Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Genesis 1:5

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
  1. God named the time or condition where light existed on the earth "Day", and when/where it was dark he called it "Night".
  2. God appears to be male in gender. Other possibilities I can see are: 1) "he" refers to "darkness", which might suggest to some that "light" is of the female gender, but that's a pretty sexist viewpoint and I don't think it's warranted; 2) the use of the word "he" is an error. That would suggest the Bible is not completely accurate, which wouldn't be all that surprising considering how long ago these things were written and how many times they have been copied and translated. Nevertheless, it would seem impossible to prove it is an error; 3) "he" is used in a purely figurative sense. This would also be impossible to prove, so I choose to stick with the most literal interpretation. It's the simplest approach, and the only one that results in actual information about God being revealed. Since the purpose of these verses appears to be the sharing of information about God and his activities, then going with a literal interpretation seems consistent, and the other approaches inconsistent with that purpose.
  3. If God is of the male gender, it suggests he has male reproductive functionality. Otherwise, what would make him male? It seems doubtful he would have male parts that don't work. I suppose he could just have a male temperment, but most of the characteristics attributed to "maleness" these days are negative. It's probably better to wait and see what additional information is provided on the subject.
  4. If God is capable of having a sexual relationship, then very interesting questions arise, such as does he and with whom? Some may find this a very heretical line of thinking, but that could be a learned attitude and not based on reality. After all, many religions refer to God as "father".
  5. God finds it important or necessary to assign names to things. This suggests a tendency to be organized, orderly, etc.
  6. The passing of the first day and night marked the end of the first day of creation.
  7. It seems like a lot to accomplish in 24 hours, although I'm not certain God was measuring time in our hours or his.

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