Chronological Order

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me (Jesus): for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”  John 6:46, 47

“Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he (the rich man) said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he [Abraham] said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”  Luke 16:29-31

Creation

Day the First

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” I John 1:5

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1-3

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3  NASB

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”  Romans 1:20

“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17 NASB

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power.”   Hebrews 1:1-3

“The god Tangaloa dwelt in the Expanse; he made all things; he alone was [there]; not any sky, not any country; he only went to and fro in the Expanse; there was also no sea, and no earth.” A ‘Tala.’ The Samoan Story of Creation

“Then assuredly the world was made, not in time, but simultaneously with time.” Augustine City of God and Christian Doctrine, Chapter 6, Book XI Translator, Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) Print Basis: New York: The Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890

Te Kore                      “The Void”
Te Kore-tua-tahi        “The First Void”
Te Kore-tua-rua         “The Second Void”
Te Kore-nui                “The Vast Void
Te Kore-roa               “The Far-Extending Void”
Te Kore-para             “The Sere Void”
Te Kore-whiwhia       “The Unpossessing Void”
Te Kore-rawea           “The Delightful Void”
Te Kore-te-tamaua     “The Void Fast Bound”
Te Po                          “The Night”
Te Po-teki                   “The Hanging Night”
Te Po-terea                 “The Drifting Night”
Te Po-whawha           “The Moaning Night”
Hine-maki-moe          “The Daughter of Troubled Sleep”
Te Po                          “The Night”
Te Ata                        “The Dawn”
Te Ao-tu-roa              “The Abiding Day”
Te Ao-marama           “The Bright Day”
Whai-tua                    “Space.” Oceanic Mythology by Roland B. Dixon ©1916 Part I. “Polynesia Myths of Origins and the Deluge   New Zealand,” p. 6 Andersen, p. 127 (modified from Shortland, p. 12).

“The LORD possessed me [wisdom] in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth.” Proverbs 8:22-29

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  Genesis 1:1

“But when the earth did not come into sight, but was covered with thick darkness, and a wind moved upon its surface, God commanded that there should be light …” Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews – Book I, Translated by William Whiston, 1737

“In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed, but you remain the same.” Hebrews 1:10-12 NIV

“For he founded it [the earth] upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” Psalm 24:2 NIV

“There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters …”

“For the whole universe consisting of moisture …” The Babylonian Legends of Creation, by E.A. Wallis Budge, 1921. “The Legend of the Creation According to Berosus and Damascius, written in Greek by Berosus, a priest of Bel-Marduk about 250 BC at Babylon.”

“But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” 2 Peter 3:5 (NIV)”

To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.” Psalm 136:5,6

“To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; To Him who spread out the earth above the waters.”  Psalm 136:5,6 NASB

“In the year and in the day of the clouds, before ever were years or days, the world lay in darkness. All things were orderless, and water covered the slime and ooze that the earth then was.” Garcia in his Origin de los Indias (Translation of Mixtec picture-manuscript) Quoted in The Myths of Mexico and Peru by Lewis Spence 1913.

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2

“Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And Heav’n’s high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of Nature;
If a face: Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion’d, and unfram’d,
Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam’d.
No sun was lighted up, the world to view;
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew:
Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky,
Nor pois’d, did on her own foundations lye:

Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,

And water’s dark abyss unnavigable.
No certain form on any was imprest;
All were confus’d, and each disturb’d the rest.
For hot and cold were in one body fixt;
And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.”
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 1,Translator John Dryden et al, 1717.

“In the beginning, on the First Day, which was the holy First Day of the Week, the chief and Firstborn of all the days, God created the heavens, and the earth, and the waters, and the air, the fire, and the hosts which are invisible (that is to say, the Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Lords, Principalities, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim), and all the ranks and companies of Spiritual beings, and the Light, and the Night, and the Day-time, and the gentle winds and the strong winds (i.e. storms). All these were created on the First Day. And on the First Day of the Week the Spirit of holiness, one of the Persons of the Trinity, hovered over the waters and through the hovering thereof over the; face of the waters, the waters were blessed so that they might become producers of offspring, and they became hot, and the whole nature of the waters glowed with heat, and the leaven of creation was united to them. As the mother-bird maketh warm her young by the embrace of her closely covering wings, and the young birds acquire form through the warmth of the heat which (they derive) from her, so through the operation of the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit, the Paraclete, the leaven of the breath of life was united to the waters when He hovered over them.” The Book of the Cave of Treasures, Part One, translation (Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 25875.) [The Title of the Work: The Scribe’s Prayer]    [Fol. 3b, col. 1.] “By the might of our Lord Jesus Christ we begin to write the “Book of the Succession of the Generations,” that is to say, ME`ÂRATH GAZZÊ, which was composed by SAINT MÂR APHRÊM (i.e. Ephraim, commonly known as “Ephraim Syrus,” or “Ephraim the Syrian,” who died A.D. 373). “O our Lord, help Thou me in Thy Mercy. Amen.” Translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge [London, The Religious Tract Society] [1927] {scanned and edited by Christopher M. Weimer, June 2002}

“Over a universe wrapped in the gloom of a dense and primeval night passed the god Hurakan, the mighty wind. He called out ‘Earth,’ and the solid land appeared.” Popul Vuh, Book 1, Translated by Lewis Spence   July 1908.

“Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all (4) the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether (5) and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods.” The Theogony of Hesiod (ll. 116-138) Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. 1914.

—

“Of Aûharmazd’s creatures of the world, the first was the sky; the second, water; the third, earth; the fourth, plants; the fifth, animals; the sixth, mankind.” Narration 28  Bundahis, Chapter I, “In the name of the creator Aûharmazd.” (Persian)

1. When in the height heaven was not named,
2. And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
3. And the primeval Apsû, who begat them,
4. And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both,–
5. Their waters were mingled together,

6. And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
7. When of the gods none had been called into being,
8. And none bore a name, and no destinies [were ordained];
9. Then were created the gods in the midst of [heaven]. “The Seven Tablets of Creation”  Enuma Elish (“When on High”) (Babylonian/Assyrian/Sumarian/Chaldean/ Akkadian), Narration 1.

“Two existences without shape were formed: Maku (“Moisture”), a male; and Mahora-nui-a-rangi (“Great Expanse of Heaven”), a female; from these sprang Rangi-potiki (“The Heaven”s), who took to wife Papa (“Earth”) and begat the gods.” Oceanic Mythology by Roland B. Dixon ©1916 Part I. “Polynesia Myths of Origins and the Deluge, New Zealand,” p. 6, Whai-tua, New Zealand.

“From the conception the increase
From the increase the swelling
From the swelling the thought
From the thought the remembrance
From the remembrance the consciousness, the desire.
The word became fruitful:
It dwelt with the feeble glimmering
It brought forth night;
The great night, the long night,
The lowest night, the loftiest night,
The thick night, the night to be felt,
The night touched, the night unseen.
The night following on,
The night ending in death.
From the nothing, the begetting,”
From the nothing the increase
From the nothing the abundance,
The power of increasing, the living breath;”
It dwelt with the empty space,
It produced the atmosphere which is above us.
The atmosphere which floats above the earth,
The great firmament above us,
The spreadout space dwelt with the early dawn,
Then the moon sprang forth;
The atmosphere above dwelt with the glowing sky,
Forthwith was produced the sun,
They were thrown up above as the chief eyes of Heaven:
Then the Heavens became light, the early dawn, the early day,
The mid-day. The blaze of day from the sky.
The sky which floats above the earth
Dwelt with Hawaiki.” Oceanic Mythology, by Roland B. Dixon ©1916, Part I, “Polynesia, Myths of Origins and the Deluge, New Zealand,” p. 6, R. Taylor, p. 109.

“God creates a large 3-D space and within it a ball of liquid water, the “deep.” The ball is greater than two light-years in diameter, large enough to contain all the mass of the universe. Because of the great concentration of matter, this ball of water is deep within a black hole, whose event horizon is more than half a billion light-years away. The earth at this point is merely a formless, undefined region of water at the center of the deep, empty of inhabitant or feature. …

“The gravitational force on the deep is very strong …  This force compresses the deep very rapidly toward the center, making it extremely hot and dense. The heat rips apart the water molecules, atoms, even the nuclei into elementary particles. Thermonuclear fusion reactions begin, forming heavier nuclei from lighter ones and liberating huge amounts of energy. As a consequence, an intense light illuminates the interior, breaking through to the surface and ending the darkness there.” Starlight and Time, Dr. Russell Humphreys, 2004.

“And God said, ‘Let there be light:’ and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:3-5

“This is the account of how all was in suspense, all calm, in silence; all motionless, still, and the expanse of the sky was empty. This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky. The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky.”

“There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky. There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed. There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night.

“Only the creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water surrounded with light. They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and were therefore called Gucumatz. By nature they were the great sages and great thinkers. In this manner the sky existed and also the heart of Heaven, which is the name of God thus He is called.

“Then came the word. Tepeu and came together in the darkness, in the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together. They talked then, discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts. Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear. Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man.

“Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven who is called Huracan. The first is called Caculha Huracan. The second is ChipiCaculha. The third is Raxa-Caculha. And these three are the Heart of Heaven. Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light, what they would do so that there would be light and dawn, who it would be who would provide food and sustenance.

“‘Thus let it be done! Let the emptiness be filled! Let the water recede and make a void, let the earth appear and become solid; let it be done.’ Thus they spoke. ‘Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth! There shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation and formation until the human being is made, man is formed.’

“So they spoke. Then the earth was created by them. So it was, in truth, that they created the earth. ”Earth! They said, and instantly it was made. Like the mist, like a cloud and like a cloud of dust was the creation, when the mountains appeared from the water; and instantly the mountains grew.” Popol Vuh (“Written Leaves”) Book of the Mayas. The Book of the Community Book 1, English Version by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus G. Morley, copyright 1950 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Translation by Adrián Recinos.

“Io dwelt within the breathing-space of immensity.
The Universe was in darkness, with water everywhere,
There was no glimmer of dawn, no clearness, no light.
And he began by saying these words,–
That He might cease remaining inactive:
‘Darkness! Become a light-possessing darkness.’
And at once light appeared.
[He] then repeated those self-same words in this manner,
That He might cease remaining inactive:
‘Light! Become a darkness-possessing light.’
And again an intense darkness supervened,
And a third time He spake, saying:
‘Let there be one darkness above,
Let there be one darkness below (alternate),
Let there be a darkness unto Tupua,
Let there be a darkness unto Tawhito,
It is a darkness overcome and dispelled.
Let there be one light above,
Let there be one light below (alternate),
Let there be a light unto Tupua,
Let there be a light unto Tawhito,
A dominion of light,
A bright light.’
And now a great light prevailed.
[Io] then looked to the waters, which compassed him about,
And spake a fourth time, saying:
‘Ye waters of Tai-kama be ye separate
Heaven, be formed’ The the sky became suspended.
‘Bring-forth, thou, Tupua-horo-riuku.’
And at once the moving earth lay stretched abroad.” Oceanic Mythology by Roland B. Dixon, copyright 1916, Part I. “Polynesia: Myths of Origins and the Deluge” New Zealand, p. 13.

“For in the Timæus, when writing on the formation of the world, he [Plato] says that God first united earth and fire … ” Augustine City of God and Christian Doctrine, Chapter 11 Book VIII, Translator Philip Schaff, (1819-1893). Print Basis: New York: The Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.”  Genesis 1:6-8 (NASB)

“On the second day, he placed the heaven over the whole world, and separated it from the other parts, and he determined it should stand by itself. He also placed a crystalline [firmament] round it, and put it together in a manner agreeable to the earth, and fitted it for giving moisture and rain, and for affording the advantage of dews.”

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews – Book I,. Translated by William Whiston, 1737.

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the expanse is declaring the work of hands.” Psalm 19:1 (NASB).

“Praise the LORD!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.” Psalm 150:1 (NASB)

“It is He who sits above the vault of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” Isaiah 40:22 (NASB)

“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb,
‘I, the LORD, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself,
And spreading out the earth all alone.” Isaiah 44:24

“The LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” Zechariah 12:1

“On 1 Chuen he raised himself to his divinity, after he had made heaven and earth.
On 2 Eb he made the first stairway. It descended from the midst of the heavens, in the midst of the water, when there were neither earth, rocks nor trees.
On 3 Ben he made all things, as many as there are, the things of the heavens, the things of the sea and the things of the earth.
On 4 Ix sky and earth were tilted.
On 5 Men he made everything.
On 6 Cib the first candle was made; it became light when there was neither sun nor moon.”
The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Mayan), XIII (“The Creation of the Uinal”)

“But God, or Nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine discords put an end:
Then earth from air, and seas from earth were drive’n,
And grosser air sunk from aethereal Heav’n.
Thus disembroil’d, they take their proper place;
The next of kin, contiguously embrace;
And foes are sunder’d, by a larger space.
The force of fire ascended first on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:
Then air succeed, in lightness next to fire;
Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num’rous throng
Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
About her coasts, unruly waters roar;
And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore.
Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form’d the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded Earth into a spacious round:
Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 1,Translator John Dryden et al, 1717.

“And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:’ And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:9,10