Genesis Study: Week 13 - 1:20-21
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Filling the High and Low Waters
Filling the High and Low Waters
Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.”
And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
“And God was saying, ‘The waters will swarm with swarmers of living creatures…”
Continues God’s continuous act of creating. The word here for “waters” is again “mayim” which we know are what the “lower waters” were called which the “ground” was formed amidst. So here, these are the “waters below the heaven (expanse)”.
The word for “will swarm” is a verb which literally means, “to multiply”, “swarm” or “to be/become abundant”. The word is “yisresu” which has a root of “saras” (שָׁרַץ). In this statement God is creating a past tense declaration of an indefinite state that the waters will now occupy. They will be filled with swarming creatures.
This pattern here is similar to the one previously of “sprouts will sprout” where here we have “swarmers will swarm”, effectively. The verb “will swarm” which will occur within the waters will be done upon the waters by those living creatures which behave in a way whic
h makes up the action “to swarm”. It’s another instance of a noun and a verb being bound to one another in purpose. “That which was designed to swarm will behave like that which was designed to swarm.” Chicken or the egg?
The phrase “living creatures” which comes after “with swarmers” is made up of two Hebrew words: “nepes” (נֶפֶשׁ) and “hay-yah” (חַי).
“Nepes” is a creature or living thing, but also the soul, person, or animating spirit of something living. it can also mean something akin to “the inner self” or “the heart” of something. The major difference here between this and the “soul” as most of us mean it in modern times is that this is more like the “animating life” of a person which can be snuffed out in death. So this would be the entity in total: “soul, mind, and body” so to speak.
Whereas the word “hay” (root in “hay-yah”) which means “life” or “nourishment” but is an adjective here, and therefore describes a noun (“nepes” here) as “living”. The root of “hay” means “living”, but “hay-yah” is a direct participation in the Name of Yahweh again. this renders this word as effectively being “to be with life”. This is seemingly contrasted with all the other more elemental things (water, plants, rocks, heavens, etc) as “being” but here these things are “being with life”.
So we are given swarms of swarmers which are made from souls/animating spirits which are truly living.
…and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.”
“…and winged creatures will fly over the earth among the face of the heaven of the heavens.”
The word which is commonly translated as “birds” is really used for clean and unclean creatures alike. So this is more so a category for “winged creatures which can fly”, and i think it seems to likely require that the creatures can fly given the verb and actions that follow. The Hebrew word is “op” (עוֹף) and means:
1. LN 4.38–4.46 bird, i.e., winged creature that can fly; both clean and unclean (
the word used for “will fly” here is another form of the indefinite function of these creatures. The types of creatures which participate in this verb are again directly connected to the noun or vice versa. the specific version of this word is “yeo-pep” (“op” like above: עוּף). “That which was designed to fly will behave like that which was designed to fly.”
The word used for “above” and “among” is the same word “al” (עַל) which has a range of meanings:
1. LN 83.46–83.47 on, over, on the surface, upon, i.e., a spatial position upon another object (
since this word has flexibility depending on the context, i chose to state “above” the earth/land because that’s where flying creatures tend to fly as a general rule. And i put “among the face” because they don’t fly above the expanse but amongst or within it. i think the 2nd option above for “near or close to” would also not only make sense but have a beautiful poetry about it. “Winged creatures will fly close to the Heaven of the Heavens.”
The word for “face” is used in an almost identical way to how we still use it in modern times. “The face” of something can mean “that which is visible or foremost” or “the surface of something” (the “face” of the box, he ran across the face of the earth!) The Hebrew word here is “paneh” (פָּנֶה).
“…the Heaven of the Heavens.”
this is the same phrasing of “raqi ha sa-mayim” or the “firmament/expanse of the heavens” which we have seen used multiple times the last few weeks of study.
And God created the great sea monsters…
“And God was creating the great sea-giants…”
This is resuming God’s creative act and narrative with the continuation of the previous verses. So “God was saying” in the previous verse, and now “God is creating”.
The word for “great” here which is “gadol” (גָּדוֹל) is used almost identically to how we use it still in modern times. It can mean “a large amount” but also “of a higher order or size”. Given the context it would make this phrase be rendered either: “And God was creating the many sea giants” or “And God was creating the largest/highest-class sea giants”. This is the same word that was used of “the two Great Lights” from two weeks ago: “gedolim” which we stated pertained to regions or territories but also size and scales or manners of class.
The reason i am not using the version of gedolim which was territorial or regional is because we are not told that these creatures are given any kind of dominion over these locations, only that they are designed to dwell in the “lower waters”.
The word for “sea-giants” is the Hebrew word “tannin” (here pluralized to “tanninim”: תַּנִּין). This word has a very large range of meanings, but the dominant usage is something borderline mystical and mythical.
1. LN 4.51–4.57 sea monster, sea-dragon, i.e., a serpent-like monster (of myth?) that lives in the deep (of river or ocean), which can only be controlled by great powers (
What’s interesting is that the word for “the serpent” (later in the NT identified as Satan as we know him) is “nachash” but in some of the verses mentioned above (Isaiah 27:1 specifically), we are told explicitly that The Nachash (Satan) is “The Dragon (tannin) who lives in the sea” and also refers to it/him as “Leviathan” (Hebrew “liwyatan”: לִוְיָתָן). So serpents seem to be some kind of sub-category of “tanninim”. So all serpents are tanninim but not all tanninim are serpents.
— HAVE SOMEONE READ Revelation 13:1-4 —
And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.
Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain fatally, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast.
And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”
ALSO:
— HAVE SOMEONE READ Revelation 21:1 —
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
— AFTER Revelation 13:1-4 ASK: Who noticed it? —
Where does the beast mentioned come out from?
— AFTER Revelation 21:1 ASK: What do you notice? —
There is no longer any sea. The Greek word here for “Sea” is “Thalassa” which you might recognize as the root of “thalassaphobia” which is the intense fear of the Sea/Ocean. This word is used in the Septuagint’s translation of Genesis 1:22 for the word “seas”.
— HAVE SOMEONE READ Daniel 7:2 —
Daniel answered and said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
“And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.
— ASK: Where do the beasts arise from? —
Going all the way back to our earliest lessons (Week 2), who remembers where darkness reigned?
Quote from the 2nd Week:
“over/on the surface/face of the deep” is a very interesting choice of phrasing. Darkness is still, to this day, a powerful and all-consuming feature of the true depths of the “world” beneath the unstoppable forces of the ocean and the primary layers of land which Men inhabit. Caves, mines, graves, etc are places where no light comes unless it is effectively brought by Men. in “the depths”, darkness really is about all there is in the dichotomy of light vs dark.
so to state that “darkness is over the surface of the deep” would feel almost obvious to Men who have seen the ocean or the depths of caverns, but since this is the Revelation of God creating, it is very interesting to know this is actually the “primordial” state of the world. darkness is native to disordered existence, and was already present on all of the vastness of what God had yet to give shape.
