In light of my recent (re-)discoveries about the true nature of creation, the Earth being a flat plane and the "raqia" (often translated as "firmament"; in Hebrew means "expanse" or "extended surface," even according to Strong's Hebrew the "vault of heaven," and "regarded by Hebrews as solid and supporting 'waters' above it") being, in my personal view, a dome-like structure which surrounds the Earth and has water above it, which is (in my view) where some of the waters of the Great Flood came from, I have decided to write a commentary of the Biblical creation account. I now am finally able to accept the words in this chapter literally, with no pre-existing mental constructs (like globe Earth, big bang, evolution, etc.) that the ancient Hebrews would have laughed at.
(Firstly, I should recommend, for other resources and insights about creation, or even Tanakh/Bible in general, Bible Study Tools' online pages of the "Orthodox Jewish Bible," and there are also some interesting and useful commentaries below; David Dryden's "Torah Creation" site, specifically the "creation articles"; Bible Hub's interlinear English/Hebrew Bible with links for each Hebrew word to its Strong's page; and Chabad.org's Tanakh with "Rashi's" commentary.)
"In the beginning*, God created the heavens** and the Earth," **According to Strong's Hebrew, the "visible heavens, sky, where stars, etc., are." *Could be rendered as "in the beginning of God's creating of...", as the heavens are mentioned, but it is only on day two that the heavens were created, so the first verse could just mean, "in the beginning of the creating of the stuff," not "in the beginning this stuff was created." So there was only the Earth (not any land though) and sea, a great abyss, with no land, light, or even particular form. | "B'reshit," translated here as 'in the beginning,' can also simply mean 'at first' or 'at the start.'
"And the Earth was formless and void*, and darkness** was upon the face of the deep***, and the spirit of God**** hovered over the surface of the waters," *This means the Earth was nothing but sea, water, but no land. **From the lack of light, which was created in the next verse; there was no Sun, Moon, even any sort of lights at all, not even stars. There were no stars, as they were created on day four, along with the Sun and Moon. ***What is "the deep" being referred to here? It is "tehom" in Hebrew, which, according to Strong's Hebrew, means, "deep, sea, abyss," "deep, of subterranean waters," "confusion, empty place, without form, nothing..." So, it is not, as I was originally thinking, referring specifically to the bottom of the sea, but just to the sea itself, the abyss itself. This is why this word in this verse is commonly rendered as "the waters." So, basically, "there was no light upon the sea" (and by the fact that light is created in the next verse, there was no light at all, for the first part of day one, before God said "let there be light"). ****The term is "spirit" or "breath" (two meanings of the Hebrew "ruach") of God, or, less literally, a "divine presence"; the same sort of "divine presence" that one feels in a holy place or a place where God has worked a miracle; at the present time (after the six days of creation), I doubt that any sailor or man at sea would particularly "feel" God; it seems like the sea is yet another place where in the world God is naturally "hidden" (although perhaps instead one will have awe of God and His creation); the "divine presence" is now above the waters above the heavens (see a comment on verse six), not above the lower waters. | The sea was, on day two, divided between the waters above heaven and the waters on the Earth, so this was a very different "sea" than what exists now; it was much greater in amount (as it was later divided into two and what is on Earth now is only one portion), had no life in it at all, and there was no land or heavens.
"And God said*, 'Let there be light.' And there was light." *God continually *speaks* the world into existence. In fact, every moment God continually is "speaking" the ten utterances with which the world was created during the six days of creation. It can (albeit not a proper translation) be rendered as "And God says [at all times], 'Let there be light.'" | Strong's Hebrew's page for the word "ohr" ("light" in Hebrew) describes the word "light" as used in Bereshit chapter one verses three, four, and five, as "light as diffused in nature, light of day." | The six days of creation operated on completely different laws than the world after natural law was "set." So the light mentioned was a light which completely illumated the Earth like daylight, but which came from a source other than the Sun. The stars as well, as I mentioned before, were created on day four. | I believe the "light" here is referring to, additionally to physical light, spiritual "light." | According to Jewish tradition, God created ten things on day three (aside from the Earth and the Heavens), not just the light. But this is all that is mentioned in the written text (although darkness is mentioned in verse four, so it appears that is one of the other ten, from the text alone).
"And God saw* the light, that it was good**, and the God separated the light from the darkness***." *Observed, considered. **Strong's Hebrew's page for the Hebrew word "tov" (good) says, about the usage of the word in this verse, under definition 3 ("good, excellent of its kind"), "[good,] of the several creations"; "and God saw that it was good, excellent." ***In verse five, God calls the "light" being spoken of here "day," and the "darkness" "night." But day and night are caused by the great luminaries? Right? Well, firstly, as I've said, there was daylight, but it was from a different source than the Sun. So, initially, there was a mixture of light and darkness (the word for "evening," such as used in the next verse, in Hebrew, is "erev" in Hebrew, which also means "mixture") -- they had to be separated -- the same way light and dark are "mixed" at sunset or sunrise. But the sky wasn't created yet (or at least "solidified"), so the light-darkness mixture was not the kind seen in the sky at sunrise. Then God separated them and they became distinct. | I believe this verse also means spiritual "light" and "darkness" were also separated (they were mixed before as well).
"And God called the light 'day' and the darkness he called 'night'*. And there was evening and there was dawn**, the first day." *I believe now day and night were distinct and that, from a miraculous (like everything during the six days of creation) source, light illuminated half the Earth and that it rotated, causing day and night. This is required for "evening and morning" to happen. **A better translation for "boker" in this context than "morning"; "evening and morning" as used here are, in Hebrew, "erev" and "boker" respectively. Like I said before, "erev" also means "mixture" (evening is a mixture of day and night, hence that usage). But don't different places on Earth experience day and night at different times? Where is this "evening and morning?" Possibly the order of "evening and morning" can be switched for places which started in night. It says "evening and morning" but it does not absolutely say the order in which they occurded. This verse also means that day and night rotated once. The half of Earth in day and the half at night switched, and then switched again. This is why it says "day" (as in a period of 24 hours). | Also note that, as the sky wasn't existent yet (or at least "solidified" yet), all this "light," "evening," and "dawn" were not like the kinds seen in the sky.
"And God said, 'Let there be an expanse* in the midst** of the water, and let it divide the water from the water.'" *Hebrew "rakiya" often translated as "firmament," but, as I partially said before, it really means "expanse," "extended surface," "(solid) expanse" sometimes, the "vault of heaven," [refer to introductory paragraph's description of this "raqia"]. This expanse (which is solid according to ancient Hebrew cosmology) is partially synonymous with the heavens (God calls the expanse heaven in verse seven). It appears, based on my reasoning and what I believe about ancient Hebrew cosmology, this "expanse" is indeed a solid dome (either of a half-ellipse or sphere shape, or of a different shape entirely), a solid expanse above the Earth, on which the later created stars are affixed. **Hebrew for "midst," "center," "middle," "among," "inside," etc. The "rakiya" was created in the middle of the water, to separate between the upper and lower part. | Earlier, the "divine presence" hovered over (on top of) the waters. Now that the upper waters are being separated from the lower waters, the "divine presence" is moved to above heaven (alongside the upper waters), which is also "God's domain." | Another understanding than what I've previously written is that, as a Jewish work called "Bereshit Rabbah" says, the heavens existed on day one, but God only "hardened" it and made them solid on day two. But would it have already been in the middle of the waters then, some "soft" thing which was later hardened? This idea doesn't make too much sense to me, but it's part of the Jewish "midrash," but those are often not literal. I don't know. (This page also isn't meant to be a Jewish commentary.)
"So God made the expanse and it separated between the water that was below the expanse and the water that was above* the expanse, and it was so." *It says "above the expanse," and, according to "Bereshit Rabbah," the waters above the [dome] are not said to be "on the expanse," but "above it," because (supposedly) the waters float above and do not rest on the [dome]. Again, I don't know if I really agree.
"And God called the expanse 'heaven*,' and there was evening and there was dawn, a second day**." *Alternatively, "sky"; this is, according to one view, evidence that heaven was only created on day two. | Heaven/the sky, being that it was at least partially created on day two, can't have been lit up on day one (when light was created), so the "light" on day one was a different kind of light than the light that comes at sunrise when the sky lights up partially (because there was no sky). **Why doesn't it say that "God saw that it was good," at the end of day two? There is a Jewish tradition about angels falling or something of the sort, but from the plain text, an apparent reason is that the waters were still uncompleted on day two, to be finished on day three, when they gathered into "one place" and dry land appeared. But if the heavens/"rakiya" were created on this day (according to a literal view of the text), then couldn't have God seen that at least that creation "was good?" Well, there was one thing lacking in the heavens/"rakiya" as well on day two: the stars. So both the waters and the heavens were uncompleted on day two.
"And God said, 'Let the water that is beneath the heavens gather into one place*, and let the dry land appear**.' And it was so." *Before this utterance, in my view, the waters were very tall and covered the entire bottom of the Earth, going up into the heavens. Now God has brought the waters into their designated location on Earth, as they are today. **According to one view, the whole dry land on the Earth until some time after the Great Flood was in one location -- possibly a circular shape, a "pangaea"-like continent, or some other shape/structure entirely -- in the center of the sea and circular plane of the Earth. Bereshit 10:25 says, "And to Ever were born two sons: one was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and the name of his brother was Yoktan." (Ever was the son of Arpachshad, the son of Shem, the son of Noach.) THIS article goes into greater detail about this idea. Anyway, I was thinking, then, that the Earth must have been one continent initially, and then that Peleg was named as such because the Earth physically was dividing when he was born. But, according to what is written in the first section of THIS article, Peleg was named as such because Ever (his father) was a prophet and foresaw the dispersion after the Tower of Bavel, a very different meaning of his name. However, regardless, some do say (such as the author of the first article linked about the significance of Peleg's name) that the Earth's continents "fit together" like jigsaw puzzle pieces and appear to have once been together. But that's really just a personal opinion, so it's not of much worth. So, regarding whether the land was one continent or like how it is now when it was created, I can offer no statement, truly.
"And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters he called seas*, and God saw that it was good." *So the seas of the world are not just a bunch of water on the flat [Earth] plane, but they are 'gathered into one place.' Or perhaps the waters being 'gathered into one place' just means that they were lowered and brought closer to the bottom of the Earth's surface/seabed.
"And God said, 'Let the Earth sprout grass, herb that yields seed, and fruit trees producing fruit according to its species*, whose seed is in itself on the Earth.'" This is the utterance at which the first life is created. Before this, the Earth was (presumably) sterile and desolate, but now, the first, and lowest, order of macro-scopic life is created: plants. The world was created for life, and all life was created for man. There is at least some way in which the divine is emulated in plants, being that they are a form of life. The dirt and the waters are inanimate and sterile, with no ability to do anything or influence by themselves anything else in any sort of intentful manner -- indeed, even plants, to the lowest degree, have a sort of "intent" behind their growth and action, not just completely mindless -- but plants grow and perform orderly functions (and thus they are a form of life); this quality (life) emulates the divine in that God has mastery over all, control, influence, and intent, which is what life involves. Indeed, each day of creation the world was one step closer to fulfilling its purpose; now life is created on this day, and the divine aspect of intentful mastery and control is 'spoken' into the world. Each successive order of life (sea creatures and then foul, then land beasts, and then man) generally embodies this divine aspect more than the last. It started with grass, and ended with man. It should be noted that even the order in which 'grass, seed-yielding herbs, and fruit-trees' are created is from least to greatest in terms of the aforementioned divine quality. Grass is lowly on the Earth, barely growing beyond seven inches, and barely doing anything; then herbs and bushes grow much taller and farther and can expand in all directions, up, down, left, right, forward, and backward, with their branches; and then trees grow tall and mighty, far above the Earth, their branches growing even farther and taller and wider. Clearly a tree has more 'liveliness' than a patch of grass. *'Producing fruit according to its species' means that the seeds produce more trees, of the same species as the tree that it came from; e.g. reproduction (this is the first time also that biological reproduction is being referred to in the creation account). Furthermore, because God designed each creation with perfection, each aspect of each creation complements and corresponds to each of its other aspects -- God did not just assemble each thing randomly and with random parts and attributes -- and so, 'producing fruit according to its species' also means that each type of fruit was created to perfectly correspond to the nature of the tree itself (God did not assign random fruits to the trees that they grow on for no reason; each fruit is designed to complement the nature of the tree, its essence).
"And the Earth brought forth grass, herbs that yield seed according to its species, and trees producing fruit, in which its seed is found, according to its species, and God saw that it was good." This is mostly a recounting of the previous verse, now showing that God's utterance to bring these creations into being is actualized, but the wording is slightly different. For example, now it mentions that the herbs, as well, yield seed 'according to its species'; the seeds of herbs also perfectly correspond to the nature of the herb itself.
"And there was evening and there was morning, the third day." The body of light and heat and darkness and coolness rotated around the Earth, now the third time.
"And God said, 'Let there be lights* in the expanse** of the heavens, to divide between the day and between the night***, and let them be for signs**** and appointed seasons*****, for days and for years******.'" *The Sun, the Moon, stars/constellations, planets, comets, etc. **Not above the expanse. ***Before this, the day (body of light and heat) and the night (body of darkness and coolness, which may just be the absense of the former) rotated around the Earth (as it says, 'there was evening and there was morning', referring to previous days, and God said on day one 'let there be light') themselves, independantly, but now, the 'lights in the expanse of the heavens' control their movement and rule them (it appears only the Sun does this job). Furthermore, before this, the light and heat of day existed with no light- or heat-source, except for the Source of reality who willed them into existence to cover half of the Earth at a time and to rotate, but now the light and heat of day come from a physical source: the Sun. | Alternatively (goes one possible view), the light and heat of day did indeed have a source before the Sun: the aether (which is everywhere; it been claimed to also be the source of the Sun's light, power, movement, and suspension above the Earth). | Another alternative view is that some of the light and heat on the first three days 'collected,' consolidated into masses of light and heat (the lights in the sky); or, a similar view, that the lights in the sky are 'vessels' by which the light created before can enter the world. ****Other meanings of the Hebrew 'otot' (translated here as 'signs') include: symbols, miracles, and omens. Indeed this is referring to the (real) science of astrology. The stars, planets, and astronomical phenomena are often spiritual omens and may be used to predict the future. This is related to the Jewish traditional concept that each month on the [lunar] calendar (which is based on the lights in the sky) has different omens and spiritual qualities (e.g. the month of 'Nisan' for salvation and redemption, 'Av' for tragedy and suffering, etc.). | The lights in the sky, obviously, also are responsible for the literal seasonal cycles. *****For the apponted festivals on the Jewish calendar. ******The lights in the sky are meant to be used like a clock, a divinely ordained timepiece, with many separate cycles of differing periods.
"'And let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to shed upon the Earth*,' and it was so." This verse now mentions the most superficial, basic purpose of these lights: they are meant to shine light upon the earth. The Sun's light includes the following additional purposes (to those listed in the previous verse) -- and moonlight is the opposite in many ways to sunlight, such as how some say that moonlight is cold -- (and many more hidden ones also exist): to provide energy to plants (which were created on the previous day), and therefore then to animals who eat the plants (who may then in turn be eaten by humans) or humans who eat them; to provide heat to the earth, and therefore to its inhabitants, since things would become literally frozen and the world would become ice if not for an external source of heat; to give certain creatures and humans the essential nutrient, 'vitamin D', and other beneficial properties of the sun's light on our skin; to allow us to see in the daytime (and since the sun sets for a period every day, this also provides time for us to sleep and not work); to evaporate water to then turn it into clouds and then into rain; to prevent despair and depression that would result from perpetual darkness, and to grant happiness and pleasantness to the inhabitants of the earth; to create immense beauty (and verse 18 says that 'God saw it was good'), both from the midday sun and from the awesome colors present in the sky at sunrise and sunset; to dry the earth, soil, plants, etc. from rain and other sources of water; to allow one to know what part of the day it is or how much time has passed since a previous point. The Moon's light is so much more mysterious and hidden in its purpose, that, besides allowing one to know what phase of the month it is (which is described in the previous verse), all I can say is that (for some reason) the moon's light has a cooling effect, opposite of the sun, and it provides light at night during the right part of the month. All the more are the purposes of the stars secret and hidden, for, while they do allow for telling what part of the night it is, and for astrology, and for providing a very small amount of 'backdrop' light at night, and for navigation and telling where one is on the earth, the purpose of the patterns and arrangement of the stars is very secret, and the way God arranged the stars and constellations is absolutely a hidden secret, just like the purpose of the pattern of the dark spots on the moon, which almost appears like a map of continents. Then even more than this is the purpose of comets and shooting stars and other such lights absolutely hidden and secret. *This shows that the heavenly bodies were created only for the sake of the earth (which was in turn created only for man), unlike the atheistic creation myths' claims.
"And God made two great lights*, the greater one to rule** the day and the lesser one to rule the night***, And the stars." *They are both great lights, but as it says after, one is even greater than the other, but that does not diminish the fact that the other (the moon) is still also a great light. **The root word is 'memshelah,' which means to rule or have dominion or kingship. When the two kings (the sun and moon) meet, the one (the moon) eclipses and darkens the other (the sun), and the kingship is uncertain and so it's like there's no king for that time; and thus there's no light during that time. But then the moon retreats back to his kingdom again, and the sun is again crowned king over the day. ***The moon is at some times visible in the daytime, but it is still the sun who has 'rulership' and the moon is only like a guest. When it is night and the moon is also not present, it is like anarchy, and there is no ruler, and there is thus chaos. Indeed, the darker it is, the more a criminal will like to commit a crime at that time. Still, even when the moon is 'new' (it may very well actually be a new, separate moon), and the ruler is like he is dead, God is still King. The sun and moon are merely God's 'dukes' or 'viceroys.' | The stars are the inhabitants of the kingdom of the night, which is the moon's.
"And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to shed light upon the earth."
"And to rule over the day and over the night*, and to separate between the light and between the darkness, and God saw that it was good." *God is to high to directly rule this world, so he sends lower ones, like angels and the sun and moon, to be his 'dukes' to manage things for Him (they have absolutely no independant power than God, though). On previous days, God was the direct source of the light, but starting with this day, He delegates the sun and moon to do this job instead. | When it is a cloudy day, the clouds think, "We will overthrow the sun! Now our kingdom will arise instead!" But it is actually the sun who brought them up in the first place, for the sun is the one who evaporates the water which forms clouds. This is a lesson for the righteous person that he should actually fuel his own opposition! For example, Rabbi Eliezer Berland encourages his students to give more fire to the flames of thos who slander and opporess him. This gives a person rectification (of the soul) and merit. This (about the clouds and the sun) is also a lesson on how the wicked (the clouds) rise up to overthrow God (the sun here), but it is actually God himself who brings them up and gives them power, just to destroy them. Indeed, later, always do the clouds disperse by the wind, and it is sunny again. This is like how the builders of the Tower of Babylon rose up against God -- but this was only His plan -- but he destroyed them; furthermore, in this time the World Economic Forum and the Freemasons and the United Nations and such organizations (e.g. the forces of evil) rise up against God, but, just like even a stormy night, God will stop the rain, then disperse the clouds, and then it will be daytime and then sunny again. And after it rains, the rain even purifies the air (in a big city especially), so the following day, the sky will be even clearer. After the forces of evil are destroyed for the final time (Gog and Magog), the Messianic era will come, and the godliness will shine like never before in all of time.
"And it was evening and it was morning, the fourth day." This is the first time evening and morning are done through the sun and moon.
"And God said, 'Let the waters swarm a swarming of living creatures, and let fowl fly over the earth, across the expanse of the heavens.'" Now, with the plants created and the sun and the moon created, the world is fit for God to create sea creatures and fowl. Contrary to the evolutionary claims, fowl came before land beasts. | By this point there still were not creatures to roam the land, the earth, only creatures to abide in the waters and air, so these still are lower levels of life than beasts, since they are like auxillary to the earth, swimming or flying around it, but not making their habitation on it. This is another awesome and great creation, now of conscious, animate life. But what is created on this day is secondary life, because it does not walk the earth like a beast, even the crawling creatures that are created in the next verse, which crawl and slither about instead of walking walking high like a beast.
"And God created the great sea monsters*, and every living creature that crawls, with which the waters swarmed, according to their species, and every winged fowl, according to its species, and God saw that it was good." *In the earlier days, it may have been that great sea monsters existed that do not exist now, even mightier than the whale. The word used is 'taninim,' which can also be translated as 'serpent' or 'dragon.' The Talmud says that on that day God also destroyed some of these creatures, for they were too mighty and great to allow the world to be sustained. This may include great dragons, giant sea monsters, and other monsters. All of these are still lower than beasts, and as such they were created only on day five, not day six.
"And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the fowl multitply on the earth." It is a blessing to be fruitful and bear many children, not a curse, as now it is claimed by the wicked.
"And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day."
"And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to its species, livestock and creeping things and the beasts of the earth according to its kind.' And it was so."