Genesis 1
Starting with the creation account.
Genesis (Beresheet) 1
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
Here we are at the foundations of creation. At the culmination of the Genesis(Beresit) 1 narrative we get a glimpse into one of the most profound revelations and a critical component to many modern protestant beliefs. This relates to the very essential component of humanity, as created in the image of God. These are heavy concepts that scripture will continue to enlighten and inform us as we move from the beginning. It helps to understand Genesis 1 as a first summary chapter in a series of chapters. It offers a broad overview of creation and a thesis-like statement found in the culmination of the creation week above. Let us seek to accurately derive the general thesis of the above text. Then later in future posts we can look into the etymology of specific words and statement including how they are used in the rest of scripture.
What can we know certainly from these foundation texts and carry forward? I can find three specific things.
1) Man will have dominion on earth over the other creatures. God said it, it will be.
2) Man was created in two distinct parts, male and female, and those parts are in the image of God.
3) Man is collectively commanded to be fruitful and multiply, thus produce families and essentially more love.