GENESIS 1: ORIGIN and AUTHORSHIP

© 2025.

Only God could have authentically originated the creation account in Genesis 1 because it started in the "beginning" before humans existed. The majestic literary descriptive style of vv1,3-4,6,9,11,14,20,24,26 and first-person verb tense used by God in vv26,29-30 suggest this was God's own creation account. However, much of this account was recorded in third person (eg., “And God said”…) so God must have revealed it to a human who preserved it (below). God’s name, Hebrew Elohim was used solely throughout this account.  “Elohim” means The Creator God and the -im ending makes it a masculine plural noun, meaning "Gods" (see 6th Day, vv26-27 commentary){10}.  God implied His plurality in v26 by quoting Himself, “let us make man in our image”, and again “like one of us” in Genesis 3:22.  Yet God often referred to himself as singular, “I”; compare verses 27 and 26, and “I am who I am” in Exodus 3:14. 

The Nature of God:

Christian theology recognizes both a unity and plurality are within the nature of God which was stated in the church doctrine of the Trinity{3}. Although the Christian term “trinity” was not used anywhere in scripture the triunity of God was concisely described in New Testament Matthew 3:6-17 and 1 Peter 1:2-3.  Peter, one of Christ's closest disciples was a devout, religious first century Jew (Acts 10:14), not a Gentile polytheist who misunderstood God’s nature.  And God’s plurality was hinted of in the books of the Hebrew Law where He referred to Himself with His plural personal pronouns, “we” or “us”, including Genesis 1:26-27, 3:22, and 11:7.  Evidently, the Godhead is of one substance yet there are three persons (Nicene Creed, AD325). The Nicene Creed summarized Christian Church doctrine about the nature of God starting at that time.  This creed is still used today by many Christian groups- including Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches (internet).  

So, God is three inseparably unified persons Who because of their nature always act in unison even when they work independently. They all have equal power and majesty and identical moral values, and they have an absolute loyalty among themselves. In scripture, when One spoke He spoke for them all (Exodus 3:14). The New Testament described the members of the Godhead as having different roles: The Father is the will for the Godhead- the Son always does the Father’s will (John 6:37-39) and the Son is the Creator* (Colossians 1:16) and the Messiah (Matthew 16:13-20) and the Judge of all humanity (John 5:22), and He is the only member of the Godhead who scripture clearly records appeared to mankind in human form (New Testament Gospels). The Holy Spirit enlightens humans for their salvation{9}. The church’s Nicene Creed stated the Son was “born of the Father before all ages” and was “begotten, not made”. (This means the Son is spiritually part of the Father analogous to human offspring being bodily part of their parents; He wasn’t created by the Father as a separate spiritual being). The Nicene Creed continued that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and Son” and is glorified with the Father and Son. (This means the Holy Spirit is also God.)

* Verse 26 (“let us…”) implies all of members of the Godhead participated to create human consciousness because humans were created in God's image and likeness.  According to the Nicene Creed, (and the earlier Apostles Creed, internet) the “Father almighty” was the “maker (or creator) of heaven and earth”. Apparently, He spoke the universe into existence (Psalm 33:6).  Evidently, the Son performed the creation events during the following “six days” when He made everything on the initially barren earth into a habitat with life (Exodus 20:11).  The Holy Spirit worked with humans over the ages to give salvation for those who God intended. 

However, Jewish rabbis emphasize that God is one and refer to the Hebrew Shema (their affirmation of faith) in Deuteronomy 6:4, a verse that states God’s unity.  This Hebrew doctrine of God’s oneness challenged the otherwise commonplace pagan polytheisms that had many gods and goddesses with human and animal attributes at the time Moses recorded the books of the Law. By this time nearly everyone had forgotten the aloof God, Yahweh who had created everything. 

Human authorship of Genesis 1

Ancient extra-biblical creation stories that contain parts of the Genesis 1 account predate the account recorded by Moses:

The Enuma Elish epic{5} contains the Babylonian creation story that was written in cuneiform on seven clay tablets. The copy found in the ruins of the royal library in Nineveh is dated 700-600BCE but the original composition is believed to be older than c1600BCE{4}. So this ancient religious epic originated before Moses wrote Genesis c1450BCE.

The Enuma Elish creation epic is tightly interwoven with Mesopotamian deities and is buried in Mesopotamian religious lore but bible scholars have noticed few and sparse similarities to the Genesis 1 creation account{4}{5}. The epic mentions the sun and moon gods (below) and the stars were created for “signs and seasons”, and the various “wild beasts” and “beasts of the field” were caused to “come forth”. These and other similarities to Genesis 1 suggest that ancient Mesopotamians still remembered a few authentic details of God’s original creation account. They were kept as oral traditions and handed down and later recorded, so much content and accuracy were lost. Topical note 4 examines this and other ancient Mesopotamian and worldwide creation (and flood) stories in more detail and explains why nearly, but not all, differ so much from the account Moses recorded in Genesis 1.

Other ancient worldwide cultural creation stories that include bits from Genesis 1 are additional evidence it was originally recorded before the Flood.  Collectively these cover all the events of the six days in the same sequence{6}. Their stories originated before the Hebrew Law was written and Christian missionaries might have influenced them{8}. The Hmong people who originally settled the Indo-China peninsula c2000BCE (550 years before Genesis was recorded by Moses c1450BCE) kept ancestral accounts that claim they descended from Jah-phu (Japheth) the son of Nuah (Noah). Their ancient records also correctly named several of Japheth’s early descendants as recorded in Genesis 10. Today the Hmong live within the countries of Indo-China without one of their own. An amazing song they still sing at weddings and funerals accurately paraphrases the accounts in Genesis 1-9 and 11 that includes creation, the Flood, and the scattering of mankind over the earth, in a single story with no mention of pagan deities{7}.  They claim this record was kept by their earliest ancestors, that was hundreds of years before Moses recorded Genesis c1450BCE.  Why the creation account of the Hmong agreed so well with Genesis while those of most other people groups who migrated worldwide did not is explained in Topical note 4- Why do the creation and Flood records kept by some of Japheth’s descendants.. 

The Authorship of the Hebrew Law and Topical note 4 explain that some religious liberals claim Moses “borrowed” from older Mesopotamian epics to write his creation and Flood accounts in Genesis.   However, the books of the Hebrew Law- the Torah, attest Moses worshiped the Hebrews’ God exclusively. So, he wouldn’t have resorted to pagan stories as source material for the creation and the Flood accounts in his Book of Genesis. The few similarities in the Genesis accounts with the pagan epics hint instead they shared a common earlier human origin.  

Moses had access to the content of the original written pre-Flood records that were kept in Noah’s ark and were translated and copied down through the ages by Noah’s descendants (Topical note 4, World’s oldest writing). They were later translated into Hebrew by Hebrew families living in Egypt before the Exodus (Authorship of the Hebrew Law, Oldest Hebrew writing). Then Moses had God’s help to explain them when he spoke directly with Him during the Exodus (Authorship of the Hebrew Law, What the scriptures say about Moses). So, the creation account Moses recorded in Genesis 1 that mostly differs from the pagan stories is the dependable one.

Who was the original human author of the Genesis creation account?

Evidently God shared His creation account with an early human before the Flood who was close to Him.  Authorship was not recorded for the accounts in Genesis 1-5 and the first mention of a written record was in Genesis 5:1. So authorship for these early accounts must be gleaned from clues in the content.  However, the original human author of the creation account recorded in Genesis 1 remains uncertain.  Some early humans may be logically ruled out to determine a most likely candidate: This person would not have been Adam or Eve. Adam who evidently originated the oral accounts in Genesis 2 and 3 that was explained in the Genesis 2 commentary consistently used Yahweh Elohim for God’s name.  Although Genesis 3:3 recorded Eve used Elohim for God’s name, the Genesis 3 account showed she didn’t feel close to God and Cain’s family was ungodly. More probable original human authors for Genesis 1 include Adam and Eve’s later son Seth who used Elohim in Genesis 5:1 and revered God (Genesis 5:3) and his godly son, Enosh (Genesis 4:26).  But most likely this was Enosh’s later godly descendant, Enoch who Genesis 5:22-24 recorded “walked faithfully with God 300 years” and then he didn’t die like the others but instead “God took him away”[NIV]. (Noah was the only other person in pre-Flood times who scripture recorded that God found favor with, but Noah would have recorded God was behind the creation account as he did with his Flood narrative in Genesis 6-9. But no authorship record was left by this mystery person, which seems to exclude Noah.) God’s creation account would have been preserved orally or by primitive record keeping until writing was developed before the Flood and Noah kept it with the other early writings in the ark. It was eventually passed on to Moses as explained above. How these early Genesis accounts continued into modern bibles is presented after the commentary, Genesis 4-5 and Beyond, in the Summary of the Information trail…into modern bibles.

Didn’t God originally give the Genesis 1 creation account to Moses?

Another view about the first human author of this creation account was that God originally divulged it to Moses who recorded it in his book of Genesis during the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt, along with the other books of the Law God gave him then. While this is plausible, older worldwide cultural creation accounts that have similarities to Genesis 1 as described above are evidence for an original human author before Noah’s Flood. 

When and why did pagan gods originate?

The first humans, Adam and Eve who were recorded in Genesis 2-3 knew the God Yahweh Elohim (“Lord God”) created everything and their early descendants did too (Genesis 4:3,4). However, people began worshiping pagan deities after the Fall of mankind recorded in Genesis 3, even before Noah’s Flood! (Topical note 4). The ancient Mesopotamian Eridu Genesis and Atra-Hasis epic tablets (Topical note 4) named several pagan gods including chief gods Enil and Enki who allegedly created humans in pre-Flood Mesopotamia before the global Flood that these (extra-biblical) epics described “swept over” the earth.  The true creator God, Yahweh Elohim was still approachable by animal sacrifice after mankind’s fall (Genesis 4:3-4) and a remnant from Adam’s through Noah’s godly families and others after the Flood continued to follow His ways.  However, God severed fellowship with humans then so He seemed unresponsive by most people to meet their everyday needs.  Then ancient people made their own gods with hand-made idols: Exodus 32:1-4 shows how quickly the ancient Hebrews, who had lived with pagan Egyptians for 400 years prior to their Exodus and influenced them, abandoned God for idol worship (temporarily) after they knew Him.  Ancient people also built altars for sacrifices, temples, and initiated priests to conduct worship. In nearly every ancient human culture each of the forces over uncontrollable nature and interpersonal relationships was assigned a named god by their influential leaders so everyone could relate to and petition them for their needs. Pagan religion also supported the rulership of the early leaders which gave them authority to reign over their people: The Eridu Genesis tablet (Topical note 4{22}) recorded founding the five cities of Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak in Mesopotamia before the Flood “swept over” (Topical notes 3 and 4) and that their kingship “descended from heaven”.  Through the work begun by Christ’s apostles, Christianity gradually ended worship of pagan gods in the western world starting in the 1st century. Then church missionaries spread it worldwide. This faith returned worship to the original God, Yahweh Elohim, Who is more fully described as a triunity in the New Testament.

Introduction to the creation account

Why were scientific details omitted from the Genesis 1 account?

Today, many complain this creation account is “unscientific”. The descriptions apparently were not intended to be scientific! God evidently first told His creation account as recorded in Genesis 1 to a primitive human before the Flood who was not scientifically educated. About three thousand years later the ancient Hebrews who Moses recorded this account for became ranchers.  They kept livestock and eventually raised crops and had practical experience caring for their animals and plants, and were familiar with the night sky. However, they lacked scientific understanding of biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy.  It wasn’t God’s purpose to teach humans science so they could understand a scientific creation account, so His creation account in Genesis 1 wasn’t described in scientific terms. This doesn’t mean the biblical Genesis 1 account is untrue, rather it was recorded to approach these ancient people on their educational level.  The creation events were described as God saw them as they appeared from Earth.  Human understanding of God’s creation then was very limited: to them the earth was the ground under their feet and the celestial heavens appeared in the sky, and the sun and the stars rose in the eastern sky and set in the west. Even revealing the earth orbited around the sun would have been too scientific for them, a fact that was controversial even for medieval Europeans thousands of years later!  However, the cosmic details in Job 26:7, Isaiah 40:22* and 42:5 (see Conclusion for Genesis 1 v1, The “beginning”, below) were revealed later in scripture and are understandable in the light of modern astronomy today.

*Some bible translations use “globe” instead of “circle”[NIV].     

Many of Christ’s public teachings were "veiled" in parables as recorded in the New Testament Gospels (read Matthew 13:10-14). When Christ publicly taught in parables He privately explained their meanings only to his disciples (Matthew 13:34-36). Fortunately, they preserved His intended meanings in the Gospel accounts and many bibles include a complete listing of Christ’s New Testament parables. Also, for this reason it’s not surprising God’s creation account in Genesis 1 was “veiled” in a non-technical literary style that only hinted of His scientific achievements.  This descriptive style is not inaccurate nor it does conflict with observational science according to correct biblical Hebrew word usage that is explained in the Genesis 1 commentaries.  However, Genesis 1 reads very unlike a science textbook and seems confusing to modern minds. Some examples of these "unscientific" descriptions of events in Genesis 1 as recorded in the 1984 NIV bible are: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (v1), God said without clarification, “let there be light, and there was light” (v3), God “separated the light from the darkness” (v4) that He called day and night (v5), He “separated water from water” (v6) to make the expanse of the sky (v8), He “set” (v17) the greater and lesser lights (sun and moon) in the expanse of the sky, He “let the land produce” vegetation (v11) and living creatures (v24). Last, He “created” man(kind) in His own image (v26), male and female (v27).     

God certainly knew that eventually professional human scientists would study the detailed workings of His creation and its beginning for themselves.  Perhaps God deliberately omitted technical details also to let later scientists ponder over how His creation began for themselves- rather than to explicitly tell them.    

Today, conservative pastors say bible believers are to accept the Genesis 1 account as simply a “matter of faith”.  Of course, their advice is unquestionable.  However, because the creation events are factual, they aren’t purely a matter of faith but are also within the realm of realty! So, these unscientific, literary descriptions in the Genesis 1 creation account are explained in Genesis Makes Sense for a modern technical mindset both to help answer honest personal questions and to convincingly reach others who disbelieve the reality of this foundational bible account.  

The definitions of “created” and “made” in Genesis 1

A key to understanding God’s creation account is knowing the different meanings of “created” and “made” in Genesis 1.  A leading creation scientist showed from scripture study that “create” and “make” have the following distinct meanings in Genesis 1:

“’Create’ which always has the Creator as its subject refers to God calling entities into existence [from nothing]. ‘Make’ refers to systems constructed [usually meaning formed] (by either God or men) [intelligent beings] out of previously created entities” [materials]. The heavens and the earth were both created and made [by God].”{1},{2}.

Bracketed [ ] words above were inserted for clarity. Words in parentheses( ) are part of the quoted definitions.

Use of “created” and “made” in Genesis 1: 

The only physical “creation” event (from nothing) in Genesis 1 was the celestial heavens, and the planet earth (v1) as it was before the sea and the opaque rainy cloud layer covered it (v2). The sea, cloudy atmosphere, plants, and the bodies of creatures and human were all were “made” on the earth during the six days in vv2-31 that followed creating the heavens and the earth. The other creation events (from nothing) described in vv21,27 were spiritual and pertained to creating creature and human consciousness. Their bodies were simultaneously but separately “made” from earth's dust for their “created” consciousness to inhabit (Genesis 2:7,19). So, living creatures and humans were both “created” spiritually and “made” physically. 

In the pattern of most events in Genesis 1 God spoke an entity into existence recorded as “let…”, followed by "God created..." or "God made...", then “and it was so”.  The Scripture4All internet Hebrew interlinear bible at www.scripture4all.org that may be referred to in this commentary as “S4A” is an excellent study resource.  

Created and made verb tense:

The S4A shows Hebrew past-tense “bra” was used to describe that God created the “heavens and the earth” in the “beginning” in v1.  The only other use of Hebrew past-tense in Genesis 1 was “bra” when God created man(kind) as male and female in v27.  Hebrew past-tense seems to be used to describe previous events that happened only once and were final. The S4A shows God’s work in the middle of Genesis 1 was recorded in the present perfect-tense of written Hebrew, as "ibra" (is-creating) and "iosh" (is-making), but it is all translated into past-tense as created or made in English bibles. Grammatically, these perfect-tense Hebrew verbs seem to impart action to the account, or described the past “created” and “made” events as still having present consequences.  This means the things and life forms God originally created and made during Days 2-6 of creation week continue today. 

Note: Written (not spoken) Hebrew words in Roman letters from the Scripture4All internet Hebrew interlinear bible are referenced throughout this commentary. 

Click on active web links to read internet references below:

{1} Morris, H.M., Reprinted in Dec 2015-May 2016 issue, Days of Praise (ICR publ), Feb 17 page. Both “created” (written Hebrew “bra”, “ibra”) and “made” (written Hebrew “oshe”, “iosh”) are used in the Genesis 1 creation account.  Morris defines the distinct meanings of root words “created” and "make" from Genesis 1, and he cites the scripture reference in {2} below to show these words were not used interchangeably. (Note that Genesis 2:3 is actually part of the Genesis 1 account, see Genesis 2 commentary.)

{2} Genesis 2:3- And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because in it He rested from all His work which He had “created and made" [King James Version].  Although the KJV is cited, several bible versions state the words “created” and “made” separately in this verse.  So, besides use of both words in the   Genesis 1 account, Genesis 2:3 as it is translated in some bibles also implies “created” and “made” have distinct meanings. (However, in the bible outside of Genesis 1 “created” and “made” are sometimes used interchangeably.)   

{2a} 2025, Days of Praise, ICR publ, June, July, August, “God’s Rest Day”, Tuesday, June 10.  The Sabbath Day: This devotional article explained that during the events described in Genesis 1:2-31, 2:1-3 God established the pattern of working for six days then resting on the seventh day and the Hebrews were commanded to follow this cyclic daily work-rest pattern (Exodus 20:8-11).  The article implied the specific day of the week that the sabbath was on was unimportant, it was the daily work-rest pattern that mattered and made the Sabbath Day relative to when recorded work began.

The ancient Hebrews used sequentially numbered (1-7, not named) weekdays and the sabbath was on their seventh calendar day. The Hebrews always observed it on this day, apparently since the Sabbath Law was first given to them by Moses in the books of the Law. Later, the Romans developed a seven-day week that sequentially named the days after their gods: the sun and moon, followed in order by the five bright planets- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. After the Roman Empire ended the western European nations that were part of it continued this weekday naming scheme in their own national languages (internet).  The Jewish Sabbath still remains on their “seventh” calendar day that is “Saturday" in English-speaking countries. (Despite the calendar layout, westerners view Monday as the first day of the work week with Sunday as the last day and part of the so-called "weekend".)

God actually made a distinct astronomical reminder for the seven day workweek in the monthly lunar phases. There are seven days between new moon and first half moon, seven more days to full moon, seven more days to second half moon, and seven more days to new moon.       

{3}https://www.christianity.com/wiki/god/god-in-three-persons-a-doctrine-we-barely-understand-11634405.html 

(The Holy Trinity explained)

{4} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En%C5%ABma_Eli%C5%A1 (Enuma Elish creation tablets with paraphrased translated text)

{5} Cooper, Bill, 2011, The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, p131 (book). (The Enuma Elish epic is paraphrased with the noted similarities to Hebrew scripture explained.) 

{6} ibid. pp212-328. (Worldwide cultural creation and Flood stories)

{7} ibid. pp241-243. (Hmong peoples’ creation and Flood story)

{8} ibid. p328. (Cited cultural creation and Flood stories date to before the Hebrew Law was written and Christian missionaries existed.

{9} https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holy-spirit/10-roles-of-the-holy-spirit-in-christian-life.html (The many roles of the Holy Spirit)

{10} Click live web link to read internet reference: https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_1303.cfm

(Elohim explained.)

A brief aside to a different interpretation of Genesis 1

This Genesis 1 commentary is based on the interpretation that the “beginning” in v1 and the events in vv2-31 of creation week are two separate sequential periods.  This has been called the “initiation” interpretation, where the events in the “beginning” initiated creation of the heavens and the earth before their completion as described in vv2-31.  A different “summary” interpretation circulates that v1 summarizes the entire Genesis 1 creation account, and vv2-31 describe the details.  This view necessarily places the creation of the heavens and the earth in the beginning in v1 within the literal six-day period of events in vv2-31, presumably early on Day 1. Scripture would then mandate the whole universe was created in as little as part of a single day several thousand years ago.  See Topical note 8 for a discussion of the age of the universe.  The "summary" view of Genesis 1 is contrary to this commentary that follows.

A lengthy, scholarly article compared these two interpretations based on Hebrew word usage and comparative scripture analysis. This reference concluded that the “initiation” view of this commentary (that the “beginning” in v1 and the events in vv2-31 are sequential), is correct{11}. 

Some bible critics claim that the Genesis 1 account was written as Hebrew poetry (which uses rhyme in ideas rather than word sounds) and was not intended to be understood literally.  However, a short video interview{12} with a Hebrew language scholar explains that the early chapters of Genesis were written as prose not Hebrew poetry, and they were intended to be understood as history. 

Click on active links to access internet references below:

{11}https://faculty.wts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Poythress-Genesis-1.1.pdf  (comparison of “initiation” and “summary” views of Genesis 1)

{12} https://isgenesishistory.com/product/feature-film/

This short creation video that is presented by the creation science organization, Is Genesis History? explains the early chapters of Genesis were intended to be understood as history. (Click on the link in your web browser and open it, scroll down and select “Are the early chapters of Genesis history?”, then click arrows to start the video.)

W. Cook

Independent researcher June 2025

Contact: genesismakessense@gmail.com