1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so. 10God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good. 11God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth;” and it was so. 12The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. 16God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, 18and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so. 25God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
26God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. 30To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
31God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Ancient cultures held much in common in regard to cosmology (the study of the beginning of the universe). Consequently, the considerable originality of Israelite ideas and their independence from other ancient Near Eastern cultures in regard to the beginning of the world becomes particularly significant. This uniqueness is found in at least three different areas, discussed in the following paragraphs.
First, creation has been explained in two ways regarding the nature of the creation being "good." Some would view this in a moral sense, and certainly, God is a morally good being. The moral nature of the God of Israel stands in striking contrast with the nations around Israel. Yahweh can bind His creation to high standards of morality because He is perfectly holy (Lev 11:44; Isa 6:3). The gods of the nations shared in heightened proportions the sins of peoples around the Israelites. The term "good," then, may be found at times in the Bible, such as there is none that is good, mentioned by Jesus in Mark 10:18. Yet, the word good found in Genesis 1 and 2 likely speaks of good in a different way. The text probably is speaking of "good" teleologically, that is, it satisfies his purpose in creation. This sense of "good" is like when a person is asked if they need something more help, or something else to eat at a restaurant. The response might be, "No thanks, I am good." The sense of this use is that I have everything I want, and that I have achieved what I was seeking to accomplish, though this may include the moral sense. Each of the days of creation, and finally all six days, ended with "it was good." His crowning work of creation was to create humans in His image (Gen 1:26-28) and created a male and female to tend the earth. In Genesis 1:31, Yahweh says that it is "very good" and so ended His creative acts.
Second, Israel's story of creation excludes a theogony (birth of the gods). In contrast to the ancient Near Eastern explanation of the origin of the gods, Israel had nothing to say about how God came into being. He never had a beginning but is the beginning of all things. This avoids dualism, a second principle in addition to God, as well as pantheism, which identifies God and the world.
Third, creation is ex nihilism (out of nothing). This is supported in four ways. First, heaven and earth in 1:1 refers to the entire cosmos, an example of merismus (two opposites encompassing totality). Second, one also observes the use of the Hebrew term bara (ברא), which always is used with God as its subject. Third, the use of bere'sit (בראשת) fixes an absolute beginning for creation, in contrast to the pagan mythology that considered the cosmos as having no beginning. Last of all, the emphasis in the biblical text is on the absolute freedom by which God acts.
Last of all, Genesis 1:1 excludes dualism, evolutionism, atheism, pantheism, and materialism. See The Initial Verse of the Bible Denies
See Gerhard Hasel, "Polemical Nature of the Genesis Account"; Umberto Cassuto, Commentary on Genesis, for further discussion of the creation account.