And God said, Let the earth bring forth living souls after their kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after their kind. And it was so.
The sixth day opens with a command to the earth, and the dry land fills with animal life. Two questions run through the verse: what is a "living creature," and why does the making of man, later the same day, read so differently?
The same Hebrew words describe the sea creatures earlier in the chapter. One writer follows that word through the chapter.
In verse 20 God spoke of the sea creatures that have life — and the Hebrew word behind "creature" there is "nephesh," soul. Verse 21 uses the same word again: every living creature that moves is a living soul. Verse 24 says it once more of the land: "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds." So by His word God made them living souls on the earth.
The verse names three groups. One writer takes each word in turn and shows what it covers.
It is not out of place to name "cattle" first in verse 24. These are the animals that can be tamed, even if they were not tamed yet, and they suit the use of man. "Creeping thing" comes next, in its more literal sense. "Moving," used earlier, described more fully how the creatures of the waters act, so it took in not only serpents and the like but insect life. "Animal of earth" means the wild beast.
The verse also names cattle apart from the wild beasts. One writer sees a purpose in that.
We notice too that both verse 24 and verse 25 keep the "beast of the earth" separate from the "cattle." We gather from this that at the first, before sin came in, God designed certain animals for the upkeep and benefit of the man He was about to create. After sin came in, the beasts developed their wild and savage nature, while the cattle stayed fairly tame and useful to man.
The verse repeats "according to their kinds" twice. One writer sees a line God has drawn through every living thing.
Notice that each creature is "after his kind." God made the plants and the sea animals the same way on the earlier days. This establishes that species are fixed... One thing is certain: "after his kind" stamps each class of plant and animal life with its own identity. So this Scripture gives evolution no support. Yet we must be careful. In turning away from that extreme theory of unbelief, we must not fall into the opposite error of making endless classes.
Another writer points to what we can see in the animal world.
The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not pair with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee. The only hybrids in creation are of man's arrangement and they are sterile, and come to nothing.
The animals come at a command spoken to the ground. When God turns to make man, the words change.
The creation of man was not a mass movement, as the creation of the lower creatures was. Verse 24 describes a mass movement. It takes in the whole of living things on earth, yet there is one great exception — MAN... "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." There is no mass movement here. A single individual was in view.
Pollock quotes Genesis 2:7 from an older translation, which reads "a living soul." The difference is not only in numbers. It is in the way God acts.
The animals came out of the earth at His will. He had said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds," and it was so. It was not like that with man. God takes solemn counsel about creating him, and decides to make man in His image, after His likeness.
This verse is the first half of the sixth day. Everything in it points to what God does next.
We can compare God's work up to this point to an architect who designs and builds a palace for a royal person to live in. So God prepared all the beautiful world around: sun, moon, stars, clouds, non-living matter, plant life, animal life, with their countless astounding wonders. All of it was ready for this moment of supreme importance, when God created man — a creature He could have fellowship with.
- Word — The land creatures appear at a command spoken to the earth. No process, no ancestry — "and it was so."
- Soul — "Living creature" translates living soul. Animals are living souls made by God's word. That is why the breath God breathed into man stands out.
- Kind — Twice in one verse God sets a boundary. Each kind keeps its own identity, and no kind turns into another.
- Line — Livestock, creeping things and beasts of the earth are everyday words. They describe animals in relation to man, not a scientific list.
- Crown — This verse finishes the palace. Its royal occupant arrives before the day ends, made by God's counsel, not by a command to the ground.
And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
The sixth day opens not with man but with the land filling with animals: cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts, each held inside its own kind. Two questions run through the verse: why God made these animals rather than created them, and what the phrase about kinds fixes for all of nature. (Writers below quote it as "after his kind," an older translation.)
Genesis 1 does not use the same word every time. One writer notices which word is missing here:
In the early part of the sixth day God filled the earth with living souls — beast and cattle and also creeping things. Notice that God made them. It does not say that He created them. They looked very different from the creatures of the waters and the air, yet they were still only "living souls." So the word created appears only when God first created "soul" as something distinct from matter.
The three names are not a scientific catalogue. One commentator takes each term in turn and warns against forcing science onto them:
Bringing in the herbivores, the reptiles, and the carnivores here is straining after a scientific gloss… Naming "cattle" first in verse 24 is no anachronism. These are the animals that can be tamed, even if not yet tamed, and they suit the use of man. "Creeping thing" follows in its more literal sense… "Animal of earth" means the wild beast. All of them are terms in constant use where man lives and reigns.
The verse also names cattle apart from the beast of the earth. One writer reads that as a clue about the man not yet made:
Notice too that both verse 24 and verse 25 keep the "beast of the earth" separate from the "cattle." We gather from this that at the first, before sin came in, God designed certain animals to support and benefit the man He was about to create. After sin came in, the beasts developed their wild and savage nature, while the cattle stayed tame and useful to man.
The phrase about kinds falls three times in this one verse. Writers read it as a fixed law, and one adds a warning against pushing it too far:
Notice that each creature is "after his kind." This establishes the fixity of species. Scripture does not say what those species were, or how far variety might later develop inside them. In many animal species that variety is so great it is scarcely believable. One thing is certain: "after his kind" stamps its own mark on each class of plant and animal life. So evolution finds no encouragement from this Scripture. Yet in reacting against the extreme of unbelieving theory, we must be careful not to fall into the opposite extreme of making endless classes. A common unity underlies all animal creation. Each class is specially fitted for the work it has to do. Just as plainly, though, barriers that cannot be crossed separate the classes from one another.
Another points to what anyone can watch happening in the fields and the air:
Why "after his kind"? That clearly leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not consort with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee. The only hybrids in creation are of man's arrangement, and they are sterile, and come to nothing.
God's verdict of "good" closes this stage of the work. The next verse opens something different:
As to the life we have by nature, God's word formed the beasts out of the ground. There the ordinary creation ended, and God pronounced the beasts good (Gen. 1:25). And then God proceeds in solemn consultation to form man as His image, as lord of all He had created, and in His likeness.
One writer also reads the three classes as a picture of mankind:
Acts 10:1-15 and verse 28 show that all these animals are typical of mankind. Domesticated animals would speak of the cultured and refined classes of men. Creeping things speak of the more despised classes, in places of lowly humiliation. The beasts of the earth remind us of men in their wild, rebellious state — a third class even more common than the other two. But this work of God on the sixth day was only a preparation for a more important work the same day.
- Made — God made these animals; He did not create them. Scripture keeps the word "created" for the first making of soul, distinct from matter.
- Kind — Three times this one verse draws the same boundary. Variety inside a kind can be great, but no creature crosses out of its kind.
- Cattle — Naming cattle apart from the wild beast points to animals designed from the start for man's use. Wildness came in after sin.
- Good — With this verdict the ordinary creation ends, approved by God before man is even mentioned.
- Then Man — The next verse turns from the ground bringing forth animals to God's own solemn counsel. The whole day was preparing for the greater work still to come.