the Babylonians reckoned the day from snnrise to sunrise. We may therefore infer that the crea- tion-day was also reckoned from sunrise to sunrise, according to the tradition of the Jewish civil day.
Vv.*'" portray the second day's creation-work, viz. the separation of the upper from the lower waters by the formation of a heavenly firmament (Heb. rdkia') which divides them. The Hebrew word V'PT properly signifies something beaten oj hammered out,* fairly represented by LXX, Aq., Symm. arepiaim, Vulg. Jirmamcntum. That the ancient Greeks conceived of this vault as consisting of burnished metal is shown by the epithets <rtSripcot (Od. XV. 329) and x^^^fo' (I^- xvii. 425 ; Pindar, Pyth. X. 42 ; Nem. vi. 5) occurring in their early literature. And these conceptions have their parallels in the lan^age of the OT. Numerous passages may be cited to prove that the Heb. Semite regarded the sky as a solid vault or arched dome. In Job 37'* it is compared to a firm molten mirror, the hue of which in Ex 24'° is described aa resembling sapphire, while from Am 9', Job26"'- ", Pr 8"' ^ we gather the additional details that this solid compacted vault or arched dome was supported on the loftiest mountains as pillars (Job 26"). It was also provided with windows and gates (Gn 7" 28", 2 K V- '», Ps IS^). Above this solid rakia' flowed the upper or heavenly waters (v.'), which descended in rain through these openings (Ps 104' 148*, 2 K 7"). DUlmann, from whose clear exposi- tion of these conceptions we have borrowed, com- pares also the lan^age of the Vedas and of the Avesta, where we likewise meet with this conception of an upper or heavenly sea. Similarly, the ancient Egyptians believed that the sun - god Ra daily traverses the celestial waters in his boat. The Assyrians and Babylonians also had their con- ceptions of a deep which rolled over the firma- ment of heaven. These we shall Ulustrate in some measure from their creation-epic. Of. Sayce, Hib. Led. p. 374 ; Jensen, Cosmol. der Bab. p. 254.
Vv.*"" portray the work of the third creative day, which involves two separate acts : (1) the crea- tion of dry land and the segregation of the waters into seas ; (2) the creation of plants. According to the writer of 2 P 3' land was created from water by divine command. This is not distinctly stated in the biblical narrative, which simply affirms that the waters were gathered together into one place, and that the land thereby appeared. But from subsequent considerations and the parallels from ancient religions which will be cited, it will appear tliat water was undoubtedly regarded as the primitive element out of which created things, including land, emerged, and there can be no question that this conception underlies the first creation narrative, though it is not clearly ex- pressed.
Vv.'-"-" describe the work of the fourth day, the creation of heavenly bodies. Light in a diffused form (niK) had been summoned into existence by God's first creative fiat. How it emerged we are not told, but are left to infer that it was the immediate outflow of divine energy. The heavenly bodies are naturally regarded purely from the terrestrial standpoint. To the naive conceptions of antiquity it was necessary that the creation of a firmament should have preceded that of the luminaries. For these luminaries were placed on or attached to the firmament or solid vault, and their courses prescribed thereon. It should be
• From the Hebrew root ypn ' beat ' or ' stamp ' (hence extend, or Btretoh out) we have an interesting derivative VpTD preserved in the Pncen. inscriptions meaning plate or dish. Of. CIS, Par9 Prima, Tom. i. p. 107, No 90—
•n3 -ho in'DSo nSo p" rx pn yp-o (the gold plate (or bowl) which king Melecbjathon, king of Citium, gave).
COSMOGONY
COS.MOGONY
503
observed that in Job 38*'' the underlying tradition respecting the stars is very dilferent. In the iatler the stars, personified as ' sons of God,' take their part in the work of creation at the beginning, and vry aloud with exultant strains (cf. .Ig 5^).
Passing over the work of the fifth day (vv. *'""), which includes the creation of the lowest forms of animal life that swarm in the water, as well as of the flying creatures, we come to the sixth day (w.**"'), on which the larger land animals as well as reptiles and sea and river monsters were created. The creation of man in the divine image concludes the narrative. This is not the place to enter into the theological aspects of the parallel phrases ' image ' jfe/eni) and 'likeness' (dimvth), which misplaced ingenuity has separated by hard-and-fast lines of demarcation.* It is necessary, however, to enter a caveat against the view recently propounded by Gnnkel in his stimulating work, Sc/wp/ung u. Chaos, p. 11 ff., who, in opposition to the interpretation osually adopted (sustain-id by Dillmann and Well- hausen), which regards the likeness as internal and spiritual, argues from a comparison of 5''' and Q*'-, where tne same expressions occur, that the resemblance here refers to external form or itiape. But such an inference is altogether gratuit- ous. Though it is quite conceivable that in some ancient form of the tradition, or in another con- nexion as 5', such terms as zdem might connote external shape, such a meaning here in relation to God is altogether out of harmony with the spirit of this post-exilic document. Another point to which we must refer is the much discussed ' let us make man . . .' The plural is here best ex- plained in reference to angels who participate in the work of creation (in Job called 'sons of God,' and identihed with stars Job 38*"', cf. Jg 5^, and elsewhere called niKji, cf. 1 K 2'2"'). Such an in- terjiretation is sustained by Gn 11' (J) and Is 6*. For other explanations see Spurrell, ad loc.