Genesis 1:24–25

Genesis 1:24–25 narrates the first half of the sixth day of creation, in which God populates the dry land with its full complement of animal life. These two verses form a carefully structured unit that follows the same creative pattern established throughout the chapter — divine speech, fulfillment, and divine approval — yet they introduce distinctive elements that reward close attention.

Verse 24: "God said, 'Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;' and it was so."

The creative command here is addressed not directly to the creatures themselves but to the earth: "Let the earth produce" (Hebrew: tôṣēʾ hāʾāreṣ). This is the second time the earth is summoned as a mediating agent of God's creative act — the first being verse 11, where the earth is commanded to bring forth vegetation. St. Basil the Great, in his Hexaemeron (Homily IX), draws attention to this instrumentality: the earth is not an independent source of life but an obedient servant of the divine Word, a womb that brings forth only at God's command. The earth does not generate life from its own power; it receives a generative capacity conferred upon it by God. St. Thomas Aquinas (ST I, q. 69, a. 2) refines this further, noting that the participation of secondary causes (here, the earth) does not diminish the primacy of the First Cause — rather, it reveals God's wisdom in endowing creation with a genuine, if dependent, fruitfulness.

The creatures summoned are designated nephesh ḥayyâ — "living creatures" or literally "living souls." This is the same phrase used of the sea creatures and birds in verse 20. Land animals share with marine and avian life the gift of nephesh, an animating principle that distinguishes them from plants. Catholic tradition, following Aristotle and Aquinas, understands this as a sensitive (animal) soul — not the rational soul (anima intellectiva) reserved for humanity, but a genuine principle of sentient life that marks these creatures as more than mere matter.

The threefold categorization — "livestock" (behēmâ), "creeping things" (remeś), and "animals of the earth" (ḥayyat hāʾāreṣ) — is notable for its comprehensiveness rather than its scientific precision. Behēmâ typically refers to large domesticated or domesticable animals; remeś covers creatures that swarm, crawl, or move close to the ground (reptiles, insects, small mammals); and ḥayyat hāʾāreṣ designates wild beasts of the field and forest. The text does not intend a modern zoological taxonomy but rather an exhaustive sweep across the entire spectrum of terrestrial animal life, ensuring that nothing living on land falls outside the scope of God's deliberate creative will.

The recurring phrase "after their kind" (lĕmînāh/lĕmînēhû) appears with notable emphasis — twice in this single verse. This language of "kinds" (mîn) runs throughout Genesis 1 (vv. 11–12, 21, 24–25) and signals that creation is not chaotic or random but ordered and differentiated. Each creature has its own proper nature, its own place in the divine plan. St. Augustine, in De Genesi ad Litteram (III.14), sees in this ordered differentiation a reflection of the rationes seminales — the seminal principles or causal reasons implanted in creation by God, which unfold according to His providential design. The phrase does not settle modern debates about species and evolution but it does affirm a theological truth: the diversity of life is intentional, not accidental.

The verse concludes with the terse and powerful formula: "and it was so" (wayĕhî-kēn). This phrase, repeated throughout the creation account, carries enormous theological weight. It affirms the absolute efficacy of the divine Word. There is no gap between God's command and its realization, no resistance in nature, no possibility of failure. As the Psalmist echoes: "He spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm" (Ps 33:9).

Verse 25: "God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good."

Verse 25 recapitulates and confirms what verse 24 commanded. The shift from "Let the earth produce" (jussive/command) to "God made" (wayyaʿaś) is significant. The Hebrew verb ʿāśâ ("made") is distinct from bārāʾ ("created" from nothing, used in vv. 1, 21, 27). Here the text employs ʿāśâ, suggesting the fashioning or arranging of existing material — consistent with the earth's role as mediating instrument. Yet Aquinas insists (ST I, q. 65, a. 4) that this distinction does not imply any limitation in God's power; rather, it reveals different modes of divine action appropriate to different moments in the creative work.

The threefold categorization reappears, but in a slightly different order — "animals of the earth" now precedes "livestock." This subtle variation, often overlooked, suggests the text is not mechanically repeating a formula but rather encompassing all land creatures from multiple angles, as if turning a jewel to catch every facet of light. The cumulative effect is one of superabundant fullness: God has filled the land with life in all its dazzling variety.

The verse culminates in the divine declaration: "God saw that it was good" (wayyarʾ ʾĕlōhîm kî-ṭôb). This is the sixth occurrence of the approval formula in Genesis 1, and it functions as far more than a literary refrain. The Hebrew ṭôb means not merely "acceptable" but genuinely, ontologically good — beautiful, fitting, rightly ordered. Each creature, precisely as God made it, possesses an intrinsic goodness that derives from its Creator. St. Irenaeus of Lyon (Adversus Haereses II.2.4) wielded this verse powerfully against Gnostic dualism, which denigrated the material world as the botched product of an inferior deity. No — the God who made lions and cattle and beetles looked upon them and pronounced them good. Matter is not evil. Creation is not a fall. The physical world radiates the goodness of the God who willed it into being.