Tweet
As Genesis 1 ends and Genesis 2 begins we have
Ge:1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Ge:2:1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Ge:2:2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
There is no theological problem with “Ge:1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” At the first Council of Nicaea, Boniface of Tyre pointed out that that this meant that this would have taken some time and that God must have moved around Earth, looking at things because the far side of the earth would have been in darkness. Much discussion ensued with several members pointing out that God made the earth in darkness. This continued for most of the afternoon until Boniface was burned at the stake as a heretic and the Earth was thus proven to be flat and, in any case, Earth, if it moved at all, moved around God. 
The second clause “and, behold, it was very good” created a minor delay while was discussed with particular reference to the fact that He had created, diseases, famine, war and heretics, (Atticles of Samaria was particularly talkative on the subject of his arthritis) but, it was pointed out that, at that time, these things did not exist as there were no men or women (mainly women… they started the trouble). That, and the smell of burning Boniface, put paid to further discussion.
The second part of the verse, “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” is doubly interesting as it indicates how God marked the days: The day ends at sundown and “the morning” means “The night and all of the daylight that followed that night”, which shows that God did in fact make at least half the universe in the dark and made no mistakes. To be able to do this, He had to be able to see in the dark.
The motion to accept “Ge:2:1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” without discussion had no dissenters.
This brings us to
Ge:2:2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made;
Now you will note from “on the seventh day God ended his work” that God must have worked on the seventh day, i.e. in the daylight or darkness that followed sunset on the 6th day.
To put it in today’s terms, if I you asked how I enjoyed reading your attempt at a Godly story, I might say “I didn’t. I started it on Thursday and I managed to get to the end on Sunday” indicating that I ended my reading on Sunday. So I was still reading on Sunday, which is when I, mercifully, reached the end.
It would be wrong of me to say “And Bathfire read every thing that he had been asked to, and, behold, it was garbage. And it was Saturday.”
So why did the Council approve it? The matter took five hours to arrive at a conclusion. A Democrat (Democritus of Thebes) insisted that God worked on the seventh day, but it was Republicus of Syracuse (a much respected theologian) who brought common sense to the argument by pointing out that “on the seventh day God ended his work” meant that God finished on what we would call Saturday and that like midnight – which is neither today or tomorrow, but a time on its own – the clause meant “at dusk on the day that had been Saturday.”
The final clause was the most complex theology the world has seen. Perhaps it was the question that the Council had been dreading, and would have happily ignored. It was “What is the meaning of “and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”
Those of little Faith and less learning will see it as “If God is all powerful, why does He need to rest?”
But the real question behind this clause – and this was spotted by Constantine I himself, was
“Does God take a day off? And if so, what happens to souls and prayers on that day?”
Now at this time, Constantine was not baptized as he was only halfway through his studies to be a Christian. Normally, the words of a pagan would not have carried much weight, but as Constantine was footing the bill for the whole shebang, it was thought best to humor him. So the Council started the debate.
I will leave you to mull over the implications of either answer and trust that nobody will cheat by reading Socrates Scholasticus.
Ge:1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Ge:2:1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Ge:2:2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
There is no theological problem with “Ge:1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” At the first Council of Nicaea, Boniface of Tyre pointed out that that this meant that this would have taken some time and that God must have moved around Earth, looking at things because the far side of the earth would have been in darkness. Much discussion ensued with several members pointing out that God made the earth in darkness. This continued for most of the afternoon until Boniface was burned at the stake as a heretic and the Earth was thus proven to be flat and, in any case, Earth, if it moved at all, moved around God.
The second clause “and, behold, it was very good” created a minor delay while was discussed with particular reference to the fact that He had created, diseases, famine, war and heretics, (Atticles of Samaria was particularly talkative on the subject of his arthritis) but, it was pointed out that, at that time, these things did not exist as there were no men or women (mainly women… they started the trouble). That, and the smell of burning Boniface, put paid to further discussion.
The second part of the verse, “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” is doubly interesting as it indicates how God marked the days: The day ends at sundown and “the morning” means “The night and all of the daylight that followed that night”, which shows that God did in fact make at least half the universe in the dark and made no mistakes. To be able to do this, He had to be able to see in the dark.
The motion to accept “Ge:2:1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” without discussion had no dissenters.
This brings us to
Ge:2:2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made;
Now you will note from “on the seventh day God ended his work” that God must have worked on the seventh day, i.e. in the daylight or darkness that followed sunset on the 6th day.
To put it in today’s terms, if I you asked how I enjoyed reading your attempt at a Godly story, I might say “I didn’t. I started it on Thursday and I managed to get to the end on Sunday” indicating that I ended my reading on Sunday. So I was still reading on Sunday, which is when I, mercifully, reached the end.
It would be wrong of me to say “And Bathfire read every thing that he had been asked to, and, behold, it was garbage. And it was Saturday.”
So why did the Council approve it? The matter took five hours to arrive at a conclusion. A Democrat (Democritus of Thebes) insisted that God worked on the seventh day, but it was Republicus of Syracuse (a much respected theologian) who brought common sense to the argument by pointing out that “on the seventh day God ended his work” meant that God finished on what we would call Saturday and that like midnight – which is neither today or tomorrow, but a time on its own – the clause meant “at dusk on the day that had been Saturday.”
The final clause was the most complex theology the world has seen. Perhaps it was the question that the Council had been dreading, and would have happily ignored. It was “What is the meaning of “and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”
Those of little Faith and less learning will see it as “If God is all powerful, why does He need to rest?”
But the real question behind this clause – and this was spotted by Constantine I himself, was
“Does God take a day off? And if so, what happens to souls and prayers on that day?”
Now at this time, Constantine was not baptized as he was only halfway through his studies to be a Christian. Normally, the words of a pagan would not have carried much weight, but as Constantine was footing the bill for the whole shebang, it was thought best to humor him. So the Council started the debate.
I will leave you to mull over the implications of either answer and trust that nobody will cheat by reading Socrates Scholasticus.