Genesis Study: Week 6 - 1:6-8

The Expanse

Genesis 1:6 LSB

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

Elohim continues to be the subject of all the major verses as the narrative unravels.

Genesis 1:6 LSB

Then God said…

The translation of the phrasing follows the pattern of “and God was saying…” which is the next layer of sequence in God’s actions.

Genesis 1:6 LSB

…Let there be an expanse **in the midst of the waters**…

I just love this continuing pattern of God leveraging “yah” in His acts of declaring through His “voice”/“word”… “an expanse will be” or “may there be an expanse”, “an expanse will have being”. Creation gets informed that “The expanse will be” and it becomes so.

The best way to track this sentence in your mind is to imagine “the waters”, which seems to be a call back to Verse 2 where the Spirit of God was ‘brooding’ over of the surface of the waters (mayim: מַיִם). So I think it’s important for us to still see this as a state of in-flux of the original void and emptiness, the deep, and the waters from the earlier verses but where Light and Darkness are now distinct and present alongside this chaos/waters/deep, and now, “in the midst” of the remaining waters that are present, He creates the expanse.

Genesis 1:6 LSB

…“Let there be an expanse…

The word for “expanse” or “firmament” is the word “raqia” (רָקִיעַ) which in the past was not perceived as a void or emptiness, but as a solid and restrictive “structure” of sorts upholding the heavenly realm. The Rabbinic commentators have varying perspectives on this, most of them effectively stating they thing this is the division of the physical realms like atmosphere and “space”, as we think in the modern mind, but my favorite version is that this is actually more cosmological even than a physical creation. It’s an act of separating the Spiritual realm from the Physical realm.

I think this reading is quite obviously far less “organic” to the narrative, despite being fun, but the fact that it’s debated doesn’t mean that all sides have the same amount of plain merit in their arguments. I feel obligated to default to the “earth zone” vs “space” delineation being clearly defined and established, but i don’t want to be too rigid in that thought process. it’s important and fun to allow for thoughts like that as long as we don’t hold them too tightly.

The word “expanse” is used in lots of places, especially prophetically: Ezekiel, Daniel, Psalms, etc. The primary usage of this phrase in all of those contexts is like some kind of clearly defined “area above or surrounding” which is

— HAVE PEOPLE READ —

Daniel 12:3 LSB

“And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Ezekiel 1:22–23 LSB

Now over the heads of the living creatures there was something with the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads above. And underneath the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other; each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other.

Psalm 19:1 LSB

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

— TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENT WAYS (IF ANY) IT GETS USED —

Genesis 1:6 LSB

“…let it separate the waters from the waters.”

There is a weird version of the underlying Hebrew word “mabdil” which means “to separate” where the way the word is structured makes it work out as “to cause to separate”. So the sentence would read as “and the expanse was being which caused a separation between the waters (mayim) and the waters (mayim).”

Genesis 1:7 LSB

So God made the expanse…

“So God was making the expanse…”

Genesis 1:7 LSB

…and separated the waters…

“and was separating the waters…”

Genesis 1:7 LSB

…and it was so.

“And it was being so” — “and it was being, honest, true to itself”

Genesis 1:8 LSB

And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.