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Genesis 2:1

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them". ESV My emphasis.

A. Finished for the moment. Further creating will occur in the future.

B. Finished absolutely and completely in that no new types and kinds will occur. Only more examples of existing types will occur. e.g. John 6:1-15.

"So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves..".

Jesus made more loaves and fish, but grain and fish were created by the 6th day of the first week; Genesis 1.

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  • Interesting point : that the miracles were a creative act. Metamorphosis was achieved (apparently, unless it was a falsified trick in fear of death by Pharaoh) by the magicians imitating Moses. But the miracles of Jesus require the work of the Creator. Up-voted +1.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Jul 29, 2022 at 16:11
  • I just thought of another post-creation-week creative act of God - the conversion of a soul which is called a new creation as per 2 Cor 5:17, Gal 5:16.
    – Dottard
    Commented Jan 21, 2023 at 11:27

2 Answers 2

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Many people have tried to make more of the verb כָּלָה (kalah = complete/finished) such as:

  1. All God's creative acts were forever finished. This is obviously untrue as the OP correctly points out because many miracles involving lesser creative acts are recorded in the OT and NT. Further, we are also told that God will create a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17, 22, 1 Peter 3:13, Rev 21:1)
  2. God's creation of variety is complete. I am mystified by how this idea (as suggested by the OP) could be wrested from the text. I doubt that God's creative acts of diversity will ever be complete
  3. God's creation of our earthly home was complete.

The last of these meanings appears to be intended meaning precisely because in the very next verse we have the same word defined for us follows:

Gen 2:2 - God completed on the seventh day His work which He had done, and rested ...

Note the triple parallel structure of Gen 2:1-3. (There are also wonderful chiastic structures here that we will not consider.)

  1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
  2. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
  3. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Let us observe several things about what this passage says:

(a) God rested - this does not suggest or even imply that God permanently rested - it was a temporary rest on the seventh day

(b) The rest involved the rest from creating the world and environment suitable for life on earth. Again, there is no hint that this rest was permanent as confirmed by John 5:17 where God is declared to be always working.

(c) The rest is specifically designated as a rest from the work of the original creation of the world, not a rest from either creative acts nor a permanent rest from creativity and diversity.

Therefore, of the OP's options, I prefer option "A".

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The creation can never be finished because of time. There is always a future. The future itself is a creation waiting to happen. What was finished was what happened within the six days.

Genesis 2:1 in the KJV and later was translated from the LXX, which is why we see the ending of the verse “the host of them” which of itself is ambiguous intentionally to cause theology.

The Hebrew is much more precise descriptive. “The host of them” is an army of warfare. Thus were completed (the six days of creation) the heavens and the earth, and the armies. Strong’s 6635 is translated consistently throughout the Torah as referring to armies and war. https://biblehub.com/text/genesis/2-1.htm

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2889/lxx/lxx/0-1/

As I said, any English translation you read of Genesis has been translated to match the LXX when not agreeing with the Masoretic. Genesis 2:1 is one example of that. When I look at a Hebrew translation of Genesis 1-5 it surely it does not strictly interpret as though Adam and Eve were the only two humans created on the sixth day.

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  • @Thanks. You say "The host of them" is an army of warfare. Psalm 33:6 Brown-Driver-Briggs:- "the heavens... and all the host of them" puts this as "sun, moon and stars." Jeremiah 33:22 "host of heaven" NKJStudy Bible has this as "incalculable number of stars".
    – C. Stroud
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:38
  • I state my translation strictly from the dictionary available to me. If I’m allowed to freely and liberally assign my own interpretation nobody not even myself knows what may be the final definition. biblehub.com/hebrew/6635.htm
    – ReturnOfRoamer
    Commented Jun 25 at 17:29
  • Day 4 in Genesis 1 is the Sun, Moon, and Stars. Day 4 contains no use of that word “the host of them” . That is my reason that Genesis 2:1 “the host of them” does not refer to creations of the Day 4.
    – ReturnOfRoamer
    Commented Jun 25 at 17:41
  • You say, "Day 4 contains no use of the word "the host of them." True. But we can't build on things not mentioned e.g., as if I my not mentioning carrots in my question proves that I don't like them.
    – C. Stroud
    Commented Jun 26 at 11:04
  • The Hebrew word in Genesis 2:1 is used elsewhere for an army or warfare. That is the mankind that was created on day 6 besides Adam and Eve. And of where Cain finds his wife
    – ReturnOfRoamer
    Commented Jun 26 at 11:09

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