The Jewish Creation Story
Today we studied the Jewish beliefs about creation, and considered what the story tells us about the world. We sequenced the story and created storyboards in our books. Throughout the lesson we suggested meanings for the different parts of the story and recognised similarities to the Christian creation story. We also created a visual 1-7 display of what God was believed to have created on each day, see below.
The Story
Before God began to form the Earth into a dwelling-place for humans, the Earth was shapeless, dark and empty. Only the spirit of God was present, moving over the waters. And God said: “Let there be light” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. God separated the light from the darkness, and called the light Day and the darkness Night. This was the first day.
On the second day, God said: “Let there be a heaven.” And he created the sky.
On the third day, God said: “Let the water under heaven be gathered together and let dry land appear.” So the land and sea, river and lakes were made and God saw that it was good.
On the fourth day, God commanded the earth to bring forth all kinds of vegetation, plants and trees.
On the fifth day, God said: “Let there be lights in heaven to separate the day from the night.” And he created the starts and the sun and the moon. And God saw that it was good.
On the sixth day, God said: “Let the waters be filled with living creatures and the sky with birds, let the Earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures.” And he created all the creatures of the sea, sky and land, and blessed them all. Then he said, “Let us make humanity in our own image, to have authority over all things living in the sea, air and land.” And he created the first man and woman, and blessed them. God looked at everything he had made and saw that it was good.
On the seventh day, God rested from all the work which he had done in creation.
