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Both among the Holy Fathers and in all subsequent interpretative literature, there are two main typical interpretations of this word. According to the prevailing opinion of some, this is a simple chronological indication “of the beginning of the creation of visible things” (Efrem the Syrian), i.e., all that, the history of the gradual formation of which is outlined immediately below. According to the allegorical interpretation of others (Theoph. Ant., Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, etc.), the word “in the beginning” has an individual meaning here, containing a hidden indication of the pre-eternal birth from the Father of the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity - the Son of God, in Whom and through Whom all creation was completed (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). The biblical parallels related here give the right to combine both of these interpretations, that is, how to find here an indication of the co-eternal Father’s birth of the Son or Logos and the ideal creation of the world in Him (John 1:1–3, 10, 8:25; Ps. 83:3; 1 Pet. 1:20; Col. 1:16; Rev. 3:14), and with even greater right to see here a direct indication of the external implementation of the eternal plans of the divine Universe at the beginning of time or, more precisely, together with this time itself (Ps. 101:26, 83:12–13, 135:5–6, 145:6; Heb. 1:10; Proverbs 8:22–23; Isa. 64:4, 41:4; Sir. 18:1; etc.). - the word bara is used here, which, according to the common belief of both Jews and Christians, as well as all subsequent biblical usage, primarily serves as an expression of the idea of ​​divine work (Gen. 1:1, 2:3-4; Is. 40:28, 43:1; Ps. 149:5; Exod. 34:10; Num. 16:30; Jer. 31:22; Mal. 2:10, etc.), has the meaning of creative activity or creation from nothing (Num. 16:30; Isa. 45:7; Ps. 102:26; Heb. 3:4, 11:3; 2 Mac. 7:28, etc.). This, therefore, refutes all materialistic hypotheses about the world as an original essence, and pantheistic ones about it as an emanation or outflow of a deity, and establishes a view of it as the work of the Creator, who called the whole world from non-existence to existence by the will and power of His divine omnipotence. Heaven and earth, as two specific opposite poles of the entire world globe, usually serve in the Bible to designate “the whole universe” (Ps. 101:26; Is. 65:17; Jer. 23:24; Zech. 5:9). In addition, many find here a separate indication of the creation of the visible and invisible world, or Angels (Theoph. Ant., Basil the Great, Theodoret, Origen, John of Damascus, etc.). The basis for the latter interpretation is, firstly, the biblical use of the word “heaven” as a synonym for the inhabitants of heaven, i.e. angels (1 Kings 22:19; Matt. 18:10, etc.), and secondly, the context of this narrative, in which the subsequent chaotic disorder is attributed to only one earth, i.e., the visible world (verse 2), by which “heaven” is separated from “earth” and even, as it were, is opposed to it as a well-ordered, invisible heavenly world. Confirmation of this can be found both in the Old Testament (Job 38:4–7) and especially in the New Testament (Col. 1:16). Gen.1:2. The earth was formless and empty, The concept of “earth” in the language of the Bible often embraces the entire globe, including the visible sky as its outer atmospheric shell (Gen. 14:19, 22; Ps. 69:35). It is in this sense that it is used here, as is obvious from the context, according to which the chaotic mass of this “earth” subsequently separated from itself firmament and water (Gen. 1:7). The words “formless and empty,” which characterize the primitive mass, contain the idea of “darkness, disorder and destruction” (Isa. 40:17, 45:18; Jer. 4:23–26), i.e., they give the idea of a state of complete chaos in which the elements of future light, air, earth, water and also all the embryos of plant and animal life did not yet lend themselves to any distinction and were, as it were, mixed together. The best parallel to these words is the passage from the Book of Wisdom of Solomon, which says that God created the world from “ugly matter” (Wis. 11:18) and 2 Pet. 3:5. This darkness was a natural consequence of the absence of light, which did not yet exist as a separate independent element, having been isolated from the primeval chaos only later, on the first day of the week of creative activity. "Above the abyss" and "above the water". In the original text there are two related Hebrew words (tehom and maim), meaning a mass of water forming an entire “abyss”; this thereby indicates the molten liquid-like state of the primordial, chaotic substance. and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. In the explanation of these words, interpreters differ quite strongly among themselves: some see here a simple indication of an ordinary wind sent by God to drain the earth (Tertullian, Ephraim the Syrian, Theodoret, Aben-Ezra, Rosenmüller), others - of an Angel, or a special mental force assigned for the same purpose (Chrysostom, Caizetan, etc.), others, finally, of Hypostatic Spirit of God (Basily the Great, Athanasius, Jerome and most other exegetes). The latter interpretation is preferable to others: it points to the participation in the work of creation of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit of God, who represents that creative and providential power which, according to the general biblical view, determines the origin and existence of the whole world, not excluding man (Gen. 2:7; Ps. 32:6; Job 27:3; Is. 34:16; Acts 17:28 and etc.). The very action of the Holy Spirit on chaos is likened here to the action of a bird sitting in a nest on eggs and warming them with its warmth to awaken life in them (Deut. 32:11). This, on the one hand, makes it possible to discern in chaos some action of natural forces, analogous to the process of gradual formation of an embryo in an egg; on the other hand, both these same forces and their results are placed in direct dependence on God. Gen.1:3. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light. For the omnipotent Creator of the universe, a thought or word and the implementation of this thought or deed are completely identical with each other, since for Him there are no obstacles that could interfere with the fulfillment of the incipient desire. Hence, His word is the law for being: “for He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it appeared” (Ps. 33:9). Following many Church Fathers, Metropolitan. Filaret believes that in the word “said”, not without reason, one can find the mystery of the Hypostatic Word, which here, just as before the Holy Spirit, is secretly supplied by the Creator of the world: “David and Solomon explain this fortune-telling, who obviously adapt their expressions to Moses” (Ps. 33:6; Proverbs 8:22–29). A clear indication of this is given by the Apostle Paul, speaking of God as “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness” (2 Cor. 4:6). The creation of light was the first creative and educational act of the divine universe. This primordial light was not ordinary light in the perfect sense of the word, since before the fourth day of creation, on which the night luminaries appeared, the sources of our light did not yet exist, but was that luminiferous ether, which, being in a vibrational state, dispersed the primordial darkness and thereby created the necessary conditions for the future appearance of all organic life on earth. Gen.1:4. And God saw the light that he was good, Thus, in the words of the Psalmist, “the Lord rejoices in His works”! (Ps. 103:31) Light is said here to be “good” because it is a source of joy and happiness for all living things. and God separated the light from the darkness. By this, God did not completely destroy the original darkness, but only established the correct periodic replacement of it with light, necessary to maintain life and preserve the strength of not only humans and animals, but also all other creatures (Ps. 103:20-24; Jer. 33:20, 25, 31:35). Gen.1:5. And God called the light day and the darkness night. Having separated light from darkness and established the correct alternation of them among themselves, the Creator gives them corresponding names, calling the period of domination of light day, and the time of domination of darkness night. Holy Scripture gives us a number of indications of the origin of this divine institution (Ps. 103:20–24, 148:5; Job 38:11; Jer. 33:20). We are deprived of the opportunity to judge positively about the nature and duration of these primitive days: we can only say that at least in the first three days before the creation of the sun, they, in all likelihood, were not identical with our real days. And there was evening and there was morning: Many of the interpreters, on the basis that the “evening” is put first, and then the morning, want to see in the first nothing more than that chaotic darkness that preceded the appearance of light and thus preceded the first day. But this will be an obvious stretch of the text, since before the creation of light there could have been neither such a distinction between the days, nor the very name of their two main components. Another misconception is also based on the fact that the counting of the astronomical day should supposedly begin in the evening, as Ephraim the Syrian, for example, thinks. But Saint John Chrysostom more correctly believes that the calculation of the day should proceed from morning to morning, since, we repeat, the very possibility of distinguishing day and night in a day began no earlier than from the moment of the creation of light or from the time of day, i.e., in modern language, from the morning of the first day of creation. In the Hebrew original there is not an ordinal number, but a cardinal number, “day one,” for in fact, the first day of the creation week was still the only one in it. Concluding our speech about the first day of the creative week, we consider it appropriate to speak here in general about these days. The question of them constitutes one of the most difficult exegetical problems. Its main difficulty lies, firstly, in a certain understanding of the biblical days of creation, and secondly, and even more, in the agreement of these days with modern data from astronomy and geology. We have already seen above that it is quite difficult to apply our usual astronomical measure with its 24-hour duration to the first days of creation, preceding the appearance of the sun, which, as is known, depends on the movement of the earth around its axis and on its rotation from one side to the sun. But if we assume that this relatively insignificant obstacle was somehow eliminated by the power of divine omnipotence, then all the rest, the biblical data itself, and the division of these days into morning and evening, and a certain number, and their strict sequence, and the historical nature of the narrative itself - all this speaks for the strictly literal meaning of the biblical text and for the astronomical duration of these biblical days. Much more serious is another objection coming from science, which, based on the analysis of the so-called geological layers, counts a whole series of geological eras required for the gradual formation of the earth’s crust and several millennia for the successive appearance of various forms of plant and animal life on it. The idea of ​​an agreement in this point of the Bible with science greatly occupied the fathers and teachers of the Church, among whom representatives of the Alexandrian school - Origen, Saints Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria and others even stood for an allegorical interpretation of biblical days in the sense of more or less long periods. Following them, a number of subsequent exegetes tried in one way or another to modify the direct, literal meaning of the biblical text and adapt it to the conclusions of science (the so-called periodistic and restitutive theories). But the direct, literal meaning of the biblical text, the ancient Christian tradition and Orthodox interpretation generally do not allow such free treatment of the biblical text and, therefore, require a literal understanding of the term “day” contained in it. So, the Bible speaks of ordinary days, and science speaks of entire periods or eras. The best way out of this contradiction is, in our opinion, the so-called “visionary” theory. According to the meaning of this theory, the biblical account of the creation of the world is not a strictly scientific and actually detailed reproduction of the entire history of the actual process of world formation, but only its most important moments, revealed by God to the first man in a special vision (visio). Here the entire history of the origin of the world, which developed in a time unknown to us, passed before the spiritual gaze of man in the form of a whole series of pictures, each of which represented known groups of phenomena, and both the general character and the sequence of these pictures were a true, albeit instantaneous, reflection of actual history. Each of these visionary pictures formed a special group of phenomena that actually developed during the same period, which in the vision was called one or another day. The question of why the geological eras of creation received the name of an ordinary “day” in the biblical cosmogonic vision is relatively easy to answer: because “day” was the most convenient, simplest and most easily accessible chronological measure to the consciousness of primitive man. Consequently, in order to introduce into the consciousness of the first man the idea of ​​the sequential order of the creation of the world and the separateness of its processes, it was most expedient to use the already familiar image of the day as an integral and complete period of time. So, on the issue of the days of creation, the Bible and science do not at all clash with each other: the Bible, meaning ordinary days, thereby marks only various moments of the cosmogonic vision in which God deigned to reveal to man the history of the universe; science, pointing to geological epochs and long periods, means to investigate the actual process of the origin and gradual structure of the world; and such an assumption of scientific hypotheses does not in the least shake the divine omnipotence, for which it was completely indifferent whether to create the entire world in the twinkling of an eye, whether to spend a whole week on it, or, having put known expedient laws into the world, to give them a more or less natural course, leading to a long-term world formation. The latter, in our opinion, is even more consistent with the idea of ​​​​the divine wisdom and goodness of the Creator. The visionary history we have indicated here, finding its defenders among the fathers and teachers of the Church (St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret, Junilius Africanus), is shared by many newer exegetes (see more about this in the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky “Biblical teaching on primitive religion”). Gen.1:6. And God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, The firmament is literally from the original “spread out”, “cover”, for this is how the Jews imagined the heavenly atmosphere surrounding the globe, as is especially clearly expressed in the famous words of the Psalmist: “you stretch out the heavens like a tent” (Ps. 103:2, 149:4; cf. Is. 40:22). This firmament or atmospheric shell of the earth, according to the general biblical view, is considered the birthplace of all kinds of winds and storms, as well as all kinds of atmospheric precipitation and weather changes (Ps. 149:4–8, 134:7; Job 28:25–26, 38:24–26; Isa. 55:10; Matt. 5:45; Acts 14:17; Hebrews 6:7, etc.). Gen.1:7. and he separated the water that was under the firmament from the water that was above the firmament. The last waters here obviously mean water vapor, with which the celestial atmosphere is usually saturated and which, thickening over time, pours out onto the earth in various forms, for example, in the form of rain, hail, frost, fog or snow. The first, of course, means ordinary water, which penetrated the entire earthly chaos and on the next, third day of creation, collected in special natural reservoirs - oceans, seas and rivers. The Apostle Peter says something similar about the role of water in the process of world formation (2 Pet. 3:5). To the naive mind of the primitive Jew, the celestial atmosphere was depicted in the form of some kind of solid tire that separated the atmospheric waters from the earthly waters; from time to time this solid shell opened up in one place or another, and then the heavenly waters poured out onto the earth through this hole. And the Bible, which, according to the opinion of the Holy Fathers, speaks in the language of the sons of men and adapts to the weakness of our mind and hearing, does not consider it necessary to make any scientific amendments to this naive worldview (St. John Chrysostom, Theodoret, etc.). Gen.1:8. And God called the firmament heaven. In the language of the Jews there were three different terms for expressing this concept, according to their belief that there were three different celestial spheres. That sky, which is called here, was considered the lowest and closest habitat of birds, accessible to direct vision (Ps. 8:4; Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23). Gen.1:9. And God said: Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. By virtue of this divine command, the two main components of the primeval chaos, earth and water, separated from each other: the waters united into various water basins - seas and oceans (Ps. 32:7, 103:5-9, 135:6; Proverbs 8:29), and the land formed islands and continents, covered with various mountains, hills and valleys (Ps. 65:6; Isa. 40:12). Gen.1:10. And God called the dry land earth, and the collection of waters he called seas. The Bible does not tell us anything about how and for how long this process of separation of water from land and the self-formation of the earth’s crust took place, thereby opening up full scope for scientific research. In the cosmogonic vision with which the Bible deals, only the general character and final result of this third period of world formation or, in the language of the biblical vision, the third day of creation is noted. Gen.1:11–12. And God said: Let the earth bring forth greenery, grass yielding seed [after its kind and in its likeness, and] a fruitful tree bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And so it became. And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind [and likeness], and a tree [fruitful] bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind [on the earth]. These few words of cosmogonic vision display a whole grandiose picture of the gradual emergence on earth of different types of plant, organic life, produced by the earth not due to spontaneous generation, but according to the special forces and laws given to it by the Creator. However, an indication that the covering of the earth with plants and trees was not an instant miraculous act, but was directed by creative force along a natural course, apparently lies in the very nature of the biblical text under consideration, both in God’s address to the earth with the command for it to produce various types of plants according to its inherent laws, and in the sequence with which the list of various types of this vegetation is kept, which fully corresponds to the data of modern geology: first, generally greenery or grass (geological ferns), then flowering vegetation (giant lilies) and, finally, trees (primitive shrubs and trees), (1 Kings 4:33). The omnipotence of the Creator, of course, did not suffer at all from this, since the primary source of the vital energy of the earth was none other than God himself, and His highest wisdom in such a purposeful structure of the world was revealed in all its power and obvious clarity, as the Apostle Paul expressly points out in a well-known place from the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 1:20). Gen.1:14. And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens [to illuminate the earth and] to separate the day from the night, Here is a cosmogonic vision of a new peacemaking period, in which the earth separated from the solar system. The biblical story itself about this is again adapted to the infantile worldview of primitive man: thus, the luminaries seem to be fixed on the outer firmament of the sky, as they are, in fact, depicted in our everyday, non-scientific imagination. Here, for the first time, the actual reason for dividing the day into day and night is indicated, which consists in the influence of the luminaries. This, as it were, provides indirect confirmation of the idea that the three previous days of creation could not, therefore, have been ordinary astronomical days, but that they received such a character in the biblical narrative later, as well-known specific moments of the cosmogonic vision. The Bible shows us the threefold purpose of the heavenly bodies: firstly, they should separate day from night, and the sun should shine during the day, and the moon and stars should shine at night; secondly, they should serve as time regulators, that is, the various phases of the sun and moon should show the periodic change of months and seasons of the year; finally, their immediate purpose in relation to the earth is to illuminate it. The first and last purpose of the heavenly bodies are completely clear and understandable in themselves, but the middle one requires some explanation. By these signs one should not at all understand any superstitious veneration of heavenly bodies or similar astrological fortune-telling, which was widespread among the peoples of the ancient East and cruelly condemned among the chosen people of God (Deut. 4:19, 18:10). But this, according to the interpretation of Blessed Theodoret, means that the phases of the moon, as well as the times of rising and setting of various stars and comets, served as useful guidelines for farmers, shepherds, travelers and sailors (Gen. 15:5, 37:9; Job 38:32-33; Ps. 103:14-23; Matt. 2:12; Luke. 21:25). Very early, the phases of the moon and the position of the sun began to serve as signs of the division of the year into months and the unification of the latter into the seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter (Ps. 73:16-17). Finally, subsequently the phases of the moon, especially the new moon, began to play a very prominent role in the cycle of sacred biblical times or Hebrew holidays. Gen.1:16. And God created two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, Although these great luminaries are not named here, it is clear from the entire context of the narrative, as well as from the corresponding biblical parallels related here (Ps. 103:19, 73:16, 135:7-9, 148:3-5; Jer. 31:35), that the sun and moon are meant here. But if such a name is fully justified by science when applied to the sun, as the astronomical center of the entire world system, then it does not at all stand up to scientific criticism in relation to the moon, which, according to accurate astronomy data, is one of the relatively small planets, far inferior in this respect even to the earth. Here we have new proof that the Bible does not set forth the principles of science, but speaks in the language of the sons of men, that is, in the language of ordinary thinking, based on direct sensory perceptions, from the point of view of which the sun and moon really appear to be the largest quantities on the celestial horizon. The general name of stars here refers to all those millions of other worlds that, being removed from our earth over vast spaces, appear to our naked eye only in the form of small luminous points scattered throughout the sky. It is not without reason that the contemplation of the majestic firmament touched and inspired many Old Testament biblical writers to glorify the wisdom and goodness of the Creator (Ps. 8:3–4, 18:1–6; Job 38:31–33; Isa. 40:21–22, 25–26, 51:13, 66:1–2; Jer. 33:22; Rev. 5:8, etc.). Gen.1:17–18. and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth and to rule the day and the night, The Creator, as the Psalmist says, used the moon and stars to rule the night (Ps. 136:9), while the sunrise was determined to be the beginning of man’s working day (Ps. 103:22–23). The prophet Jeremiah expresses this idea even more clearly, glorifying the Lord Almighty, who “gave the sun for light during the day, statutes for the moon and stars for light at night” (Jer. 31:35). Gen.1:20. And God said: Let the water produce The term “water,” as is obvious from the context, is used here in a more general and broader sense - it means not only ordinary water, but also the air atmosphere, which, as is already known, in the language of the Bible is also called “water” (Gen. 1: 6–7). Here, as before (Gen. 1:11), in the very image of the biblical expression - “let the waters produce” (or, “let them multiply in the waters”), again there is a hint of the participation of natural agents in the creative process, in this case - water and air as the environment in which the Creator determined the corresponding types of animal life to live and reproduce. reptiles, living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, across the firmament of heaven. The appearance of plants on the third day was the beginning of organic life on earth, but still in its most imperfect, primary form. Now, in full agreement with the data of science, the Bible notes the further course of development of this life on earth, specifically indicating the emergence of two vast, related animal classes: the inhabitants of the water element and the kingdom of birds that fill the airspace. The first of these classes in the Hebrew text is called sheretz, which does not mean only “reptiles or water reptiles,” as our Russian and Slavic texts translate it, but also includes fish and all aquatic animals in general (Lev. 11:10). Likewise, by “feathered bird” we mean not “only birds, but also insects, and in general all living creatures equipped with wings, even if at the same time they are not deprived of the ability to walk and even on four legs” (Lev. 11:20–21). If, as we noted above, some indication of the action of natural forces in the process of the generation of new species of animal life is preserved in the previous verse, then the present verse leaves no doubt that all these so-called natural acts ultimately have their supernatural source in God, who alone is the Creator of all things, in the strict sense of the word. Gen.1:21. And God created big fish The Slavic text calls them great “whales,” closer to the Hebrew text, which contains the word: tanninim, which generally means water animals of enormous size (Job 7:12; Ps. 73:13; Ezek. 29:4), large fish, including whales (Ps. 103:25; Jonah 2:11), a large serpent (Jer. 51:34; Is. 27:1) and the crocodile (Ezek. 29:3) - in a word, the entire class of large amphibians or amphibians (Job 40:20). This gives a clear indication that the original species of amphibians and birds were distinguished by their gigantic sizes, which is confirmed by paleontological data, which reveals a whole vast class of extinct antediluvian animals, striking with their colossal sizes (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, gigantic lizards, etc.). Gen.1:22. And God blessed them, saying: The appearance of the first real life (animal as opposed to plant) is marked by a special extraordinary act of the Creator - His blessing. By virtue of this creative blessing, all the creatures newly created by Him receive the ability to reproduce “according to their kind,” that is, each of the animal species - to reproduce their own kind. be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, In the Hebrew text, both of these words have the same meaning, and their very combination, by the nature of the Hebrew language, indicates a special strengthening of the idea contained in them about the natural reproduction of living beings through birth. and let the birds multiply on the earth. A subtle new feature: previously, the element of birds was called air, as the area in which they fly (Gen. 1:20), now the earth is also added, on which they build their nests and live. Gen.1:24. And God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things, and wild beasts of the earth according to their kinds. Here again, as in the two previous cases (Gen. 1:11, 20), some influence of the natural forces of nature, in this case directly from the earth, is indicated. Gen.1:25. And God created the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kinds. The general concept of “animal soul” here is divided into three main types: the first of them is “animals of the earth” - these are wild animals or animals of fields and forests, such as, for example, wild cats, lynxes, bears and all other animals of the desert (Ps. 79:14, 103:20–21, 49:10, 78:2; Isa. 43:20). The second type of these animals embraces a fairly significant class of domestic animals, that is, those domesticated by humans, which include: horses, oxen, camels, goats, and in general all large and small livestock (Gen. 34:23, 36:6, 47:18; Num. 32:26); in a broader sense, sometimes larger wild animals are included here, for example, the elephant and rhinoceros (Job 40:15). Finally, the third class of these animals consists of all those that reptile on the ground, crawl on it, or have such short legs that, walking on the ground, they seem to creep along it; this includes all snakes, worms (Lev.11:42), lizards, foxes, mice and moles (Lev.11:29–31). Sometimes, in a shorter and less strict speech, all three of the above classes of earthly animals are united in the first of them, namely in the concept of “beasts of the earth” (Gen. 7:14). All these animals were divided into two sexes, which is evident both from their ability to reproduce each in accordance with its kind, and from the fact that the example of their life opened the eyes of the first man to his sad loneliness and, thus, served as the reason for the creation of a helper-wife similar to him (Gen. 2:20). Gen.1:26. And God said: Let us create man From these words it is clear that before creating man, this new and amazing creature, God held a council with someone. The question of who God can confer with was still faced by the Old Testament prophet: “Who understood the spirit of the Lord, and was His adviser and taught Him? Who does He consult with? (Isa. 40:13–14; Rom. 11:34) and the best answer to it is given in the Gospel of John, which speaks of the Word, which was with God from time immemorial and in union with Him created everything (John 1:2–3). This points to the Word, the Logos, the eternal Son of God, also called the “wonderful Counselor” by the prophet Isaiah (Is. 9:6). Elsewhere in Scripture, He, under the guise of Wisdom, is directly depicted as the closest participant in God the Creator in all places of His creation, including in the creation of the “sons of men” (Proverbs 8:27–31). This idea is further clarified by those interpreters who attribute this advice to the mystery of the incarnate Word, who deigned to perceive the bodily nature of man in unity with His divine nature (Phil. 2:6–7). According to the unanimous opinion of the majority of the Holy Fathers, the divine council considered here took place with the participation of the Holy Spirit, that is, between all the persons of the Holy Trinity (Ephraim the Syrian, Irenaeus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, Augustine, etc.). As for the content of this very advice, then by its name, according to the explanation of Metropolitan Philaret, and consequently by the action of advice, God’s foresight and predestination are depicted in the Holy Scriptures (Acts 2:23), that is, in this case, the implementation of the thought of creating man, which has existed from time immemorial in the divine plan of the Universe (Acts 15:18). Thus, here we find one of the most ancient traces of the existence in the antediluvian world of the mystery of the Trinity, but then, according to the best interpreters, it was darkened in the consciousness of the first people as a result of the Fall, and then, after the Babylonian pandemonium, it completely disappeared for a long time from the consciousness of Old Testament humanity, from which it was even deliberately hidden for pedagogical purposes, namely, so as not to serve the Jews, always prone to polytheism, unnecessary temptation in this regard. The Hebrew word here is adam. When this word is used without an article, it does not express the proper name of the first husband, but serves only as a common noun for “man” in general; in this sense it applies equally to both man and woman (Gen. 5:2). As can be seen from the subsequent context, this word is used in this sense here too - denoting the entire primordial couple, to whom divine blessings are taught for reproduction and dominion over nature (Gen. 1:27). By using the singular number of the common noun “man,” the writer of everyday life thereby more clearly emphasizes the truth of the unity of the human race, about which the writer of the book. Acts says: “Of one blood He (God) made the whole human race” (Acts 17:26). in Our image [and] in Our likeness Here two words are used that are related in meaning, although they contain some shades of thought: one means an ideal, a model of perfection; the other is the implementation of this ideal, a copy from the specified sample. “The first (κατ᾿ εἰκόνα - according to the image), - argues Saint Gregory of Nyssa, - we have by creation, and the last (καθ᾿ ὁμοΐωσιν - according to the likeness) we do according to our will.” Consequently, the image of God in a person constitutes an integral and indelible property of his nature, while God-likeness is a matter of free personal efforts of a person, which can reach fairly high degrees of its development in a person (Matt. 5:48; Eph. 5:1–2), but can sometimes be completely absent (Gen. 6:3; Rom. 1:23, 2:24). As for the very image of God in man, it is reflected in the many different powers and properties of his complex nature: in the immortality of the human spirit (Wis. 2:23), and in the original innocence (Eph. 4:24), and purity (Eccl. 7:29), and in those abilities and properties that the primordial man was endowed with for the knowledge of his Creator and love for Him, and in those royal powers, which the first man possessed in relation to all lower creatures (Gen. 27:29) and even in relation to his own wife (1 Cor. 11:3), and, in particular, in the trinity of his main spiritual powers: mind, heart and will, which served as some kind of reflection of the divine trinity (Col. 3:10). Scripture calls only the Son of God a complete and all-perfect reflection of the divine image (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15); man was a comparatively very weak, pale and imperfect copy of this incomparable model, but nevertheless he stood in an undoubted family connection with Him and hence received the right to the name of His family (Acts 17:28), son or child of God (Luke 3:38), and also directly - “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11:7). Gen.1:27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; In the very repetition of parallel concepts - “in His image”, “in the image of God” one cannot help but see some hint of the participation of various Persons of the Holy Trinity in the act of human creation, mainly of God the Son, who was His direct performer (in His image). But, due to the fact that the Son is the radiance of the glory of God and the image of His Hypostasis, creation in His image was at the same time creation in the image of God the Father (in the image of God). What also attracts attention here is that man was created only “in the image” of God, and not in addition “in the likeness,” which finally confirms the correctness of the above-mentioned opinion that only one image of God constitutes an innate property of his nature, while God-likeness is something different from this and consists in one or another degree of free, personal development by man of the properties of this divine image along the way of their approach to the Prototype. man... husband and wife he created them. Erroneously interpreting this passage, some (especially rabbis) want to see in it the basis for the theory of androgyny of the first person (i.e., the combination of male and female in one person). But this misconception is best refuted by the pronoun “them” standing here, which, if we were talking about one person, should have had the singular form - “him”, and not “them” - the plural. Gen.1:28. And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. The power of creative blessing, once previously imparted to the lower animals, applied only to their reproduction; man is granted not only the ability to reproduce on earth, but also the right to own it. The latter is a consequence of the high position that man, being the image of God on earth, was supposed to occupy in the world. The Creator, according to the Psalmist, which the Apostle also repeats, “crowned him with glory and honor; You have made him ruler over the works of Your hands; He put everything under his feet: the sheep and the oxen of all, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, everything that passes on the paths of the sea” (Ps. 8:6–9; Heb. 2:7–9). This is one of the best expressions of the thought about the greatness and beauty of the primordial Adam (i.e., man), restored to his primitive dignity, lost through the Fall, by the second Adam - our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:9-10). The very dominion of man over nature must be understood both in the sense of man’s use for his benefit of the various natural forces of nature and its wealth, and in the sense of direct service to him by various species of animals, counted here only in the order of their sequential origin and according to their most general groups. This thought is perfectly expressed in the following inspired lines of I. Chrysostom: “How great is the dignity of souls! Through her powers, cities are built, seas are crossed, fields are cultivated, countless arts are discovered, wild animals are tamed! But what is most important is that the soul knows God, Who created it and distinguishes good from evil. Man alone from the entire visible world sends prayers to God, receives revelations, studies the nature of heavenly things and even penetrates into divine secrets! For him the whole earth, the sun and the stars exist, for him the heavens were created, for him the apostles and prophets were sent, and even the Angels themselves; for his salvation, finally, the Father sent down his Only Begotten Son!” Gen.1:29–30. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; - to you: this will be for food; And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every [creeping thing] that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food. Here is the oldest news about the primitive food of man and animals: for humans it was various herbs with their roots and trees with their fruits, for animals it was herbal greens. Based on the writer’s silence about meat as a food item, most commentators believe that in the early days before the flood, or at least the Fall, it was not consumed not only by people, but even by animals, among which, therefore, there were no birds of prey or animals. The first news of the introduction of meat and wine into human food dates back to the era after the flood (Gen. 9:3). One cannot help but see in this a special divine providence for all newly created beings, expressed in concern for their preservation and maintenance of their lives (Job 39:6; Ps. 103:14–15, 27, 135:25, 144:15–16; Acts 14:14, etc.). Gen.1:31. And God saw everything that He had created, and behold, it was very good. The final formula of divine approval of the entire work of creation differs significantly in the degree of its power from all the others that preceded it: if earlier, after the creation of various species of plants and animals, the Creator found that their creation satisfied Him and was “good” (Gen. 1: 4, 8, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25); now, looking over with one general glance the whole picture of the already completed creation and seeing its complete harmony and expediency, the Creator, as the Psalmist says, rejoiced in his creation (Ps. 103:31) and found that it, considered as a whole, “is very good,” that is, it fully corresponds to the eternal plans of the divine economy for the creation of the world and man. And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day. This day was the last act of cosmogonic vision and the conclusion of the entire creative six-day period. The deeply historical antiquity of the biblical cosmogony is confirmed by its rather consonant traces preserved in the language of antiquity (argumentum ex consensu gentium). Among them, the most ancient traditions of the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldeans, from where Abraham himself, the ancestor of the Jewish people, later came, have special significance and value. We have these traditions of the Chaldeans in the fragmentary records of the Chaldean priest Berosus (in the 3rd century BC) and, what is even more valuable, in the recently discovered wedge-shaped tablets of the so-called. “Chaldean genesis” (in 1870 by the English scientist George Smith). In the latter we have a parallel, striking in its closeness (albeit permeated with polytheism), to the biblical history of creation: here, as in the Bible, the division into six successive acts, of which each is dedicated to its own special table, approximately the same content of each of these tables, as in the history of each of the biblical days, their same general sequence and - what is especially curious - the same characteristic techniques, expressions and even individual terms. In view of all this, the comparison of biblical cosmogony with the data of Chaldean genesis receives high interest and great apologetic importance (for more details, see the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky: “Biblical teaching on primitive religion,” pp. 86–90). You might be interested in: