Genesis Unearthed: Order & Image

A Few Questions Answered

• Are there two different creation accounts?

  The Scriptures present two distinct yet complementary accounts of creation. In Genesis 1, God orders the cosmos; in Genesis 2, He orders the earth. There’s no need to force strict harmony between them—they are theological poetry. Chapter 1 offers a panoramic sweep of the cosmos, structured around seven metaphorical days, while Chapter 2 zooms in on earth, revisiting and expanding themes from Days 3 and 6. In the first chapter, we witness the majestic and beautiful work of an all-powerful unnamed God. In the second chapter, Yahweh’s name is revealed as He continues to work and bless His creation.

  Genesis 1 counters the Babylonian worldview, which begins with the chaos waters; Genesis 2 challenges the Egyptian narrative, which begins with a dry, barren wilderness. In symbolic thought, the chaos waters and the barren wilderness are complementary pictures of disorder where human existence and flourishing are impossible.

  Read together as layered, poetic theology rather than scientific exposition, they reveal a God who brings order, purpose and relationship to creation—cosmic and terrestrial alike.

• What does "yom" mean?

  The Hebrew word yom means “day”. Young-earth proponents rightly note that the use of yom and the phrase “the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:5) indicate the author had a 24-hour day in view. When yom refers to more than a 24-hour period (as in Genesis 2:4 or Leviticus 14:2), it typically appears in a prepositional phrase like beyom—meaning “in the day”, with the sense of “when”—or in fixed expressions such as “the day of the Lord”.

  In contrast, old-earth proponents rightly observe that 24-hour solar days were only possible from Day 4, when the sun was created. Cue debates, arguments, speculation and conjecture.

  However, when the reader honours the cultural context of Genesis and allows Genesis 1:2 to anchor the narrative—including the use of yom—within an ancient cosmology, the debates become moot.

• What does "good" mean?

  In Genesis, “good” (Hebrew: tov) does not describe a flawless or finished world but one that is functioning as God intends—ordered, life‑giving and capable of flourishing.

  Old Testament scholars consistently read tov this way:

  • Gordon Wenham (Genesis 1–15) notes that tov signals “fitness for purpose”.
  • John Walton (The Lost World of Genesis One) argues that it describes something operating properly within God’s ordered system.
  • Walter Brueggemann (Genesis) emphasises that tov names what is “life‑affirming” and “fruitful,” not what is utopian. In Genesis 1, then, “good” marks the right beginning of a world full of potential, not the completion of a perfected one.
• What do you mean potential, not perfection?

  Shaped by the influence of Greek philosophy, we often equate “perfection” with “utopia”. In contrast, the Hebrew understanding of “perfection” centres on “completeness” (maturity).

  Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 mark the beginning—a world full of potential—while Revelation Chapters 21 and 22 bring the story to its fulfilment, with creation complete, mature. We tend to read both Eden and the garden city through a utopian lens, yet Eden speaks of promise and possibility, while the garden city envisages completion.

  A utopia-framed reading makes little sense of the command to take dominion (Genesis 1:26–28). In a blissful state, there’d be no need to govern—lounging would suffice.

  In contrast, the Genesis mandate calls humanity to steward all creation, realising its incredible God-given potential—a divine invitation to partner with the Father in bringing and maintaining order, stewarding all creation as His beloved sons and daughters.

• Why is there no "good" on Day 2?

  In Genesis Chapter 1, Day 2 is the only day that doesn’t end with God calling something “good.” Why?

  Simple answer: There’s no “good” on Day 2 because there’s nothing yet to call “good.”

  Let me explain.

  On Day 1, God separates light from darkness; on Day 3, He separates land from the waters. In both cases, God is bringing order to chaos—light overcomes darkness and land emerges from the deep. These ordered elements—light and land—are called “good” because they make creation habitable and full of potential.

  But on Day 2, God separates water from water, above and below—chaos from chaos. It’s a necessary step, but the chaos hasn’t been ordered yet: God is simply preparing the space for the land that will appear on Day 3.

  In other words, there’s no “good” on Day 2 because there’s nothing yet to call “good”—God has not yet ordered the chaos.

• What about moral evil?

  In the ancient world, chaos was the problem. In Genesis 1 and 2, God brings order to chaos by taming creation through His spoken word and filling it with His creatures. At the centre of this is humanity—created as His image-bearers and appointed as custodians of creation—called to partner with Him in establishing and sustaining order, and in drawing out the potential He has woven into the world.

  But His image-bearers rebel, introducing moral evil into God’s ordered world. It’s vital to distinguish moral evil from chaos—the latter provides the backdrop for understanding the former. Chaos is the problem God addresses. Evil is the problem humans, in league with dark powers, unleash.

  For instance, evil involves intent and malice; a storm, an earthquake, or even a hungry lion does not act with malicious intent. Evil is the domain of image-bearers who distort the nature of the One they are called to reflect.

  The Scriptures address both chaos and evil, but chaos provides the context in which evil is understood.

• How does God bring order from chaos?

  To bring order from chaos, God does four things in Genesis Chapter 1.

  • God organises things. For instance, He separates light from darkness and land from water on Days 1-3.
  • God names things. For instance, He names day and night, and He names the skies, the land and the seas on Days 1-3.
  • God adds things. For instance, He fills the ordered domains with celestial and terrestrial beings on Days 4-6.
  • God multiplies Himself. God multiples Himself in creating human beings in His image and likeness on Day 6.

  A reading exercise? As you meditate on the Scriptures, see how God’s image-bearers reflect Yahweh well or poorly in mimicking these four actions.

• What about the rest of Genesis?

  Genesis Chapters 1 to 3 form a distinct unit, yet they also serve as the introduction to Genesis 1 to 11—a prologue to the larger biblical story. From Chapter 12 onwards, the narrative narrows, focusing on Abram and Sarai and their descendants. Importantly, Yahweh doesn’t select a tribe to indoctrinate. Instead, He calls a couple, and through relationship—with them and their offspring—He imparts His ways.

  But before that narrative focus begins, Genesis 1 to 11 offers a sweeping account of humanity’s origins, culminating the Table of Nations in Chapter 10 and the Tower of Babel in Chapter 11. It reveals how those created as image-bearers repeatedly chose to defy Yahweh, insisting on defining reality for themselves. The result? Wanting to be gods, humans become beastly—unleashing violence and dragging the world deeper into chaos.

  What’s striking is that these early chapters reveal not just one rebellion, but two. As humanity rises in defiance on earth, a parallel revolt unfolds in the unseen realm—a celestial rebellion that stirs and provokes the human one, drawing humanity into its corruption. We’ll look at this in the next article in this series: Powers Animated: Stars & Monsters.

• What about the rest of the Scriptures?

  For an in-depth look at how to read the Scriptures, see our article entitled Literal Literature.

  On the subject of conflating the Scriptures and science, let me quote Richard H. Bube who, in 1963(!), wrote an essay for American Scientific Affiliation, an association of evangelical Christian scientists.

  “If it is assumed, without due Scriptural support, that the purpose of revelation is to give mankind a source-book of information on all phases of physical, mental, spiritual, sociological, artistic, and scientific life—a source-book which must have meaning for the people to whom it was addressed and to all the generations coming after them in spite of the changes which are continuously occurring—then we have the greatest difficulty in maintaining the doctrine of an inerrant Scripture. If, on this stand, we adopt the position of “arbitrary inerrancy,” we essentially jeopardize the whole truth of Christianity by attempting to balance the great wealth and weight of God’s revelation in Christ upon our ability to show that the words of Scripture can be judged inerrant even when we examine them on the basis of criteria they were not written to satisfy. How much of liberalism and rejection of Biblical revelation has been precipitated as a blind reaction against such a stand!”

  If only the American church had listened to his prophetic warning.

• When was the Enuma Elish discovered?

  This is an important question because it touches the historical and intellectual context in which Genesis has been read.

  The Enuma Elish was discovered in the ruins of the Library of Ashurbanipal, the royal library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in the ancient city of Nineveh, in modern-day Iraq. During Austen Henry Layard’s excavations between 1849 and 1854, a series of clay tablets were uncovered that preserved the Babylonian creation epic. It was not until the early 1870s, however, that George Smith identified and translated the text, presenting the Mesopotamian creation account publicly in 1872.

  In other words, when the Scriptures were first translated into English, the ancient Near Eastern worldview reflected in Genesis—and the specific mythological backdrop it confronts—was unknown to those translators. While some modern translations, such as the RSV, show greater sensitivity to this context, many English versions still reflect interpretive traditions formed before these discoveries came to light.