Origin of Mammals: Biblical Data

Slide 5 of 109

The biblical data from the book of Genesis describes the creation of the nephesh (soulish) creatures on the fifth and sixth days of creation (see Day-Age Genesis One Interpretation). Examples given include the "sea monsters" (i.e., whales), cattle, "creeping things" (i.e., rodents), and "beasts of the earth (i.e., carnivores).¹ The bipedal An order of mammals including man, apes, monkeys, etc., often characterized by large brains and flexible hands and feet.primates, though not specifically mentioned, would have been created at this time also.

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1. Genesis:
   1:20 Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures [nephesh], and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens."
   1:21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature [nephesh] that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
   1:22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
   1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
   1:24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures [nephesh] after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so.
   1:25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
   1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
   1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.