When did God create heaven and earth?

Herein we are using the New King James Version of the Bible, which is much the same as any popular English translation about these verses. Only the NASB differs in some details we will discuss later. The links are to BibleGateway.com, which has many modern translations in English and other languages.

To understand the way God speaks about the creation process, focus on every statement about the earth because it is the created thing about which we have the most detail. It was created in the beginning, then given light, land, plants, creatures, and mankind, then pronounced made complete only after mankind was created.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The heavens spoken of here includes the sun, moon, and stars. The heavens are mentioned first, which may indicate they were created before the earth. The word which is translated as "created" is the Hebrew BARA, which is often taken to mean a divine creation of something out of nothing.

1:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

This is earth's condition as seen the surface: dark and only a watery surface. God has not yet caused light at the surface of the earth but since the Hebrew day begins at evening this may be God's description of the beginning of the first day. God says nothing about BARA creating the earth or light, but that earth exists in the dark. This means verse 1:1's "the beginning" may have preceeded the first day by some unspecified period of time.

1:3-5 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

God lets light appear as seen from the surface of the earth. Since the BARA act of divine creation is not mentioned until the fifth and sixth days, the term "first day" should not be misread to mean the first day of the creation process, but only the obvious meaning of the first 24-hour day apparent at the earth's surface. Sometimes the word "day" means the normal 12-hour period of daylight and human activity, or a 24 hour complete cycle, or several consecutive days of certain activity. In the case of Genesis 1:5 "day" is used first to mean the 12-hour daylight, then later to mean a 24 hour day/night cycle as seen on the surface of the earth. It also defines "day" as a term for use in this narrative and later narratives.

1:6-8 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

The term Heaven of verse 1:8 is the Hebrew word for "sky". So here God made the sky apparently to divide very thick clouds from the ocean below. Notice again God did not BARA anything, and it is possilble there were days unmentioned between the first day and this one, since God's Word does not tell us everything men want to know - only what God wants us to know.

Many serious scholars of God's Word believe the six days should be understood as consecutive, and there is no obvious scripture indicating they were not. That days were apparent at the surface does not necessarily mean the sun was visible through those clouds, and but even if the sun were not visible it could provide energy to plants later.

1:9 - 13 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Here God lets dry land appear and lets the earth bring forth plant life. He does not claim to BARA create plant life from nothing in any verse. Since He is the source of all life we should assume He made plant life originate in some sense gradually, perhaps partly prior to the third day, or fulfilled after the third day. We should always assume events God describes are normal as we experience them unless God specifies they were unusual. The earth bringing forth grass, herbs, and trees may have started or been fulfilled on the third day, but the normal growing seasons for a tree should be assumed. This is one valid reason to interpret that although the second and third days are normal 24 hour days, there may be more than one normal growing season between the second and third days that God does not consider worth mentioning.

1:14 - 19 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

God lets lights appear in the sky as a means of marking time and to give light on the earth, which completes God's purposes for the heavens. He made the sun, moon, and stars. He does not claim to BARA create the sun, moon, or stars from nothing in this period. He does claim to make them apparent at the surface as men would see them. God does not tell us here when He created them orginally. Notice the sun, moon, and stars are mentioned in the order they would become obvious if the thick cloud layer above the sky (of verse 1:7) was lessening in a normal manner under God's direction.

Genesis 2:1 - 5. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown.

Again God summarizes Genesis chapter one as being about when the heavens and the earth were finished, ending with the sixth day. There is nothing in these verses to indicate if "the beginning" coincided with the "first day" or preceeded it by some unspecified time. Verse 2:3 is sometimes misread to mean that created and made mean the same process, which ignores common logic. If I claim to have designed and built a car that does not mean that designing and building are the same process, but could be considered distinct stages of the same process. God says "He rested from all His work which God had created and made', which clearly says God means something different by "created" than He means by "made". Verse 2:4 uses the word "day" to mean the entire period when God made the earth and heavens..

Notice verse 2:5 says plants and herbs of the field were not apparent by the seventh day, although some trees and other plants existed by then according to verses 1:11 - 13. This is the oldest observation that some dominant life forms change over time - what most people mean by the term "evolution". Because God never claims to BARA create any type of plant, it is possible that God in some way made plants of the field from preceeding plants, or that they were created earlier and only later became apparent when conditions favored their being made complete.

Exodus 20:8-11 “ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Verse 11 above is a favorite of those who advocate a six-day creation story. But God does not here claim here that He BARA divinely created anything from nothing during that period. He says that He "made" them complete, which is the Hebrew ASAH.

The phrase "in six days" is critical to the six-day creation story, but the "in" is italicized in many Bibles and Strong's Hebrew Concordance because "in" is assumed by the translators but not part of the original Hebrew scripture. The word "in" changes the entire meaning of this sentence. Those who want the six-day creation story emphasize "for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth...", which would mean the making was all done during six days, and the whole passage would mean we are to keep the sabbath because God made everything during six days.

Without that assumed "in", the sentence reads "For six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth...". Therefore the actual meaning of the original scripture seems instead to mean that He made everything as He did to emphasize six days and how important keeping the sabbath is. The meaning of the passage then becomes, keep the sabbath because God considers it so important that He made everything for six days. This second meaning without the assumed "in" is consistant with Christ's teaching that man was not made for the sake of the sabbath, but the sabbath for man's sake. (Mark 2:27) .