The early chapters of Genesis explanation

    The early chapters of Genesis are so confusing

      1.    How could God create light on the first day if He didn’t create the sun, moon, and stars until the fourth day?

      2.   And, after killing Abel, who did Cain fear would kill him and where did he find his wife?

       3.   How did Noah fit all the animals on the ark?

Some people struggle with believing the Bible because of the types of questions that are raised by the first eleven chapters of Genesis. There is a presumption that the biblical narrative doesn’t make sense or that it’s meant to be under-stood as a series of mythical stories. Probably the biggest issue I’ve heard people pose is how they can square God's creation of the world in six days with modern science. While some of these questions need longer explanations and the understanding that we will never know completely, I do believe there are some simple answers that will help. Let's look at some of the most common concerns in order.

1. LIGHT ON THE FIRST DAY

At first read, it doesn’t seem possible that God would create light on the first day (Gen. 1:3-5) and then create the luminaries on the fourth day (Gen. 1:14-19). In fact, there couldn't be three days before the creation of the sun, since the earth rotates once in 24 hours in relation to the sun. The answer is relatively simple. God did create the luminaries on the first day, but He only declared their purpose on the fourth day. The way the fourth day of the creation narrative is writ-ten is distinct from the other days, emphasizing the purposes of the luminaries, not their formation.

A literal translation of Genesis 1:14-15 shows this: of the heavens be to separate the day from the night, and let iso) Let the lights in the expanse them be for signs and seasons and for days and years; and let the lights be in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so.” This passage includes three purpose clauses revealing why they were made on the first day: to sepa-rate day and night; to indicate signs, seasons, days, and years; and to give light to the earth.

The middle purpose, related to signs and seasons, days and years is a significant preamble to the Law, since their purpose was to create a worship calendar for the people of Israel. The word “seasons” is the same Hebrew word used for “the Lord’s appointed times,” referring to the festivals of Israel (Lev. 23:2). But why did God create them on day one and wait to declare their purpose on day four? This delay was part of the literary design of the six days of creation. According to the narrative, for the first three days God formed the world, and then, parallel to that creation, on the next three days, God filled the world.

The following chart reveals this parallel structure.

FORMED		FILLED
Day		Day
1	Light/Darkness 1:3-5	4	Sun, Moon, Stars 1:14-19
2	Sky/Water Separated 1:6-8	5	Birds/Sea Creatures 1:20-23
3	Land/Vegetation 1:9-13	5	Animals/Man 1:24-31
	RESTED
	DAY 7 – 2:1-3

 

Following this structure, the light and darkness were filled with the luminaries, the sky and water with birds and sea creatures, and the land and vegetation with animals and humanity. Waiting until the fourth day to declare the purpose of the luminaries was a literary device that followed the “formed and filled” pattern. Having declared the purpose of the luminaries (Gen. 1:14-15), the story returns to their creation. So, the next God (and no other) had (previously) made the two great lights . .. and God had (previously) placed them in the expanse of the heaven...” This literary reading of the narrative explains how there could be light and even actual days for the first three days. The sun, moon, and stars were made on day one and their purposes were not declared until day four.

2. THE ENEMIES AND WIFE OF CAIN

After Cain killed his brother Abel, the Lord punished him by forcing him to “be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:12). Cain complained that “whoever finds me will kill me” (Gen. 4:14). Therefore, God gave Cain a special mark to keep anyone from attacking him (Gen. 4:15). Cain then traveled eastward, away from Eden, and settled in the land of Nod where he found a wife and had children (Gen. 4:16-17). The natural question arises, if Cain and Abel were the only two children of Adam and Eve, where did these other people come from?

Who did Cain fear would attack him and where did he find his wife? The simple answer is that Adam and Eve had other children who are not mentioned in the Genesis account. God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28), and He gave the pre-flood people long lives (Adam lived 930 years; cf. Gen. 5:5). So it is logical that they could have had many more children. These other children may have had life stories not as significant as those of Cain, Abel, and Seth, so they were not included in the Genesis narrative.

It also makes logical sense that Cain would have been fearful of his own siblings, nephews, nieces, and other relatives who desired vengeance for his murder of their relative. Cain's wife was also one of his relatives—she might have been a sister, niece, or even a grandniece. Clearly, the Bible forbids incest, but if you are from the very first family, it would seem that there would have been no other choice for a mate.

Furthermore, Adam and Eve had no mutant genes and therefore Cain's marriage to a relative would not have produced harmful traits in their children. Also, because of the long lives and childbearing years of Adam and Eve, Cain would likely have married someone whom he had not grown up alongside.

The issue of Cain’s enemies and wife is not difficult to resolve if we accept that biblical narratives are selective rather than comprehensive. The Bible does not include all the facts, just those pertinent for the reader.

3. THE ANIMALS ON THE ARK

Skeptics today love to mock the story of Noah and the flood, particularly the animals being brought onto the Ark. How could Noah have possibly fit all of those creatures on one small boat? How was he able to feed them? What about all that waste? Although the Bible treats the story as true (Isa. 54:9; Ezek. 14:14, 20; Matt. 24:37-38; Luke 17:26-27; Heb. 11:7; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:6), skeptics view it as a fairy tale. Yet, I assert that this story is true, and here’s how it could have happened.

The Kinds of Animals

Three kinds of animals are mentioned in the biblical record: birds, land vertebrates (Hebrew behemah), and creeping things (Hebrew, remes, which can mean a number of things, but likely here it refers to reptiles). These would not have included sea creatures, fish, or water animals, which could survive a flood without an ark. Moreover, this would not include every species of animal, only their genera. With these limitations, Noah would only need to have brought some 16,000 animals on board."

The Space on the Ark

People presume, incorrectly, that every animal was an adult and determine they would not have fit on the ark. But, more likely, Noah would have brought baby animals aboard. If that is so, then some have conjectured only 11 percent of the baby animals would have been larger than a sheep. And the average size of a baby animal would have been about that of a miniature Yorkshire Terrier. Still, would the ark have been large enough for even these small animals?

The ark measured 300 x 50 x 30 cubits (Gen. 6:15). If we estimate a cubit to be 18 inches, the size of the ark would have been 450 x 75 x 45 feet. The corresponding volume of the ark would be 1,518,750 cubic feet. A typical semitrailer of 48 x 13.5 x 8.5 feet has a volume of 5,508 cubic feet.

Therefore, the ark would have been equivalent to 275 semi-truck trailers. According to the Livestock Trucking Guide, a triple-decker semitrailer can comfortably hold 302 wooly sheep. Therefore the ark could have carried 83,050 sheep, much more than the 16,000 estimated sheep sized animals that survived the flood on Noah’ ark."

The Practicalities of All Those Animals

Still people wonder about the practicalities of caring for those animals for 374 days (Gen. 8:14). There are some simple and reasonable ways that they could have been cared for. As for food, likely Noah brought compressed food and grains. It’s also possible that many animals entered a state of hibernation, limiting the amount of food needed. Sufficient water was likely collected from all that rain. The floor of the ark would have been built on a slope to make for easy washing away of the refuse. These are just some simple possibilities to show that the story of Noah and the ark was not a fairy tale but indeed can be understood as an actual and true event.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s no question that it takes faith for us to believe all of the accounts in the early parts of Genesis. But we have faith based on reasonable evidence. In addition, the main point of all these stories in Genesis is that there is a Creator, who loves us and to whom we are all accountable.

Many skeptics believe something much more incredulous: that all life, including humanity, evolved from a sudden bolt of lightning in the primordial soup. Further, they believe that life sprang from non-life, and then life randomly developed from one living cell to the complexity of our world. It takes far more faith to believe that humanity developed by mere chance than to believe that God made the sun, moon, and stars, that Cain married his sister, and that Noah saved the animal kingdom on the ark.