Thus, it appears from the very beginning that God is represented as a compound unity. (Generally speaking, women feel a marriage is working if they talk about it, but men feel it is working if they do not talk about it. On the contrary, supposing there was but one writer of the book of Genesis, as I am persuaded is the truth of the case, it would not have borne the stamp of a divine communication if he had used either the name of Jehovah-Elohim in 1-2: 3, or the name of "Elohim" only in Genesis 2:4-25. How great His creative genius in all of the life forms that we see. The others were caused to live by the simple fact that God organized them according to His own will; but in man's case there was this essential difference, that he alone became a living soul by the inbreathing of Jehovah-Elohim. I wonder how long the pine tree could have existed before it decided, "I need to get my seeds out further" and it developed the little wing on the seed.There are other seeds that when the pod dries out they explode. Then (Genesis 4:1-26) we have a new scene, which opens with a change in the name of God. Moral relationship? F6, which is wretchedly stupid; nor to Cain, as it is said, went out from His presence, and dwelt in the land of Nod; a son is born in due time who builds a city called after his name. Let this suffice: I do not wish to speculate about the matter. It may be observed, that the plural number is used, "let them", which shows that the name "man" is general in the preceding clause, and includes male and female, as we find by the following verse man was created: and over the cattle, and over all the earth; over the tame creatures, either for food, or clothing, or carriage, or for all of them, some of them for one thing, and some for another; and over all the wild beasts of the earth, which seem to be meant by the phrase, "over all the earth"; that is, over all the beasts of the earth, as appears by comparing it with Genesis 1:24 so as to keep them in awe, and keep them off from doing them any damage: and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; to make use of it as should seem convenient for them. First, It exhibits the consistency of the whole narrative in itself. The Creation of the World. Then what confirmation of one's faith! Here we have the general review and approval of everything God had made, at the close of the six days work of creation. These words are directed not to the earth, out of which man was made, as consulting with it, and to be assisting in the formation of man, as Moses Gerundensis, and other Jewish writers f, which is wretchedly stupid; nor to the angels, as the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, and others, who are not of God's privy council, nor were concerned in any part of the creation, and much less in the more noble part of it: nor are the words spoken after the manner of kings, as Saadiah, using the plural number as expressive of honour and majesty; since such a way of speaking did not obtain very early, not even till the close of the Old Testament: but they are spoken by God the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost, who were each of them concerned in the creation of all things, and particularly of man: hence we read of divine Creators and Makers in the plural number, Job 35:10 and Philo the Jew acknowledges that these words declare a plurality, and are expressive of others, being co-workers with God in creation g: and man being the principal part of the creation, and for the sake of whom the world, and all things in it were made, and which being finished, he is introduced into it as into an house ready prepared and furnished for him; a consultation is held among the divine Persons about the formation of him; not because of any difficulty attending it, but as expressive of his honour and dignity; it being proposed he should be made not in the likeness of any of the creatures already made, but as near as could be in the likeness and image of God. They sprout out a little parachute on top of the seed and they just wait for the wind to come along, and the wind comes and lifts the seed. Others who deem themselves more acute, but are doubly infatuated, say that God spoke of himself in the plural number, according to the custom of princes. There we have delight in the man who had found grace in His eyes. (89) Erat erim in singulis animae partibus temperatura quae suis numeris constabat.. Nizzachon, p. 5. It appears to me beyond reasonable doubt that the other two rivers are by no means impossible to trace; and it is remarkable, as showing that the Spirit of God takes an interest, and furnishes a thread to help us in the fact, that the two less notorious rivers are described more fully than the rivers which are so commonly known. Genesis 1:9-13 9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. The story of creation is but an introduction to the story of Gods dealings with the human race. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." It is that of sovereignty. The real worth of God's promises cannot be lessened to a believer by any cross providences that . * We are therefore warranted in supposing that they are described just because they might have been less easily discerned. There is nothing which more maddens man than mortified religious pride; and so it is here proved, for he rose up against his brother and slew him. Need it be said that as far as its efficacy is concerned, and God's delight in it, He doers not wait for the new heavens and the new earth, either to enjoy it Himself or make known its value to us? Here accordingly we find in Genesis 2:1-25, with a fulness and precision given nowhere else, God's entering into relationship with man, and man's relation to Eden, to the animal realm, and to woman specially. Let him rule man who said, Let us make man. and supply the defects of it, since the fall, lays down at first this principle of the unclouded light of nature: That this world was, in the beginning of time, created by a Being of infinite . There was no longer trial in Paradise, because man was turned out. All the inferior powers were subject to the dictates and directions of the superior, without any mutiny or rebellion. ], "Us" is probably a plural of intensification (see my comment on Genesis 1:1 above), though some regard it as a plural of self-deliberation (cf. Expect More. The sun is merely the greater light to rule the day, and the moon the lesser light to rule the night. God created man capable of governing the world, and when fitted for the office, he fixed him in it. If the Holy Spirit, as in Exodus 20:11, refers to heaven and earth made in six days, it always avoids the expression "creation." See Pooles Synopsis. It has been gathered from the varying names of God, etc., by speculative minds that there must have been different documents joined together in this book. He has, He does not respect my choice, and thus it isn't really the freedom of choice. As with the rest of the Bible, the book of Genesis was written in the everyday language of the people of the time. It is plain, had Moses merely formed a probable opinion as men do, that no one would have introduced the mention of light, apart from, and before all distinct notice of, the heavenly orbs. Humans were created in God's image, with the ability to cultivate and manifest qualities that God possesses, such as love, empathy, and justice. p. 108. apud Wagenseil. The wisdom of the inspired writer's silence will be evident to a spiritual mind, and the more, the more it is reflected on. Even scholars bring in their western notions from the familiar habit of counting the day from the morning to the evening It is the same thing with the account of the resurrection. The first and second verses make allusion to these well-known measures of time. There can be no doubt that the Euphrates and the Tigris or Hiddekel, here named, are the same two rivers similarly called to this moment. Such is the birth of civil life in the family of Cain, where we find the discovery and advance of the delights of man; but, along with the progress of art and science, the introduction of polygamy. His understanding saw divine things clearly and truly, and there were no errors nor mistakes in his knowledge. #1 "Then God said,". They give you notions ideas; they can furnish nothing better, and very often nothing worse. So we find, now, the crowning act of God's creation. ., p. 112; Wenham, pp. Adam on the very first day of his life, even before Eve was formed, gave the animals their names, and God Himself sanctioned what their head uttered. He made man the master over the earth. Unto God? Abel, Enoch, Noah, we have already seen. All of the things were created or reformed within this six-day period. And the evening and the morning were the third day. he followed her, as he has often since, into the broad way of evil. Such views as making it like an editorial "we," or the majesterial plural, or as an inclusion of angelic hosts or other heavenly beings are totally inadequate. This, too, agrees with the whole bearing of the first chapter, which deals in a large general way with genera and species, and not with individuals. close of the Old Testament: but they are spoken by God the Father This honour indeed God has put upon the body of man, that the Word was made flesh, the Son of God was clothed with a body like ours and will shortly clothe ours with a glory like that of his. I love to go snorkeling over in Hawaii. For what end? How true of the energetic Japhetic race that pushed westward, and not content with the east, pushes round again to the west anywhere and everywhere. (84) For the various opinions of Jewish writers on this subject, see Pooles Synopsis in loco. In all pretended revelations it is not so. That there was only one such root is the statement of the scriptures. "Them" indicates this generic significance. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and it was good. This is the highest honor with which he has dignified us; to a due regard for which, Moses, by this mode of speaking would excite our minds. The process of creation, as Moses described it, typically follows this pattern for each day of creation: announcement, commandment, separation, report, naming, evaluation, and chronological framework. The minute it touches you, it glues itself to you. These prophets may be the stars themselves. Genesis 1:26-27New International Version. It is hopeless to attempt any derivation of the name, as it must have existed before any of the verbs and nouns from which commentators attempt to give it a meaning; and the admh, or tilled ground, of which we shall soon hear so much, evidently had its name from Adam. Tela ignea, vol. We did not evolve from other lower forms of life. Psalms 8:5. Angels were created, but they are spirits, lacking potential. *Some have wondered why the serpent and Eve should be represented as saying Elohim ("God") in the temptation, seeing that everywhere else in the section the name employed is Jehovah-Elohim. Do not be troubled if you cannot answer their questions and dispose of their cavils; you may regret it in charity for injured or misled souls. In chapter 2, we have a flash-back and more explanation about the events on the sixth day. Oh, what a testimony of the inventive genius of God in creation. But this seems to me indefensible, though there may be difficulty in reconciling what I regard as the truth with an unusual force of one or two words. . This verse states God intends for people to rule over fish, birds, and animals. She listened, she looked, she took of the fruit; she ate, and was fallen. that is, to catch them, and eat them; though in the after grant (Genesis 1:6-7, 9, 11, 14-15). Paul says that we are transformed into the image of God by the gospel. In the account of the accomplishment of the divine purpose the words swell into a jubilant song, so that we meet here for the first time with a parallelismus membrorum, the creation of man being celebrated in three parallel clauses. First of all there was the creation by God both of the heavens and of the earth. God said, "Let us make man." God saw His work, and behold it was all very good; i.e., everything perfect in its kind, so that every creature might reach the goal appointed by the Creator, and accomplish the purpose of its existence. The land also experienced this development of animal life, till it too became full of all kinds of creatures. Both indicate personality, moral, and spiritual qualities that God and man share (i.e., self-consciousness, God-consciousness, freedom, responsibility, speech, moral discernment, etc.) When men reason instead of receiving the revealed light of the Bible, I care not who or what they may be, they only mistake God and even man. But He will still be bearing the marks of His cross, and may be the only malformed body in heaven.So, "God making man in His own image and after His own likeness" is speaking of that spiritual nature and those capacities of God: self-determination, love, those capacities that He has given to me.And God blessed them, and he said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth over the earth (Gen 1:28). Through His creation, as you look at the wisdom, as you study it, as God has designed the leaves to take and turn the sunrays into energy and, and all, and the photosynthesis processes by which the sun is turned into energy to feed the tree and all. God making me in His image has made me with this beautiful capacity to love. #2 "Let us make". doing them any damage: and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the The sixth day, as being the last, is distinguished above all the rest by the article - "a day, the sixth" (Gesenius, 111, 2a). For God is not now first beginning to consider what form he will give to man, and with what endowments it would be fitting to adorn him, nor is he pausing as over a work of difficulty: but, just as we have before observed, that the creation of the world was distributed over six days, for our sake, to the end that our minds might the more easily be retained in the meditation of Gods works: so now, for the purpose of commending to our attention the dignity of our nature, he, in taking counsel concerning the creation of man, testifies that he is about to undertake something great and wonderful. The more expensive edition published in 2013 The New Matthew Henry Commentary: Complete and Unabridged is the full version. Genesis 1:24). The word "meor" is a light holder. John 1:1, which affirms that the Word was God, and in the beginning with God, and that without Him there was nothing made that hath been made, supports the thought that both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (revealed in Genesis 1:2 as active in the creation) should be understood as included in "us" and "our" here. Genesis 11:1-32 opens with the sin of man, which led to the division described in the preceding chapter, the moral reason of that fact, new then, but still in its substance going on, whatever the superficial changes among men in their lands, and tongues, and political distribution. In male and female God acts according to His rights and wisdom in creation; and consequently there it is said, "as Elohim commanded him." 2. Because moral responsibility in relationship to Jehovah-Elohim comes in exactly where it should. It was the essential feature that the trial should be simply a question of God's authority in prohibition, not one of grave moral evil. the cause of causes said to "`jod', he, `vau', he"; that is, to Jehovah, which is in the midst of the ten numerations. God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another. Now, there are a lot of life forms that I can't even see, the waters are teeming with life forms. The scientist may speak of the sun as the centre of the solar system, with the earth a minor planet of the sun, and the moon a small satellite of the earth. Marvelous is His creative genius as you really look at the various life forms.And the earth brought forth grass, and [vegetable or] herb-yielding seed after his kind, and tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ); this subjection might have been accompanied by a change in the organization of the animals, though natural science, which is based upon the observation and combination of things empirically discovered, could neither demonstrate the fact nor explain the process. A third rule is to employ faithfully and discreetly whatever we can learn concerning the time, place, and other circumstances of the author to the elucidation of his meaning. He ceased His creative act on the seventh day. You cannot, as a rule, anticipate facts; you cannot discern the truth beforehand. Certainly this is not mere creation in view, but special dealings of a moral sort. This shows that the plural Elohim was known to convey a singular meaning despite its plural form. Who would have done this but God? He prepared every thing for his subsistence, convenience, and pleasure, before he brought him into being; so that, comparing little with great things, the house was built, furnished, and amply stored, by the time the destined tenant was ready to occupy it. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because Jehovah did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth" (versesGenesis 11:8-9; Genesis 11:8-9). Hitherto they had been of one lip; but combining to make a name to themselves, lest they should be scattered, not to exalt God nor confide in Him, they had their language confounded, and themselves dispersed. I only speak of what is good for man out of Paradise, and how God meets with and ministers to his state in His infinite grace. 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