Genesis 1

its marked contrast with the childishness of heathen legends, even while they bear witness to the same events, and its historical references to other nations, their manners and customs, references which the discoveries of archsology, especially in Egypt, increasingly confirm.

We have always to bear in mind that its language was adapted to a primitive people, in the infancy of human thought. Figurative language may have often been used, but the essential facts are there.

As to the moral difficulties which sometimes present themselves, they are in themselves a confirmation of the truthfulness of the narrative. The Scripture writers “do not stop to explain, to qualify, or to extenuate the errors and evils that they record.” They show us men as they lived. If they had given us the story of absolutely blameless lives, it would have been reasonably objected that such persons never lived. By the sins even of God’s servants we are warned to avoid the same faults; by their punishments we are taught God’s justice and holiness; and by their forgiveness and restoration we learn that God’s mercy is infinite and that there is hope for the most unworthy.

1. In the beginning God created. This declaration assumes the being of God, distinguishes the Creator from His creation, denies the eternity of matter, and, by attributing both the heaven and the earth to the same Maker, contradicts the notion of two eternal opposing principles. For poetical versions of the narrative of the creation see Job xxxviii. 4-11; Psa. civ.; cxxxvi. 5-9; Prov. viii. 24-30. Lord Balfour in his Gifford Lectures (1923), speaking of the three great values, all vital to the highest life of mankind—Love, Beauty, Truth—said that we could not maintain those values permanently at their highest level if we banish from the world the idea of design, of creation, of a God who is Himself the author and sustainer of these high values.

2 without form and void. Or, “desolation (‘waste,’ R.V.) and emptiness”; terms used (as in Isa. xxxiv. 11; Jer. iv. 23) to describe a devastated region.

moved. Or, “was brooding over” (see Deut. xxxii. 11); a metaphor referring to the life and beauty which the power of the Spirit would produce. The form of the word denotes continuousness.

3 light. That is, upon the earth, which was previously dark. The first thing called forth by the Divine word is “light,” as distinguished from the “lights” or rather luminaries or light-bearers; as the sun, moon, and stars are called (ver. 14). Light is the fundamental condition of all organic life in the world. This statement of the existence of light, before the mention of the sun, moon, and stars, was a favourite objection with sceptics of the 18th century, who asked, “How could light exist before the Sun?” But the progress of science, and especially the “nebular theory,” disposed of that. The great geologist Dana used this very statement “as a proof of the divine origin of the document, on the ground that no one would have guessed what must have seemed so unlikely then” (Monro Gibson: The Ages before Moses). Lord Kelvin, too, on scientific grounds concluded that the earth was in existence long before the sun.

5 the evening and the morning, etc. Literally, “There was evening and there was morning, one day” (so R.V.). The Hebrews begin the day with the evening. If the “days,” as many think, were creative epochs of unknown length, “evening” and “morning” would be a natural figure for the commencement and the close of each period.

6 firmament. Or, “expanse”; the space occupied by the atmosphere,

7 under the firmament. The waters “under the firmament” are the waters of the globe itself; those “above” are the waters floating in the atmosphere, which accumulate in clouds.

8. Heaven. The word Heaven signifies in some places the air; in others, the regions in which are the sun, moon, and stars; and in others again, the unseen dwelling-place of God, which is therefore called the “third heaven” (2 Cor. xii. 2).

11 the herb. Rather, as in ver. 12, simply “herb”; a word embracing all plants between grasses and trees. This botanical classification is popular, not scientific.

in itself. So as to perpetuate its species.

14 lights. Rather, “Let there be luminaries” (a different word from that in ver. 3) “in the expanse of heaven to divide,” etc.

16 and God made. (Or, perhaps, “appointed,” as in 1 Sam. xii. 6, R.V.; 2 Chron. xiii. 9; Job xiv. 5; Psa. civ. 19.)

two great lights. Rather, “the two great luminaries.” Not necessarily then first created; it may mean that they were then made to appear, or that they were then appointed to their uses. The moon is obviously termed a “great light” in comparison with the stars, because of its appearance and use to us. The last clause of the verse is simply “and the stars.”

20 abundantly. Rather, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above the earth.”

21 great whales. “The great sea-monsters” (R.V.). This probably includes both fish and the great water-aurians.

26. Let Us. Or, “We will make,"—a solemn announcement of the Divine purpose.

27. His own image. With a spiritual personality, and those intellectual and moral qualities which fitted him, as God’s representative on earth, to govern the lower creatures; and to know, love, and commune with his Creator. (See Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 10.) God’s last and noblest work was man. In this narrative He appears first as creating things only material, the heavens and the earth. He then endows matter with vegetable life; then with animal life. Now the material and the animal are united with the spiritual.

28 upon the earth. This Divine gift to man of dominion over these creatures emphatically condemned all those systems of idolatry which consisted in the worship of them.

30 meat. i.e., “food.”

31 very good. The separate works are “good”; the whole is “very good.”