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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Genesis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God, Humanity, and Creation
Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death
Covenants and Faith in God’s Promises
The Role of Women
Summary
Analysis
Before there was anything else, God made the heavens and the earth. The earth had no form, and everything was dark. Then God’s spirit moved across the waters. God said, “Let there be light,” and light appeared. God declared the light “good,” and he separated it from the darkness. The light was called “day,” and the darkness was called “night.” The first evening and morning passed.
Genesis 1 tells the story of how the universe came to exist. It’s the beginning of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, which are known by biblical scholars as the “primeval history.” In contrast to ancient creation stories from other religions, the earth is made by a single creator God instead of coming about through conflict among multiple gods. God simply proclaims each act of creation, and things come into being.
Themes
Next God made a dome, separating the waters above the dome from the waters beneath it. The dome was called the sky. The second day passed.
Water (or deities of water) is often a prominent feature of ancient creation myths. Here, God simply uses water to create a dome, or expanse, to become the sky, or heavens.
Themes
On the third day, God gathered the waters under the sky into one place, calling them seas. This allowed dry land—the Earth—to appear. God saw that these things were good. Then he created all kinds of vegetation, all seed-yielding plants and fruit-bearing trees.
Next, having made the sky, God makes the seas, land, and vegetation. Having made specific kinds of places, God will spend the remaining creation days filling those places.
Themes
On the fourth day, God put lights in the sky to signify seasons, days, and years, and to provide light on the earth. He made great lights for both the day and the night, and stars as well.
While the stars, sun, and moon are worshiped as deities in other ancient religions, they aren’t treated as such in the Judeo-Christian tradition; God creates them with a specific natural function (to mark time and provide light).
Themes
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On the fifth day, God made creatures to swim in the waters and birds to fly in the skies. After seeing that the sea creatures and birds were good, God blessed them and told them to “be fruitful and multiply,” filling the waters and the earth.
Having filled the sky, God now turns to filling the seas and skies with creatures suitable to these habitats. God creates these creatures with the means to perpetuate their species, suggesting that he wants creation to thrive and teem with a variety of life. The phrase “be fruitful and multiply” will reappear again when God makes the first humans, Adam and Eve.
Themes
On the sixth day, God made every kind of earthly creatures: cattle, “creeping things” (like mice, reptiles, and insects), and wild animals. After that, God decided to create humankind “in our image” and “likeness.” Humankind would then have “dominion” over all other creatures in the seas, in the air, and on the earth.
After he finishes making animals, God turns to the pinnacle of creation: human beings. Humanity has a special resemblance to God. This probably refers to a spiritual likeness; that is, human beings exercise a sort of divine rule over other creatures, as God rules over the universe. Scholars have a few ideas as to why God is referred to with the plural pronoun “our” here: to some, the gestures to the Christian idea of the Trinity (that God is three beings—God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit—in one), others believe God is addressing his angels, and lastly, some scholars think God is talking just about himself. It’s also significant that God gives humans “dominion” over the earth—this is often confused with the word “domination.” While domination has negative connotations of abuse and force, dominion means that humans are to be stewards of the earth.
Themes
So God made humankind in his image—male and female. God blessed the human beings and told them to “be fruitful and multiply.” They must fill and subdue the earth. They may eat any kind of plant or fruit; the rest of the creatures, too, may eat green plants. Seeing everything he has made, God declares it all “very good.”
The Hebrew word for “humankind” is adam, which will become the first man’s name. Both male and female humans are equally created in God’s “image.” Together, like the creatures named earlier, they are intended to procreate (“be fruitful”) and fill the earth with their kind (“multiply”). The phrase “very good” suggests the wholeness and completion of God’s creation.
Themes
