Twice as Good
Anyone who has managed to finish the first chapter of Genesis knows that the Creator was pleased with his work. Indeed, the goodness of Creation is probably the most obvious theme of the account; five of Creation's six days include some form of the refrain, "God saw that it was good," wayyara Elohim ki tov. It is hard to imagine that any reader of the text has failed to observe this very clear compositional pattern.
Perhaps less obvious, however, at least on a first reading, are certain more delicate details—threads, as it were, that weave the declaration, "God saw that it was good," into the story's larger fabric. To see how this is so, we might begin by observing that this refrain, wayyara Elohim ki tov, is not evenly distributed. Two of the days appear to be twice as good. I believe this feature calls for an explanation.
A Cycle of Creation
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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