Creation Account and Scriptures: A Linguistic Meta-Function Analysis of Genesis Chapter One

The study is a linguistically-based analysis of the biblical account of creation. It examines the trilogy of power, forceful use of words, and transcendence in Genesis 1. By drawing on critical discourse analysis and meta-function from Halliday's systemic functional linguistics, the article analyses transitivity patterns and discursive strategies that articulate power and the responsiveness of words to their environment especially when deliberately and forcefully deployed. It also examines the peculiar use of cohesion, semantic opposition, ordinal adjectives, and symbolism as discourse markers. The article further illustrates how the intentional use of words impacted nature and the transcendental history of human existence. In other words, language is captured as a life inherent organism and a force that births the universe. More specifically, the study demonstrates that God's creative power is His Word and that existence is an expression of God’s deliberate use of words