#Genesis 1:24-31

Day Six, or, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”

The creation of animals in vv. 24-25 is pretty straightforward; same concern for categorization in advance of kosher laws.

Now to make four relatively strong statements about the creation of humanity:

1. The plural in “Let us make humans” isn’t some “plural of majesty,” like the queen of England saying “we,” because Hebrew doesn’t have such a thing. God is addressing his heavenly court, with its various divine beings. This isn’t polytheism; it’s super standard.

2. God created humans on day six. Not just one, and not even just two, but like a lot of them. However many cows you think God created, that’s how many people God created. He’s going by species, not by individual. (This isn’t Genesis 2!) Males and females, all at once. Like cows.

3. “In the image of God” here means “in the literal physical shape of.” It isn’t a metaphor for creative power; it isn’t about dignity or something. It means humans are the same shape as God. Or vice versa. Which is just what everyone back then basically thought. No biggie.

4. Like with the animals, “Be fruitful and multiply” isn’t a command, it’s a blessing. And it’s not for individuals, it’s for the species. And it’s only good until the earth is filled with people (and Israel becomes a nation). Then it’s been fulfilled. No one has to procreate.

I could say more about each of these, but I was really going for one tweet per argument. So if anyone wants to dig in, let’s go.