Genesis 1:1-5
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was waste and void; and darkness was on the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.”
This passage opens the book of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible, written probably between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE. It is a foundational account of creation, introducing the singular God as the ultimate source of all existence to an ancient Israelite audience.
How does this ancient account of cosmic origins shape your understanding of purpose, both for the universe and for human life within it?