GENESIS MAKES SENSE: INTRO

© 2025.

Scroll below this Introduction to select the commentaries and topical notes.  Post dates and contact email appear after each section. All posted commentaries and notes have been newly updated for early 2025.  

INTRODUCTION to the COMMENTARIES and TOPICAL NOTES.

“Genesis makes sense” is a series of fully referenced scientific and historical commentaries for the early chapters of Genesis that includes extensive notes on related topics.  The commentaries and topical notes explain the early books of the bible as they were factually written and they provide convincing evidence for their reality from recent discoveries that include astronomy, archaeology, and ancient history.  Nearly all other internet commentaries of the early Genesis accounts cover them from a religious perspective with nothing about the sciences involved behind the events that rationally explain “how” they happened.

Verse-by-verse coverage of Genesis chapters 1-3 is provided that includes proper Hebrew scripture word usage so these accounts may be correctly understood. Highlights of Genesis chapters 4 and 5 are explained. Supplementary Topical notes include the accounts in Genesis chapters 6-11, so this study covers most of Genesis chapters 1-11, factually as it was written. It concentrates on details that people have questions about and answers critics’ objections. Evidence is presented for the information trail of these earliest accounts in Genesis from their originators into modern bibles.

The commentaries and topical notes are written in plain English and don’t assume readers have a thorough understanding of the bible or the scientific disciplines involved.  The thought progression of the material was carefully organized for easy reading. Although it was prepared for those with a Judeo-Christian background it welcomes those who have other faiths and people with a secular world view as well.  

The Authorship of the Hebrew Law commentary provides convincing archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence that Moses was the original author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (the Torah) during the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt c1450BCE. And it explains where and when the Book of Genesis was written, and the historical background for the Book of Job.

Unfortunately, today the early books of the bible are viewed by many as only "myths and legends" or "fables", or they're not relevant for today. Genesis is the foundational book of scripture.  So it begins with the early accounts that originated the concepts taught in the rest of the bible. Life lessons that have eternal value are gleaned from these accounts that illustrate they still have application for today because human nature hasn’t changed since they were written.

Three commentaries for Genesis 1 explain its “origin and authorship”, the “beginning” in verse 1 when the heavens and the earth were created, and the “the six days” in verses 2-31 when the barren planet earth was made into a habitat with living creatures and humans.  But first, a brief technical scientific summary of the entire Genesis 1 account introduces and precedes the verse 1 commentary, Genesis 1: Creation, The Beginning. This summary inserts explanatory scientific descriptions into the text. These insertions are consistent with the biblical account and are enclosed in braces {} to separate them from the bible text. Adding scientific descriptions to this otherwise unscientific bible account makes the meaning of Genesis 1 in English bibles clearly understandable to modern readers!  

The verse 1 commentary, Genesis 1: Creation, The beginning includes the unrecorded science behind what happened in v1 according to modern astronomy. Then it compares the (few) observationally supportable features from the “Big Bang” creation scenario from modern astronomy with the creation of “the heavens and the earth in the “beginning” from Genesis 1:1 and other scripture verses. Apparently flawed human interpretations of Exodus 20:11 and Genesis 1:16-17 have set barriers to understanding how good observational astronomy and accurate scripture verse meanings are consistent. The common interpretation for Exodus 20:11 is used to support a single-day creation of the universe that is incompatible with observational astronomy.  And the meaning for Genesis 1:16 that alleges the sun, moon, and stars were “formed” on the 4th day after they were created in the beginning in v1 is confusing. Careful Hebrew word and scientific studies are presented in the Genesis 1: Creation, The Beginning commentary for a different, linguistically correct and scientifically compatible meaning of Exodus 20:11.  Similarly, another meaning is developed for Genesis 1:16-18 in the Genesis 1: Creation, The Six Days commentary that is consistent with the Hebrew and fits well scientifically with events of the previous three days.

Recently, discoveries were made of some stars and planets that are forming from accretion disks of particulate solid matter in our galaxy.  These developing stellar systems are commonly used by secular scientists to claim the celestial heavens weren’t created in the “beginning” and the bible is wrong. This claim is evaluated (and refuted) in the commentary, Genesis 1: Origin and authorship. Instead, this observational discovery is shown to explain how the "young" features of the planets in our solar system that include their active surfaces and magnetic fields and creation scientists note are related to their hot interiors actually date from only several thousand years ago. How our solar system completed forming from an accretion disk several thousand years ago that fits with scripture chronology is explained scientifically in the Genesis 1: Creation, The beginning commentary.             

Genesis 1: Creation, The Six Days commentary continues coverage of creation after the “beginning” in v1. Its introduction includes a scientific explanation for the origin of “the waters” that produced Earth’s ocean and explains why our planet differs so much from the other planets in our solar system. Next, the events in the first four days of creation that importantly prepared the originally created barren earth for life are summarized to introduce the Creation, Six Days commentary that follows. The full-length Six Days commentary provides detailed verse-by-verse descriptive explanations of the events of each of the six days as they are recorded in vv2-31.  That proven, observable science supports the scripture is convincingly presented throughout.

The commentaries for Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 (objections) have verse-by-verse coverage and answer critics’ specific questions. Genesis 4 and 5 are highlighted, and the end of this section includes a summary (with more details in Topical Note 4) of the information trail of these early Genesis accounts into modern bibles. Then lengthy Topical Notes cover important subjects that are related to the Genesis accounts. Genesis chapters 6-11 that include Noah’s Flood, the Tower of Babel, and mankind’s worldwide dispersion are imbedded in Topical notes 3B and 4.  A content listing of the Topical notes follows:

Topical note summary listing: Topical note 1 covers scientific bias against the bible. Topical note 2 critiques alternate views of the life creation account described in Genesis 1- theistic evolution, the gap theory, and day-age interpretation. Topical note 3A explains how fossil humans fit into the Genesis accounts, 3B describes how humans migrated to fill the earth after Noah’s Flood, how the earliest nations originated, and how today’s human races began, and 3C covers worldwide animal migration after the Flood. This includes why the unusual marsupial and monotreme mammals, such as kangaroos and duck billed platypuses inhabit Australia, how penguins reached Antarctica, and New World monkeys reached the tropical parts of the Americas after Noah’s Flood. Topical note 4 explains the geological and historical evidence for Noah’s Flood and that it originated Earth’s plate tectonics and continental drift several thousand years ago, why human life spans dramatically decreased after the Flood, and historical evidence for Noah and his family. It also covers the ancient Mesopotamian creation and flood epics and worldwide cultural creation and flood traditions, and their relevance to the Genesis creation and flood accounts. Topical note 5 explains the worldwide pre-Flood tropical climate and why it no longer exists. Topical note 6 critiques evolutionary speciation theory and its promotion by conventional scientists as a fact. The section on micro-evolution within species introduces recent discoveries in molecular genetics. The newly described adaptive process of continuous environmental tracking by organisms to climate change in their environment is covered. Their biochemical sensing is directly coupled to epigenetic modification of their genomes and RNA editing that allows organisms to continuously adapt to climate change and pass these changes to their progeny. This process was recently documented for birds including “Darwin’s finches” in conventional scientific journal articles quoted. It obsoletes the older and much slower theoretical process of “natural selection” by the environment as the selective agent for organisms to climate change.  Origin of the flightless birds is studied. Topical note 7 covers radiometric dating, why it is used by conventional scientists instead of other methods, and exposes its flaws. Topical note 8 critiques the conventional age of the universe, and details the creation of our solar system according to scripture and new astronomical discoveries. It explains how the scientifically supportable parts of Big Bang cosmology fit rather than conflict with scripture that was introduced in the Genesis 1: Creation, the Beginning commentary. Topical note 9 explores requirements for habitable exoplanets and evaluates scientific and biblical evidence for extra-terrestrial life.

Here are some popular bible mysteries that are explained in this commentary, with the evidence:

Where is ancient Eden today? How could eating from the garden of Eden's "tree of life" let people live forever? (Genesis 2 commentary). Was the garden’s serpent a snake or something else? Did he really speak to the woman? Why did he tempt the woman instead of the man? (Genesis 3 commentary). Where did Cain’s wife come from? (Highlights of Genesis 4). How do fossil humans fit into the creation accounts? (Topical note 3). Did humans ever meet T.rex dinosaurs? (Genesis 1 commentary and Topical note 3). Authorship of the Hebrew Law includes the following 5 topics: Who was the pharaoh of the Exodus? Have any solid archaeological discoveries been made in Egypt from the original Passover?...Yes! What was the name of pharaoh’s daughter who adopted Moses and later became a ruling queen of Egypt? Which pharaoh ruled Egypt who appointed Jacob’s son, Joseph as prime minister? Who wrote the Book of Job, and when did Job live? Did fire-breathing dragons described in The Book of Job really exist? (Genesis 3 commentary). If the biblical God created everything why and when did pagan gods originate? (Genesis 1: Origin and authorship). How were so many big animals kept on Noah’s ark?  Was the ark the same as a boat? (Topical note 4). Why did God create the universe? (Genesis 3 commentary). Does extra-terrestrial life exist? (Topical note 9).

This study consistently provides real answers to searching questions that are presented with supporting scientific and historical evidence.

Many carefully selected science and history articles from reputable websites, books, and technical periodicals were used as source material for the commentaries and topical notes. These references show the commentaries and topical notes are not just the author’s asserted opinions! References appear in { } and are listed at the end of each section. When scripture is referred to, the verses are cited to conveniently find them in a bible. Internet references may be accessed by clicking on their live web links.  Use of the cited references does not imply their endorsement.

The scripture referenced commentaries and Topical notes are recommended to be read along-side of a bible, but this is optional.  Chapter and verse designations and scripture wording refer to the New International Version (©1984 NIV) bible, and references to other bible versions including the King James (KJV) are noted in [ ].  Originally each book of the bible was written as continuous text without chapter or verse numbers.  These were added much later during the medieval period in Europe to assist referring to parts of the text.  The commentaries and topical notes use bible reference notation: Genesis 1:1 means Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 (or v1), plural for verse is vv, Genesis 1-3 means Genesis chapters 1 through 3, and the verse reference for v6c (or 3:6c) means the third sentence in verse 6. 

March 2025

contact: genesismakessense@gmail.com