EXCURSUS B: ON THE NAMES ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH-ELOHIM. Throughout the first account of creation (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3) the Deity is simply called _Elohim._ This word is strictly a plural of _Eloah,_ which is used as the name of God only in poetry, or in late books like those of Nehemiah and Danie... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE SABBATH. (1) WERE FINISHED. — The first three verses of this chapter form part of the previous narrative, and contain its Divine purpose. For the great object of this hymn of creation is to give the sanction of the Creator to the Sabbath. Hence the ascribing of rest to Him who wearies not, a... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD ENDED HIS WORK. — Not all work (see John 5:17, and Note _in loc._)_,_ but the special work of creation. The laws given in these six days still continue their activity; they are still maintained, and there may even be with them progress and development. There is also something special on this sev... [ Continue Reading ]
SANCTIFIED IT. — That is, separated it from ordinary uses, and hallowed it. Legal observance of the Sabbath did not begin till the days of Moses (Exodus 31:13; Exodus 35:2); but this blessing and sanctification were given prior to any covenant with man, and by Elohim, the God of nature, and not Jeho... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY WERE CREATED. — Heb., _in,_ or upon, _their creation._ IN THE DAY. — Viewed in its several stages, and with reference to the weekly rest, there were six days of creation, which are here described as one day, because they were but divisions in one continuous act. THE LORD GOD. — Jehovah-E... [ Continue Reading ]
EXCURSUS C: ON THE DURATION OF THE PARADISIACAL STATE OF INNOCENCE. The _Bereshit Rabba_ argues that Adam and Eve remained in their original state of innocence for six hours only. Others have supposed that the events recorded in Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 3:24 took place in the course of twenty-four hou... [ Continue Reading ]
(5)AND EVERY PLANT... — The Authorised Version follows the LXX. in so translating this as to make it simply mean that God created vegetation. The more correct rendering is, “There was no shrub of the field (no wild shrub) as yet on the earth, and no herb of the field had as yet sprung up.” The purpo... [ Continue Reading ]
A MIST. — This mist, as we learn from Job 36:27, where the same word is translated _vapour,_ is the measure and material of the rain, and thus there was already preparation for the Divine method of watering the earth, and making it capable of producing food for man. But, as we gather from Genesis 1,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND. — Literally, _formed the man_ (adam) _dust from the ground._ In this section the prominent idea is not that of producing out of nothing, but of _forming,_ that is, shaping and moulding. So in Genesis 2:19 Jehovah forms the animals, and in Genesi... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD GOD PLANTED A GARDEN. — The order followed in the text, namely, man first and the garden afterwards, is not that of chronology, but of precedence. In Genesis 2:15 we find that the garden was ready as soon as man needed a home. It was a separate plot of ground, fenced off from the rest of Ed... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY TREE THAT IS PLEASANT TO THE SIGHT, AND GOOD FOR FOOD. — It has often been noticed that while the ancients do not seem to have had much taste for the beauty of the landscape, they greatly admired large and umbrageous trees. This feeling seems like a reminiscence of the joy of our first parents... [ Continue Reading ]
A RIVER WENT OUT OF EDEN. — Out of the large region of which the garden formed a part. The tenses, too, are present, as if the main features of the country remained unchanged: “a river goeth forth from Eden, and thence outside of it is parted, and becometh four main streams.” The idea is that of a s... [ Continue Reading ]
THE NAME OF THE FIRST IS PISON. — “The full-flowing” (Gesenius), or “free-streaming” (Fürst). Neither derivation has much authority for it in the Hebrew language, and we must wait for the true explanation till the cuneiform inscriptions have been more thoroughly examined. As two of the four rivers o... [ Continue Reading ]
GIHON, “the river that bursts forth,” has been supposed to be the Nile, because it is said to wind about Ethiopia (Cush). According to this view, there was originally no break between Asia and Africa, and the Nile, entering Abyssinia from Arabia, took thence a northerly course, and traversed Egypt.... [ Continue Reading ]
Of the “Hiddekel” and “Euphrates” there is no doubt: the former is the Tigris, or Tigres, which is a mere Graecising of its Oriental name, Daglath in Arabic, and Deklath in Syriac, and in the Targum of Onkelos. The word Hiddekel is startling as being a quadriliteral, but the Samaritan Codex reads _t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD GOD TOOK THE MAN (THE ADAM), AND PUT HIM INTO THE GARDEN OF EDEN. — The narrative now reverts to Genesis 2:8, but the word translated _put_ is not the same in both places. Here it literally means _He made him rest,_ that is, He gave it to him as his permanent and settled dwelling. TO DR... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD GOD COMMANDED. — Probation is the law of man’s moral condition now, and it began in Paradise, only the conditions there were different. (See _Excursus_ at end of this book.) IN THE DAY.... — Used, as in Genesis 2:4, for an indefinitely long period. But just as on the third day God gave the... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS NOT GOOD... — In these words we have the Divine appointment of marriage, and also the declaration that the female is subsequent in order of production to the male, and formed from him. In Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:2, the creation of male and female is represented as having been simultaneous. She... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THE GROUND. — The adâmâh; thus the physical constituents of the animals are the same as those of the body of man. Much curious speculation has arisen from the mistaken idea that the order here is chronological, and that the animals were created subsequently to man, and that it was only upon t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ADAM GAVE NAMES. — Throughout this chapter Adam is but once mentioned as a proper name; and the regular phrase in the Hebrew is _the adam,_ that is, the man, except in the last clause of this verse. In Genesis 2:23 there is a different word for man, namely, _ish._ We must not confine this giving... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD GOD CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP (comp. Job 4:13, where it is the same word) to fall upon Adam. — Heb., the man. ONE OF HIS RIBS. — The word is never translated _rib_ except in this place, but always _side, flank._ This is the true meaning also of the Latin word by which it is rendered in the V... [ Continue Reading ]
MADE HE A WOMAN. — Heb., _he built up into a woman._ Her formation is described as requiring both time and care on the heavenly artificer’s part. Thus woman is no casual or hasty production of nature, but is the finished result of labour and skill. Finally, she is brought with special honour to the... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS NOW. — Literally, _this stroke,_ or _beat of the foot_ in keeping time. It means, therefore, _this time,_ or colloquially, _at last._ Adam had long studied the natural world, and while, with their confidence as yet unmarred by human cruelty, they came to his call, grew tame, and joined his c... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SHALL A MAN LEAVE... — These are evidently the words of the narrator. Adam names this new product of creative power, as he had named others, but he knew nothing about young men leaving their father’s house for the wife’s sake. Moreover, in Matthew 19:5, our Lord quotes these words as spoke... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TEMPTATION AND FALL. (25) THEY WERE BOTH NAKED. — This is the description of perfect childlike innocence, and belongs naturally to beings who as yet knew neither good nor evil. It is not, however, the conclusion of the marriage section, where it would be indelicate, but the introduction to the... [ Continue Reading ]