The Discovery of Genesis (21 page)

According to the Biblical record the entire creative work of bringing our earth from a chaotic state to Edenic beauty and completion took but six days. There is today considerable controversy about the length of these so-called “days.” Just how long were they? The creation week had started with day one when “God said, ‘Let there be lighT’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God
separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light
Day
, and the darkness He called
Night.
And there was
evening
and there was
morning, one day
” (Genesis 1: 3–5). The word “day” here in Hebrew is
yom
, used everywhere else in the Old Testament for an ordinary day.

During the second day the water encircling the earth was divided so that the atmosphere with life-supporting gases was formed. “God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters, to separate water from water.’ So God made the vault, and separated the water under the vault from the water above it, and so it was; and God called the vault heaven” (Genesis 1:6–8, NEB).

On the third day, “God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Genesis 1:9). After God restrained the seas into “one place” so that the earth’s soil was exposed, vegetation was
brought forth
.
⁴
Note the three positions of the horizontal strokes of
, indicating that not only plants and animals were
brought forth
from the
earth
, but also marine life and vegetation in the
sea
, and birds and created objects in the
heavens.
The “p’ieh”
on the left of the figure indicates activity or life. These remaining works of creation God accomplished on the fourth, fifth, and sixth days of this first week, by speaking them into being.

By the sixth day the earth was ready for the most important miracle of all—the creation of man. God had spoken into existence the beautiful earth and its animal inhabitants. The creation of man was to be different. Let us see if the Chinese linguistic record bears out the Biblical story relating that it was with special loving care that “the Lord God
formed man
of
dust from the ground
and
breathed
into his nostrils the
breath of life
; and man became a
living being
” (Genesis 2:7).

The word
to create, to begin, from
, has forever memorialized that crowning work of shaping the first man. Adam from the dust of the earth. That this word
refers exclusively to the creation of Adam and not to the other plant and animal life will become apparent. One can see the very activity of God as He forms a body from the
dust of the earth
, and
breathing
with His
mouth
into the inert “dust man’s” nostrils the
breath of life
(p’ieh), Adam becomes a
living soul.
He came forth as an adult,
able to talk
, and also
able to walk
.