Chapter One

The First Day of Creation

Genesis 1:1. In the beginning Among the holy Fathers as well as throughout the entire subsequent exegetical literature, there are two main typical interpretations of this word. According to the dominant opinion of some – it is a simple chronological indication “of the beginning of the creation of visible things” (Ephrem the Syrian), that is, of all that history of whose gradual formation is set forth immediately thereafter. According to the allegorical interpretation of others (Theophilus of Antioch, Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, etc.), the word “in the beginning” has here an individual meaning, containing a veiled indication of the eternally-begotten birth from the Father of the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity – the Son of God, in whom and through whom all creation was accomplished (John 1:3; Col 1:16). The biblical parallels relating to this give us the right to unite both these interpretations, that is, both to find here an indication of the thought about the co-eternality with the Father of the begetting of the Son or the Logos and of the ideal creation of the world in Him (John 1:1-3; Ps 83:3; 1 Pet 1:20; Col 1:16; Rev 3:14), and even more properly to see here a direct indication of the external realization of the eternally-predestined plans of divine creation at the beginning of time, or more precisely, together with this very time itself (Ps 101:26; Heb 1:10; Prov 8:22-23; Isa 64:4; Sir 18:1; and so forth). God created – here the word bara is used, which according to the common belief of both Jews and Christians, as well as according to all subsequent biblical usage, primarily serves as an expression of the idea of divine action (Gen 1:1; Isa 40:28; Ps 148:5; Exod 34:10; Num 16:30; Jer 31:22; Mal 2:10 and others), has the meaning of creative activity or creation from nothing (Num 16:30; Isa 45:7; Ps 101:26; Heb 3:4; 2 Macc 7:28 and others). By this very fact, then, all materialistic hypotheses about the world as a self-existent essence, and pantheistic hypotheses – about it as an emanation or effluence of divinity – are refuted, and the view is established of it as the work of the hands of the Creator, who has called forth the entire world from non-being to being through the will and power of His divine omnipotence. heaven and earth. Heaven and earth, as two concrete opposite poles of the entire world globe, commonly serve in the Bible to denote “the whole universe” (Ps 101:26; Isa 65:17; Jer 23:24; Zech 5:9). Moreover, many find here a separate indication of the creation of the visible and invisible world, or of the Angels (Theophilus of Antioch, Basil the Great, Theodoret, Origen, John of Damascus, and others). The basis of this latter interpretation is, first, the biblical use of the word “heaven” as a synonym for heavenly inhabitants, that is, angels (1 Sam 22:19; Matt 18:10 and others), and secondly, the context of this narrative itself, in which the subsequent chaotic disorder is attributed only to the “earth,” that is, the visible world (verse 2), so “heaven” is separated from “earth” and even as it were opposed to it as a well-ordered, invisible, celestial world. Confirmation of this can be found both in the Old Testament (Job 38:4-7) and particularly in the New Testament (Col 1:16).

Genesis 1:2. Now the earth was formless and empty, The concept of “earth” in the language of the Bible often embraces the entire terrestrial globe, including the visible sky as its outer atmospheric envelope (Gen 14:19; Ps 68:35). It is in this sense that it is used here, as is evident from the context, according to the testimony of which the chaotic mass of this “earth” subsequently produced from itself the expanse and water (Gen 1:7). The words “formless and empty,” by which the primeval mass is characterized, contain the idea of “darkness, disorder, and destruction” (Isa 40:17; Jer 4:23-26), that is, give the idea of a state of complete chaos, in which the elements of future light, air, earth, water, and also all seeds of plant and animal life could not yet be distinguished from one another and were as if mixed together. The best parallel to these words is found in the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, in which it is said that God created the world from “amorphous substance” (Wis 11:18) and 2 Pet 3:5. and darkness over the abyss, This darkness was the natural consequence of the absence of light, which did not yet exist as a separate independent element, being separated from the primeval chaos only subsequently, on the first day of the creative week. “Over the abyss” and “over the water.” In the original text stand here two Hebrew words related in meaning (tehom and maim), meaning a mass of water that forms an entire “abyss”; by this is indicated the melted liquid state of the primordial, chaotic substance. and the Spirit of God hovered over the water. In explaining these words interpreters differ rather strongly among themselves: some see here a simple indication of an ordinary wind sent by God for the drying of the earth (Tertullian, Ephrem the Syrian, Theodoret, Ibn Ezra, Rosenmüller), others – the Angel, or a special intelligent force appointed for the same purpose (Chrysostom, Cajetan, and others), still others, finally – the Hypostatic Spirit of God (Basil the Great, Athanasius, Jerome, and the majority of other exegetes). The latter interpretation is preferable to the others: it indicates the participation in the work of creation of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit of God, who manifests Himself as the creative and providential force which, according to the general biblical view, conditions the origin and existence of the entire world, not excepting even man (Gen 2:7; Ps 32:6; Job 27:3; Isa 34:16; Acts 17:28 and others). The very action of the Holy Spirit upon chaos is likened here to the action of a bird sitting in a nest on eggs and warming them with its heat to awaken life in them (Deut 32:11). By this very fact, on the one hand, we are allowed to discern in the chaos some action of natural forces, analogous to the process of gradual formation in an egg of an embryo, and on the other, as these very forces and their results are placed in direct dependence upon God.

Genesis 1:3. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light. For the Almighty Creator of the universe, thought or word and the realization of this thought or deed are completely identical with one another, since for Him there exist no obstacles that could prevent the fulfillment of an arising desire. Hence, His word is law for existence: “For He spoke, and it came into being; He commanded, and it stood firm” (Ps 32:9). Following many Church Fathers, Metropolitan Philaret holds that in the word “said” there is not without reason a mystery of the Hypostatic Word, which here, like the Holy Spirit before it, is veiled as the Creator of the world: “This mystery is explained by David and Solomon, who obviously adapted their expressions to Moses” (Ps 32:6; Prov 8:22-29). Let there be light. Clear indication of this is given by Apostle Paul, speaking of God as having “commanded light to shine out of darkness” (2 Cor 4:6). The creation of light was the first creative and formative act of divine creation. This primordial light was not ordinary light in the full sense of the word, since until the fourth day of creation, on which the heavenly bodies appeared, there were not yet sources of our light, but was that luminous ether which, being in a state of vibration, dispelled the primeval darkness and thus created the necessary conditions for the future appearance of all organic life on earth.

Genesis 1:4. And God saw the light, that it was good, So, according to the words of the Psalmist, “the Lord rejoices in His works!” (Ps 103:31) Light is spoken of here as “good,” because it is the source of joy and happiness for all living things. and God separated the light from the darkness. By this very fact God did not destroy the original darkness completely, but only established a regular periodic alternation of it with light, necessary for the maintenance of life and the preservation of strength not only of man and animals, but of all other creatures (Ps 103:20-24; Jer 33:20).

Genesis 1:5. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. Having divided the light from the darkness and established a regular alternation of them with one another, the Creator names them and with corresponding names, calling the period of the dominion of light day, and the time of the dominion of darkness – night. Sacred Scripture gives us a whole series of indications of the origin of this divine establishment (Ps 103:20-24; Job 38:11; Jer 33:20). Concerning the character and duration of these primeval days we are deprived of the possibility of judging definitively: one thing only we can say – that at least in the first three days before the creation of the sun they, in all probability, were not identical with our present days. And there was evening, and there was morning: Many of the interpreters, on the ground that “evening” is placed first, and then “morning,” wish to see in the first nothing other than that chaotic darkness which preceded the appearance of light and thus anticipated the first day. But this is an obvious straining of the text, since before the creation of light there could exist neither such a distinction of days nor the very names of these two main constituent parts of them. On this error rests also another, that the count of astronomical days should supposedly begin with evening, as this Ephrem the Syrian, for instance, thinks. But Saint John Chrysostom more correctly supposes that the reckoning of days must go from morning to morning, since, as we repeat, the very possibility of distinguishing in a day its day and night began no earlier than from the moment of the creation of light or from the time of the beginning of day, that is, speaking in modern language, from the morning of the first day of creation. day one. In the Hebrew original stands not an ordinal but a cardinal numeral “day one,” for in fact the first day of the creative week was in it as yet both the only one. Concluding our discussion of the first day of the creative week, we think it appropriate to speak here generally about these days. The question of them constitutes one of the most difficult exegetical problems. The chief difficulty of it consists, first, in the definite understanding of the biblical days of creation, and second, and even more, in harmonizing these days with the modern data of astronomy and geology. We have already seen above that to the first days of creation, preceding the appearance of the sun, it is rather difficult to apply our usual astronomical measure with its 24-hour duration, which depends, as is known, on the movement of the earth around its axis and on its turning now one, now another side toward the sun. But if we admit that this relatively insignificant obstacle was somehow eliminated by the power of divine omnipotence, then all the remaining, properly biblical data, and the division of these days into morning and evening, and the definite quantity, and the strict succession of them, and the historical character of the narrative itself, – all this speaks for the strictly literal sense of the biblical text and for the astronomical duration of these biblical days. Much more serious is another objection, coming from science, which, proceeding from an analysis of the so-called geological strata, counts a whole series of geological epochs, required for the gradual formation of the earth’s crust and several thousands of years for the successive appearance on it of various forms of plant and animal life. The thought of harmonizing the Bible with science on this point occupied the Church Fathers and teachers greatly, among which representatives of the Alexandrian school – Origen, Saints Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria, and others even stood for an allegorical interpretation of the biblical days in the sense of more or less prolonged periods. Following them, a whole series of subsequent exegetes sought in one way or another to modify the direct, literal sense of the biblical text and adapt it to the conclusions of science (the so-called periodistic and restitution theories). But the direct, literal sense of the biblical text, ancient Christian tradition, and Orthodox interpretation in general do not permit such free treatment of the biblical text and consequently require a literal understanding of the term “day” found in it. Thus, the Bible speaks of ordinary days, while science speaks of whole periods or epochs. The best way out of this contradiction, in our opinion, is the so-called “visionary” theory. According to the sense of this theory, the biblical narrative of the creation of the world is not a strictly scientific and factually detailed reproduction of the entire history of the actual process of world-formation, but only its chief moments, revealed by God to the first man in a special vision (visio). Here the entire history of the origin of the world, which developed over a time unknown to us, passed before the spiritual vision of man in the form of a whole series of scenes, each of which represented certain groups of phenomena, while both the general character and the sequence of these scenes were a true, though momentary, reflection of actual history. Each of these visionary scenes formed a separate group of phenomena, actually developing over one and the same period, while in the vision received the name of one or another day. To the question, why then did the geological epochs of creation receive in the biblical cosmogonic vision the name of an ordinary “day,” it is comparatively easy to answer: because “day” was the most convenient, the simplest, and most easily accessible measure of time to the consciousness of primeval man. Consequently, in order to instill in the consciousness of the first man the idea of the sequential order of the creation of the world and the distinctness of its processes, it was most expedient to use the already familiar image of day as a complete and finished period of time. Thus, on the question of the days of creation, the Bible and science do not collide with one another at all: the Bible, understanding ordinary days, marks by this alone only the various moments of cosmogonic vision, in which God was pleased to reveal to man the history of creation; science, pointing to geological epochs and prolonged periods, intends to investigate the actual process of the origin and gradual arrangement of the world; and such an admission of scientific hypotheses does not at all shake divine omnipotence, for which it was completely indifferent – whether to create the whole world in the twinkling of an eye, to spend a whole week on it, or, having instilled in the world certain purposeful laws, to leave them more or less to natural course, which led to prolonged world-formation. The latter, in our view, even more answers the idea of divine wisdom and goodness of the Creator. The visionary theory indicated here, finding its defenders among both the Fathers and teachers of the Church (Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret, Junilus of Africa), is shared by many modern exegetes (see on this in more detail in the dissertation of A. Pokrovskii: “The Biblical Doctrine of Primeval Religion”).

The Second Day of Creation

Genesis 1:6. And God said: Let there be an expanse in the middle of the water, Expanse – literally from the original “a spreading out,” “a covering,” for thus the Hebrews represented to themselves the heavenly atmosphere surrounding the terrestrial globe, as is expressed particularly vividly in the well-known words of the Psalmist: “You stretch out the heavens like a tent” (Ps 103:2; cf. Isa 40:22). This expanse or atmospheric envelope of the earth, according to the general biblical view, is considered the place of the birth of all kinds of winds and storms, as well as of all possible atmospheric precipitations and changes in weather (Ps 148:4-8; Job 28:25-26; Isa 55:10; Matt 5:45; Acts 14:17; Heb 6:7 and others).

Genesis 1:7. and separated the water which was below the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. Under the latter waters here, evidently, are understood water vapors, which commonly saturate the heavenly atmosphere and which, condensing from time to time, in various forms pour down upon the earth, for example, in the form of rain, hail, frost, fog, or snow. Under the first, of course, is understood ordinary water, penetrating the entire terrestrial chaos and in the following, third day of creation, gathered into special natural reservoirs – oceans, seas, and rivers. About the role of water in the process of world-formation something similar is also said by Apostle Peter (2 Pet 3:5). To the naive mind of primeval Hebrew the heavenly atmosphere seemed to be in the form of some solid covering, separating the atmospheric waters from the earthly waters; from time to time this solid envelope in one place or another opened, and then the heavenly waters through this opening poured out upon the earth. And the Bible, speaking, according to the testimony of the holy Fathers, in the language of the sons of men and adapting itself to the weakness of our mind and hearing, does not consider it necessary to introduce any scientific corrections into this naive worldview (Saint John Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others).

Genesis 1:8. And God called the expanse “sky. In the language of the Hebrews there were three different terms for expressing this concept, corresponding to their opinion of the existence of three different celestial spheres. The sky which is called here was considered the lowest and nearest place of abode of birds, accessible to direct sight (Ps 8:4; Lev 26:19; Deut 28:23).

The Third Day of Creation

Genesis 1:9. And God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let the dry ground appear. By this divine command the two main constituent parts of the primeval chaos, earth and water, became separated from one another: the waters united into various water basins – seas and oceans (Ps 32:7; Prov 8:29), and the dry land formed islands and continents, covered with various mountains, hills, and valleys (Ps 64:6; Isa 40:12).

Genesis 1:10. And God called the dry ground “earth,” and the gathering of the waters He called “seas. The Bible tells us nothing of the manner and duration of this process of the separation of water from land and the self-formation of the earth’s crust, thus opening full scope to scientific investigation. In the cosmogonic vision with which the Bible deals, only the general character and final result of this third period of world-formation, or – in the language of the biblical vision – the third day of creation, is noted.

Genesis 1:11–12. And God said: Let the earth produce vegetation – plants bearing seed, and fruit trees that bear fruit with seed in them, according to their kinds, on the earth. And it was so. And the earth produced vegetation – plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kinds. In these few words of the cosmogonic vision is reflected an entire grand picture of the gradual arising on earth of various kinds of plant, organic life, produced by the earth not through spontaneous generation, but according to the special forces and laws given to it by the Creator. However, the indication that the covering of the earth with plants and trees was not an instantaneous miraculous act, but was directed by creative power along the natural course, apparently lies in the very character of the considered biblical text, both in God’s address to the earth with a command to produce various kinds of plants according to its inherent laws, and in that sequence with which the enumeration of different kinds of this vegetation is conducted, fully corresponding to the data of modern geology: first vegetation in general or grass (geological ferns), then flowering plants (gigantic lilies), and finally, trees (primeval shrubs and trees) (1 Sam 4:33). The omnipotence of the Creator suffered in no way from this, since the original source of the vital energy of the earth was none other than God Himself, and His supreme wisdom in such purposeful arrangement of the world was revealed in all its strength and evident clarity, as the Apostle Paul expressly indicates in a well-known place from the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 1:20).

The Fourth Day of Creation

Genesis 1:14. And God said: Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, Here the cosmogonic vision of a new world-creating period in which the earth became separate from the solar system. The biblical narrative itself on this again proceeds adaptationally to the infantile worldview of primeval man: so the lights appear as if fixed to the outer heavenly vault, as they indeed seem to be in our ordinary, non-scientific conception. Here for the first time the acting cause of the distinction of days into day and night is indicated, consisting in the influence of the lights. By this as it were an indirect confirmation is given to the thought that the three preceding days of creation could not therefore be ordinary astronomical days, but received such a character in the biblical narrative subsequently, as it were certain definite moments of the cosmogonic vision. The Bible points us to a threefold purpose of the heavenly lights: first, they should divide day from night, whereby the sun should shine in the day, while the moon and stars – shine in the night; second, they should serve as regulators of time, that is, the various phases of the sun and moon should show the periodic change of months and seasons of the year; finally, their immediate purpose in relation to the earth consists in illuminating it. The first and last purpose of the heavenly lights are completely clear and understandable in themselves, the middle one, however, requires some explanation. and for signs, By these signs in no way should be understood any superstitious worship of the heavenly lights or similar astrological divinations, which were in wide circulation among the peoples of the ancient East and bitterly condemned among God’s chosen people (Deut 4:19). But this, according to the interpretation of blessed Theodoret, means that the phases of the moon, as well as the time of the rise and setting of various stars and comets, served useful guiding indications for farmers, shepherds, travelers, and sailors (Gen 15:5; Job 38:32-33; Ps 103:14-23; Matt 2:12; Luke 21:25). Very early the phases of the moon and the position of the sun began to serve as signs of the division of the year into months and the combination of the latter into seasons – spring, summer, autumn, and winter (Ps 73:16-17). Finally, subsequently the phases of the moon, especially the new moon, began to play a very prominent role in the cycle of sacred biblical times or ancient Hebrew festivals.

Genesis 1:16. And God made the two great lights – the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night, Although these great lights are not named here by name, yet from the entire context of the narrative, as well as from the corresponding biblical parallels relating to it (Ps 103:19; Jer 31:35), it is completely clear that the sun and moon are here understood. But while such a designation is fully justified even by science in its application to the sun as the astronomical center of the entire world system, it completely fails scientific criticism in regard to the moon, which according to the precise data of astronomy is one of the relatively small planets, far inferior in this respect even to the earth. Here we have new proof that the Bible does not set forth the propositions of science, but speaks the language of the sons of men, that is, the language of ordinary thinking, based on immediate sensory perceptions, from the point of view of which the sun and moon are indeed represented as the largest magnitudes on the heavenly horizon. and the stars. Under the general name of stars are understood all those millions of other worlds which, being removed from our earth by enormous distances, appear to our unarmed eye only as small shining points, scattered across the entire sky. It is no wonder that the contemplation of the magnificent celestial vault moved and inspired many Old Testament biblical writers to praise the wisdom and goodness of the Creator (Ps 8:3-4; Job 38:31-33; Isa 40:21-22; Jer 33:22; Rev 5:8 and others).

Genesis 1:17–18. and set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, The Creator, as the Psalmist says, the moon and stars – to govern the night (Ps 135:9), and appointed the rising of the sun to be the beginning of the laboring day for man (Ps 103:22-23). The prophet Jeremiah expresses this thought even more clearly, praising the Lord Almighty, who “gave the sun to illuminate the day, the ordinances of the moon and stars to illuminate the night” (Jer 31:35).

The Fifth Day of Creation

Genesis 1:20. And God said: Let the water produce The term “water,” as is evident from the context, is used here in a more general and broad sense – means not only ordinary water, but also the air atmosphere, which, as already known, is also called “water” in the language of the Bible (Gen 1:6-7). Here, as before (Gen 1:11), in the very form of the biblical expression – “let the water produce” (or, “let them multiply in the waters”), there is again preserved a hint at the participation of natural agents in the creative process, in this case – water and air as the medium in which the Creator determined to have corresponding kinds of animal life live and multiply. swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. The appearance of plants on the third day was the beginning of organic life on earth, but still in its most imperfect, primary form. Now, in full accordance with the data of science, the Bible notes the further course of the development of this life on earth, namely it points to the appearance of two broad, related to one another animal classes: the inhabitants of the aquatic element and the realm of winged birds filling the air space. The first of these classes in the Hebrew text is named sherez, which does not mean only “swarms or aquatic creatures,” as our Russian and Slavonic texts translate it, but includes also fish and all aquatic animals in general (Lev 11:10). Likewise, “winged birds” means not only “birds, but also insects and generally all living creatures furnished with wings, even if at the same time they were not deprived of the ability also to walk and even on four legs” (Lev 11:20-21). If, as we noted above, in the preceding verse there was preserved some indication of the action of natural forces in the process of the arising of new kinds of animal life, then the present verse leaves no doubt that all these so-called natural acts ultimately have their supernatural source in God, who alone is the Creator of all, in the strict sense of this word.

Genesis 1:21. And God created the great sea creatures The Slavonic text calls them “great whales,” closer to the Hebrew text, in which stands the word: tanninim, which in general means aquatic animals of enormous size (Job 7:12; Ps 73:13; Ezek 29:4), large fish, including whales (Ps 103:25; Jonah 2:11), a great serpent (Jer 51:34; Isa 27:1), and a crocodile (Ezek 29:3) – in short, the entire class of large amphibious animals (Job 40:20). By this is given striking indication that the primordial kinds of amphibians and winged creatures were distinguished by colossal dimensions, which is confirmed by paleontology, which reveals an extensive class of extinct antediluvian animals, astounding with their enormous size (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, gigantic lizards, etc.).

Genesis 1:22. And God blessed them, saying, The appearance of the first true life (animal as distinct from plant) is marked by a special extraordinary act of the Creator – His blessing. By the power of this creative blessing, all newly-created creatures received the ability to multiply “according to their kind,” that is, each species of animal – to reproduce its kind. Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the seas, In the Hebrew text both these words have the same meaning, and the very combination of them, in the nature of Hebrew language, indicates a special emphasis of the idea of natural multiplication of living beings through generation. and let the birds increase on the earth. A subtle new feature: earlier the element of birds was called the air, as the region in which they fly (Gen 1:20), now the earth is added, on which they build their nests and live.

The Sixth Day of Creation

Genesis 1:24. And God said: Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds – cattle and creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind. Here again, as in two preceding cases (Gen 1:11), is indicated some influence of natural forces of nature, in this case directly from the earth.

Genesis 1:25. And God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. The general concept of “animal life” here divides into three basic kinds: the first of them “the animals of the earth” – these are wild animals or beasts of the fields and forests, such as, for instance, the wild cat, lynxes, bears, and all other beasts of the wilderness (Ps 79:14; Isa 43:20). The second kind of these animals embraces a fairly substantial class of domestic animals, that is, tamed by man, to which belong: horses, oxen, camels, goats, and in general all both large and small domesticated livestock (Gen 34:23; Num 32:26); in the broad sense, sometimes included here are the larger of the wild animals, for example, the elephant and rhinoceros (Job 40:15). Finally, the third class of these animals consists of all those which crawl on the earth, creep on it, or have such short legs that, walking on the earth, as if they trail along it; here belong all serpents, worms (Lev 11:42), lizards, foxes, mice, and moles (Lev 11:29-31). Sometimes, in shorter and less strict speech, all three of the above-indicated classes of land animals are united in the first of them, namely in the concept of “beasts of the earth” (Gen 7:14). All these animals were divided into two sexes, which is evident both from their ability to multiply each according to its kind, and from the fact that the example of their life opened the eyes of the first man to his sorrowful solitude and thus served as occasion for the creation of a helper like him – a wife (Gen 2:20).

The Creation of Man

Genesis 1:26. And God said: Let Us make man From these words it is evident that before creating man, this new and marvelous creation, God held counsel with someone. The question of who can hold counsel with God was posed even to the Old Testament prophet: “Who has understood the spirit of the Lord, and was His counselor and taught Him? Who did He consult” ? (Isa 40:13-14; Rom 11:34), and the best answer to it is given in the Gospel of John, where it speaks of the Word, who from the beginning was with God and in union with Him created all things (John 1:2-3). This is the Word, the Logos – the eternally-begotten Son of God, called also the “wonderful Counselor” in the prophet Isaiah (Isa 9:6). In another place of Scripture He, under the appearance of Wisdom, is directly depicted as the nearest participant of God the Creator in all places of His creation, including the work of making “sons of men” (Prov 8:27-31). This thought is clarified even more by those interpreters who refer the present counsel to the mystery of the incarnate Word, who was pleased to assume bodily nature in unity with His divine nature (Phil 2:6-7). According to the agreed opinion of the majority of holy Fathers, the divine counsel considered here took place with the participation of the Holy Spirit as well, that is, among all the persons of the Most Holy Trinity (Ephrem the Syrian, Irenaeus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, Augustine, and others). As for the content of this very counsel itself, in the name of it, according to the explanation of Metropolitan Philaret – and consequently in the action of consultation – in Sacred Scripture is depicted God’s foreknowledge and predestination (Acts 2:23), that is, in this case – the realization of the thought about the creation of man, which existed from eternity in the divine plan of creation (Acts 15:18). Thus, here we find one of the most ancient traces of the existence in the antediluvian world of the mystery of the Trinity, but then it, in the opinion of the best interpreters, was obscured in the consciousness of the first people as a result of the Fall, and later, after the Tower of Babel, entirely disappeared for a long time from the consciousness of Old Testament mankind, from which it was even intentionally concealed for pedagogical purposes, namely, so as not to give the Hebrews, who were always inclined to polytheism, additional temptation in this respect. man In the Hebrew text stands here the word adam. When this word is used without the article, it does not express the proper name of the first man, but serves only as the common designation “man” in general; in this sense it is applied equally both to male and to female (Gen 5:2). As is evident from the subsequent context, the word is used in this very sense here – denoting the entire first-created pair, to whom divine blessings are given for multiplication and dominion over nature (Gen 1:27). By using the singular of the common concept “man,” the chronist thereby more clearly emphasizes the truth of the unity of the human race, about which the writer of the Acts speaks: “From one blood He (God) made every nation of mankind” (Acts 17:26). in Our image and in Our likeness Here two words related in meaning are used, though they contain certain nuances of thought: one means an ideal, a model of perfection; the other – the realization of this ideal, a copy of the indicated model. “The first (κατ᾿ εἰκόνα – according to image),” reasons Saint Gregory of Nyssa, “we possess by creation, while the second (καθ᾿ ὁμοΐωσιν – according to likeness) we fulfill by choice.” Consequently, the image of God in man is an inalienable and indelible property of his nature, while godlikeness is the work of man’s free personal efforts, which can attain quite high degrees of development in man (Matt 5:48; Eph 5:1-2), but sometimes may be entirely absent (Gen 6:3; Rom 1:23). As for the very image of God in man, it is reflected in the manifold powers and properties of his complex nature: both in the immortality of the human spirit (Wis 2:23), and in original innocence (Eph 4:24) and purity (Eccl 7:29), and in those capacities and properties with which the first-created man was endowed to know his Creator and to love Him, and in those kingly prerogatives which the first man possessed in relation to all the lower creatures (Gen 27:29) and even in relation to his own wife (1 Cor 11:3), and, especially, in the threefoldness of his chief soul powers: mind, heart, and will, serving as a certain reflection of divine triunity (Col 3:10). Scripture calls only the Son of God the full and most perfect reflection of the divine image (Heb 1:3; Col 1:15); man was a comparatively very faint, pale, and imperfect copy of this incomparable model, yet he stood in an undoubted kinship with Him and hence received the right to be called His kind (Acts 17:28), son or child of God (Luke 3:38), and also directly – “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor 11:7).

Genesis 1:27. So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; In the very repetition of parallel concepts – “in His own image,” “in the image of God” – one cannot but see a certain hint of the participation of different Persons of the Holy Trinity in the act of the creation of man, chiefly of God the Son, who was His direct accomplisher (“in His own image”). But, in virtue of the fact that the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact image of His essence, creation according to His image was at the same time creation according to the image of God the Father (“in the image of God”). It is also worthy of note here that man was created only “according to the image” of God, and it is not added also “according to likeness,” by which is finally confirmed the correctness of the opinion indicated by us above, that only the divine image is an inborn property of his nature, godlikeness being something distinct from this and consisting in the more or less free, personal development by man of the properties of this divine image along the path of their approximation to the Original Image. male and female He created them. Incorrectly interpreting this passage, some (especially rabbis) wish to see in it grounds for the theory of the androgyny of the first man (that is, the combination of male and female sex in one person). But this error is best refuted by the pronoun standing here “them,” which, in the case that the discourse concerned one person, should have the form of the singular – “him,” and not “them” – the plural.

Genesis 1:28. And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it, and rule over the fish of the sea [and over the beasts,] and over the birds of the sky, [and over all the cattle, and over all the earth,] and over every animal that moves along the ground. The power of the creative blessing, once given before to the lower animals, referred only to their multiplication; to man, however, is granted not only the ability to multiply on the earth, but also the right to possess it. The latter is a consequence of the high position which man, being the image of God on earth, was to occupy in the world. The Creator, according to the words of the Psalmist, which the Apostle also repeats, “crowned him with glory and honor and put him in charge of the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet: all the flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas” (Ps 8:6-9; Heb 2:7-9). This is one of the best expressions of the thought of the greatness and beauty of the first-created Adam (that is, man), restored in his, lost through the Fall, primeval dignity, by the second Adam – our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 2:9-10). The rule of man over nature should be understood both in the sense of man’s use for his own benefit of various natural forces and resources, and in the sense of direct service to him by various kinds of animals, enumerated here only in the order of their successive origin and according to the most general groups. This thought is beautifully expressed in the following inspired lines of John Chrysostom: “How great is the dignity of souls! Through its powers cities are built, seas are crossed, fields are worked, countless arts are discovered, wild beasts are tamed! But what is most important – the soul knows God, who created it and distinguishes good from evil. Only man of all the visible world raises prayers to God, receives revelations, studies the nature of heavenly things, and penetrates even divine mysteries! For him the entire earth exists, the sun and stars, for him the heavens were created, for him apostles and prophets were sent, and even Angels themselves; for his salvation, finally, the Father sent His own Only-begotten Son!”

Genesis 1:29–30. Then God said: I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food; and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food. and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to every [creeping thing] that moves along the ground, in which there is a living soul, I have given all the green of the plants for food. Here is the most ancient account of the primeval food of man and animals: for man it consisted of various herbs with their roots and trees with their fruits, while for animals it was the green of the grass. Relying on the writer’s silence about meat as an article of food, most commentators suppose that in the earliest time — before the flood, or at least before the fall — it was not in use, not only among people but even among animals, among which, consequently, there were no birds and beasts of prey. The first notice of the introduction of meat and wine into man’s food belongs to the era after the flood (Gen 9:3). One cannot fail to see in this also a special divine provision for all the newly created beings, expressed in the care for their preservation and the sustaining of their life (Job 39:6; Ps 103:14-15; Acts 14:14 and others).

Genesis 1:31. And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. The concluding formula of divine approval of the whole work of creation differs substantially in the degree of its force from all the others that preceded it: if earlier, after the creation of the various kinds of plants and animals, the Creator found that their making satisfied Him and was «good» (Gen 1:4), now, taking in with one general gaze the whole picture of the already finished creation and seeing its full harmony and purposefulness, the Creator, as the Psalmist says, rejoiced over His creation (Ps 103:31) and found that, considered as a whole, it was «very good», that is, that it fully corresponds to the eternal plans of the divine economy for the creation of the world and man. And there was evening, and there was morning: the sixth day. This day was the last act of the cosmogonic vision, the conclusion of the entire creative Hexaemeron. The deeply historical antiquity of the biblical cosmogony is confirmed by the fairly consistent traces of it preserved in the language of antiquity (argumentum ex consensu gentium). Among them, a special significance and value belong to the most ancient traditions of the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldeans, from which Abraham himself, the forefather of the Hebrew people, later came. These Chaldean traditions are available to us in the fragmentary records of the Chaldean priest Berossus (in the 3rd century before the Birth of Christ) and, what is far more valuable, in the recently discovered cuneiform tablets of the so-called «Chaldean Genesis» (in 1870, by the English scholar George Smith). In the latter we have a parallel to the biblical history of creation that is striking in its closeness (though pervaded by polytheism): here is the same division, as in the Bible, into six successive acts, each of which is devoted to its own special tablet, approximately the same content of each of these tablets as in the history of each of the biblical days, the same general sequence of them, and — what is especially curious — the same characteristic devices, expressions, and even individual terms. In view of all this, the comparison of the biblical cosmogony with the data of the Chaldean Genesis acquires a high interest and great apologetic importance (for more detail on this, see the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky: «The Biblical Teaching on Primeval Religion», pp. 86–90).