Creation

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth…. And God said, "Let there be light;" and there was light.
—Genesis 1:1, 3 KJV

Basic Information

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
The book of Genesis begins with an account of the Creation of the World. In the beginning, the earth is formless and chaotic, but organizes it and brings forth life over a course of six days

• Day 1: Creation of Light; separation of the Light from the Darkness
• Day 2: God separates the seas from the sky, ('the firmament' in the KJV)
• Day 3: God separates the waters from the dry land
• Day 4: God creates the Sun, the Moon and other heavenly bodies
• Day 5: God creates birds and fishes
• Day 6: God creates plants and land-based creatures including Man.

This week of Creation is concluded with a Day of Rest

• Day 7: God rests.

The account of each day follows a similar pattern: First God states what he is going to do. He creates by fiat; (In Latin, fiat means "Let there be…") his word of command causes things to come into existence. When he is finished, God regards his work and sees that it is good. The day concludes with the formula, "there was evening, and there was monrning — the first day."

After creating the beasts of the land, he creates Man, to rule over the creatures of the earth, sea and sky. It says God created Man "in our own image".

Setting aside questions of Creationism vs. Evolution, the Creation account teaches the following things:

• God is the ulitimate source and author of Creation
• Creation, in the beginning, was good.
• Man has a special place in Creation as the ruler of all living creatures
• After six days, God rested; therefore, the seventh day of the week shall be the Sabbath, the Day of Rest

See Also

• Creation Myths
• Adam and Eve
• Garden of Eden

Sources

Bibliography

1. Genesis, chapter 1 (KJV)

2. Wikipedia article: Creation according to Genesis

Game and Story Use

• The description of the earth before the creation of light suggests a primordeal chaos, a possible breeding ground for cthonic horrors!
• The way the Creation account describes the world reflects the ancient view of the sky being a dome over a flat earth. In a fantasy world, the earth might have such a cosmology.
• In v.26, it says "Let us make man in our own image."
  • Note the plural. Who is God talking to?
    • Christians have traditionally interpreted this to refer to the other Persons of the Trinity, but another interpretation is that God is speaking to the angelic hosts of heaven. Some scholars have speculated that this is a leftover from an earlier, pre-monotheistic version of the story.
  • What does "in our own image" mean? What qualities do humans have that are god-like? Defining what God is like will have an effect on the gameworld.
    • Of course, latter-day cynics have often observed the Man creates God in his own image; but that's a useful idea for the world-builder too.

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