Does Genesis 2:1 contradict the big bang?

If the universe is finished, how can it expand?

How can you find meaning in such a verse?

Does the earth still change? We have volcanoes and other catastrophic things occurring that still make changes on the earth.

The universe is here and able to support life in this one little speck, and that’s what was needed by God. I don’t see how expansion would conflict with that.

1 Like

You don’t read it as a commentary on universe expansion, for one.

2 Likes

@Reggie_O_Donoghue Interesting question. The NASB says:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. Gen. 2:1

There is so much motion inherent in the cosmological elements. Galaxies spiral and move, planets revolve and rotate. So “done” or “finished” can easily be seen as “set in motion” and allowed to do what it does. To run its course.

When I read your comment, the first thing that came to mind was teaching a little one to ride a bike. The teacher is very active in the beginning, and, once done, backs off. The motion does not stop, but the teacher ceases to be engaged, because it (the process) is complete.

Reasons to Believe puts a different spin on it and sees the grammar as describing the universe as in a continual state of stretching. This view is not accepted by everyone, but the grammar seems to allow for it.

1 Like

Dear Reggie,

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. (Gen 2:1-2)

For me it is quite clear that God is not yet finished with His works and has not yet rested. As little as 2,000 years ago He sent His only Son to save His children, therefore, not finished.

This worldview says that the material world had not existed until after Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise, out of Eden.
Best Wishes, Shawn

The Seventh Day, God Rests
​Gen 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

This passage is likely to be the result of the Priestly writer to establish the Sabbath based on the Creation, which set up the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish establishment over healing on the Sabbath. It also is the basis of the 6 day Creation.

Jesus pointed to this problem in the Genesis account. John 5:17 “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” That is, their work way not completed, so they could rest on the seventh day.

1 Like

It was finished in a dynamic state, with planets orbiting the sun, the sun orbiting the galactic centre, and the universe expanding. Thus the universe can continue to expand.

… the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

The Hebrew word translated here as ‘rest’ also means ‘cease’. So God ceased, or rested from, His creative work after six days. But God has not ceased his sustaining action and neither does He cease to guide creation and work toward the salvation of those He made in His image.

1 Like

That’s not the point I was making, the point I was making was that the heavens and all their host (the stars), were supposedly ‘completed’, which is not what modern scientific cosmology tells us.

It sounds to me you are arguing a point made by flat earth thinkers. Their cosmology, even if they do not accept it, is a closed “box” system. Everything in this box we call the universe is complete and finished. This universe does have all the attributes that science claims, but only through a restricted physical sense, that cannot go against physical observation. Some argue there is just a simulation of an appearance that we exist in. This simulation is our physical reality.

Chris’ point does address yours. God made plants, animals, fish, birds, and people. That process was equally “complete”… and yet we don’t imagine that the cycle of death and life continuing is somehow incompatible. The same is true for the cosmos. There is a life-cycle for stars that seeds the universe with elements and material to make new stars and planets.

1 Like