Genesis 1

Repeats the story of her birth. Whilst all the Stars that round her burn,
And all the Planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.”

Ver. 20-23. The fifth day’s creation.—We now come to creatures that have animal life, and are therefore one degree superior to the vegetable creation; and the work begins with the smallest and apparently most contemptible, the ‘‘moving” creature: the reptile that crawls beneath our feet; the fishes that swim in the waters; and the fowls, or birds, that fly above our heads. It is not for us to say in which of the inferior creatures God has displayed most of his power and skill; but those who have had the opportunity to examine some species of insects, and of flies, in a microscope, (or by any strong magnifying glass,) must confess the delicacy of their form, and the beauty of their colours, to exceed all previous conception.

God is great in his smallest works; and these, if not the most splendid, seem the most marvellous. But in nothing are the works of God more remarkable than in their variety, from the whale to the insect and animalcule. “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all.” ((Psalms 104:24).)

Verse 24-31. The sixth day’s creation—Animals and man. The earth is now represented as bringing forth—no doubt, in the same miraculous way as the waters, by creation—the like variety of living creatures as the seas: but it is the creation of man that calls chiefly for our notice and admiration. God is represented as holding a council on this occasion: “Let us make man.” But with whom does he hold a council?

“With the angels,” say the modern Jews and Unitarians: but the following words, “in our image,” seem totally to exclude this sense; for in whose image was man made? “In the image of God created he him.” Besides, “With whom took he counsel?” saith the prophet Isaiah; “And who but Man (as (Revelation 5)Mr. Fuller observes) was to be the lord of this lower world, under the great Supreme. On him would depend its future well-being. Man was to be a distinguished link in the chain of being; uniting the animal with the spiritual world; the frailty of the dust of the ground with the breath of the Almighty; and possessing that consciousness of right and wrong, which should render him a proper subject of moral government.” But wherein consisted this image?

1. In authority: (1 Corinthians 11:7). he was to be God’s vicegerent upon earth, and hold dominion over the creatures around him; “and let them [mankind] have dominion—over all the earth.”
2. In knowledge: the knowledge of animals being restrained to what is necessary to their preservation, and that of a posterity: man only was endowed with intellectual powers, and favoured with communion with his Maker.
3. Moral freedom: for in this, more than in mere intellect, is man superior to the brute creation. God is glorious in his moral freedom—having the uncontrolled power of choice.
4. Man was made holy, upright in mind as well as body: and, as in the work of regeneration, we are “created anew in righteousness and true holiness,” (Ephes. iv, 23, 24.) it evidently implies, that this was distinctively the divine image in which man was originally made, for it includes intelligence and moral [freedom].

Man was created male and female; but the creation of woman being distinctly stated in the next chapter, is here only hinted and implied in the blessing pronounced upon them, to replenish,” or rather fill ‘the earth, and subdue it;” not that the earth was yet in rebellion, but it was to be kept in subjection by cultivation and dressing. A grant is also now made of proper food, both to Adam and the inferior creatures. To the animals were given herbs only, (though nothing was forbidden,) but to Adam both herbs and fruits; but animal food could not be [allowed] as a [proper] [diet] [at] [this] [time].

Notes on the verses

The firmament.—The Hebrew Rakiagh, says Ainsworth, learned in general, signifies ‘‘a thing spread abroad,” mostly attention to the elastic properties of air, which it is supposed to extend more than 40 miles above the earth, but to gravitate to the earth with a weight of 15lbs. on every square inch of the earth’s surface! Thus it is carried with our earth in its annual path round the sun.—Dick’s Christian Philos. sa 14.

Ver. 14. Let there be lights.—The word here used differs from that used before; it signifies luminaries; that is, instruments for giving light. So says Mercer, and all the modern translators.—Let them be for days.—Dr. Kennicott contends, as the term days, used thus absolutely, means weeks, (as we shall further notice on (Genesis 4:3).) and Dr. Boothroyd translates the term “weeks.” The Jews, it should be remembered, calculated by lunar months, or moons.

Ver. 16. Two great lights.—The enemies of revelation object that the moon is not a great light; but it certainly is so to us, for it yields us, through the greater part of the month, more light than all the stars taken together, though some of them may be immensely larger.—The stars also.—The word made not being in the original, stars may be construed more accurately as the Psa the verb ‘to rule,” as by Dr. Anselm Bayley, Dr. A. Peach. “Less luminary to rule the night with the stars.” “The moon and stars which thou hast ordained,” namely night.” (Psalms 8:3).

Ver. 20. Moving creature.—This is translated by the Greek, “creeping creature;” and these are certainly included, for the seas abound with them; but Ainsworth justly remarks that “the word Sherets, includes also things moving swiftly in the water, as fishes, &c.” (Leviticus 11:10). Moving creature that hath life.—The Hebrew, as our margin notes, reads, “a living soul;” on which see (Genesis 2:7).

Let fowl fly.—This marginal reading is more conformable to the original, and reconciles this passage with Chap. 2. 19. The word fowl, from the Saxon fleon, to fly, exactly corresponds to the original, which denotes every thing that flies, whether bird or insect.—Bagster.

Ver. 21. And God created great whales.—Hebrew Tanninim, that is, sea monsters; including not only whales, but especially the leviathan, the great sea dragon described in the Book of Job, (Genesis 41); the crocodile, or straight serpent, and the crooked sea-serpent, whose existence has been long denied, but has lately re-appeared on the American coast. See (Isaiah 27:1). —The waters brought forth abundantly. It has been remarked, that fishes are the most prolific of all creatures ‘‘A tench lays 1000 eggs, a carp 20,000 and Leeuwenhoek counted in a middling sized cod, 9,384,000.” And so small be some molecules, that 30,000 have been counted in a drop of water.

Ver. 25. Beasts of the earth, refer to wild beasts, which, it cannot be doubted, were made at this time, though under the restraint of man, so long as he continued his obedience. [Cattle denotes domestic animals, living on vegetables; Beasts of the earth, wild animals, especially such as live on flesh; and Creeping things, reptiles, or all the different genera of serpents, worms, and such animals as have no feet.]—Bagster. The same variety appears in the terrestrial as in aquatic animals—from the mighty elephant to worms and vermin.

Ver. 26. Let us make.—Some persons supposing that this may be an allusion to the language of royalty, it may not be amiss to remark, that no such language occurs in Scripture: ‘I make a decree,” said Darius. (Daniel 6:26). Melchizedek, Abimelech, Pharaoh, and Balak, speak all in the singular number; and we find Saul, David, and even Solomon, In all his glory, delivering themselves in the same style.—Kennicott. [Man, in Hebrew, Adam; probably so called either from the red earth of which he was formed, or from the blush or flesh-tint of the human countenance: the name is intended to designate the species.]—Bagster.

Ver. 27. So God created man in his own image.—A tradition of this nature prevailed among the heathen. Ovid says, ‘Prometheus formed man after the image of the gods, who govern all things.” Burder’s Orient. Lit. Proclus says, “The mind that is in us, is an image of the first mind.” Ainsworth.—Male and female. Some Rabbins hence conjectured, that ‘Adam was made at first an hermaphrodite; but the fact seems to be, that Eve was virtually in Adam at his first formation; and her being taken from him was no more a new creation, than was the birth of Cain or Abel, in the ordinary course of nature.