A Multidisciplinary Contextualized Analysis of Select Passages From Genesis
Headnote and the first “Yom” (יום). [Genesis 1:1-5]
[This is an excerpt from a longer personal study of the book of Genesis which can be found here. The purpose of this exercise is to compare a naive reading of the text to our current understanding of language, paleontology, and the physical sciences. Constructive discussion on the elements presented is always encouraged!]
1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
As mentioned in the section on Literary Structure, the first verse of Genesis is meant to be a headnote announcing the purpose of this section, not an event itself.
To support this “headnote verse” interpretation, every action God takes throughout the first chapter of Genesis is declared before it occurs. To follow that literary pattern, verses 1 and 2 are the headnote and exposition prior to His first declaration in verse 3. Additionally, this section is declared to be a genealogy in verse 2:4 which is occasionally preceded by a headnote.
Historically, stating that there was a “beginning” to the universe is unusual for theology, philosophy, and even science prior to the 20th century. As described in A Very Brief View of Cosmology In History, it is only within the past 70 years or so that there is now compelling scientific evidence of a finite time universe. What defined cosmology in the 20th century was the broad acceptance of a cosmic origin and speculation regarding the universe’s ultimate fate. These are the same scientifically divergent concepts introduced millennia ago in Genesis and revisited throughout the Bible.
1:2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Cosmological Event: Prior to the Photon Epoch (13,800 Ma)
Age of universe: 0
Continuing onto a brief exposition, the earth is described as having no shape or content. Although we might consider the word choice to be mellifluous, we have to consider if the concept of no earth would even be understandable to ancient people. A spherical earth floating in outer space was not popularly understood at the time. This brief description was meant to make sense to people 3000 years ago who only ever saw or experienced a flat world at ground level.
So instead of saying the earth did not yet exist, the author would have been trying to establish the concept in reverse. A paraphrase might read, “Imagine if the entire earth were replaced by a giant empty hole.” The author is trying to convey the idea of empty space by having the audience expand an accessible concept.
“Darkness” on “the surface of the deep” further emphasizes this visualization relating it to those who work on the water. Being out on a boat during a cloudy night without a light in the sky may still be as close as any of us can get to the sense of nothingness. Water in darkness appears to be an endless void regardless of its actual depth mirroring a featureless sky above. And the low lying clouds or fog obfuscating the night sky would also have a muting effect on surrounding sounds further erasing perceived reality. Being that watercraft have been in use by humans and their predecessors for hundreds of thousands of years, this experience would have been relatable to most ancient people.
Sensory deprivation tanks are another example of utilizing darkness and floating atop body temperature water to instill sensory oblivion. This could be considered a modern experiential version of the same idea being presented by this verse. The sense of floating in nothingness and only being directly aware of your own presence is the closest accessible equivalent to being a consciousness in a void,
Although the verse continues describing the action of “hovering over the surface of the waters” which sounds as though there is a tangible liquid present, this is a continuation of the dark water visual which is meant to signify nothingness. Paraphrased, he is stating that, “The invisible presence of God was in the empty formless dark space.”
However, this practical interpretation does not preclude the possibility of deeper implied meaning requiring a point of reference not available to an ancient audience. Surprisingly, modern cosmology attempts to explain the invisible early universe in such “liquid” terms. Quantum Mechanics categorically describes motion and interactions using calculations comparable to those used to describe ripples on water. In fact all matter and particles smaller than a few hundred molecules propagate in a way that scientists describe as probabilistic “waves“. Quite literally, when a particle is in motion, it is thought to exist in a “wavelike” state moving like ripples on a pond until a time at which it interacts with another particle’s wave.
Further support of this idea is the Higgs particle which is thought to have filled the early universe. We cannot directly observe these particles which would have decayed into other particles and forces before the Photon Epoch, but CERN believes it has produced them experimentally. These pre-matter quantum “God particles” would have been the original quantum “water” filling the “empty” universe. Could "waters" as a description of the contents of a formless space have foreshadowed our current understanding of quantum physics today?
1:3 God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4aGod saw the light, and saw that it was good.
Cosmological Event: Photon epoch (13,800 Ma)
Age of universe: ≈10 seconds
Albert Einstein once asked Abraham Pais, “Do you really believe the moon is not there when you are not looking at it?” While attempting to disprove the observation dependent results of quantum mechanics, Einstein’s own arguments contesting its probabilistic aspects eventually lead scientists to prove it to be true. Photons and other elementary particles in motion exist as probabilistic waves that are not in any one place until they are "observed" or interacted with in some way.
This implies that before any particle could physically exist in the universe, there needed to be something or someone to interact with or "observe" it. This presents the strange possibility that an unobserved or interaction-free universe might never exist to begin with! Since the universe most certainly does now exist, this has left many physicists with the peculiar question of how the earliest quantum interactions began.
Interestingly, the first action of God is to demand the existence of what we now understand is a fundamental elementary particle and to subsequently observe it. The presence of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) strongly suggests that visible “light” may in fact be one of the earliest observable particles present throughout the early universe.
As mentioned previously, the Higgs Boson (often nicknamed the “God particle”) is a theorized particle that may have dominated the universe before the Photon Epoch. Current cosmological origin theories suggest that there was a simultaneous decay of all the Higgs Bosons contained in the early universe to several of the standard model particles we observe today including photons. In 2014, researchers at CERN claimed to have produced this primordial particle and observed some of its predicted decay products.
Per popular cosmic origin theory, at roughly 10 seconds after the Big Bang, the universe was dominated by photons. In a very literal sense, the contents of the universe are entirely “light” without anything to cast a shadow.
1:4b God divided the light from the darkness.
Cosmological Event: Recombination (13,799 Ma)
Age of universe: ≈379,000 years
Scientists theorize that around 379,000 years after the Photon epoch, enough atomic matter had formed in the universe to begin interacting with and absorbing photons. With something to separate "light and darkness", the remaining "decoupled photons" are absorbed or red shifted below the visible spectrum. The entire universe goes effectively "dark" again for roughly the next 250-650 million years.
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is believed to be the remaining redshifted photons from the Photon Epoch. This is evidence of the homogenous distribution of primordial particles (like the Higgs Boson), and the relativity-defying simultaneity of this conversion event across the universe.
1:5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first [era].
Cosmological Event: Photon Decoupling (Dark Ages 13,799-13,500 Ma)
Age of universe: ≈150,000,000 years
At the end of each "era", God gives a name to His creation. Not only does this imply that what was created did not exist until that point in time, but also that He had the authority to do so. Being that the creation story employs the literary format and terminology of a genealogy, the parents or other responsible party would name the descendants of a given lineage. Although brief, this authoritative statement places God as the originator, catalyst, and sole proprietor of all that is created in this story.
The second sentence (1:5b) is the likely source for the traditional Jewish observation of sunset marking the beginning of the next calendar day. As implied by this verse, each “Yom” begins with the onset of darkness and ends at the conclusion of the light. But in my opinion, this calendar practice seems oddly counterintuitive:
Outdoor temperature and animal activity (including humans) is often at its lowest point just before sunrise making daybreak the most logical division of days per the terminology used in this verse.
It is commonplace for humans to continue their activities into the evening hours as opposed to retiring immediately with the sun. Even throughout the Bible, people remain active after sunset. Although it would be difficult to pinpoint without a clock, the current observation of “midnight” seems like a more logical division of days.
In the Julian calendar, days end and begin at high noon. Although it may seem odd to increment the calendar in the middle of activity, this is effectively what happens with a sunset observation. Where the Julian calendar is more accurate is that noon is an easily pinpointed time anywhere on earth, weather permitting. This results in equivalent 24 hour periods without the seasonal variation of a sunset schedule.
If we read 1:3-5 plainly, it seems to me that the “day” began when God declared, “Let there be light”, and ended when he “separated” it bringing back darkness. Again, a daybreak start to a “day”.
Only the order of terms in 1:5b suggest a calendar day ends at sunset. Might the terms have been reversed in transcription? Should it actually read “there was morning and then evening”? Or is there a double meaning to this verse?
Interestingly, the Hebrew root for "Evening" or "עֶרֶב" ("erev") is associated to the root term ערב (ayin-resh-bet), which can mean “to mix” or “to mingle”. "Morning" or "בוקר" ("boker") shares the root “בָּקַר” (“bet-kuf-resh”) which can mean to seek out, investigate, or inquire. This could imply that evenings are reserved for coming together for social gatherings, and the morning for one’s individual pursuits which would typically be the case.
But what if one were to consider “mixing” to be the presence of undifferentiated components, and the scrutiny of an investigation is the process of determining order? The Second Law of Thermodynamics postulates that all systems trend towards entropy. In other words, the universe is expected to become more “mixed” over time, not less. Growing organization in a system are not natural trends, so to suggest that something mixed will be scrutinized is an affront to the natural order. Ancient people might deduce that weathering and decay is the fate of all things, so an increase in organization is itself an intelligent process.
One hypothesis is that the terms used could have been selected intentionally to ensure that a deeper interpretation of this unusual story survived translations from antiquity.
Current theory estimates that the universe remained visibly dark for the next 400 million years before the first stars ignited.