Was the original creation perfect?

Many Christians believe that the creation was perfect before the Fall. Perhaps. But the Bible doesn't really say that.

A search for the Hebrew word meaning "perfect," in the Blueletter Bible, from the King James Version, results in 91 instances, in 85 verses. (If anyone needs reminding, the Old Testament was mostly in Hebrew, and the New Testament was mostly in Greek, so searching for a Hebrew word doesn't result in any New Testament occurrences.) The first three instances of "perfect" are as follows: The superscript, and/or link, right after the word, perfect, below, is a link to the results of the broader search.

 Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect ^H8549 in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

 Gen 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. ^H8549

 Exo 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, ^H8549 a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

These three instances refer to the attitudes of two humans, servants of God, and to an animal sacrifice. Most of the uses of perfect in the Old Testament are like these.

A search for "good" also gives results. The first occurrences are in Genesis 1-3, about some aspect of created entities -- "behold, it was good," or "it was very good."

Then, there are the next two occurrences, one of which is translated into a different English word, rather than good:

Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; ^H2896 and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Gen 15:15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good ^H2896 old age.

One of these is a description of female attractiveness, and one is related to living a good, long life.

However attractive a woman might be, or, actually, several women, it is hard to believe that they were all perfect, or perfectly attractive. Close, maybe, but not perfect. And it is difficult to believe that a good, long life (Abraham's is the one in Genesis 15) was perfect. He was a good man, an example of faith, but he made some mistakes, and fell short of perfection. He allowed his wife to talk him into siring a child with a servant girl, and he lied to other men, saying that Sarah wasn't his wife, when she was. Most likely, there were other failings, not mentioned specifically in the Bible. His life was good, not perfect.

The word perfect is not used in describing the created world. Rather, "good," or "very good," is found in the first part of Genesis. I checked the translations of Genesis 1:31, which summarizes God's creative activity, and none of the English versions of the Bible use the word, perfect, which, as shown above, was used in other places in the Old Testament. They all use very good.

For this, and other reasons, it appears that saying that the world, as created, was perfect, is reading something into scripture that isn't there.

Thanks for reading.

God's goodness

God is good.

God’s original creation was good.

We can overcome evil with good.

There is good news!

There are over 600 occurrences of “good,” or variations on it, in scripture. Below is a sample. Many of these are much like other occurrences not listed. Warning: all of them are out of context! Quotes are from the public domain World English Bible.

Genesis 1:31a God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (In this chapter, there are six previous references to a good creation.)

Psalm 31:19a Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you,

Psalm 34:8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 16:2 My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”

Psalm 84:11 For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.

Psalm 106:1 Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. (A similar phrase occurs in several Psalms.)

Amos 5:15a Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts.

Nahum 1:15a Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!

Matthew 12:35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things. (Luke 6:43 For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.)

Matthew 19:17 He said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, 19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Quoting Isaiah 62:1-2)

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Acts 13:32 We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers …

Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 12:21 Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. 18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Thanks for reading!