The second day of creation

The Second Day of Creation

Gen. 1:6-8

The Second Day of CreationGen. 1:6-8

• A dome, also firmament, an expanse


• A dome, also firmament, an expanse

• The Hebrew term is related to a verb that means “hammer out”


• Exodus 39:3


• Exodus 39:3• Gold was first

hammered into gold leaf and then cut up into threads, which were woven with the violet, purple and scarlet yarn into an embroidered pattern on the fine linen.


• “This suggests the ancient Israelites imagined the firmament as a hammered bowl that is placed over the world like a roof or dome, holding up waters above the earth and separating them from the seas below. Modern readers must recognize that the author’s world view is one of his cultural assumptions, not one of his inspired assertions; thus the cosmological presuppositions of the author should not be taken as revealed propositions to be accepted by faith.” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Commentary, Notes and Study Questions; Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch; Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA 2010 p.18)


• “There can never, indeed, be any real discrepancy between the theologian and the physicist, as long as each confines himself within his own lines, and both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us, "not to make rash assertions, or to assert what is not known as known." (In Gen. op. imperf. ix., 30) If dissension should arise between them, here is the rule also laid down by St. Augustine, for the theologian: "Whatever they can really demonstrate to be true of physical nature, we must show to be capable of reconciliation with our Scriptures; and whatever they assert in their treatises which is contrary to these Scriptures of ours, that is to Catholic faith, we must either prove it as well as we can to be entirely false, or at all events we must, without the smallest hesitation, believe it to be so." (De Gen. ad litt. i. 21, 41)...


• Hence they did not seek to penetrate the secrets of nature, but rather described and dealt with things in more or less figurative language, or in terms which were commonly used at the time, and which in many instances are in daily use at this day, even by the most eminent men of science. Ordinary speech primarily and properly describes what comes under the senses; and somewhat in the same way the sacred writers-as the Angelic Doctor also reminds us - `went by what sensibly appeared,"( Summa theol. p. I, q. lxx., a. I, ad 3) or put down what God, speaking to men, signified, in the way men could understand and were accustomed to.” (Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus: On the Study of Sacred Scripture, “The Authority of Holy Scripture; Modern Criticism; Physical Science” (1893)


• An expanse


• An expanse• The Hebrew noun rakia’ is unparalleled in cognate languages. The verbal form is often used for hammering out metal or flattening out earth, which suggests a basic meaning of “extending.” (The JPS Torah

Commentary: Genesis; Commentary by Nahum M. Sarna; The Jewish Publications Society, Philadelphia, PA 1989 p.8)


• “extending”

• Nm. 17:4


• “extending”

• Nm. 17:4 • So Eleazar the

priest had the bronze censers of those burned during the offering hammered into a covering for the altar,


• “extending”

• Is 40:19


• “extending”

• Is 40:19• An idol, cast by a

craftsman, which the smith plates with gold and fits with silver chains?


• “extending”

• Jer. 10:9


• “extending”

• Jer. 10:9• Silver strips brought

from Tarshish, and gold from Ophir, The work of the craftsman and the handiwork of the smelter, Clothed with violet and purple - all of them the work of artisans.


• “stamping with the feet”

• 2 Sam. 22:43



• 2 Sam. 22:43• I ground them

fine as the dust of the earth; like the mud in the streets I trampled them down.



• Ezekiel 6:11

•



• Ezekiel 6:11

• Thus says the Lord GOD: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry "Alas!" because of all the abominations of the house of Israel, for which they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.



• Is. 42:5

•



• Is. 42:5

• Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, Who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it:


• and so it happened or and it was so


• and so it happened or and it was so

• “Henceforth this is the standard formula for expressing the execution of the divine command. It was only the brevity of God’s initial utterance in verse 3 that permitted repetition of its content without stylistic clumsiness…each occurrence immediately follows the divine speech, which is how it appears in the Septuagint version of the text.”


• The formula “ki tov”, “that it was good”, is omitted because rain has no value unless there is dry land to be fructified; the creative acts relating to water are not completed until the third day, the account of which records the formula twice.” (The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis; Commentary by Nahum M. Sarna; The Jewish Publications Society, Philadelphia, PA 1989 p.8)


• God made


• God made

• “This verb…is used again in verses 16 and 25, simply means the divine intention became a reality. It does not represent a tradition of creation by deed as opposed to word. This is clear from a passage like Psalm 33:6 which features God’s creative word and deed with no perceptible difference between them “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their host.” In the same way, several texts indiscriminately interchange “create” bara and “make” with God as the actor” (The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis; Commentary by Nahum M. Sarna; The Jewish Publications Society, Philadelphia, PA 1989 p.8)


• “Create” and “Make” in Scripture



• Is. 41:20



• Is. 41:20• That all may see and

know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.



• Is. 43:7



• Is. 43:7• Everyone who is

named as mine, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.



• Is. 45:7



• Is. 45:7• I form the light, and

create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things.


• the sky, heaven


• the sky, heaven • “…translated “sky” or

“heavens”…It is uncertain what concept the Israelites had of multiple heavens. In later Jewish tradition, the lowest level of heaven was thought to be the atmosphere, and the highest level was the dwelling place of God. Different forms of the tradition counted three heavens (2 Cor. 12:2: “I know someone in Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven.”; or seven heavens (Talmud, b. Hagigah 12b).


• the sky, heaven • Ps. 104:2


• the sky, heaven • Ps. 104:2• robed in light as

with a cloak. You spread out the heavens like a tent;


• the sky, heaven • Zech 12:1


• the sky, heaven • Zech 12:1• An oracle: the word of

the LORD concerning Israel. Thus says the LORD, who spreads out the heavens, lays the foundations of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:

The second day of creation

Spiritual

Transcript of The second day of creation