CREATION
656
CREATION
or mors places ; and these fragments, In obedience to the laws of grayitation,1>ecame spheres or planets, all rsYolyfaig from west to east around the parent mass. Another ring was formed in like manner, and another planet came into esdstence ; and so on, until the whole solar system was complete. According to this the- ory, not only the earth, but all the planets, existed be- fore the sun in its present condition ; and thus some of the supposed difficulties of the Mosaic cosmogony are removed (MK3aul, Aids to Faith, p. 242, 243), for it is implied in this theory that the earth existed before the sun became the luminary of the system.
In order to anlTe at some conclusion harmonious at once with the results of modem science and the account of Moses, we must determine the meaning of the terms "in the beginning" and "day." The Hebrew word for "beghming," T^'^W':} (re«A*<*0, is in the original without the definite article; so that Moses really says, " In retkith (not in tke reshith) EIo- him created the heavens and the earth." The Septu- agint, Chaldee, and Syriac versions corroborate the antiquity and correctness of this reading. Thus there is an indefiniteness of the time of creation. It may have been millions of years ago just as easily as thou- sands, for the Hebrew word is indefinite, and the verse reads in substance thus: " Of old, in foimer duration, God created the heavens and the earth." ' Aiguing firom analogy, many contend that the term "day" does not mean literally twenty-four hours. That word often signifies in the Bible undefined periods of time, as the "day of the Lord," **the day of ven- geance," "that day," "the night is for spent, the day is at hand." The first day consisted of an al- ternation of light and darkness ; but how long the night lasted, and how long the darkness until the next dawn, is not stated. The whole time of light in which God's creative work proceeded he called "day," and the whole time of darkness he called "night" It was not a day measured by the presence of the sun's light, nor a night measured by the absence of that light. (Compare MK3aul, Aids to Faithj p. 281, 246, 247.) The name "day" is therefore regarded as given, not as a measure of extent — ^which is a later and a subordinate idea — ^but as denoting a wondrous phenomenon, marking the first great transition, and callhig up the dual contrast which has entered into the corresponding name ever since, " God called the light day, and ti^e darkness he called night." He called it Yom, and from that has come the lesser nam- ing. We now indicate the gradual, developing char- acter of the creation. It was not the work of six or- dinary days, meashred by twenty-four hours, but a series of supernatural growths extending over vast periods of time. (Comp. Prof. Tayler I^wis, Jfeth, QuaH. Review, April, 1865.)
Others maintain that, while it is true that the word ''day" (q. v.) is sometimes used (e. g. in relation to the whole cosmogonal period. Gen. ii, 4) in a vague sense for an indefinite period, or for some set occasion without regard to its length, such a signification in the first chapter of Genesis is emphatically forbidden by the following explicit circumstances subjoined in the context itself: (1) The seyeral demiurgic days are regularly numbered— "first," " second," etc., till the last— making an exact and obviously literal week. (2) Each Ib divided,* fai the usual Hebrew style, into "night" and "morning," constituting undoubtedly a Jewish wx^fupov, or mght-and-dc^, like the modem phrase " twenty-four hours." (8) To prevent aU mis- conception, these alternations of light and darkness are distinctly called in the same connection " night" and "day." (4) The institution of the Sabbath ia based upon the correspondence between this and each of the six preceding days in point of length. To these tthilological and exegetical considerations, requiring ^rord Qi*^ to be here taken in its strictly literal
sense as an actual dby, mi^t be added others derfrcd from scientific investigations. (See Hitchcock's H^ mentarjf Gtohgy, 8d ed., p. 288 sq. , and tha artide Cos- Moooirr.)
lY. Eras of Creatitm, — ^The Mosaic account reecf- nises in creation two great eras of three ds^s eadi— an Inorgamc and an Orgamc Each of thiese opew with the appearance of light : the firsts light coiwbI«1 ; the second, light from tlie sun for the special nsea of the earth. Each era ends in a day of two great vofks; the two shown to be distinct by being severally p«o> pounced " good." On the third " dap'— tfa«t ckoi^ the Inorganic era — there was, first, the dividiiis of the land fhmi the waters, and afterwards the crcwriou of vegetation, or the institution of a kingdom of life s work widely diverse from all preceding it in the es^ So, on the sixth day, terminating the Organic en, there was, first, the creation of mammals, and then a second &r greater work, totally new in its graodeEt element— the creation of Man. We have, then, the following arrangement :
L ThB Inorgmde Bra, Isi Dfty.—Iigbt, ootmlciiL 9d Day.— The earth divided from the fluid arooad It, or is.
dlridoeliMd. «4 rk.« / !• Oatlining of the land and water. BU liay.— 1 2 Creation of vegetatioo.