Unearthing Genesis 1:1 | Part 1

The Sapphire Review Vol. 2 | No. 14 • April 4, 2025

Apr 04, 2025

Foundational Principles

In setting the foundation for the present series, we will begin by establishing two principles that have informed our approach to understanding the creation account and Genesis 1:1. Following our address of these two principles, we will begin presenting our understanding in the following article.

1. Line Upon Line

9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isaiah 28:9–10

Truly biblical – Biblical Cosmology is understood by employing the fundamental principle and firm foundation of Line Upon Line. In reading the Genesis 1 creation account, the wisdom of God is imparted by the Holy Ghost to the believer, in-context, who teaches him to compare scripture with scripture, and spiritual things with spiritual.1 By allowing the Bible to define its own words and be its own expositor, we leave it not to man’s wisdom, but to the wisdom of the Spirit of Christ2 to teach us all things. It is by this way, and only this way, that we can rightly divide the word of truth.3

2. Creation by the Word of God

There is a second principle that has informed our view on this matter, and that principle is creation by the Word of God. We bear witness of the inspired testimony that all things that have come into being were created by the word of God.4

It is true not only of the spoken word, but of the Word himself. For the only begotten of the Father,5 Jesus Christ, who as the mouthpiece and spokesman of the Father, is He that spoke in the beginning. He is the medium through whom JEHOVAH made all things.6 Thus, we affirm and uphold the principle of creation by the WORD OF GOD in two ways: in personality (the only begotten Son, who speaks and does the perfect will of the Father), and in action—i.e., the mechanism (the breath and spoken word of God).

Exemplary Texts

As will be now evidenced, the biblical writers are in harmony with this fact:

Example #1: David

6 By the word of [JEHOVAH] were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear [JEHOVAH]: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
Psalm 33:6–9

When we examine the creation account of Genesis 1, we behold the record that every time God created, it was accomplished by His word.7 The record of each generation of God was preceded by the saying of Moses, “And God said”8 and concluded in the saying, “and there was…/and it was so.”9 These are the bookends of God’s words, and in them are the record of each creative work of God in the account which the Holy Ghost inspired Moses to write concerning the foundation of our world.

Example #2: Peter

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2 Peter 3:5

The emphasis of what was created by the word of God, firstly, is upon the Heaven (the firmament), and secondly, the Earth (the dry land) which stands out of the water and in the water—that is, the dry [land] which is both above it and below it. That which is IN the water includes the foundations of the earth10 and the pillars of the earth.11

The marginal reading for the word standing [out of the water and in the water] is consisting, which calls to mind the following passage from Colossians:

16 For by [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
17 All things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Colossians 1:16–17

In Luke 12:15, the same word, translated “consisteth,” is employed in association with man’s life (which consists by Christ who possesses him—that is, the life of man belongs to Him, and is sustained by Him).

So in 2 Peter 3:5, Peter is saying that the same people in the last days, who bear the doubtful question—“Where is the promise of [Christ’s] coming?”12—are willingly ignorant of the fact that by the word of God the heaven was established, and that the earth also, which like the heaven was created at His commandment, stands or consists out of the water and in the water, the very environment (the [divided] gathering together of the waters called Seas) wherein God brought forth the dry-land into existence from nothing by His word.

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:7

JEHOVAH’s last-days remnant will not be wilfully ignorant of this fact: that He created the heaven and the earth by His word, and that even now, the earth and the heaven[s] stand, consist, and are reserved (kept in store) by that same word.

Example #3: Paul

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Hebrews 11:3

This verse is one of the most significant of all which have informed our understanding of this subject. First things first, what does the word framed mean? How is it defined by the Bible? Employing the principle of line upon line, Paul evidently defines framed as made. But let us turn to the prophet Isaiah for a second witness to this definition:

Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Isaiah 29:16

This passage is quoted by the apostle in the book of Romans, who renders it accordingly:

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Romans 9:20

The Bible defines the word framed as formed and made (see also perfected13 and prepared14).

Now let us continue the exposition of this verse.

The things which are seen (visible) are things which have been previously fulfilled. They have already been made and done—for instance, the heaven and the earth, which were created in the beginning. The same were not made of things which do appear (that have a beginning), but rather, they were framed (made) by the word of God.

That is to say, the heaven and the earth, which are seen, were not formed or made from pre-existing matter, for material things are things which “do appear.” The things which are seen have their beginning (appearing) in the word of JEHOVAH, who is without beginning. The firmament called Heaven and the dry-land called Earth were made by Him that did not appear. Both things seen and not seen are called forth by the word of God.

So when Paul tells us that “the worlds were framed by the word of God,” we are to understand, through faith, that all things—whether of this world or without—were formed and did appear at God’s word. As it is written, “All things were made by [the Word]; and without [the Word] was not any thing made that was made.”15 It is upon this sure foundation of creation by the word of God that our understanding of Genesis 1:1 is firmly established.

In Part 2, we will examine Creation by the Word of God in finer detail and draw out its imperative and inseparable relationship to Righteousness by Faith.

God bless,
Brandon