Objection · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
“Very good” is the narrator’s value judgment, not a statement that there was no suffering. Genesis 1 has God creating sea monsters and telling animals to multiply, which implies death was part of the system from the start.
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
The Hebrew tov does mean good in the sense of fitting or well-made rather than painless, and that reading actually helps the claim: the baseline is a world that works as God intended, and evil is measured against that intention. Whether animal death was part of the original intention is a question on which Christians differ, and it does not need settling to make the point about moral evil entering through human choice.
About this exhibit
This objection is to The book of Genesis, the creation account.
At the close of the creation account, God looks over everything he has made and calls it “very good.” The starting point of the biblical story is not a flawed or evil world. It is a good one, which…
Under Claim 02: Scripture presents a world made good and then broken by human rebellion, so it diagnoses evil rather than pretending it is not there.