Back to: Advanced Course
In this last lesson, we summarize the correlation between Genesis 1 passages and scientific events as explained in the previous lessons.
From our analysis, there seem to be 14 passages in Genesis 1 that could be used to correlate with scientific events. Other investigators may group these passages differently, but regardless of the groupings it is reasonable to expect similar conclusions.
The 14 passages from Genesis 1 that are used to correlate with findings from historical science are shown in the table below. The Scientific Event column provides a short phrase to describe the event that correlates with the given passage. The Correlation Strength column displays how strongly the current scientific understanding of the historical event correlates with the Biblical description. You can review the referenced lessons for greater details about the correlation between the given passages and the scientific events.
| Section or Lesson | Bible Verse | Bible Passage Text (NIV) | Scientific Event | Approximate Timeframe | Correlation Strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section Genesis 1:1 | Genesis 1:1 | In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. | The Big Bang | 13.8 bya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1.2a | Genesis 1:2a | Now the earth was formless and empty | Accretion of dust and gas particles in the solar nebula to form planetesimals and then the earth | 4.54 bya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:2b | Genesis 1:2b | darkness was over the surface of the deep | Dark clouds were over a water covered planet | ~ 4.4 bya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:3 | Genesis 1:3 | And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. | Cloud cover turns from opaque to translucent | ~ 4.4 bya | Reasonable, based on hypothesis of collision with Theia modifying early earth atmosphere |
| Lesson Genesis 1:6-8a | Genesis 1:6-8a | And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” | Water cycle created | 4 to 3.8 bya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:9-10a | Genesis 1:9-10a | And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” | Land appears out of oceans | 3.2 bya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:11-12a | Genesis 1:11-12a | Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. | Photosynthetic organisms appear on land | 2.7 bya | Reasonable if we interpret the Hebrew deshe (grass), eseb (herb), and/or zera (seed) to include other phosynthetic organisms like algae. Timeframe estimate is based on appearance of algae. |
| Lesson Genesis 1:14-15a | Genesis 1:14-15a | And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” | Great oxygenation event | 2.4 to 2.1 bya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:20a | Genesis 1:20a | And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures…” | Cambrian explosion – abundant sea creatures | 542 to 488 mya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:20b | Genesis 1:20b | and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky | Appearance of birds | 165-150 mya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:24a | Genesis 1:24a | And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock | Appearance of soulish animals that can be domesticated | 60 – 2 mya | Strong |
| Lesson Genesis 1:24b | Genesis 1:24b | the creatures that move along the ground, | Appearance of soulish rodents and small mammals | ~ 66 mya | Strong |
| Genesis 1:24c | and the wild animals, each according to its kind | Appearance of soulish carnivore wild mammals | 60 mya | Strong | |
| Lesson Genesis 1:26-27 | Genesis 1:26-27 | Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. | Appearance of homo-sapien sapien | 200 to 70 kya | Strong |