 A very good morning to all of you and good morning to the online students as well. Last week we had an introduction to the Old Testament and today we will get into the actual books of the Old Testament. So we would obviously be beginning with Genesis. But before we get into Genesis, just a few instructions for everyone, for those of us who are here present and also for those of us who are watching online. As you know, all of our class lectures have been posted in YouTube. So even as our classes go on, the lecture would automatically be posted on our APC Bible College YouTube site. So if you have any doubts, during the lecture you were a little confused about something and you would like to go and listen to it again, it is possible. So it's not like as if you have missed out on anything. So even if you feel that I have kind of maybe rushed a bit on something and you didn't quite catch what I was saying. You can always go to the YouTube link and you can just rewatch that little portion just so that you can gain clarity if you have any doubts. Because sometimes without realizing it, I tend to rush a little. So I will try not to do that. I have been instructed not to do that and I will try to be slower in my speech. But sometimes when the thoughts are running in the head, the voice catches up with that speed and it doesn't really help. So you can always go to the YouTube site and look at the videos which are available there. And that actually clarifies a doubt which I think Evangeline had brought up about the PPT slides. So actually if you go to the YouTube site where our lectures are posted, the PowerPoint slides are anyway there displayed in the screen. So I don't need to again give the PPT to each individual. It will already be there in the lecture. So you can go over there and look at those PPT slides which have been displayed. In case you want to capture a screenshot for yourself or something. In case you think that particular slide may be helpful to you and you would just like a screenshot of that, you can always take those slides. And then another thing which I realized last time whenever I was teaching, I don't really get a chance to really look at my screen over here. Once I get into the flow of the teaching, it kind of becomes difficult to see what has been posted in the chat. And another thing which I realized is that immediately after the session is done, I terminate the session. And so I may miss out on what has been posted over there in the chat. So for the online students, if you could post your doubts, questions, anything that you want to say in the stream page of Google Classroom. I will make sure that I go through it. So online students who wish to say something or want to ask something, please put all your questions in the stream page of the Google Classroom. So I will be able to respond to your questions. And also, like I asked last time, around 11.40 if someone here in the class could wave at me so that I would not forget to give you your 10 minutes for any questions that you may have from the book of Genesis. Alright, so one of you can wave at me and remind me that time is almost up. So, having gone through those preliminaries, we'll actually get to Genesis. Now, last time we were looking at the main divisions into which the Old Testament is divided. So we looked at how the first five books are called the Torah, which means instruction. It's also called the Pentateuch because there are five of them and Penta in Greek means five. What is the other name for this category? They're also called the books of the law because that is where Moses has given all the instructions and law which God has conveyed to the Israelites. So these are the different terms that are used for these first five books of the Old Testament. Now, the students here in the class have also received their textbooks. So I would touch upon a few things which are there mentioned in your textbook but then we would go beyond that. We would be discussing many other things which are not mentioned in that brief right up which is there in your book. So the books of the law is the term generally used for these first five books and it spans over a time period of maybe around 600 years and right from the time of creation. So it extends to a period of about 600 years and it's generally believed that Moses is the one who compiles all this information and puts it together regarding what happened during those first 600 years after creation. So we have many important things mentioned in Genesis. The term Genesis basically means beginning. So it's a book of beginnings and it talks about the beginning of so many things. In fact, the beginning of the universe itself talks about the beginning of human beings, talks about the beginning of the Sabbath because God says that he rested from his work on the seventh day. You have the beginning of the institution of marriage where God brings Adam and Eve together. We see the beginning of the fall of man and the entry of sin so we see that as well. We see the beginning of sacrifices because the Lord kills an animal and clothes Adam and Eve with the skin of that animal. So we see a lot of beginnings and in your textbook in fact along with the references you have a nice listing. So you can actually go to your textbook later and look at the listing of all the beginnings which are mentioned in the book of Genesis. Now Genesis also talks about four main characters. We have Abraham and you have Isaac, Jacob and then of course Joseph. So Genesis basically deals with these main issues. Now coming to the kind of writing that we see in Genesis. It's a term which you might have heard of or you might not be familiar with the term. It's something called genre or to put it in simpler terms category. When we talk about literature, when we talk about written works, they tend to use this term. They ask what genre of literature is this is the term they use. For instance, when you're reading a storybook that would be called the genre of prose because it's written in a paragraph form. You have paragraph after paragraph and then you have chapters. It's just prose form of writing. On the other hand, you have poetry and you can very clearly understand the difference between prose and poetry. If I were to put a story in front of you and if I were to put a piece of poetry in front of you, you would automatically see that they are two different genres. One is poetry and the other is prose. So what about this book of Genesis? What kind of writing does Genesis contain? It's mainly what they call as narrative history. It's a narrative in prose form. Narrative I suppose is a more technical term but you can just say prose. So narrative and prose are just basically a narration of something. Something is being explained in long sentences and the sentences add up into paragraphs and then you have the paragraphs adding up into chapters. So it's just prose. It's basically narrative history and also you have something else in our Genesis which is called the genealogies. And especially in ancient times genealogy lists were very important to trace the lineage. Who was the original person and from whom did all the descendants come? So because for them their ancestry was very important. Today it does not seem to be as important. Most of us probably would know our great grandparents but beyond that great great grandparents we may not even know their name. So ancestry is not that important now but then in earlier times it was so important for everyone to know from whom you have descended. And so these genealogy lists are given in the book of Genesis and they are considered quite important as well. So if we are talking about the genre of Genesis it would basically be narrative history and genealogies. These are the two kinds of writings that we see in the book of Genesis. Now it's generally believed that Moses wrote Genesis in the time period of 1450 to 1410 BC. Approximately they say that he probably would have written it around that time. And some scholars suggest that he probably began to write the book of Genesis while he was still living in the royal court. Because he was adopted by that Pharaoh's daughter and he was brought up as one of the princes. So he would have been there in the royal court and of course he had contact with his people. He had an idea of who he is, what his ancestry is, what his background is. So he knew that he is a Hebrew. He knew that he actually belongs to the Hebrew people who are living in the land of Egypt. But he was in the royal court and he had been trained in the royal court. So he in fact he would know how to write out a historical narrative. If I were to ask one of you and say in the next one up please kindly produce the narrative history of your last five years. You may in fact even wonder how on earth do I write a narrative history. On the other hand this man Moses had been highly trained and educated in the royal court of Egypt. So he would definitely know how a royal narrative or in fact any narrative history would be written. He would be aware of those things. And it's actually in Act 722 where we see this particular detail regarding Moses where it says Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. So it talks about how Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Because they don't exactly deprive their princes of education. They would give him all of the education. He would know everything there is to know. So whatever science and whatever geography and whatever physics and chemistry they were aware of in those times. He would have been educated in all of that including all of the writing skills and recording skills. So these are things that he would have known and I mean even as we read this Act 722 it kind of brings to our minds. I know the words of Moses where he is speaking to the Lord and giving an excuse. And if you remember what does Moses say to the Lord about his skills that would be in Exodus 410 where he is talking to the Lord and he says, pardon your servant Lord. I have never been eloquent neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue is what he says. But then what does history record about him because Stephen even as he is speaking about Moses. He says Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. So here was a highly educated man who lived in the royal court and yet seemed to have a rather inferior opinion about himself. So I mean I don't know maybe the other princes kind of treated him a little badly because he was a Hebrew. His ancestry was a Hebrew ancestry. On the other hand they were descended from the pharaohs. So maybe he had a lot of flak in the court. Maybe people you would know would comment on him and maybe his skills were not as perfect as some of those other royal princes who were getting trained. So maybe it's a result of all these things. So even though this man was a highly educated person he thinks so low about himself and he says Lord I'm slow of speech and tongue. I have never been eloquent. The word eloquent means someone who can speak fluently and who can express his words in a very powerful way. So he says I have never been eloquent. On the other hand history records that he was trained in all of those things. So even if you are sitting here right now and you don't have a very high opinion of yourself. There are things, circumstances which God has brought into your life in the past 20 years or however old you are. God has been working on you and there are skills which you have developed which you might not recognize but the Lord sees those things. So he sees you very differently because you may be thinking only in terms of a formal training in an institution. But life itself can be a training and the Lord allows circumstances in his people's lives which will shape them and mold them and make them ready for the tasks which he has for them. So that's something to keep in mind even as we are looking at Moses the author of Genesis. So when we look at Genesis we see that there are some 10 specific sections. All of them beginning with the words these are the generations of. Now we see that happening in chapter 2 verse 4. We see it again in chapter 5 verse 1. We see it in 6, 9 and then in chapter 10 verse 1, 11, 10, 11, 27, Genesis 25, 12, 25, 19, 36, 1 and finally 37, 2. All of these sections they begin with the words these are the generations of that is the way the royal genealogies were recorded in those times. And so whenever anyone is making any historical records as well they would speak in this way. And so this is an art of writing which Moses would have learnt in the royal court. Because when you look at the Egypt in historical records that's the same kind of wording that you see over there. So these are all the influences that we see the Egypt in influence that we see in his writing style. Now we have a chronological record in 1 Kings chapter 6 verse 1 and based on that calculating based on that chronological record which is there in 1 Kings 6 1. They generally say that most probably Moses would have started with the people of Israel taking them out. He would have done that most probably in 1446 BC around that time. So if the Exodus the people leaving Egypt happened in 1446 then Genesis probably would have been written before that would have been written after that. So that would be 1486 BC. So they say that maybe Genesis probably was written around 1486 BC. So that's according to another scholar because earlier we looked at a different date which I had picked up from a different book. So there's a little difference in what the scholars say regarding the date of when Genesis was probably written. Now just coming to the structure of Genesis chapters 1 to 11 talk mainly about creation the fall of man. You have the narrative about the judgment through the flood. These are all the things that we find in chapters 1 to 11. Coming to chapters 11 to 28 and let us say 11 to 36 chapters 11 to 36 can be the next major chunk. So in chapters 11 to 36 we mainly see about how God chooses Abraham and God decides that he is going to create a nation out of Abraham through whom all the families of the earth will be blessed. And why did God choose Abraham specifically through whom he's going to begin a nation because God saw something in Abraham, a particular character which he probably had not observed in other people because the Lord clarifies this. He comments on this in Genesis chapter 18 verses 18 and 19. So if you were to look in Genesis 18, 18 and 19 and maybe over here in the class we could have one person read out. Those of you who are online if you could just follow this in your Bibles. If someone could read out Genesis 18, 18 and 19. What does God say about Abraham? Why did God choose Abraham through whom to make a nation? God saw something in Abraham. God saw that here is a man who will take the effort to train up his descendants, his children, his grandchildren. He would take the effort to train them up in the ways of God. And so specifically God decided this would be a good person through whom I can create a nation because he will transfer the instructions which I am giving him to his descendants. And we see how important this was in God's eyes in our current modern culture for some really bad reason. Men don't seem to think that they have any kind of role to play in spiritual instruction in disciplining their children and bringing them up in the things of God. And they think, oh, the wife will do it. But that is not how God ever viewed it. It is as the head of the family, as the leader of the family, it is very much the man's responsibility to bring up his children in the ways of God to train them, teach them what the Lord is conveying. And so it is definitely even the mother's responsibility, but the father should not shirk his responsibility. God specifically chose Abraham for this purpose. He chose him and made a nation out of him because he said, here is a man who will direct his children and he will direct his household to keep the way of the Lord is what God says. And so in God's eyes, this particular role of a man is very important, not something to be neglected. It is good to go and earn money and get rich, but training the children in the ways of God is something that is very valuable in God's eyes. So anyway, that was just something on our side. But then coming back to the third main section, we talked about how the second section can be chapters 11 to 36, where the focus is mainly on God choosing Abraham and preparing the nation. Chapters 37 to 50 is where you see Joe's of story and we see all the trials that the family went through and we see that these early four generations, they did make a lot of mistakes. They did fail in many ways. But what we see over here in these chapters is that God stays faithful. God helps them come out of their failures. God supports those who have fallen into hard times. God never lets go. So in these chapters, we not only see the early history of the patriarchs, as they are known, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph are generally called the patriarchs. That patriarch is a very old word, which basically means the fathers, the forefathers. So even though the patriarchs were not always perfect, even though they failed, even though they made mistakes, God was always there to support them, back them up, help them. So we see the faithfulness of God and the power of God in turning situations around in these chapters. Now, one unique feature that we would find in the book of Genesis would be regarding the Abrahamic covenant. Now, there are three unconditional covenants in the Old Testament and the Abrahamic covenant is the first one of them. Where God does not add any conditions and say, if you do this, this, this, only then I will do this. There's no conditions attached. It's just unconditional. The Lord from His side says, I will do this for you. So the first of these is the Abrahamic covenant, which is mentioned in our Genesis. The other two come later on. One would be the Davidic covenant. And then, of course, we have the new covenant in the New Testament, which is mentioned even in Jeremiah. So that could be one important feature to focus on in the book of Genesis, the Abrahamic covenant. And then in your textbook, there's a brief reference to how Genesis compares with the other books of the Bible. And I'm just touching upon the comparison that they have made between Genesis and the book of John and 1st John. It's a nice comment. They say that Genesis begins with the creation. On the other hand, John and 1st John, they begin before the creation itself. In the beginning, even before creation even came into being, the Word was already there. The Word who is Jesus and of course, God the Father. So we see that even before creation, whatever took place, that is touched upon in John and 1st John. And at the end of each chapter in your textbook, you see that subheading which says, Shadow of Christ. Now, this is again a term which some of you would be familiar with. But for some of you, this term, Shadow of Christ, what on earth do you mean by Shadow of Christ? You know, this is not some new ritual that someone is trying to come up with about shadows and stuff. It's just basically saying, is Jesus Christ represented in some way in these Old Testament books? Because in the Old Testament books, it doesn't really talk about Jesus. But is he represented in some way in these Old Testament books? So in that sense, they're talking about a shadow of Christ. So we don't really see Jesus being mentioned, but there may be a slight reference to him. There may be a shadow of Christ seen in these Old Testament books. So one very interesting shadow or representation of Christ that we see in the book of Genesis would be Melchizedek. Now scholars have been debating about Melchizedek for ages. Some say he was not even human. He must have been Jesus himself who came down in earthly form and met with Abraham. That kind of really does terrible things to the doctrine. Because we know that Jesus came down in human flesh when he was born in the New Testament. So that is one theory which they have about Melchizedek. And there are others who say he must have been a very godly ruler. And moreover it says over there in Genesis 14-18 that this man was like a high priest to the Lord. So he was not only a king, he also performed a high priestly role where he was genuinely following and serving Yahweh. So they say that this Melchizedek resembles Jesus in the same way in the New Testament Jesus becomes a high priest. In the Old Testament this man Melchizedek must have been like Jesus. He was a very godly high priest who was serving the Lord and also pointing people towards the true God. So in Hebrews 7 1-3 you have reference of Melchizedek. And if you look specifically at Hebrews 7 was 3 and there is a term used over there resembling the Son of God. So it does not say that Melchizedek was the Son of God. It says that he resembled he was like the Son of God. So Melchizedek was probably just a human being but a very godly human being who was also a king and a high priest. And because of who he is God instructs Abraham to give one tenth as a tithe to this person. And that becomes like a shadow of what Jesus will do for us in the New Testament where he would become a high priest and intercede for us with the Father. So that can be one main shadow or representation of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis. There are of course many others mentioned in your textbook. Now there's another important and interesting point that I would like to bring. I was kind of debating over this whether to mention it at all or not. But then this is something that I found very fascinating about the Old Testament and I thought I would just share it with you. Now if you don't quite get it, that's okay. But this is something that we find throughout the Old Testament. It's a kind of writing style which they had in those days in the ancient Near East. In the literature of that time we see this particular kind of writing format. What we use today in our writing is actually the Greek form of writing. When you were in your third standard, fourth standard and you had to sit in your English class and the teacher is teaching you how to write an essay. She would say to you, she would say you have to have an introduction where you're going to tell this is what my essay is going to be about. And then you will come to the body of the essay where you will give your main content and you will talk about all that you want to say. And then you must have a conclusion is what the teacher would say where you're going to summarize all your main points and you're going to give one concluding statement about this is what my essay is concluding about. So something of the sort. Now this is a Greek way of thinking and a Greek way of writing. The people in the ancient Near East back then in those days, they had an interesting writing style which was technically referred to as the chiasms, C-H-I-A-S-M-S. So I will just kind of take you to a PowerPoint slide which will help you to better understand what I'm talking about. And these chiasms are very, very interesting because the Old Testament and in fact even the New Testament is filled with them. And they are trying to bring, whenever the author would try to write in this chiasmic form he's trying to bring out something very significant. He's trying to make a very important point. So it helps us if we are aware of this thing because then we can go online and maybe read up about it and find out more about it because wherever you have a chiasm in the Old Testament and in the New Testament the author is using that particular writing style to convey something very significant and so I'll just take you now to the slide and maybe we could look at that. Okay, I'm assuming that the slide is visible to even the online students. Okay, it would be visible to the online students. Perfect, thank you. All right, now one of the first and most interesting chiasms in the Old Testament would be the story of Noah and if you look at the way the story of Noah is written you would get a clear idea of what exactly is a chiasm. They would write using something called a mirror structure. Oh, it's not showing up here, is it? What would I need to do? Okay, I will convey this to the class, the physical class here later. So sorry, I had not even thought about that. Those of you who are online and who are able to see on your screens what is being said, the rest of you would have to use your imagination a little bit. The story of Noah begins with Genesis chapter 6 and this chiasm actually begins with Genesis chapter 6 verses 11 to 13 where it talks about how God decides that the world has become so evil that he must destroy it. And then if you come down to the very ending of this entire Noah passage that would be in your Genesis chapter 8 verses 21 to 22. You would see a parallel similarity between this first layer of the story and the last layer of the story. They are similar. In the first layer of the story, God decides I will destroy this world because of the evil there is. And if you come down to the last layer of the story, you know, when God has made a covenant with Noah and he says, I will never again do it. So in the first layer, you see God deciding to destroy. In the last layer, you see God saying, no, never again will I do this thing. Coming down to the next layer, okay, the next two layers. In this layer, which would be chapter 6 verse 14 to 22, Noah, he builds an ark. Come right down to the bottom and you have the second last layer down below. That would be able to see because of the, you know, I have this window over here which I'm not able to get the reference, but then we see that Noah, he builds an altar. So in the second layer of the story right on top, you have Noah building an ark. If you come down to the second last layer over here, you see Noah building an altar. Then you come down to the third layer, third layer. Okay, so over here you have the Lord ordering them to enter the ark. And if you come down here, you have the Lord ordering them to leave the ark. So it's like a mirror structure. Whatever you have in the first layer here matches with the last layer here. Second last layer of the second layer and the second last layer again match. It's like a mirror structure. Whatever is there reflects whatever is over here. And why were they writing in this style? You see they were leading up to the center point, what you actually call the X. The chiasm actually is a Greek word and the X, the chias, I think was the word. I don't remember my Greek word, but you know the center is the X. And there a very, very significant thing will be said. And we see this happening again and again in the Old Testament passages. Where at the very center of this chiasatic structure, God says something significant. And over here in this particular passage, that would actually turn out to be chapter 8 verse 1. Where it says, God remembered Noah. Now why on earth would it say something like that? Can God ever forget anything? God remembers everything always. But that wording has been put over there specifically for you and me. You know, for the readers to know that in spite of all that has been happening in the story, God never forgets his people. His eyes were always on Noah and his family. In fact, if you were to go to Genesis chapter 8 verse 1, over there it says, But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark. And he sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded. So if you look at this story, there's a lot of violence happening here. There's destruction, there's God's anger and judgment and all of that happening. But if you look at the center of that story right there in the middle, it says God remembered Noah. Not that God ever forgot, but the point over there is being made for you and me to understand. It's emphasizing the fact that the Lord never forgets his people. So irrespective of what floods, what trials, what things are happening in our lives, we can have this one confidence that the Lord always remembers his people. His eyes are upon his people. And not just that it says over here, he not only does he remember Noah, it says he remembered all the wild animals and the livestock. So in the midst of this passage, this narrative which talking about anger and judgment and violence at the center of it, you have this phrase which talks about the mercy of God, the compassion of God, because God never wreaked out this entire havoc just to bring destruction. He did it to bring about new hope, a new beginning, because the world had gotten to such a rotten state that the Lord wanted to restore and redeem and restart something new, give people a second chance, give mankind a second chance. And we see that because of that, this particular phrase is placed right in the middle of the chaiastic structure. So even if you're going to go into the internet and you look for chiasms, if you just simply type in Google chiasms in the Old Testament and you start looking at them, look at what is there in the center, even as the story starts coming right to the middle, you start noticing that it becomes significant. And in fact, you will have some commentaries which will explain in what way that particular middle portion is significant. So that's just something that I wanted to bring our attention to even as we are doing this Old Testament survey. Alright, we will now maybe get into a very brief overview of some main concepts which are there in Genesis. The first is just a question which some people raise. And they say, you have a description of creation in Genesis chapter 1, you have a description of creation. But then in chapter 2, you have another second description of creation. And so they say, what is this? Is it like two different writers writing two different versions? Are they really contradicting each other? And they come up with all of these questions. But then if we look, we will see that chapter 1 just gives a brief introduction of giving a brief list of all the things which were created. That would be in chapter 1. Chapter 2 is attempting to provide you more details regarding some of the things mentioned in that list. So there's no contradiction between chapter 1 and chapter 2. Chapter 1 is just giving an outline. These are the list of things which were created. Chapter 2 tries to give you extra details about some of those created things. For instance, in chapter 1, it just simply says that God created humans in his image. But then when we go to the second chapter, we discover something about how they were created. God physically gets involved in it because he chooses to take up the dust of the ground and make humans out of it. So he doesn't just speak it out, he actually acts upon it, gets involved in it. So we see details in the second chapter which are not mentioned in the first chapter. So there are not two contradictory versions of creation. It's just that the second chapter is trying to provide greater detail regarding the first chapter. Now what do we mean when we say that humans were made in the image of God? Did I say something wrong? Okay, yeah. Okay, it's the hand-waving time. Okay, so we have just 10 minutes left. Let me just fit in this thing about the made in the image of God. As we all know, God is a spirit being. So it's not that he has two hands and two legs and is restricted to one body. He is everywhere. So when it says that humans were created in God's image, we are not trying to say that God has a human body like us. Rather, we are similar to the Lord in three ways. Humans were given the same moral feature that God has. Whatever God regards as right and wrong, humans also were created to feel the same way. They too would feel the same way God does about what is right and what is wrong. Now because of the fall and because of sin, now people's perspective has become very warped. We have different people saying, no, no, this is good. And then others say, no, no, no, this is evil and there seems to be no consensus on what is good and what is bad. But when God first created humans, they had the same moral character that God does. Whatever God regards as good and evil, humans also regarded the very same things as good and evil. And the second thing is that like God, humans also have this spiritual aspect to them. They are able to communicate with God. They are able to understand God. They are able to understand these divine things which plants and animals are unable to understand. So in that sense, we are created in the image of God. And third, we have an intellectual nature which no other part of creation has. We are able to think, we are able to analyze, we are able to remember what has happened in the past and relate it to someone. All these things, no animal, no plant is able to do. So when it comes to the moral aspect, the spiritual aspect and the intellectual nature, in these three areas we have been created in the image of God. So that was just something that I wanted to mention. And yes, if anyone has any questions here in the class, you could maybe raise it up. Anything from the book of Genesis, hopefully nothing too technical. If it is too technical for me to handle, I will look it up. I will find out their needed information and I can share that with you next class. But whatever I do know, I can answer those questions right now. So those of you who are online, I'm very sorry. But if you could put your questions immediately after the class, maybe in the stream page, I will go through the questions and all of those questions shall be addressed in the next class. We will not get into very controversial issues or lengthy debates because Genesis can generate a lot of debate. But anything that can be answered in a simple manner, we will do that because we have to go through all the books of the Old Testament and we may not have time to deal with it. But anything that you want to raise right now, any question that you want to raise regarding the book of Genesis. Any questions? Yes, your time. The question which was asked by one of the students here was that what do we say about the days of creation because of the debate which is there? Some people say God literally created in, you know, seven days, in six days, sorry, in six days, you know, 24 hour time span. And then there are some who say, no, no, no, when it says day, it doesn't talk about an actual physical 24 hour day. It's talking about many, many thousands of years. And so there's a lot of debate regarding this. And even today, the top scholars are still debating it and I am no top scholar. I will just give you a very brief idea, you know, regarding this whole thing. Just so that you have an idea of what people are saying regarding this. The word that is used over there in your Hebrew Bible is the word Yom. Okay, Yom is the word for day. Now, Yom can be used for day. Yom can also be for duration. So the Hebrew vocabulary was rather limited in the sense they would use one word with many, many different meanings, layers of meaning. So Yom would be used for a physical actual 24 hour day. Yom would also be used for a duration of time. So in what sense was it mentioned in Genesis chapter one? Now that we don't have much clarity regarding. So there are two main parties generally. So there are those who will say, Yom actually is talking about a long duration of time. And so it kind of matches with what evolutionists talk about today about how we know each, you know, there were different ages, you know, and then different species came into being during each of those phases. And so people who support this idea of Yom being a long duration of time, they say, see, the Bible is also saying what these people, evolutionists are saying each day was actually a long duration of many thousands of years. And gradually things began to come into existence during that time as God created them. The one main argument which the other party has, those who hold on to the idea that it's just literally physical 24 hour duration, they say that, you know, if you are going to match your thinking with the evolutionists, it's going to have a problem because of the order in which the creation happened. On day one, certain things were created, day two, certain things were created. And if you look at evolution, they will give you a different ordering of creation. For instance, the sun and the moon and all were not created on day one. On the other hand, the evolutionist, you know, who talks about how there was just a big bang, and then, you know, the stars began to come. So which means if stars began to come, even sun also would have had to come at that particular time. So, but then again, the other party, the other side, they argue and say, okay, fine, maybe the other stars were coming into being. But on the fourth day is when, fourth duration of time is when God allowed the sun to form, to take form. So it goes back and forth and you have probably an entire 10% of the internet is just devoted to that. There's a lot of debate on it. Okay, but this is the main thing. So you have people who say that the word Yom is just 24 hours literal day and the others who say it's a long duration of time. And we do not really know, you will have to form your own opinion regarding that, yeah. Anything else, any other question? You want just those three things, those three aspects, yeah. The question which one of the students is asking is, in what way were we created in the image of God? In the moral aspect, as in what we regard as right and wrong, the spiritual aspect, where we are able to understand God and communicate with God. And the third aspect is intellectual, where we are able to reflect upon things, we're able to analyze them, we're able to talk about it in a logical manner, all of these things. So those would be the three aspects in which we are similar to the image of God. Yeah, anything else at all? Yes. Yeah, that again, that's a very debatable thing and we really have time for it even. It's called the gap theory. So the theory says that verse one is talking about how God created and then there's a long gap of maybe millions of years and then verse two happened. God began this whole process of creation. So they tried to adjust and say, you know, science is today suggesting that it would have taken this many millions of years for everything to form. So yes, even the Bible is also saying that because there's a long gap between verse one and verse two. Or verse one is when God created the heavens and the earth. But then after that, the actual creation of all the other things would have started much later. And there was a long gap which took place between one and two. And then of course, they would also get into all kinds of doctrinal issues about the fall of Satan and all that. Let's not even go there at the moment. Yeah, okay. We'll conclude with your question because it's time. Go ahead. God did not feel the... Okay, what the student is saying over here in the class is that, you know, God being God doesn't need to explain to us how exactly he went about creating. And yeah, God being on a different level than us. For him, nothing is impossible. So he could have adopted any means of bringing about the creation. He was not restricted by time the way we are. It's what the student is saying. And what was the question? You just wanted to say that. Yes. Perfect. Yeah. So the bell has rung over here and we need to conclude. So thank you very much. And next tomorrow, yeah, we will be meeting for Exodus. Thank you. And thank you all.