Genesis third day of creation

The Third Day of CreationGenesis 1:9-13

The Third Day of Creation: Genesis 1:9-13

under the sky


under the sky

▪ “That is, the terrestrial waters.”


the dry land


the dry land

▪ “The terrain now visible to man.”


Let the earth bring forth



▪ This creative act constitutes an exception to the norm that God’s word directly effectuates the desired product. Here the earth is depicted as the mediating element, implying that God endows it with generative powers that He now activates by His utterance.



▪ The significance of this singularity is that the sources of power in what we call nature, which were personified and deified in the ancient world, are now emptied of sanctity. The productive forces of nature exist only by the will of the one sovereign Creator and are not independent spiritual entities. There is no room for such a concept for the fertility cults that were features of ancient near Eastern religions.” (The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis; Commentary by Nahum M. Sarna; The Jewish Publications Society, Philadelphia, PA 1989 p.9)


Some examples of the deification of natural things in the ancient Near East



▪ Anuket:

goddess of the Nile

Egypt



▪ Aten:

The sun disk

Egypt



▪ Geb:

the earth

Egypt



▪ Heryshef:

god of the riverbanks

Egypt



▪ Min:

god of fertility

Egypt



▪ Nefertem:

god of the sunrise

Egypt



▪ Naunet:

god of water

Egypt



▪ Ra:

the sun god

Egypt



▪ Shu:

god of the air and sky

Egypt



Yamm:

the god of the sea

Egypt



▪ Apsu:

underworld ocean; begetter of the skies and earth

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Tiamat:

primeval chaos; bearer of the skies and earth

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Anu:

sky god

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Ea (Enki, Nudimmud): god of the waters

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Sin (Nannar):

moon goddess

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Shamash (Babbar, Utu):

sun god

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Ishum:

god of fire

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Adad:

a storm god associated with lightning

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Tammuz (Dumuzi, Adonis):

vegetation

Assyria and Babylon



▪ Nissaba (Nisaba): cereal grain harvest

Assyria and Babylon


vegetation: א ש� � ד�

Hebrew deshe’



Hebrew deshe’

the generic term, which is subdivided into plants and fruit trees.



▪ Leviticus 27:30



▪ Leviticus 27:30

▪ All tithes of the land, whether in grain from the fields or in fruit from the trees, belong to the LORD, as sacred to him


vegetation: א ש� � ד� ▪ Gen.1:29-30


vegetation: א ש� � ד� ▪ Gen.1:29-30

▪ God also said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food." And so it happened


seed-bearing


seed-bearing

▪ That is, endowed with the capacity for self-replication


seed-bearing ▪ “God puts limits on the expanse of

water so that earth can appear. From the earth God calls forth vegetation that is able to reproduce itself. (“with its seed in it,” v. 11). Fruitfulness is not something dependent on the gods of fertility, but God has put the power of reproduction in vegetation itself. Here again the author shows a world that is not under the control of pagan deities.” (Collegeville Bible Commentary: Genesis; Pauline A. Viviano; The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 1985 p.11)


Pope Benedict XVI

▪ God made the world so that there could be a space where he might communicate his love, and from which the response of love might come back to him. From God’s perspective, the heart of the man who responds to him is greater and more important than the whole immense material cosmos, for all that the latter allows us to glimpse something of God’s grandeur.” (Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI; Saint Peter's Basilica, Holy Saturday, 23 April 2011)

Genesis third day of creation

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