Plants appear to have emerged from green algae, which are eukaryotes. Cyanobacteria are prokaryotes (bacteria), and photosynthetic eukaryotes arose in part, from a second endosymbiosis event with cyanobacteria which became chloroplasts. The first endosymbiotic event lead to acquisition of mitochondria and currently, all existing eukaryotes appear to have possessed mitochondria at least in their past. So, eukaryotes with mitochondria emerged first and later sub-branches acquired cyanobacterial derived chloroplasts later. If we consider the early photosynthetic algea as the first plants then we can say that non-photosynthetic eukaryotes preceded plants.
Aside: Bacteria also have other photosynthetic mechanisms that do not use chlorophyll but it was chlorophyll containing cyanobacteria that lead to algae / plants.
In any case, photosynthesis appears to have emerged after the first cells. Earliest cells seem to be chemolithotrophs, which do not require photosynthesis for energy metabolism.
Added: I am in no way a scholar of the Torah and don’t know ancient or even modern Hebrew. I do understand that biological classification of 2.5 thousand years ago is very different from modern taxonomy. If Genesis was written with modern taxonomy in mind, then I suppose that most of the people in the past, including the ones that received the stories and used the stories as the basis of their nation/tribe, must’ve been badly confused for over 2.5k years.
This kind of thinking comes from the assumption of absolute time which scientists have discarded. The other side of that same assumption is the classic theology which thinks God timeless. But both of these are unwarranted. The time we experience is part of THIS physical universe and God is free to participate as He chooses but as its creator certainly not bound by it. This does not make God timeless, for God is also free to use time for Himself as He chooses. But this still makes questions about what God did for some imagined eternity of time before creation unnecessary and meaningless.
You’ve glossed over the issue of flying creatures (whether insects, birds, bats or pterodacyls) being described in Genesis as having existed before land animals, the issue of plants being around before the sunlight they need, and the issue of land plants being described as having existed before sea creatures.
If you’re taking the Cambrian explosion 540mya as the start of day 5, that would mean day 6 and land animals started 180mya, day 4 and the sun/moon appeared 1260mya, day 3 with seas and plants started 2700mya, day 2 with the sky 4140my and day 1 with light 7020mya.
These numbers don’t match scientific estimates at all. You’d have to fudge the numbers so much that you could equally well fit them to any timeline.
Or a quantum superposition of male and female. If the latter, it would be fascinating to see how that would resolve in the classic ‘two-slit’ beam experiment.
Only if you are going to be pedantic. The basic form is the same.
However, as I put above, such musings are meaninglless when dealing with a being that does not exist in our plane of existence other than as Jesus who is God in human form not the other way around.
It would seem that some people cannot get past the human element(s) of Scripture.
I was leaning more towards snarky, just for the record.
That’s my impression as well. It’s a bit silly to describe the physical characteristics of a non-physical deity. And as you say, Jesus was God in human form which makes no sense if God already started out in human form.
Richard has it correct. God is Spirit and to be made in His Image is a spiritual rebirth… being born again in Christ who is the Image of God. When He came and dwelt among us, died on the cross and then rose again, He was finishing His work of creation in us. The 6th day of creation was completed just 2,000 years ago… ironically this is even sooner than YEC believes. Through Jesus we can now enter His rest.
Thanks for that clarification. Cyanobacteria are sometimes called “blue-green algae” but you are right, they are not a true plant because they are not eukaryotes.
One interesting thing about eukaryotes is that we don’t really know how they evolved, but bacteria which they supposedly evolved from appear to have become an organelle, the mitochondria inside the cell. I believe God may have actually created them separately.
In the Garden narrative, God is describing this event at a microscopic level in terms, or imagery that Hebrews could understand and that we can now decipher. Adam who is made of dust, represents to first bacteria that God made outside the Garden. The Garden, the word for garden (1588. גַּן gan) means ‘fenced’ or ‘to hedge about’ represents the eukaryote cell with a cell wall, other organelle (trees) and a nucleus (trees in the midst) in its center that have their own DNA, apart from the mitochondria (Adam) who is then placed in the garden. Its a representation of endosymbiosis.
Interesting! Looked these up and are described as “rock eaters” and are part of the process of building or ‘tilling’ the soil that Adam is first tasked with.
Yes, I believe the generations from Adam (first single cell) to Abraham (modern humans) represent our common decent. There have been attempts to map the tribes, or “table of nations” to modern nations, but I believe Abraham is actually the true representative of all nations, as God said when He gave him his new name:
Gen 17:5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
How many nations are there now? I would say that “many” describes it sufficiently. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are not children of Abraham but of Satan. Spiritually, to be born of Abraham means Isaac who is a type for Christ.
I agree which is why I said He could have done “any number of things in the eternity past” and will leave it at that.
Genesis 2 refers to Adam being created from dirt. But that does not contradict Genesis 1 saying we are made in God’s image. Likewise evolution in no way contradicts saying that we are made in God’s image. Evolution merely gives a physical description of methods used in the process of creation.
Apart from day four (stuff in the heavens), the oldest among the things mentioned for each day in Genesis 1 does fall in the sequence given. But the evidence that Genesis 1 is talking about the sequence of creation is rather weak. Genesis 2 has a different sequence, as does Ps 104. The seven-day framework and the parallelisms point rather to an extended merismus.
Merismus is the figure of speech using parts to convey the whole. For example, an ad claiming that an event is fun for young and old is not trying to warn away us middle-aged folks. The advertiser hopes that I will mentally supply “and everyone in between”. Genesis 1 runs through the list: the heavens, the sea and sky, the land, the stuff in each of those. All are created by God. Everything has its proper role. No rival gods, no uncontrolled chaos or monsters, no purposeless “chance”.
Using our imagination, we can find various similarities between current scientific models and various verses. But that involves ignoring all the things that don’t match. If we recognize that Job’s references to storage buildings for weather are poetic, not meteorological, we have to consider what else is literary imagery. A consideration of all the interpretation of the Bible in light of classical Greek scientific ideas should give us pause about assuming that our current ideas of modern science are the final word.
There is a conversion factor for each day based on 2 Peter 3:8:
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years *(with the Lord) as one day *(of the Lord).
*Implied clarified meaning added in parenthesis.
The context of this verse is talking about when the Day of the Lord will be which is the same as the 1,000 year reign of Christ (Millennium) where He returns and we reign with Him (i.e. our time with the Lord). It is also the same as the 7th Day (Sabbath) of Creation. This Creation Day is the Day of the Lord which is important to distinguished from a day with the Lord.
So to convert a literal day to a Creation Day, we have:
1 day with the Lord = 1,000 literal years
so 1 year with the Lord = 1,000 literal years x 365 (days per year) = 365,000 (365K) years
so then, 1,000 years with the Lord = 365K x 1000 = 365 million years which is 1 Creation Day.
I believe the return of Christ was on the Day of Pentecost when He returned in the form of the Holy Spirit and indwelled His multi-part Body of Christ which we are, His physical Return. Jesus is the Image of God, and He completed the 6th day Creation event by making us in His Image. This provides our base point (or end of Day 6), 2,000 years ago, to count back from.
So the translation of 2 Pet 3:8 equates the length of a Creation Day to 365 million years. Over 6 days, this only adds up to 2.19 billion years, but there is another factor we are missing… that a day was not always 24 hours in length as you go back millions of years. The Earth rotated faster on its access meaning days were shorter with more days in a year. When the Earth was made 4.5 bya there were only 4 hrs in a day. Here is what I have complied from a number of sources:
Years ago
Hours in a year
Hours in a day
Days in a year
Today
8,766.00
24
365.25
100 million
8,766.00
23.33
375.74
200 million
8,766.00
22.66
386.85
300 million
8,766.00
22
398.45
400 million
8,766.00
21.33
410.97
500 million
8,766.00
20.66
424.30
600 million
8,766.00
20.33
431.19
700 million
8,766.00
20
438.30
0.8 - 1.5 billion
8,766.00
19
461.37
2.0 billion
8,766.00
18
487.00
2.5 billion
8,766.00
17
515.65
3.0 billion
8,766.00
15
584.40
3.5 billion
8,766.00
12
730.50
4.0 billion
8,766.00
10
876.60
4.5 billion
8,766.00
4
2191.50
13.8 billion
8,766.00
1
8766.00
If the length of each Creation day is measured from the start of that day, Day 7 which began a mere 2k years ago will last (to the end of this age) for approximately the next 365 million years since there are 365 days in a year. Good news is that we don’t have to worry about Armageddon happening any time soon. Side note: 2,000 years converts to about half a second ago. That’s when Jesus was here and He returns… in the blink of an eye?
To get to the fact of the matter, we need to take a little bit of an iterative approach to find the beginning of each day based on the number of days in a year. So we count back to 365 mya for the start of Day 6 but then see that at about that time, there were 411 days in a year. This adjusts the beginning of Day 6 to 411 mya.
Then count back to the beginning of Day 5. First iteration is 822 mya (411+411). There were however, 461 days in a year 800 mya so the beginning of Day 5 adjusts to 872 mya (411+461).
Using this same approach, here is the full adjusted timeframe of each creation day:
Days in a year
Start of Day
End of Day
(mya)
(mya)
Day 7
365
0
365 (future)
Day 6
411
411
0
Day 5
461
872
411
Day 4
461
1,334
872
Day 3
487
1,821
1,334
Day 2
516
2,336
1,821
Day 1
2,192
4,528
2,336
Beginning
8,766
13,294
4,528
There you have it! The start of Day 1 was 4.5 bya and beginning of the universe was 13.3 bya. There was no earth rotating in the Beginning, so we set the length of each day to 1 hour.
Mat 26:40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watchwith Meone hour?
It is interesting. The mitochondria appear to have come from alpha-proteobacteria which is a group within the the eubacteria (via endosymbiosis). It’s not known whether mitochondria were in the progenitor of all eukaryotes or just happen to be from the only branch that survived.There are some eukaryotes that lack mitochondria but with those it appears to be the result of loss, as opposed to never having them. This is because these species carry genes and parts that appear mitochondrial-derived.
More recently and within the past 10-15 years, an archaebacteria group has been identified in which the eukaryotes can be placed. This is among the Asgard archeabacteria with Heimdallarchaeia being the closest relations (at least is was the last time I checked).
With eukaryotes seeming to be traced to specific branches, one of the deepest (oldest?) splits left unresolved would be between the archeabacteria and the eubacteria. So what was once Carl Woese’s Three Domain model of life might now be reduced to Two Domains.
I wonder how well these cells do without mitochondria? According to AI Overview, mitochondria are the “powerhouse of the cell” producing energy. This is similar to how Adam worked to till the soil and dress and keep the Garden.
AI Overview
Mitochondria are often called the “powerhouses of the cell” because they primarily function to produce the energy that cells need to carry out their functions. This energy is stored in a molecule called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Mitochondria are also involved in other crucial processes like calcium storage, heat production, and cell growth and death.
Not sure what you mean? This is pretty simple what we are dealing with:
y * 1 million = x
y is the variable number of days in a year based on observed data. If you know y you can solve for x
Day 1 is described in Gen 2:4-7. Light, and heat is needed for the mist to rise and water the face of the ground. The first microbes such as bacteria to start working and making soil are the “plants of the field” and the “beasts of the field”.
Gen 2:8-14 is parenthetical, describing the fully grown Garden.
Day 2 is in verses 15-20. The “beasts of the field”, “birds of the air” and “plants of the field” are all describing single cell organisms including eukaryotes which I described as representing the Garden to Argon earlier.
Day 3 is in verses 21-25. Here we have cell division happening and coming together as one flesh with Adam and Eve representing our common decent with the first multicellular organisms (or clonal as a precursor) like algae and other plants in the Garden.
Day 4 is then in whole of Genesis 3. The serpent represents our common decent with the first parasites, cell killers like the ameba. Amoebas are known to eat brain cells and this serpent sit up in that “tree of knowledge of good and evil”. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and there eyes are opened. Fungi like mushrooms have eye spots, and can not only sense light but a spectrum of lights. They hid like “naked trees” under the fig leaves after eating the rotting fruit fallen from the “tree”… this is all still imagery though as there are really not mushrooms or fruit bearing trees yet but our common decedents with them are there on Day 4.
The reason that the lights (plural) in the heavens are not mentioned until Day 4 (really its the same light as day 1) is that their purpose is not yet established for “signs, seasons, days and years”. Before this can happen the skies had to be cleared of all the dust and debris, cloud vapor, and also the earth needed to cool enough that its not emitting its own light with magma/ volcanic activity. That was all pretty much settled on Day 3 and then on Day 4 the eye is being developed. Adam and Eve are given “animal skins” representing the first metazoans as they leave the garden.
Day 5 is in Genesis 4-5 with the genealogies from Adam to Noah representing all sea creatures including sponges, corals, protostomes, echinoderms and fish including flying insects.
Day 6 begins with Noah and is completed in Jesus. The actual historical record begins in Genesis 12 with Abraham.