Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a

The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth

1:1	In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2	Now, the earth was invisible and unmade, and darkness was upon the abyss. And God’s Spirit brought forth above in the water.
3	And God said: “Come into being: light.” And there was light.
4	And God ascertained that the light was good. And God separated light from darkness.
5	And God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness ‘night’. And it became evening, and it became morning: the first Day.
6	And God said: “Come into being: a firmness in the midst of the water, and let it be for parting between water and water.” And it became so:
7	And God brought forth the firmness. And God parted the water which was underneath the firmness from the water above the firmness.
8	And God called the firmness ‘heaven’. And God ascertained that it was good. And it became evening, and it became morning: the second Day.
9	And God said: “Let be gathered together the water underneath the heaven into one gathering, and let be seen the dry.” And it became so: and the water underneath the heaven gathered together into its gatherings, and the dry appeared.
10	And God called the dry ‘earth’, and called the systems of water ‘sea’. And God ascertained that it was good.
11	And God said: “Let the earth make to grow food of grass that sows seed according to kind, and according to likeness, and the fruitful tree that makes fruit which seed is in it, according to kind, upon the earth.” And it became so:
12	And the earth brought forth food of grass that sows seed according to kind, and according to likeness, and the fruitful tree that makes fruit which seed is in it, according to kind, on the earth.
13	And God ascertained that it was good. And it became evening, and it became morning: the third Day.
14	And God said: “Come into being: luminaries in the firmness of the heaven for giving light upon the earth, to part between the day and the night. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.
15	And let them be for light in the firmness of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth.” And it became so:
16	And God made the two great luminaries: the big luminary for leading the day and the inferior luminary for leading the night, and the stars.
17	And God put them in the firmness of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth,
18	and to lead day and night, and to part between the light and the darkness. And God ascertained, that it was good.
19	And it became evening, and it became morning: the fourth Day.
20	And God said: “Let the waters bring forth the crawling of living soul and the winged flying above the earth below the firmness of heaven.” And it became so:
21	And God made the huge water beings, and every crawling of living soul, which the waters brought forth, according to their kind, and every feathered winged according to kind. And God ascertained that is was good.
22	And God blessed them saying: “Increase and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea. And let the winged be multiplied over the earth.”
23	And it became evening, and it became morning: the fifth Day.
24	And God said: “Let the earth bring forth living soul according to kind: four-footed, and creeping, and wild beasts of the earth, according to kind.” And it became so:
25	And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to kind, and the beasts of burden according to their kind, and all the crawling of the earth according to kind. And God ascertained that it was good.
26	And God said: “Let us make the human according to our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the winged of the heaven, and the cattle, and the whole earth, and all the crawling that crawl upon the earth.”
27	And God made the human. According to God’s image, He made him. Male and female, He made them.
28	And God blessed them, saying: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and master it. And lead the fish of the sea, and the winged of the heaven, and the whole cattle, and all the earth, and all the crawling, crawling upon the earth.”
29	And God said: “Behold, I have given to you all the grass bearing sowing seed which is upon the earth, and every tree which has in itself the sowing seed of fruit: to you it shall be for food,
30	and to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the winged of heaven, and to every crawling that crawls upon the earth, which has in itself the soul of life and all the green grass for food.” And it became so.
31	And God ascertained all as many as were made. And behold: it was very good. And it became evening, and it became morning: the sixth Day.
2:1	And completed were the heavens and the earth, and the whole cosmos of them.
2	And God completed on the sixth Day the Own works which God did. And God rested on the seventh Day from all Own works which God did.
3	And God blessed the seventh Day and declared it Wholly, for in it, God rested from all of the Own works which God began to do.
4a	This is the story of the origin of the heavens and the earth.

This first story from the Book of Genesis, translated by Johan Oldenkamp, is also available in Greek, Spanish, German, and Dutch.