The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 84

tho Godhend. Created. Bara, one of three beyond these, the She,mitic mind conccivcri terms employed in this section, and in of the heaven where the angels rlwcll Scripture genornlly, to describe the Divine (1 Kings xxii. 19; Matt. xviii. 10), an•l nctivity; the other two being yatzar, where Goel spcciall.r rrsi,les (Dent. xxvi. 1:,; "formed," nnd asah, "made "-both signi- 1 Kings viii. 30; Ps. ii. 4), if, indecrl, tliis fying to construct out of pre-existing rnate- latur was not di~tinguished as a more ex- rinls (cf. for yatzar, eh. ii. 7; viii. 19; Ps. alted region than that occupied by any xxxiii. 15 ; Isa. xliv. 9 ; for asah, eh. viii. 6; creatnre--as "the heaven of heavens " the Exod. v. 16 ; Deut. iv. 16), nnd predicable pre-eminently sacred abode of the su'pl'cmc equally of Goel and man. Bara is used ex- (Deut. x. 14 ; 1 Kings viii. 27 ; Ps. cv. 16). clusively of God. Though not necessarily The fundamental idea Msociatcrl with the involved in its significance, the idea of term was that of height (shamayim, litcrallr, creation e:c nihilo is acknowledged by the "the heights "-Gesenius, Fiirst). To tho best expositors to be here intended. Its Greek mintl heaven meant "the boundary" employment in vers. 21, 26, though seem- (oupavoc, from opo~-Arist. ), or, "the raiserl ingly ai;:ainst, is really in favour of a dis- up" (from op-to be prominent-Litldell tinctively creative net ; in both of these and Scott). The Latin spoke of "the con- instances somethin~ that did not previously cavity" (crelum, allied to a:oi;\o~, hollow) or exist, i. e. anim[tl hfe and the human spirit, "the engraved" (from crelo, to engra;e). having been called into being. In the sense The Saxon thought of" the heaved-up arch." of producing what is new it frequently 'J'.he Hebre'! imagined great 9paces risi11g occurs in Scripture (cf. Ps. Ii. l2; Jer. t10r upon tier above the earth (which, m xxxi. 12 ; Isa. !xv. 18). 'l'hus, according to contradistinction, was named "the flats"), the teaching of this venerable document, the just as ,nth regard to time he spoke of visible universe neither existed from eternity, olamim (Gr. aiwv,c). Though not anticipat- nor was fashioned out of pre-existing ma- ing modern astronomical discovery, he harl terials, nor proceeded forth a.s an emanation yet enlarged conceptions of the dimensions from the Absolute, but was summoned into of the stellar world (Gen. xv. 5 ; Isa. xl. 26 ; being by an express creative fiat. Tho New Jer. xxxi. 37; Amos ix. 6); ancl, though Testament boldly claims this as a doctrine unacquainted with our present geographical peculiar to revelation (Heb. xi. 3). Motlem ideas of the earth's configuration, he was science explicitly disavows it as a discovery able to represent it as a globe, and as sus- of reason. The continuity of force admits pended upon nothing (Isa. xl 11; Job x.:cvi. of neither creation nor annihilation, but 7-10; Prov. viii. 27). The connection of the demands an unseen universe, out of which present verse with those which follow has the visible has been produced " by an in- been much debated. The proposal of Aben telligent agency residing in the unseen," and Ezra, e.dopted by Calvin, to read, " In the into which it must eventually return (' The beginning when God created the heavens Unseen Unfrerse,' pp. 167, 170). Whether and the earth, the earth was .... ," is gram- tho language of the writer to the Hebrews matically inadmissible. Equally objectionable homologatcs tho doljlma of an " unseen on the ground of grammar is the suggestion universe" (µ17 .pmvoµwov), out of which ro of Bunsen and Ewald, to connect tho first {j>..E1raµwov yEyov,va,, the last result of verse with the third, and ma.ke the second science, as expressed by the authors of the parenthetical ; while it is opposed to that above-named work, is practically an admis- simplicity of construction which pervades sion of the Biblical doctrine of creation. the chapter. Tho device of Drs. Bucklantl The hee.vens and the ee.rth (i. e. mundus and Chalmers, so favourably re~rded by universus-Gcsenius, Kalisch, &c. Cf. eh. ii. some hannonists of Scripture anll geology, 1; xiv. 19, 22; Ps. cxv. 15; Jer. xxiii. 24. to read the first verse as a heading to the The earth ancl the bee.vens always mean the whole section, is exploded by the fact that terrestrial globe with its aerial firmament. no historical narmtion can begin with" anri." Cf. eh. ii. 4; Ps. cxlviii. 13; Zech. v. 9). The To this Exod. i. 1 is no exception, the seconcl earth here alluded to is manifestly not the book of Moses being in reality a continuation dry land (ver. 10), which was not separated of the first. Honest ei.:egesis requires that from the waters till the third day, but the ver. 1 shall be viewed as tlescriptive of the entire mass of which our planet is composed, first of the series of Divine acts detailed in including the superincumbent atmosphore, the chapter, and thnb ver. 2, while admit- which was not uplifted from tho chaotic ting of an interval, shall bo held as cllln- deep until the second clay. The heavens ina in immediate succession-an in tcrpreta.- are the rest of the universe. The Hebrews ti~1, it may be said, which is fatal to \ha were aware of other heavens than the "firma- theory which discov~rs the geologic a~cs be- ment " or gaseous expanse which over-arches tween the creative beginning and prnn~val t.110 earth. " Tres rcgiones," says Poole, chaos. "ubi al'es, ul,i uuucs, ubi sidera," . But, Vor. 2. --And tha earth. Cbrly the earin 11 2  4 THE BOOR OF GENESIS. [en. r. 1, 2.