the day/night distinction introduced on day one, indeed a distinction doubly emphasized in God’s placement of them in the plate (1:17–18a) where they are to “rule” the “day” and “night” named on day one (1:5) and “distinguish” the “light” and “darkness” that were “distinguished” on day one (1:4b). In this way, Gen 1 continues the implicit Sabbath-oriented, day-oriented focus started in Gen 1:3–5, now with the heavenly bodies (1:16, 18) taking over God’s original role in distinguishing light/day and darkness/night (1:4b–5a).
This report of God’s creation of heavenly lights includes some anomalous elements that should be noted. In other parts of the Gen 1 creation account abstract descriptions of creation elements—e.g., the “plate” created in 1:7—receive their conventional names before the close of the creation day. Not so for the two biggest “lights” created and placed in the heavenly plate here, which retain their rather strange designations, “the big light” (המאור הגדול) and “the small light” (המאור הקטן), rather than the Hebrew words שמש (“sun”) and ירח (“moon”). One might argue that this is because they do not constitute the sort of basic creation building blocks that are given names in the initial acts of creation of Gen 1. Nevertheless, Gen 1, like other Near Eastern creation accounts, classifies sun and moon in broader categories as “big” and “little” lights, as part of a broader Near Eastern scholarly systematization of heavenly bodies and other aspects of creation.73 It is a counterpart in Gen 1:14–18 of the various “kinds” of life mentioned in Gen 1:11–12, 21, 24–25.
In addition, the text mentions the purpose of these heavenly bodies to “rule,” both the role of the sun to rule the day and moon to rule the night when they are created (1:16) and the role of all these heavenly bodies to “rule” day and night when they are installed in the heavenly plate (1:18aα). The Hebrew word ממשלה used in both loci comes from a root, משל, that is used specifically for the exercise of power of a sentient being over another, used elsewhere specifically for the authoritative direction exercised by God over creation (e.g., Ps 22:29; 59:14), a king over a people (e.g., 1 Kgs 5:1), a husband over his wife (Gen 3:16), and even person over self (Prov 16:32). What is odd here is that Gen 1:14–18, especially with the absence of even the mention of conventional names of the heavenly bodies, gives no sense whatsoever that these bodies have a personality that could exercise such “rule” in any way. Indeed, its concept of astral bodies as affixed into the heavenly vault (Gen 1:17) somewhat militates against a concept—seen in some Greek and Near Eastern loci—of stars and planets as independent, acting beings.74 Nevertheless, it appears that this otherwise unexplained “rule” (ממשלה) by non-personified heavenly bodies in 1:14–18 anticipates the (differently worded) “rule” (רדה) to which humans will be destined in 1:26, 28.
Gen 1:20–23. The creation of sea and air creaturesWith the fifth day, God begins to populate more nearby regions of the cosmos with living creatures, both the living beings in the seas and the birds in the sky. Where God once commanded the earth to “sprout forth sprouting plants” (תדשא דשא), now God commands that the sea “bring forth a swarm of living beings” (ישרצו שרץ נפש חיה) and “birds to fly about above the earth under the heavenly plate” (עוף יעופף על־הארץ על־פני־השמים). Again the text matches verbs with subjects from the same roots (עוף יעופף ,ישרץ שרץ; the figura etymologica) to create a picture of a swarming, whirring multitude of swimming and flying creatures, all inhabiting realms—sea and air—relatively distant from the earth habitat that is shared by animals and humans.
When the text turns to the initial execution of God’s creative will, it begins with a verb reserved for divine creation, ברא, that has not been seen since the first verse’s description of “when God created heaven and earth” and will not appear again until God creates the humans (1:27). In this case, God “creates” (ברא) the great “sea monsters” (תנינם), not specifically mentioned in God’s initial speech (1:20) before also listing the water and air creatures featured in God’s speech, albeit with slightly different terminology. Interestingly, these sea monsters appear to be one of a kind, since the other sea creatures and birds are created in different self-replicating species (“according their kinds” 1:21), much like the plants seen in 1:11–12.75
A new element within Gen 1 first seen here is God’s blessing these sea and air creatures, which starts with a direct blessing of the sea creatures “be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas” before proceeding, almost as an afterthought, to include a wish that “the birds multiply in the earth.” Much as the “rule” of the stars on day four anticipated human rule, so this blessing, particularly the blessing of sea-swarming creatures, verbally anticipates God’s similar, though more extensive, blessing of humans (1:28). Both sea-air creatures and humans are “created” (ברא), and both are “blessed” (ברך), with the correspondence in the beginnings of both words ברא/ברך possibly implying a relationship between divine “creating” and “blessing” sea-air creatures and humans.76
Gen 1:24–25. The Creation of (non-human) land animalsThe description of God’s creation of land animals, in contrast, seems designed to distinguish God’s making (עשה) of animals from God’s creation (ברא) of humans. The initial divine creation order in 1:24 describes their emergence more on the analogy of plants than even the sea and air creatures of 1:20–23, with God saying “let the earth bring forth living beings” (1:24), much like God had said on day three “let the earth sprout forth grassy plants” (1:11). Just as both God’s speech about plants (1:11) and their subsequent creation (1:12) focused on the creation of seed-bearing plants “each according to its kind” and fruit bearing trees “each according to its kind,” so also the creation of animals features a divine speech and following act outlining the creation of land creatures “each according to its kind.” Moreover, the three-part division among land creatures in Gen 1:24–25—domesticated animals (בהמה), creeping things (רמש 1:24; כל־רמש האדמה 1:25), and wild animals (חיתו־ארץ last in 1:24; חית הארץ first in 1:25)—corresponds to the three-part division among the sea/air creatures on day four—the great sea monsters (התנינם הגדלים), creatures swarming in the waters (נפש החיה הרמשת אשר שרצו המים), and all winged birds (עוף כנף).77
Unlike the creation of plants, the initial execution of God’s creation order for land creatures does not describe the earth as extruding animals (cf. 1:12). Instead, God himself “makes” (עשה) the animals. This makes their creation more similar to the creation of sea-air creatures on the one hand (1:21) and humans on the other (1:27), though in both of these other cases the text uses the special divine creation word ברא for the creation process.
Finally, the land creatures do not receive the multiplication blessing given to both sea-air creatures (1:22) and humans (1:28). This may be because land creatures share their habitat with humans, and Gen 1 does not want to suggest that God originally intended for non-human land creatures to multiply and thus successfully compete for limited land with the humans who are the pinnacle of creation. Such considerations did not apply to swarming sea creatures, or even—to the same extent—for birds of the air that alight on land only part of the time.78 This concern with distinguishing land creatures from the humans with whom they share habitat will resurface in 1:29–30, where God designates a different range of foods for each.79
Gen 1:26–28. The Creation and Blessing/Commissioning of HumanityMuch of what preceded prepared for the description in these verses of God’s creation of “humanity.” Gen 1:3–24 does not describe the creation of the cosmos in general, but instead focuses on elements that contribute to the creation of the human biome: land apart from sea, the specific plants that will later be designated for human consumption (1:11–12, cf. 1:29), the heavenly bodies to help humans keep time (1:14–19), land animals (1:24–25), etc. In
