Genesis 1:24 Commentary and Bible Study

Then things begin to reach their climax. As the sea and the skies have been filled with life, so is now the earth filled, and cattle are mentioned particularly because of their importance to man, the word being commonly used throughout the Bible to refer to larger domesticated animals. Each kind was capable of reproduction, for they were not created only for that first generation of man, but to provide life on earth for as many generations as man was intended to last. Each kind had much potential for variation built into it from the start, and this variation has been expressed as life has spread around the globe, so that we should not imagine that every slight variation of a species was created by God independently. But though the kinds had such potential for variation, they were only able to vary within the limits fixed by the creative work of God. Why else are the kinds emphasised here so much, but to show that they are stable, and one kind is not capable of becoming another kind.