Genesis:Creation and Blessing

Creation and Blessing
    The idea of blessing dominates the theology of Genesis; the word ‘bless’ in its verbal and noun forms occurs eighty-eight times, more than in any other biblical book. Divine blessing in Genesis typically consisted of procreation or material prosperity. Important blessings included the giving of life at creation and the prosperity of the patriarchal family through children and riches.

Life (blessing)
    Genesis 1:1–2:3 includes three divine declarations of blessing (1:22, 28; 2:3). In the creation week God ‘blessed’ only the seventh day and ‘sanctified’ it, showing divine approval of his ‘good’ creation (2:3). Creation was achieved by divine fiat (‘then God said’) by which the earth became capable of sustaining life (days 1–3) and inhabited with innumerable life forms (days 4–6). The Creator on the fifth day brought forth life and ‘blessed’ the sea creatures and birds, directing them to reproduce (1:20–23). On the sixth day God created human life and ‘blessed’ the male and female so that they too would procreate (1:26–28). Human life, however, was specially honoured, for it represented the rule of God by virtue of the male and female’s being made in the divine image (1:26–27).

Procreation (seed)
    Procreation indicated divine favour and imparted life-giving power. ‘Seed’ in its metaphorical sense, meaning ‘offspring’, occurs commonly in Genesis (e.g. 4:25). The first instance of the word, however, is in its literal sense, and occurs in the account of the land’s producing vegetation (1:11–12; cf. 1:29). The significant point here, given the book’s central theme of promise, is the establishment of a pattern found in life, where the parent reproduces itself abundantly (‘kinds’, e.g. 1:21) in accordance with the creation ordinance which guaranteed prosperity in perpetuity for all life forms (‘Be fruitful and increase … fill the earth’, 1:22, 28).

Dominion (earth/land)
    God’s rule over creation was delegated to the luminaries which governed (maœs¥al) the heavens (1:16–18) and the human couple, the divine image, who through procreation and ownership subdued (kaœbas¥s¥) and ruled (raœda®) the earth with its life forms (1:26–28; Ps. 115:16b). These terms for rule are used also of royal dominion (e.g. 2 Sam. 8:11; 1 Kgs. 4:21, 24; Ps. 72:8), inferring that the human creature had the honoured role of representing the Creator as his vice-regent over the earth (Ps. 8:5–8). Human dominion over the earth is described in the Eden narrative (chs. 2–3), for God created the man from dust and placed him in the garden, which he tended as caretaker (2:7, 15). The man’s subjection of the animal world is indicated by his naming of the beasts (2:19). The creation of the woman as the man’s helper anticipated the blessing of procreation which is shown by the use of the anachronism ‘father and mother’ prior to their union as ‘one flesh’ (2:24). It was by human procreation that dominion could be achieved.