universe expanded, as the heavens were stretched, the vault between water and water opened. This vault is therefore what we today call 'space', and the "water being separated from water" sounds like the resultant formation of those interstellar blobs of churning matter that would one day become the celestial bodies. [The idea of rapid expansion of the universe ironically seems to align well with the scientific theory of the Big Bang, which is so contentious and bitter an issue for so many evangelical Christians.]
But what was this 'water'? In verse 1:9, God states: 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear', which suggests that there was some solid matter in the giant masses of 'waters', certainly at least in the case of the earth. If dry ground appeared simply by gathering the water into one place, that suggests that it was there all along, just submerged. Therefore, the Bible implies that there was liquid matter and solid matter in at least some of these planetary bodies which were separated from one another.
As I looked over this account, I was wondering at which point our atmosphere of gases was created, but there is not specific reference to the atmosphere or air in the Genesis account. The nearest thing I could find was in verse 1:8 however, where it states that in the separating of the waters, 'sky' was formed. As breathable air and atmosphere is not mentioned anywhere else in the narrative, I personally assume that this was the point at which earthly sky and breathable atmosphere was also formed. If that is so, where did it come from? Where did the many gases which make up our air come from? At this time there were only two things in our universe; the 'waters', and space. As space is a vacuum, by definition it contains nothing, and therefore it is the logical conclusion that the gases came from the 'waters'. It can be seen therefore that the waters which have already been shown to have contained liquid and solids, also contained gases according to the implications in Genesis.
References to these things can also be found elsewhere in the Bible. In Job 38:8-9, God is talking to Job about his creation, asking; 'Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness?' The language used here is fascinating and fits so well with the picture painted by Genesis. While God is talking about the literal sea here, he is talking also in the context of the very foundations of creation (as the rest of Chapter 38 of Job illustrates). The sea 'burst forth from the womb'; let's remember that in the first day, the matter was called 'waters' (which sounds very similar to 'seas'), and that now on the second day we see it sort of exploded in something possibly akin to the Big Bang. He then 'shut up the sea behind doors'; that is, as the universe expanded He bound the 'waters' to their respective masses in space, thus shutting the sea behind doors. He 'made clouds its garment' in the development of the atmosphere and the emergence of the gases from the waters, and 'wrapped it in thick darkness' when he left the universe for a while at the end of the second day.
This suggests then that the separating of water from water which occurs in 1:6-7 looked like this: at first, everything was just a huge volatile soup, a condensed swirl of mingled solid, liquid and gas which the author of Genesis calls the waters. The universe expanded at God's command (possibly with Him commanding the Big Bang to occur), causing voids to open up between different clumps of waters, which became the vacuum we call 'space'. The clumps into which the waters separated as the universe expanded were the churning messes of unformed chaos which were to eventually form into planets, stars, etc. Some clumps of water might have been mostly liquid, resulting in very icy planets, some might have contained a lot of gas, resulting in gas planets, or in stars (which burst into flame in a later era), but our planet at least contained all three; the clump of waters that was to become the earth was a ball of solid matter, liquid and gas all mixed up together.
Genesis 1:7
So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.
This verse seems to say the same thing as the previous verse, but emphasizes that it happened because God was actively making it happen. There seem to have been natural processes causing all these galactic phenomena to occur, but this verse emphasizes that the processes were guided by His hand. He ensured that in amongst all the chaos and randomness, the prime focus of His creation in the Genesis tale (the earth) was where it needed to be for life to be possible.
God's 'let there be' in the previous verse could be understood again in the context of the artist looking at his first marks on a canvas, or a sculptor looking at the block of marble as in verse 2, and saying 'there needs to be space between these waters. I think I'll separate them out with space in-between'. The previous verse shows God deciding that this is what needs to be done, and this verse shows God creating the empty vault we call space, and guiding the waters as they separate out in space.
Some believe that the 'water above the vault' was an outer atmosphere of water around the earth, which maintained a tropical climate planet-wide. This is thought to be the reason there was no rain at that time (as stated in Gen 2:5), and the Great Flood of Noah (Gen 6-7) is thought to be the time when the waters above the earth were caused to collapse down onto the planet, thus removing the planet-wide tropical climate and beginning the global rain-evaporation cycle with the immense amount of extra water now upon the earth. This view does line up with Genesis 7:11, which states: In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
I think again that this statement, made in the literary context of Genesis 1, which is a poem, has multiple layers of possible meaning. I think the planetary understanding and the outer-atmosphere of water understanding could very easily both be implied in this verse. In verses 1:16-17 we are told that on the fourth day when the sun moon and stars were created, they were set in the 'vault of the sky', so it can be seen that the vault refers not only to the sky, but also to space.
Genesis 1:8
God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
The use of the word sky also suggests that even though the matter of the planet had not settled, but was still a mix of solids and liquids swirling about, some of the gaseous elements now emerged to form the atmosphere. The skies and air were the first things to be 'settled' on the planet. Some understand 'sky' to refer to the literal atmosphere of the earth, or 'sky' could have been their way of simply referring to 'the heavens' meaning sky and space. I expect that both sky and space are included in the correct meaning of 'sky' in this verse.
Again there was evening and morning, and a 'day'. Without the stars existing yet, there was no sun, so it is again pretty unlikely that this day was a literal 24 hour day such as we experience. The planets now existing meant that technically speaking an actual 'day' by definition could now occur, in that the planet could rotate on its axis, but the fact that there was not yet a sun, nor any stars suggest that the planet was not yet established in its orbit in a solar system, and so again any literal 'day' would be a stretch to argue for. Also there was no sun, moon or star, yet there was evening and morning, implying light. Even though planets were now formed, they were in their primordial state, still being 'waters' and therefore quite possibly did not generate their own light. The evening and morning show that light left and then returned. The text tells us of no other light source in our universe at this time but God, and so in a similar way to verse 1:5, it could be assumed that God left, leaving things to settle and to develop for some time until the second 'day' or era drew to a close. Bearing in mind the expansion of the universe which was begun in verse 6, it can be assumed that the universe went on expanding rapidly in this state for quite a while until God returned again for the third day, by which time they were probably beginning to cluster together into their respective solar systems and galaxies.
Afterthought
In 2 Peter 3:5-8, these words are recorded;
Long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.... But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
I find it fascinating that Peter discussed the creation of the world and the waters, and then made this statement that time is easily stretched or compressed by God - He is not bound to a linear experience of it, and therefore it is entirely possible, even Biblically probable, that the days of creation here referenced were 'like a thousand years', that is, a very, very long time.
This post will probably not make much sense if you haven't read the previous one.
Quick Recap: After the first day of God's creation, there was a universe, completely filled wall-to-wall with matter called 'waters'. There was visible light and dark, morality was created, and good was linked to the light, bad to the dark. God chose to embody all things light, bound Himself to goodness for eternity, of his own freewill, and threw away the key. God then left to allow his creation to simply exist for a while, bringing about the end of the first day, or era. He now returns, bringing the light back with Him, and thereby the dawn of the second day of creation.
Genesis 1:6
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”
This verse shows that previously there was not a vault; so therefore all the water was joined together with nothing in-between. The created matter is now spread out at God's command, and a 'vault' placed between the various bodies of matter. It doesn't seem to say that any of the matter was removed, but merely separated into parts. The only logical way for a vault to appear between the matter without removing some of the matter would be if the universe itself expanded, leaving some vacuums of unfilled space. Isaiah 40:22 is one of many places in scripture which talk about God causing the universe to expand in such a way, stating: 'He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.' With the rapid expansion of the universe, bodies of matter clung together in the void, that would eventually become planets, stars and asteroids.
As the universe expanded, as the heavens were stretched, the vault between water and water opened. This vault is therefore what we today call 'space', and the "water being separated from water" sounds like the resultant formation of those interstellar blobs of churning matter that would one day become the celestial bodies. [The idea of rapid expansion of the universe ironically seems to align well with the scientific theory of the Big Bang, which is so contentious and bitter an issue for so many evangelical Christians.]
But what was this 'water'? In verse 1:9, God states: 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear', which suggests that there was some solid matter in the giant masses of 'waters', certainly at least in the case of the earth. If dry ground appeared simply by gathering the water into one place, that suggests that it was there all along, just submerged. Therefore, the Bible implies that there was liquid matter and solid matter in at least some of these planetary bodies which were separated from one another.
As I looked over this account, I was wondering at which point our atmosphere of gases was created, but there is not specific reference to the atmosphere or air in the Genesis account. The nearest thing I could find was in verse 1:8 however, where it states that in the separating of the waters, 'sky' was formed. As breathable air and atmosphere is not mentioned anywhere else in the narrative, I personally assume that this was the point at which earthly sky and breathable atmosphere was also formed. If that is so, where did it come from? Where did the many gases which make up our air come from? At this time there were only two things in our universe; the 'waters', and space. As space is a vacuum, by definition it contains nothing, and therefore it is the logical conclusion that the gases came from the 'waters'. It can be seen therefore that the waters which have already been shown to have contained liquid and solids, also contained gases according to the implications in Genesis.
References to these things can also be found elsewhere in the Bible. In Job 38:8-9, God is talking to Job about his creation, asking; 'Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness?' The language used here is fascinating and fits so well with the picture painted by Genesis. While God is talking about the literal sea here, he is talking also in the context of the very foundations of creation (as the rest of Chapter 38 of Job illustrates). The sea 'burst forth from the womb'; let's remember that in the first day, the matter was called 'waters' (which sounds very similar to 'seas'), and that now on the second day we see it sort of exploded in something possibly akin to the Big Bang. He then 'shut up the sea behind doors'; that is, as the universe expanded He bound the 'waters' to their respective masses in space, thus shutting the sea behind doors. He 'made clouds its garment' in the development of the atmosphere and the emergence of the gases from the waters, and 'wrapped it in thick darkness' when he left the universe for a while at the end of the second day.
This suggests then that the separating of water from water which occurs in 1:6-7 looked like this: at first, everything was just a huge volatile soup, a condensed swirl of mingled solid, liquid and gas which the author of Genesis calls the waters. The universe expanded at God's command (possibly with Him commanding the Big Bang to occur), causing voids to open up between different clumps of waters, which became the vacuum we call 'space'. The clumps into which the waters separated as the universe expanded were the churning messes of unformed chaos which were to eventually form into planets, stars, etc. Some clumps of water might have been mostly liquid, resulting in very icy planets, some might have contained a lot of gas, resulting in gas planets, or in stars (which burst into flame in a later era), but our planet at least contained all three; the clump of waters that was to become the earth was a ball of solid matter, liquid and gas all mixed up together.
Genesis 1:7
So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.
This verse seems to say the same thing as the previous verse, but emphasizes that it happened because God was actively making it happen. There seem to have been natural processes causing all these galactic phenomena to occur, but this verse emphasizes that the processes were guided by His hand. He ensured that in amongst all the chaos and randomness, the prime focus of His creation in the Genesis tale (the earth) was where it needed to be for life to be possible.
God's 'let there be' in the previous verse could be understood again in the context of the artist looking at his first marks on a canvas, or a sculptor looking at the block of marble as in verse 2, and saying 'there needs to be space between these waters. I think I'll separate them out with space in-between'. The previous verse shows God deciding that this is what needs to be done, and this verse shows God creating the empty vault we call space, and guiding the waters as they separate out in space.
Some believe that the 'water above the vault' was an outer atmosphere of water around the earth, which maintained a tropical climate planet-wide. This is thought to be the reason there was no rain at that time (as stated in Gen 2:5), and the Great Flood of Noah (Gen 6-7) is thought to be the time when the waters above the earth were caused to collapse down onto the planet, thus removing the planet-wide tropical climate and beginning the global rain-evaporation cycle with the immense amount of extra water now upon the earth. This view does line up with Genesis 7:11, which states: In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
I think again that this statement, made in the literary context of Genesis 1, which is a poem, has multiple layers of possible meaning. I think the planetary understanding and the outer-atmosphere of water understanding could very easily both be implied in this verse. In verses 1:16-17 we are told that on the fourth day when the sun moon and stars were created, they were set in the 'vault of the sky', so it can be seen that the vault refers not only to the sky, but also to space.
Genesis 1:8
God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
The use of the word sky also suggests that even though the matter of the planet had not settled, but was still a mix of solids and liquids swirling about, some of the gaseous elements now emerged to form the atmosphere. The skies and air were the first things to be 'settled' on the planet. Some understand 'sky' to refer to the literal atmosphere of the earth, or 'sky' could have been their way of simply referring to 'the heavens' meaning sky and space. I expect that both sky and space are included in the correct meaning of 'sky' in this verse.
Again there was evening and morning, and a 'day'. Without the stars existing yet, there was no sun, so it is again pretty unlikely that this day was a literal 24 hour day such as we experience. The planets now existing meant that technically speaking an actual 'day' by definition could now occur, in that the planet could rotate on its axis, but the fact that there was not yet a sun, nor any stars suggest that the planet was not yet established in its orbit in a solar system, and so again any literal 'day' would be a stretch to argue for. Also there was no sun, moon or star, yet there was evening and morning, implying light. Even though planets were now formed, they were in their primordial state, still being 'waters' and therefore quite possibly did not generate their own light. The evening and morning show that light left and then returned. The text tells us of no other light source in our universe at this time but God, and so in a similar way to verse 1:5, it could be assumed that God left, leaving things to settle and to develop for some time until the second 'day' or era drew to a close. Bearing in mind the expansion of the universe which was begun in verse 6, it can be assumed that the universe went on expanding rapidly in this state for quite a while until God returned again for the third day, by which time they were probably beginning to cluster together into their respective solar systems and galaxies.
Afterthought
In 2 Peter 3:5-8, these words are recorded;
Long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.... But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
I find it fascinating that Peter discussed the creation of the world and the waters, and then made this statement that time is easily stretched or compressed by God - He is not bound to a linear experience of it, and therefore it is entirely possible, even Biblically probable, that the days of creation here referenced were 'like a thousand years', that is, a very, very long time.
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