Passage

Genesis 1

Book: Genesis · NASB95

Genesis 1 is the creation account: the formal opening of the Hebrew Bible and the densest theological-cosmological page in the entire canon. Across the codex it is referenced 377 times, more than any other chapter, because nearly every Christian doctrine touches it somewhere - the doctrine of God, creation ex nihilo, imago Dei, biblical anthropology, marriage and gender, dominion theology, Sabbath, the relation between Scripture and natural science, and the apologetic argument from contingency. The chapter is six days of speech-acts plus a seventh-day rest, structured as a literary diptych in which the first three days form (light, sky/sea, land) and the next three days fill (luminaries, sea creatures and birds, land animals and humanity), with humanity at the apex.

Key verses

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, NASB95)

"Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." (Genesis 1:3, NASB95)

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:26-27, NASB95)

"God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind: and God saw that it was good. 13. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: 15. and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16. And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, 18. and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. 20. And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21. And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 23. And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so. 25. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: 30. and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. 31. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." (Genesis 1:1-31, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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. 3. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 5. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6. God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7. God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8. God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day. 9. God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10. God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good. 11. God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so. 12. The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13. There was evening and there was morning, a third day. 14. God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15. and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16. God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, 18. and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. 20. God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21. God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. 22. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23. There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24. God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good. 26. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27. God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. 28. God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29. God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. 30. To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so. 31. God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day." (Genesis 1:1-31, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ^{the light from: Heb. between the light and between the darkness} 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. ^{And the evening: Heb. And the evening was, and the morning was} 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. ^{firmament: Heb. expansion} 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. ^{grass: Heb. tender grass} 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: ^{the day: Heb. between the day and between the night} 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. ^{to rule the day: Heb. for the rule of the day, etc.} 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. ^{moving: or, creeping} ^{life: Heb. soul} ^{fowl: Heb. let fowl fly} ^{open: Heb. face of the firmament of heaven} 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. ^{moveth: Heb. creepeth} 29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ^{bearing: Heb. seeding seed} ^{yielding: Heb. seeding seed} 30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. ^{life: Heb. a living soul} 31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Genesis 1:1-31, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"1. In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth, 2. the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters, 3. and God saith, 'Let light be;' and light is. 4. And God seeth the light that [it is] good, and God separateth between the light and the darkness, 5. and God calleth to the light 'Day,' and to the darkness He hath called 'Night;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day one. 6. And God saith, 'Let an expanse be in the midst of the waters, and let it be separating between waters and waters.' 7. And God maketh the expanse, and it separateth between the waters which [are] under the expanse, and the waters which [are] above the expanse: and it is so. 8. And God calleth to the expanse 'Heavens;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day second. 9. And God saith, 'Let the waters under the heavens be collected unto one place, and let the dry land be seen:' and it is so. 10. And God calleth to the dry land 'Earth,' and to the collection of the waters He hath called 'Seas;' and God seeth that [it is] good. 11. And God saith, 'Let the earth yield tender grass, herb sowing seed, fruit-tree (whose seed [is] in itself) making fruit after its kind, on the earth:' and it is so. 12. And the earth bringeth forth tender grass, herb sowing seed after its kind, and tree making fruit (whose seed [is] in itself) after its kind; and God seeth that [it is] good; 13. and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day third. 14. And God saith, 'Let luminaries be in the expanse of the heavens, to make a separation between the day and the night, then they have been for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years, 15. and they have been for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth:' and it is so. 16. And God maketh the two great luminaries, the great luminary for the rule of the day, and the small luminary, and the stars, for the rule of the night; 17. and God giveth them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, 18. and to rule over day and over night, and to make a separation between the light and the darkness; and God seeth that [it is] good; 19. and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day fourth. 20. And God saith, 'Let the waters teem with the teeming living creature, and fowl let fly on the earth on the face of the expanse of the heavens.' 21. And God prepareth the great monsters, and every living creature that is creeping, which the waters have teemed with, after their kind, and every fowl with wing, after its kind, and God seeth that [it is] good. 22. And God blesseth them, saying, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and the fowl let multiply in the earth:' 23. and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day fifth. 24. And God saith, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind:' and it is so. 25. And God maketh the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, and God seeth that [it is] good. 26. And God saith, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that is creeping on the earth.' 27. And God prepareth the man in His image; in the image of God He prepared him, a male and a female He prepared them. 28. And God blesseth them, and God saith to them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that is creeping upon the earth.' 29. And God saith, 'Lo, I have given to you every herb sowing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which [is] the fruit of a tree sowing seed, to you it is for food; 30. and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeping thing on the earth, in which [is] breath of life, every green herb [is] for food:' and it is so. 31. And God seeth all that He hath done, and lo, very good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day the sixth." (Genesis 1:1-31, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Moses (traditional authorship) / narrator
Audience: Israelite congregation post-Exodus, recently delivered from Egyptian polytheism and the surrounding ANE creation-mythologies (Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, the Memphite theology)
Location: narrative is cosmic in scope; literary setting is the Mosaic camp
Time period: events at creation; composed c. 1446-1406 BC during the wilderness wandering

Theological reading

The chapter's opening sentence carries staggering theological compression. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" establishes (1) a temporal beginning to the universe rather than an eternal cosmos, (2) a singular Creator distinct from creation rather than a god generated within it, (3) "heavens and the earth" as a Hebrew merism for the totality of what is, and (4) by implication the doctrine of creation ex nihilo (later made explicit at Hebrews 11.3 and Romans 4.17). The verb bara (H1254 - bara) is used in Genesis only with God as subject; whatever its precise semantic field, the lexical convention itself signals that what God does here is unlike what creatures do when they "make."

The chapter's structural artistry is heavily debated and substantially load-bearing for the interpretive options. The literary-framework reading (Meredith Kline, Henri Blocher) treats the six days as a theological diptych - three days of forming paired with three days of filling, with day seven as the climactic Sabbath - and reads "day" non-chronologically. The day-age reading (Hugh Ross, Gleason Archer) takes each "day" (yom) as an extended geological period, dovetailing the chapter with deep-time cosmology. The young-earth reading (Henry Morris, Ken Ham, Jonathan Sarfati) holds to six 24-hour days, locating fossils and apparent age in flood geology and a recent creation. The cosmic-temple reading (John Walton) argues that Genesis 1 describes the inauguration of the cosmos as God's temple-residence rather than its material origination - a functional rather than material creation account. None of these is decisive on its own; the codex treats the choice as a genuine in-house Christian debate (see Genesis Interpretation Spread, 20 Arguments for Old Earth, Genesis Hermeneutics).

Apologetically the chapter does several major jobs. It grounds the Kalam Cosmological Argument's first premise scripturally: the universe had a beginning. It establishes the contingency of all created reality and thereby provides the data the contingency argument needs. The repeated "and God saw that it was good" lays the theological foundation for the goodness of physical and material existence against Gnostic and Manichaean dualisms. The dominion mandate of vv. 26-28 grounds Christian environmental ethics, scientific vocation, and the dignity of human labor. And the chapter's anti-mythological polemic - sun and moon reduced to "the greater light" and "the lesser light" rather than named (because their ANE names were also the names of gods), sea-monsters de-deified into mere creatures God made - has been read since Philo of Alexandria as a deliberate confessional rejection of polytheism.

The chapter is also a primary battleground for the science-Scripture relation. The codex's position (see Origins and Cosmology, Bible Anticipates Science) is that Genesis 1 makes substantive truth-claims about origins that are compatible with multiple cosmological frameworks but incompatible with the bare materialist claim that the universe is eternal, uncaused, or purposeless. The chapter does not require young-earth chronology to be true, and it does not require old-earth concordism to be true; it does require that an intelligent, personal, and good Creator be the source of physical reality.

Key words

H1254 - bara, bara (Strong's H1254). "To create"; used in Genesis with God as exclusive subject; load-bearing for creation ex nihilo.
H0430 - elohim, elohim (Strong's H430). The divine name throughout the chapter; grammatically plural but consistently paired with singular verbs except at v. 26's "Let Us make."
H6213 - asah, asah (Strong's H6213). "To make," the general verb interleaved with bara; distinction between the two carries weight in young-earth vs old-earth debates.
H6754 - tselem, tselem (Strong's H6754). "Image"; v. 27's load-bearing anthropological term.
H1823 - demuth, demuth (Strong's H1823). "Likeness"; pairs with tselem at v. 26.

Theological themes

Creation ex nihilo. Read with Hebrews 11.3, Romans 4.17, and John 1.3, Genesis 1 grounds the doctrine that God brought all reality into existence from nothing rather than fashioning pre-existent matter.
Goodness of creation. The sevenfold "and God saw that it was good" forecloses any theology in which physical existence is intrinsically evil; this verse is the OT root of Christian anti-Gnosticism.
Anti-polytheism polemic. The chapter systematically de-deifies the ANE pantheon: sun, moon, stars, sea creatures, and humanity are all created things, not gods.
Order from word. Each creation act is a divine speech-act, anticipating John 1.1's Logos prologue and grounding the doctrine that the cosmos is rational because spoken by a rational Creator.
Imago Dei and dominion. Humanity is the chapter's apex creature, bearing God's image and commissioned to steward the rest; the foundational anthropology of the biblical canon.
Sabbath as telos. Day seven is not an afterthought but the goal toward which the six days drive; rest, not labor, is the climax.

Cross-references

John 1.1, the Logos prologue that recasts Genesis 1's speech-act creation in Christological terms.
Hebrews 11.3, the explicit NT formulation of creation ex nihilo.
Colossians 1.15-20, Christ as the agent and goal of creation; the Pauline Christological reading of Genesis 1.
Romans 4.17, God "calls into being that which does not exist"; a creation-from-nothing parallel.
Genesis 1.26-27, the imago Dei verses; the chapter's anthropological climax, treated separately.
Romans 1.20, the apologetic claim that the Creator's "invisible attributes... have been clearly seen" through what He made; depends on Genesis 1's creation-as-revelation.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.