Water Creatures and Flying Animals

On the fifth day, God creates all those things which live in the water and all birds.

Genesis 1:20-23  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.  21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.  23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Notice that God does not say “fish” or “crustaceans” or anything specific.  He simply commands that the waters “bring forth abundantly the moving creature”.  The Hebrew verb translated “bring forth abundantly” is a cognate of the Hebrew word translated “moving creature”.  They both have to do with teeming or swarming.  Continue reading