Creation in the Old Testament 

In the Old Testament, creation is shown as God's foundational act, bringing the universe into existence. Genesis describes how God created the world in six days, culminating in humanity's creation in His image. This emphasises God's power, establishing humanity’s special role. Creation is shown as both a historical event and a theological truth, highlighting God's sovereignty, goodness, and desire for relationship with His creation.


“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1–2) 


Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26) 


“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

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“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11; see also Exodus 31:12-18 & Deuteronomy 9:10) 


This text from Exodus is important because it was written directly on tablets of stone by God himself, and there is a clear and definite link between the six working DAYS and the Sabbath, and the seven DAYS of the Creation week. In each case it is an ORDINARY day. 

So God created humankind in God's image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

In the Wisdom of Solomon, these are the words attributed to “ungodly men.” 


“For we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been, for the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts; when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.” (Wisdom 2: 1-3) 


This text is describing belief in evolution as essentially “ungodly.” Man is seen as a being arising by chance, and without an immortal soul. The text goes on to describe those who think this way as living sensual lives with no thought of God. So this a biblical passage essentially criticising the principal of atheistic evolution.

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On the other hand, further on in the book, we find this passage,


“Wisdom protected the first-formed father of the world, when he alone had been created; she delivered him from his transgression, and gave him strength to rule all things. But when an unrighteous man departed from her in his anger, he perished because in rage he killed his brother. When the earth was flooded because of him, wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood.” (Wisdom 10: 1-4)


Here the text speaks of the creation of Adam, Original Sin, Cain killing his brother Abel, the Flood of Noah, and the Ark, as real historical individuals and events, and not myths or inventions. 

Quotes on Creation in the Old Testament

  • “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth.” (Psalm 33:6-9).

  • “I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.” (Isaiah 45:12)

  • “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other.’ ” (Isaiah 45:18)