Genesis 1:20 - “teem”
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. — Genesis 1:20-23
Here is the NIV version of Genesis 1:20a…
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures…”
Notice the word “teem”. What does it actually mean in the original Hebrew? For a more accurate rendering, here is what we find in the King James.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life…
But, even this does not tell the entire story. Let us actually look at the Hebrew itself:
Va-yo-mer - The root word is amar, which means “said”
Elohim - “God”
Yee-sharats-oo - The root word is sharats, which means “bring forth abundantly”, or “teem”
Ha-ma-yeem - “Let the waters”
Sheretz - “moving creature”
Ne-fesh - “that have”
Chay - “life”
Notice something here. God doesn’t actually start with “let the waters,” but with “Bring forth abundantly.” He is commanding here. Who or what is the subject of His command? It would seem to be the waters. On the other hand, God continues with another command, Ha-ma-yeem, or “Let the waters”. Hmmm… we have always seen this translated as a single compound command, “Let the waters bring forth”, but viewed this way, we can see now that there are really two commands: 1)bring forth, and 2)Let the waters.
Command number one, “bring forth”, appears to be a command to the waters. In other words, God did not bring forth sea life… the waters did, though they did so by His will. How was it the waters could do this? Well, as discussed in “Let”, God’s creative commands were for Jesus to “let” something happen. In this case, Jesus was to let the waters bring forth life, and the waters in turn did exactly that.
Now, before the theory of evolution, it was inconceivable that the waters themselves could bring forth life. After all, H20 itself is life-less. However, if the oceans of the time had life in them already, which the science discussed in Day 5 - Determining a Date (Part 2) appears to suggest, then the key aspect of Yee-sharats-oo is “abundantly”, because 65 million years ago there was sea life, but it was not abundant. It would seem that God was calling for a change, and was calling on Jesus to have the waters do it.
This sounds a bit like Theistic Evolution, don’t you think? But hold on a minute…
Something else to notice. Sheretz usually refers to smaller creatures… creeping ones. Yet Moses goes on to write in verse 21, that “God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds.”
Notice something? God’s command was that a smaller population of smaller sea creatures experience a population boom, but it resulted in that and more! From these smaller creatures came great sea creatures,, and also every living and moving thing with which the water teems!
Don’t you find this just slightly incredible? I know I do. The only time when the sea boomed with life at a time that preserves the sequence of scripture (sea life, birds, then mammals) is at a time when evolutionary theory says that small sea life was scarce, then abounded, after which larger sea life evolved. In other words, God didn’t just allow evolution. He didn’t just use evolution. He didn’t even command evolution. He commanded that Jesus let evolution happen.
If God didn’t execute theistic evolution in verse 20, then the wording kind of leaves you hanging: “Let the waters” bring forth life He says, but it wasn’t really the waters that brought forth the life, in which case no one actually “let” them. Hmmm. In my mind, a Young Earth interpretation forces you to reign these words in, hence removing some of their true meaning. It is only through a scientific understanding of what God did that one can truly let the words mean what they say. And the beauty of it is, they meant it all along!