The Creation

In the beginning, God created the universe.

When the earth was as yet unformed and desolate, with the surface of the ocean depths shrouded in darkness, and while the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters,

So God made a canopy that separated the water beneath the canopy from the water above it. And that is what happened:

Then God said, “Let the water beneath the sky come together into one area, and let dry ground appear!” And that is what happened:

God called the dry ground “land,” and he called the water that had come together “oceans.” And God saw how good it was.

Then God said, “Let vegetation sprout all over the earth, including seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each kind containing its own seed!” And that is what happened:

Vegetation sprouted all over the earth, including seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each kind containing its own seed. And God saw that it was good.

to serve as lights in the sky, and to shine on the earth!” And that is what happened:

God placed them in space to shine on the earth,

to differentiate between day and night, and to distinguish light from darkness. And God saw how good it was.

So God created every kind of magnificent marine creature, every kind of living marine crawler with which the waters swarmed, and every kind of flying creature. And God saw how good it was.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature, each kind of livestock and crawling thing, and each kind of earth’s animals!” And that is what happened:

God made each kind of the earth’s animals, along with every kind of livestock and crawling thing. And God saw how good it was.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, to be like us. Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over the earth itself!”

So God created mankind in his own image; in his own image God created them; he created them male and female.

God blessed the humans by saying to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! Be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!”

God also told them, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant that grows throughout the earth, along with every tree that grows seed-bearing fruit. They will produce your food.

I have given all green plants as food for every wild animal of the earth, every bird that flies, and to every living thing that crawls on the earth.” And that is what happened.

Now God saw all that he had made, and indeed, it was very good! The twilight and the dawn were the sixth day.

The Seventh Day

With this, the universe was completed, including all of its vast array.

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God stopped working on everything that he had been creating.

Humans in the Garden

These are the records of the universe at its creation. On the day that the Lord God made the universe,

no shrubs had yet grown in the meadows of the earth and no vegetation had sprouted, because the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there were no human beings to work the ground.

Instead, an underground stream would arise out of the earth and water the surface of the ground.

So the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs, and the man became a living being.