What is created in the creation story of Judaism?

Answer 1

Genesis ch.1 and 2 are all one creation-narrative. Neither predates the other. Rather, chapter 1 relates, in broad strokes, God's creation of the world, and chapter 2 recaps with full detail. It doesn't return to the creation of animals because they are less important.

Answer 2

There are actually two stories of the creation of the world in Genesis, a book shared by Judaism and Christianity, and fragments of a third one in Psalms and Job.
First creation story

In Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was already present and a wind moved across the surface. The seas rested on the dry land, which appeared on day 3 when God gathered the waters together. The creation consisted of:
(Day 1) light (day).

(2) the firmament, which was believed to separate the waters of the heavens from the lower waters.

(3) Grasses and trees. Also, by gathering the lower waters in one place the land appeared, but as it already existed, it was not created.

(4) sun; moon and stars - the lights in the firmament.

(5) fish, land creatures and fowl.

(6) man, both male and female.

Second creation story

Genesis 2:4b to 2:15 is actually the older account in Judaism religion and says that there was pre-existing dry land, but God had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and God took some moist clay and made Adam. An English translation of the original Hebrew verses 2:4-6:

Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens - while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground ...

After his first act of creation, the creation of Adam, God created every living creature, then Eve. He planted a garden and made trees grow, but it is unclear from the text whether these were acts of creation, and Genesis 2:5 suggests that the plants and trees were ready to grow as soon as they received water. This account does not mention creation of the sun, moon and stars.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 3

A Jewish summary of the Creation-narrative is that, day by day, God created the universe and everything in it (Genesis ch.1).Link: Can you show that God exists

God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30). Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1 states emphatically that this is a fundamental Jewish tradition.Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

Link: More about Creation

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth. The light was not the same as that of the sun. Rather, it was light that God created before the sun, and which emanated from a point in space without any physical source; like what we might term a "white hole."
  
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
  
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
  
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
  
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
  
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
  
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.

Link: God's wisdom seen in His creations

The Torah states that it was written in its entirety by one author, Moses (Deuteronomy 31:24), to whom it was dictated by God (Exodus 24:12), including earlier events.

The Torah has one creation-narrative, which takes the form of a summary (Genesis ch.1) followed by an in-depth recap (Rashi commentary, Genesis 2:8).
When we see a newspaper whose opening headline is paraphrased in the detailed story, we don't ascribe the repetition to different writers.

But this kind of literary device, which the Torah employs to enrich its text, has been used by Bible-critics in an attempt to reassign and divide up its authorship.

The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of the literary devices used by the Torah, which include:

- recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

- employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

- using apparent changes or redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

- speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially attributing the narrative to several unknown authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim.

See the other Related Links.

Link: Refuting the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

Link: The creation-narrative in Genesis (a Christian author)

Link: The authorship of the Hebrew Bible

Answer 4

A Jewish summary of the Creation-narrative is that, day by day, God created the universe and everything in it (Genesis ch.1).Link: Can you show that God exists

God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30). Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1 states emphatically that this is a fundamental Jewish tradition.Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

Link: More about Creation

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth. The light was not the same as that of the sun. Rather, it was light that God created before the sun, and which emanated from a point in space without any physical source; like what we might term a "white hole."
  
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
  
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
  
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
  
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
  
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
  
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.

Link: God's wisdom seen in His creations

The Torah states that it was written in its entirety by one author, Moses (Deuteronomy 31:24), to whom it was dictated by God (Exodus 24:12), including earlier events.

The Torah has one creation-narrative, which takes the form of a summary (Genesis ch.1) followed by an in-depth recap (Rashi commentary, Genesis 2:8).
When we see a newspaper whose opening headline is paraphrased in the detailed story, we don't ascribe the repetition to different writers.

But this kind of literary device, which the Torah employs to enrich its text, has been used by Bible-critics in an attempt to reassign and divide up its authorship.

The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of the literary devices used by the Torah, which include:

- recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

- employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

- using apparent changes or redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

- speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially attributing the narrative to several unknown authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim.

See the other Related Links.

Link: Refuting the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

Link: The creation-narrative in Genesis (a Christian author)

Link: The authorship of the Hebrew Bible

Answer 5

A summary of the Creation-narrative is that, day by day, God created the universe and everything in it. On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth.

On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.

On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.

On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.

On day 5: God created birds and fish.

On day 6: God created animals and people.

On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.

See also:

Is there evidence against Evolution?

Can you show that God exists?

Seeing God's wisdom

According to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8).

While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24).

No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim:Debunking the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

The creation-narrative in Genesis (a Christian author)

Answer 6

The Book of Genesis contains two quite different creation traditions, at Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Genesis 2:4b-25. However, like many others, you may choose to read them as if the second account were a summary of the first, and ignore the differences in the two narratives, including content, mood and orientation.

The first account describes God creating the world in just six days, with man and woman the last creations on day six, and then resting on the seventh. In this account, God was all-powerful and simply spoke things into existence.

The second account describes God creating a man, Adam, followed by each of the animals then, last of all, Eve. In this account, God's powers are more limited and he can not make living things out of nothing. He makes Adam, and then each of the animals, out of moist earth and then makes Eve out of a rib he takes out of Adam.

For a more detailed summary of the creation story, please visit http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 7

A Jewish summary of the Creation-narrative is that, day by day, God created the universe and everything in it (Genesis ch.1).God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30). Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1 states emphatically that this is a fundamental Jewish tradition.Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth. The light was not the same as that of the sun. Rather, it was light that God created before the sun, and which emanated from a point in space without any physical source; like what we might term a "white hole."
  
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
  
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
  
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
  
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
  
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
  
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.
  

See also:

Is there evidence against Evolution?

Can you show that God exists?

Seeing God's wisdom

Answer 8

There are actually two stories the creation of the world in Genesis and fragments of a third one in Psalms and the Book of Job. These stories are common to both Judaism and Christianity, although each religion places some different interpretations on the texts. Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that the second creation story in Genesis departs from the first not only in content but also in tone, mood and orientation, and the two stories, which had two different authors, are entirely unrelated. In order to understand Genesis we must scrupulously avoid reading into the second story any facts or notions taken from the first, and vice versa, he says.
In Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was already present and a wind moved across the surface. The seas rested on the dry land, which appeared on day 3 when G-d gathered the waters together. The order of creation was as follows:

1. (Day 1) light (day);
2. the firmament, which was believed to separate the waters of the heavens from the lower waters;
3. By gathering the lower waters in one place the land appeared. Grasses and trees;
4. Sun; moon and stars - the lights in the firmament;
5. Fish, land creatures and fowl;
6. Man, both male and female.

Notice that the light of day was not yet understood to have originated from the sun, although the sun was universally understood to rule the day. That is why it was possible to have grass and trees before the sun was created.

Genesis 2:4b to 2:15 is actually the older account in Judaism religion and says that there was pre-existing dry land, but God had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and G-d took some moist clay and made Adam. An English translation of the original Hebrew verses 2:4-6: Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens - while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground ... The order of creation in the second creation story is that God made man before he created the creatures in his domain. There is no mention at all of God creating the sun, moon and stars.

More information can be found in Anchor Bible Series: Genesis (Speiser) and Middle Eastern Mythology (Hooke). Also, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 9

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth.
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.

Answer 10

Traditionally, according to one or the other of the descriptions in Genesis. We point out that "day", as in "there was evening and there was morning, one day" is not meant in the literal sense. It is argued that Genesis contains two versions of the origin myth precisely to indicate that it's to be taken as a metaphor, not literal truth. We are less concerned with the details than with its origin in the will of God. The wonder of a great painting lies in the genius of the artist, not in the chemical composition of the pigments.

AnswerJewish teachings tell us that the story of creation as outlined in the Torah tells us only WHAT HaShem did, not HOW He did it. The majority of Jews, including religious Jews, do not find any conflict between the story of creation and the theory of evolution.

As for the "days" of creation, it's very important to know that the Hebrew word that is translated as 'day' is the word 'yom'. Although today, the word 'yom' is almost exclusively used to refer to a 24 hour period (1 day), that is not its only definition. Rather, 'yom' can also refer to a long period of time similar to an epoch. This is supported by the creation story in the Torah which uses the word 'yom' prior to HaShem creating day and night.

As for the two versions of the story of creation in the Torah, the differences are that the two stories are from different point of views. One from HaShem's point of view and the other from creation's.

Answer

The Jewish creation narrative is found in Genesis. Though not everyone agrees, there are religious Jews who believe in the recent age for the earth. See the Discussion page.