The theme of separation features heavily in Genesis 1. After the introduction of light into the world, verse two records that ‘God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness’ (Genesis 1:4), וַיַּבְדֵּל אֱלֹהִים (wayyaḇdel Elohim lit. separated Elohim). Then, in day two, God separates the waters to create the firmament: ‘So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so’ (Genesis 1:7) - וַיַּבְדֵּל בֵּין הַמַּיִם (wayyaḇdel ben hammayim lit. divided between the waters).

The concept of covenant is introduced early in the book of Genesis, although the word is not used until Genesis 9. After Noah and his sons, along with their unnamed wives, emerge from the ark, God blesses the surviving remnant of humanity with words much like those spoken to Adam and Eve nine generations before: ‘Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth”’ (Genesis 9:1). Nowhere however, in the opening chapter of Genesis, is it explicitly stated that God was instituting a covenant with the first humans.