Bible Questions and Answers


The short answer is that we cannot be certain one way or the other.

On day 2 the water vapour was formed in the upper atmosphere (or sky).


In Genesis 2 we are told that rain did not fall at the beginning but that the ground was watered by a mist.

Genesis 2:5 for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth... 6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

On the other hand we are told that a river watered the garden and went out of Eden to split into four rivers. The question we are unable to answer is whether the precipitation described would be sufficient to supply enough water. We have no idea of the land contours or catchment area involved. We might suppose that the river came from underground and was supplemented by streams as it continued its course. The rivers may have been slow flowing if the earth was reasonably flat, but it all becomes speculation.


Rain is next mentioned in Genesis 7 some 1656 years after creation.



Genesis 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year (of Noah’s life), in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth:

In Genesis 9, God gives Noah the sign of the rainbow as permanent reminder that he would not again completely flood the earth.


We cannot be sure that this was the first time a rainbow was seen but from this time onwards it becomes the sign of the covenant.

Solomon describes the water cycle as it exists today and the different forms of precipitation, mist, fog, rain, sleet, hail and snow are all common though not universal.


We will not know the answer until Christ returns.

I hope you have found this helpful.

May God bless you,