One day, God called my wife and me to journey up a mountain to be with Him and His family. When we arrived, the saints greeted us, and then we all gathered around the table to eat. Before we ate, God spoke to us, and we spoke to Him. At one point, He admonished us to be trees that bear good fruit and to purge all evil fruit from our lives. We made a joyful noise in response. Then we sat quietly and waited for the steward of the feast to feed us. We gazed upon our Lord for a few minutes and ate. After supper, we thanked God for His food and for giving us this time together. Then we traveled back down the hill, into the wilderness, to tell our estranged family members about the glorious time we had with our Father.
The Mass Analogy
Now, anyone who is Catholic would probably recognize that my story is about going to Mass. “One day” stands for all the Masses my wife and I have ever attended. “Up the mountain” refers to our ascent to visit God at the Mass. Also, our parish is literally on a mountain to the east of our home. “Journey” not only refers to our drive there but may also symbolize our spiritual movement to be with God.
“Saints” means our brothers and sisters who were also at Mass. The “table” is the altar. God speaking to us refers the liturgy of the word. The joyful noise is singing. The steward is the priest through whom Christ works to feed us. “Feeding” represents our eating of Christ in the Eucharist. Traveling back down the hill and into the wilderness represents our returning to the world to share the good news about God.
So, in essence, the whole story is true, but I told it in an allegorical manner. I am describing God’s call to us, our need to turn to Him and away from sin, and our mission to share the truth about God with others.
Allegorical Language in the Old Testament
When reading Genesis 1-3, the two creation accounts and the Fall, we should keep in mind that God is communicating true events, however they happened, in an allegorical way. Understanding Genesis chapters 1-3 is supremely important for understanding the rest of Scripture and salvation history. Accordingly, this article will explain why we should not take Genesis 1-3 literally. Rather, we should accept it as truth revealed through historical allegory. (The Catechism provides some edifying information about this subject as well.) So, let’s start “at the beginning,” so to speak.
Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created ….” In the beginning of what? In the beginning of creation. Before creation, only God existed. Therefore, Genesis is telling us that God created everything that exists ex nihilo, meaning “from nothing”. Also, God is in the singular to teach us that God is one and that a multitude of gods does not exist. Remember, pagan cultures with their polytheistic practices surrounded the Israelites, and God was creating a people for Himself.
Genesis 1:2 – “The Spirit of God was moving ….” That is, God did not simply create and then abandon (deism). He creates and then forms His creation. The Spirit moving over creation signifies God’s love for creation. Imagine a parent who cares for, or moves toward, his or her child versus one who abandons or moves away from that child. Also, the expression that God “was moving” is another indication that God is communicating a historical allegory, since God does not move, as such. Rather, He moves creation into existence without moving Himself. He is the Unmoved Mover, as the theologians call Him.
Notice that Genesis 1:4 says, “And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.” God does not say the darkness was good, or evil for that matter. Now, darkness is not evil but is an allegory for evil. It is a privation of light (allegorically, a defect), which God allows but does not create. Similarly, evil is a privation of goodness that God allows but does not create.
Notice also that God only works in the light. After He finishes His work each day, Scripture says, “and there was evening and there was morning, the Xth day.” Thus, Genesis is teaching us that God’s work is good. If He worked in darkness, it would be as though He were hiding something or doing something evil.
Also, God separates good from evil and God is light (Isaiah 9:2, 1 John 1:5). This is another indicator that the Genesis account is an allegory. God does not literally work twelve hours and then rest for twelve hours every day. Rather, He is pure act and power; He does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8).
Genesis 1:5 – “God called the light day and the darkness night.” Day (Heb: yom) means light in general and night means darkness, not a 24-hour cycle. This is not talking about the time of the sun and the moon, which occurs in 1:14, when God makes the sun and the moon. Genesis 2:4 says, “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens ….” Here, “day” means an age or group of days. Thus, the use of “day” also shows the allegorical nature of the creation story. St. Augustine wrote,
Seven days by our reckoning, after the model of the days of creation, make up a week. By the passage of such weeks, time rolls on, and in these weeks one day is constituted by the course of the sun from its rising to its setting; but we must bear in mind that these days indeed recall the days of creation, but without in any way being really similar to them.
Genesis 1:5-25 – These verses are telling us that God forms, fills, and gives order to creation. God separates the earth from the sky, ground from water, and night from day. And He fills the earth with vegetation and moving creatures, the sky with birds, etc., and the seas with swarms of living creatures. We must not assume that Genesis is telling us how God did this.
Genesis 1:16 – “God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.” Even in the night, there is light. When we have darkened our souls with sin, the true Light presents Himself dimly, waiting for us to turn to Him.
At the end of each day, Genesis says, “And God saw that it was good.” In other words, everything God makes is good. God does not make evil in any way. Evil is a privation or abuse of good, an absence of a good that should be present. Good is proper to everything that God makes.
Genesis 1:26 – God creates man “in His image and likeness.” Our souls are pure spirit (image), and God creates us to reflect His goodness (likeness), which includes the abilities to know, understand, and will for good ends (love). Also, if God works, and His works are good, and He makes us in His image and likeness, then He makes us for good works (Ephesians 2:10). Something is good when it functions as it ought (1 John 3:7).
Thus, if God is good, then we, whom He makes in His image and likeness, are good when we function as we ought. When God reconciles us by grace through faith and baptism, He instructs us to continue in the faith by rejecting sin and by doing good works.
Genesis 1:27 – “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.” God is pure spirit, not male or female. Therefore, God making us in His image has nothing to do with gender. However, “male and female He created them” joins with the phrase “in the image of God He created him” because God endowed man with His creative power to create other persons. In other words, God gives humans the ability to create persons, others made in His image and likeness, when one man and one woman join in sexual union.
Genesis 1:28 – God gives humanity a positive command to multiply and exercise dominion over the earth. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae pt. 1, q.94, a.3) says that, before the Fall, man had all knowledge necessary to understand natures and to govern the earth. He also had supernatural knowledge to direct his life to the supernatural end, which is God.
Genesis 1:31 – After God made man, “God saw everything He made, and behold, it was very good.” Of all the creatures He created on earth, God endows only man with universal understanding. For example, man does not simply know one dog, he understands the essence of all dogs, etc. This ability to understand universals allows him to care for all creation. Also, man, made in the image and likeness of God, is the pinnacle of creation. He possesses the ability to commune with God via acts of the intellect and will and to care for creation.
The First Creation Story
Genesis 1:1-2:3 is the first of two creation stories in Genesis. It merely shows us that God creates from nothing, that His work is good, that we are the pinnacle of His work, and that we should have one day in which we abide in His rest. And God’s “resting” simply means that He completed creation.
If I rest after building my house, I do not rest from caring for it from that point forward. God’s resting equates to Jesus’ words, “It is finished,” on the Cross on Good Friday. God finished His work at the end of the sixth day. Similarly, at the end of the sixth day, Friday, Jesus finished His redemptive work on the Cross.
On the seventh day, Jesus rested in the tomb. Then, on the Eighth Day, Sunday, Jesus made all things new at the moment of His Resurrection. God calls us to participate in this Eighth Day, to be a new creation in Christ.
[Proceed to Part II and Part III of this series.]
35 thoughts on “Genesis 1-3 – Part I: Literal or Allegorical?”
Nate,
Thanks for the heads up.
Looking forward to it.
No prob!
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Nate:
How about divorce and remarriage?
Yes, I am Catholic and I have the parish envelopes to prove it. LOL
Okay, Robert, this is funny! Parish envelopes make it official. Lol!
Divorce and remarriage sounds good to me.
Look forward to a dissertation about marriage, since so many today don’t take their vows seriously. Can you accommodate? Or have you already written one?
What are you thinking? Something about marriage between one man and one woman, adultery, divorce and/or remarriage, natural law and marriage, the biblical teaching on marriage?? Thoughts?
Hey Robert! CS published one of my articles this morning. The one on marriage and divorce is in my queue and will be the next article I submit to them. I did not forget about it. Again, thanks for the suggestion!
By the way, Nate, I’m also a member of the Catholic Church.
And it is very different from the church described in the Book of Acts, and not for the better.
Robert, you are not a Catholic. You’re an imposter. Stop pretending!
Nate:
When did I assert that Adam and Eve did not sin?
Or are you just using the deflection approach to avoid any further discussion about my question?
Robert, I’m sorry. I was thing about a response from CaptCrisis and confused him with you. Regardless, I didn’t dodge your question. In fact, I was quite clear. I don’t submit to fringe theories.
Nate:
Having read your explanation about the Jewish idiom, I would invite you to read the following article, entitled “After Three Days”.
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/CGGBOOKLETS/k/419/after-three-days.htm
Robert, after your heretical assertion that Adam and Eve did not sin, I refuse to engage in future dialogue with you. You are disingenuous at best and a heretic at worst. Regarding the article you sent, you need to do more homework. A fringe theory is not fact, and the author treats the Bible like it’s a “jigsaw puzzle” (his words). Finally, I’m a member of the Church Christ founded 2000 years ago. I don’t need a confused neerdowell like yourself to teach me. Thanks for the article, though! It gives me a subject matter for a future article of my own.
Dear Nate,
After I admitted my spelling mistake and my inability to edit it after submitting, you now want to focus on that further by calling me “sloppy” without acknowledging your own mistake in not applying the correct definition for “yom” from definition 2b of the Brown-Drivers-Briggs Lexicon for Genesis 1:5. To make that worse, that information comes from the source you cited to support your own work.
So, not only are you not faithfully adhering to the information that you are citing, you are also attacking me for bringing it to your attention. May the Lord help you to repent about those things, so you’ll be far more honorable and professional in the future. I’m sure that Catholic Stand will appreciate that, as will many others in your life with the Lord.
In Christ,
Andrew
Andrew,
Welcome to the world of Nate Guyear.
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Dear Nate,
Just because I misspelled the word “yom” as “tom”, and I wasn’t able to edit that after sending it, doesn’t mean I have a problem reading. There is also no good reason to make such an uncharitable assertion towards me either, especially when you cut and pasted what you did from the “Strong’s Definitions [?]” subsection instead of from the ‘Brown-Driver’s-Briggs Lexicon [?]” subsection I referred to.
If you would’ve read that specific subsection then you would’ve noticed that the first definition of “yom” listed is the word “day” just like I stated. Also, if you would’ve went down to definition 2b in that section you would’ve seen that the definition for that specific verse, Genesis 1:5, means “day as defined by evening and morning” like I said.
Given that, cutting and pasting all of the possible definitions from the Strong’s Definitions subsection does not address the disparity that I brought up between what you said and what the Lexicon says for that verse. So, I do read quite well and I also faithfully applied what was provided in the link as it was meant to be. However, I did not state that the word “yom” meant something other than what it does in Genesis 1:5.
May you be blessed with such precise honesty and integrity in the future, with being more charitable towards misspellings, and with responding to what was actually written to you (e.g. in reference to the Lexicon) by another.
Yom, with a “y”, is a day in Genesis 1:5
In Christ,
Andrew
First, if I criticise someone’s article, I don’t misspell a simple, three-letter word in three out of four sentences. That’s just plain sloppy, especially when that word is the very topic of criticism. Second, you picked a definition out of Strong’s that reflects your poorly supported opinion. Strong’s points out that day has multiple meanings in Scripture. Given Genesis’ context, day means “age” not a 24-hour revolution of the sun, which God didn’t make until the fourth “day.” Although the Catholic Church allows for a literal interpretation of Genesis, scriptural context doesn’t support this, and had you taken the time to read my entire article, you would have realized this. But you stopped reading early because you didn’t want my article to upset your delicate sensibilities.
You have addressed nothing and have not added one scintilla of knowledge to this conversation.
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From your description about Jesus finishing his redemptive work at the end of the sixth day to His resurrection, does this timeline equate to three nights and three days in the grave?
Three days and three nights according to the way the Hebrews used this expression, yes.
See below from the Jewish site https://www.messianicgoodnews.org/three-days-and-three-nights/
1. The expression, “three days and three nights,” is an Old Testament idiom carried over into the New Testament, and means not necessarily three whole days and three whole nights, but in round numbers a period of about three days. In the case of Jonah, to whose typical experience the Lord refers, we have no means of accurately ascertaining what actual measure of time he was in the belly of the fish, but in the other places where this idiom is used, or implied, we have strong reason to believe that it could not have meant literally three days and three nights. Exactly the same expression as in the case of Jonah is found in 1 Samuel 30:12-14, when David and his men returned to Ziklag on “the third day” (Verse 1). They found the place had been devastated in their absence, and their families and property carried off as spoil by the Amalekites; they found also an Egyptian slave, who had eaten no bread nor drunk water “three days and three nights” (Verse 12); but in the 13th verse we read that it was “three days ago” that he fell sick, and the impression left on the mind is that it was a period of about three days. In Esther 4:16 we read that after Esther had been sufficiently roused by Mordecai to the imminent danger which was threatening, she sent a message to him: “Go, gather all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days—night and day; I also and my maidens will fast in like manner.” –“But it came to pass on the third day”(Chapter 5:1), and evidently early on that day, that she appeared before Ahasuerus and on that same day we find her already at the “banquet” to which she had invited him and Haman.
I’m sure you have realized that your question backfired, since three days and thee nights does not literally mean three days and three nights. Additionally, the word “day” has various meanings in Scripture. See my response to Andrew.
The question is about what you stated versus what Jesus said.
Why are you dodging the question?
Specifically, what did I state?
Jesus made this statement in Matthew 12:40, New American Bible (Revised Edition)
40 Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
How do you reconcile what you wrote in your article with what Jesus said?
Easily. Is this article about Jonah and the whale?
You do realize of course that no one on earth could ever decode your mass analogy unless
you explained it – not unlike Genesis which no one explained. thus, it is open to unlimited
speculation.
No, I don’t realize it. And two more parts are coming your way. Your mind will surely explode, OP. Then again, your mind probably explodes when attempting to understand why 2+2=4.
I welcome the concussion if indeed there is one.
Lol! This was a funny response. Thanks OP!
Dear Nate,
I’m glad you put in a hyperlink to the concordance because according to it the word “tom” in Genesis 1:5 does mean day (its the very first unnumbered definition listed in the Brown-Driver Briggs Lexicon). In addition, definition 2b defines “tom” from Genesis 1:5 as “day as defined by evening and morning”. Given that, I read no further in your piece because of the lack of accuracy given by your own citation. “Tom” is a literal day, not an allegory.
In Christ,
Andrew
I see reading is your kryptonite. First, the word is “yom” not “tom.” Second, please read below.
Strong’s Definitions [?](Strong’s Definitions Legend)
יוֹם yôwm, yome; from an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb):—age, always, chronicals, continually(-ance), daily, ((birth-), each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), elder, × end, evening, (for) ever(-lasting, -more), × full, life, as (so) long as (… live), (even) now, old, outlived, perpetually, presently, remaineth, × required, season, × since, space, then, (process of) time, as at other times, in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), × whole ( age), (full) year(-ly), younger.