The chaotic primal gloom yields to the
contrast of light and darkness; the primal water is separated by
the vault of heaven into the heavenly water, out of which there
grows the world above the firmament which is withdrawn from our
gaze, and the water of the earth: the latter, a slimy mixture, is
divided into land and sea, whereupon the land at once puts on its
green attire. The elements thus brought into existence, light,
heaven, water, land, are then enlivened, pretty much in the order
in which they were created, with individual beings; to the light
correspond the lamps of the stars, fishes to the water, to the
heaven the birds of heaven, and the other creatures to the land.
The last act of creation is markedly emphasised. "And God said:
Let us make man after our likeness; and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the living creatures of the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God
created man after His own image, in the image of God created He
him, and He created them male and female. And God blessed them,
and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the face of the earth.
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