Genesis 1:5

And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night,.... Either by the circulating motion of the above body of light, or by the rotation of the chaos on its own axis towards it, in the

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. No JFB commentary on these verses.

It is acknowledged by all, that the evening and the morning are not here to be understood according to our common usage, but are put by a synecdoche each of them for one whole part of the natural day. But because it may be doubted which part each of them signifies, some understand by evening, the foregoing day; and by the morning, the foregoing night; and so the natural day begins with the morning or the light, as it did with the ancient Chaldeans. Others by evening understand the first night or darkness which was upon the face of the earth, Genesis 1:2, which probably continued for the space of about twelve hours, the beginning whereof might fitly be called evening; and by morning the succeeding light or day, which may reasonably be supposed to continue the other twelve hours, or thereabouts. And this seems the truer opinion, 1. Because the darkness was before the light, as the evening is put before the morning, Genesis 1:5, Genesis 1:8, and afterwards. 2. Because this best agrees both with the vulgar and with the Scripture use of the terms of evening and morning. 3. Because the Jews, who had the best opportunity of knowing the mind of God in this matter by Moses and other succeeding prophets, begun both their common and sacred days with the evening, as is confessed, and may be gathered from Leviticus 23:32. Were the first day; did constitute or make up the first day; day of being taken largely for the natural day, consisting of twenty-four hours: these were the parts the first day; and the like is to be understood of the succeeding days. Moreover, God, who could have made all things at once, was pleased to divide his work into six days, partly to give us occasion more distinctly and seriously to consider God's works, and principally to lay the foundation for the weekly sabbath, as is clearly intimated, Genesis 2:2-3 Exodus 20:9-11.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.Ver. 5. And God called the light day, &c.] He taught men to call them so; day ιψν, from the noise and hurry; night μιμδ, from the yelling of wild beasts. Darkness he created not, but only by accident; and yet not that, without some notable use. Much less that darkness of affliction which he is said to "create". "Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness," yea, light by darkness, as to Paul, whose bodily blindness opened the eyes of his mind. Luther said that God’ s works are effected usually by contraries. And the evening and the morning, &c.] Thales, one of the seven sages, had learned this truth by going to school in Egypt. For being asked whether was first, the day or the night? he answered, that the night was sooner by one day: as who should say, afore God had created the light, it must needs be confessed that out of him there was nothing but darkness. Evening separates by darkness, morning by light; so the one disjoins day from night, the other night from day. Only this first evening separated not, because light was then uncreated. Yet it was of God appointed, even then, to stand between light and darkness. In the first evening was heaven and earth created, and in the first morning the light, both which make the civil day called νυχθημεζον by the apostle. And this (which doubtless is the natural order of reckoning the day, from evening to evening), was in use among the Athenians, and is to this day retained by the Jews, Italians, Bohemians, Silesians, and other nations. Our life likewise is such a day, and begins with the dark evening of misery here; but death is to saints the daybreak of eternal brightness. Mourning lasteth but till morning. Nay, not so long; for, "Behold at eventide trouble, and before the morning he is not." It is but a "moment," yea, a very little moment, and the indignation will pertransire, be overpast, saith the prophet; so "little a while" as you can scarce imagine, saith the apostle. If it seem otherwise to any of us, consider: 1. That we have some lucida intervalla, some respires, interspiriates, breathing whiles. And it is a mercy that the man is not always sweating out a poor living, the woman ever in pangs of childbirth, &c. 2. That this is nothing to eternity of extremity, which is the just hire of the least sin. 3. That much good accrues unto us hereby. Yea, this "light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out unto us that far more excellent and eternal weight of glory." Oh, pray, pray "that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened by that Spirit of wisdom and revelation, we may know what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," &c. Laertius. Dιατωνεαυτωνενανιαοικονομειτιαινακαιμαλλονδαυμαξηται - Nazianz. Pliny, l. 2. c. 7.

(5) God called the light Day . . . Night.—Before this distinction of night and day was possible there must have been outside the earth, not as yet the sun, but a bright phosphorescent mass, such as now enwraps that luminary; and, secondly, the earth must have begun to revolve upon its axis. Consequent upon this would be, not merely alternate periods of light and darkness, but also of heat and cold, from which would result important effects upon the formation of the earth’s crust. Moreover, in thus giving “day” and “night” names, God ordained language, and that vocal sounds should be the symbols of things. This law already looks forward to the existence of man, the one being on earth who calls things by their names. And the evening and the morning.—Literally, And was an evening and was a morning day one, the definite article not being used till Genesis 1:31, when we have “day the sixth,” which was also the last of the creative days. The word “evening” means a mixture. It is no longer the opaque darkness of a world without light, but the intermingling of light and darkness (comp. Zechariah 14:6-7). This is followed by a “morning,” that is, a breaking forth of light. Evening is placed first because there was a progress from a less to a greater brightness and order and beauty. The Jewish method of calculating the day from sunset to sunset was not the cause, but the result of this arrangement. The first day.—A creative day is not a period of twenty-four hours, but an œon, or period of indefinite duration, as the Bible itself teaches us. For in Genesis 2:4 the six days of this narrative are described as and summed up in one day, creation being there regarded, not in its successive stages, but as a whole. So by the common consent of commentators, the seventh day, or day of God’s rest, is that age in which we are now living, and which will continue until the consummation of all things. So in Zechariah 14:7 the whole Gospel dispensation is called “one day;” and constantly in Hebrew, as probably in all languages, day is used in a very indefinite manner, as, for instance, in Deuteronomy 9:1. Those, however, who adopt the very probable suggestion of Kurtz, that the revelation of the manner of creation was made in a succession of representations or pictures displayed before the mental vision of the tranced seer, have no difficulties. He saw the dark gloom of evening pierced by the bright morning light: that was day one. Again, an evening cleft by the light, and he saw an opening space expanding itself around the world: that was day two. Again darkness and light, and on the surface of the earth he saw the waters rushing down into the seas: that was day three. And so on. What else could he call these periods but days? But as St.

5. And God called …] That God should give names to things is to our minds a strange and almost unintelligible thought. To the Hebrews, on the contrary, it seemed a natural feature of the story. To them the Hebrew language was that in which the Divine Will was expressed; and, to their minds, the Hebrew name and the thing which it designated had been rendered inseparable by Divine Decree on the day of its creation. Observe that the names “Day” and “Night” are given to “light” and “darkness,” although the heavenly bodies are not made until the fourth day. and there was …] The “day” with the Hebrews began in the evening. It was reckoned from 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Israelite writer, therefore, in speaking of the days of Creation, describes them as ordinary days with their succession of evening and morning. There is no need to suppose, as some have done, that the “evening” in this verse refers to the pre-existent darkness of Gen 1:2, and that “morning” denotes the period of light before the creative work of the second day. In the mention of the days, the Hebrew story of Creation is perfectly simple and natural. With childlike faith, it told how the Creator completed His work in a time corresponding to six earthly days, each consisting of evening and morning. The hallowing of the seventh day, in chap. Genesis 2:2-3, presupposes the literal character of the previous six days. Suggestions have frequently been made in the course of the last half century, that each of the six days is to be understood as a period of indefinite duration. But it is important to remember that the facts, with which modern science has familiarized us, respecting the antiquity of the earth, as shewn by geology, and our solar system, as shewn by astronomy, were wholly unknown until quite recent times. We must be careful, therefore, not to read back such notions into the minds of the writer and of those for whom he wrote this chapter. The assumption that the inspired record must be literally accurate has led to much misinterpretation of Scripture as well as to great mental confusion and religious distress. The difficulties, which have been felt with regard to the mention of “days,” have arisen from the natural wish to reconcile the plain and childlike language of ancient unscientific Semitic story, which accounted for the origin of the world, with the abstruse and dazzling discoveries of modern Physical Science. The two must be kept absolutely distinct. one day] So the Hebrew, not “the first day”; but “one day,” LXX ἡμέραμία, Lat. dies unus.

5. God called the light Day — By whatever means or method God caused “the light to shine out of darkness,” (2 Corinthians 4:6,) it is important to observe that he called that light Day.