The Creation

1 In the beginning God created heaven and earth.

² The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.

³ Then God said, “Let there be light!” So there was light. ⁴ God saw the light was good. So God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God named the light day, and the darkness he named night. There was evening, then morning—the first day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be a horizon in the middle of the water in order to separate the water.” ⁷ So God made the horizon and separated the water above and below the horizon. And so it was. ⁸ God named ⌞what was above⌟ the horizon sky. There was evening, then morning—a second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the water under the sky come together in one area, and let the dry land appear.” And so it was. ¹⁰ God named the dry land earth. The water which came together he named sea. God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: plants bearing seeds, each according to its own type, and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds, each according to its own type.” And so it was. ¹² The earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seeds, each according to its own type, and trees bearing fruit with seeds, each according to its own type. God saw that they were good. ¹³ There was evening, then morning—a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days, and years. ¹⁵ They will be lights in the sky to shine on the earth.” And so it was. ¹⁶ God made the two bright lights: the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God put them in the sky to give light to the earth, ¹⁸ to dominate the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening, then morning—a fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the water swarm with swimming creatures, and let birds fly through the sky over the earth.” ²¹ So God created the large sea creatures, every type of creature that swims around in the water and every type of flying bird. God saw that they were good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fertile, increase in number, fill the sea, and let there be many birds on the earth.” ²³ There was evening, then morning—a fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth produce every type of living creature: every type of domestic animal, crawling animal, and wild animal.” And so it was. ²⁵ God made every type of wild animal, every type of domestic animal, and every type of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw that they were good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”

²⁸ God blessed them and said, “Be fertile, increase in number, fill the earth, and be its master. Rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”

²⁹ God said, “I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food. ³⁰ I have given all green plants as food to every land animal, every bird in the sky, and every animal that crawls on the earth—every living, breathing animal.” And so it was.

³¹ And God saw everything that he had made and that it was very good. There was evening, then morning—the sixth day.

2 Heaven and earth and everything in them were finished. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. On the seventh day he stopped the work he had been doing. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day he stopped all his work of creation.

²⁰ Many Jews read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

Jesus Comes Back to Life^(A)

20 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary from Magdala went to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’s entrance. ² So she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved. She told them, “They have removed the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him.”

³ So Peter and the other disciple headed for the tomb. ⁴ The two were running side by side, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked inside the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there but didn’t go inside.

⁶ Simon Peter arrived after him and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there. ⁷ He also saw the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head. It wasn’t lying with the strips of linen but was rolled up separately. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who arrived at the tomb first, went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ They didn’t know yet what Scripture meant when it said that Jesus had to come back to life. ¹⁰ So the disciples went back home.

Jesus Appears to Mary from Magdala

¹¹ Mary, however, stood there and cried as she looked at the tomb. As she cried, she bent over and looked inside. ¹² She saw two angels in white clothes. They were sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying. One angel was where Jesus’ head had been, and the other was where his feet had been. ¹³ The angels asked her why she was crying.

Mary told them, “They have removed my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”

¹⁴ After she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. However, she didn’t know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus asked her, “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”

Mary thought it was the gardener speaking to her. So she said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I’ll remove him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

Mary turned around and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (This word means “teacher.”)