The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 93

morning was, day 011c. Considcrnb)~ dil'crs- the creation ,lays were long periods, nn,1 not ily of sentime11t prernils with rcgar,l to tho simply solnr dnys, is conlhmc,I by n vnricty cxnrt intl'!,-,retation of these words. On tlie of considerations. I. Iu the crcntion rccor,l 1111c hand. it is nssnme<l that the first creative itself (chs. i., ii. 4)thcterm is employed with period is here described ns an ordinary nstro- an obvious lntitU<le of meaning ; st11nding for 11omical or si<lcreal day of twenty-four hours' light ns opposed to dnrkncss (vcr. 5) ; day ,luration, its constituent parts being cl,arac- os distinguished from night; nnd for n period terised in the usual wny, ns nn enning nnd a of t1ce11ty-foui· h-Oui-s, ns in the phrnso " for morning. In the judgment of Kalisch nnd days and yenrs "·(ver. 14); and agnin for the others the peculiu phrnsc, "Evening was, whole crention period of six days, or, ns is an,! morning was," is simply equivnlent to more probable, for tho second and third dnys the later Jfobrew compound " evening- (eh. ii. 4). 2. General Scripture usage sanc- morning" (Uan. viii. 14), and the Greek tions this intcrpretntion of the word day ns 11 ,,,,xe,,,,.po,, (2 Cor. xi. 2!i), both of which period of indefinite duration ; e. g. Zech. xiv. denote n natural or ci\'il day, tbongh this 6, 7, which speaks of tho time of our Lord's is challenged, in the case of the Hebrew com- comin~, and mdecd of. the entire gospel dis- l"nmd, b_y l\Incdonald. The language of the pensation, as i,:itt 0, 1 unus dies, i. e. a fourth comman<lment (Exod. xx. 11) is also day together unique, the only day of its appe.aled to as removing it beyond the sphere kind (Delitzsch) ; and characterises 1t ns 0110 of doubt that the evening nnd the morning of God's days, "known to the Lorcl," as if referred to are the component sections of nu to distinguish it from one of man's ordinary earth!_\" <lay. As to the proper terminus a civil days (cf. Dent. ix. l ; Ps. xc. 4 ; xcv, <]Ito of this initial day, howc\'cr, the advo- S; Isa. xlix. 8; John ix. 4; Heb. xiii. 8; cates of this interpretation are at variance 2 Pet. iii. 8). 3. The works nscribcd to tho :,mong themselves; Delitzsch taldng the terms different days can with difficulty be com- ereh (!ilerally, "the setting," from arab, (1) pressed within the limits of a solar day. to mix; (2) to set, to depart, like the sun) Ta.king the thil·d day, e. g., if the events ur.: bolcer (literally, "the breaking forth," assigned to it belong e3,•clitSively to the re- fro!ll balcar, to clenve, to open) in an nctive gion of the supernatural, nothing need pre- sense, and applying the former to the first vent the belief that twenty-fou1· hourb were fadincr of tl1e light, and the latter to the sufficient for their accomIJ!isbment ; but if L1·eaking of the dawn after the first interval the Divine modus operanili during the first of darkness has passed, thns reckoning the half of the creative week was through "exist- creative days from daybreak to daybreak; ing causes" (even vastly accelerated), as "·hile llfnrphy and Kalisch, who agree \\ith geology affirms that it 'l':BS during the second him in regarding the days as ordinary solar half, and as we know that it hns been ever da,s declare they must be reckoned, Hebraico since its termination, then o. considerably rnor~ from snnset to sunset. But if the larger space of time than twice twelve hours first 'Jay commenced \\ith an eveniill] or must have been consmucd in their execution. o Lscurc period (Has ereb no connection with And the same conclusion forces itself upon arau, to mix 1 Jilay it not describe the con- the judgment from R consideration of the dition of things when light and _darkness works allotted to the sixth day, in whicl1 were commingled!), that can be d1sc0Yercd not only were the animals produced and onlv in the chaotic darkriess out of which Adam made, but the former, being collected th~·ligbt sprang. Hence, Oll the other hand, in Eden, were passed in review before the as it seems improbable that this was of no latter to be named, after which he was cost more than twt! ve hours' duration, and as the into n sleep by Jehovah Elohirn, a ril, resumrtion is that the light-period would extracted from his side and fashioned into a t e commensurate in length, it has been argued that day one was not a sun-measured woman and the woman presented to him as a part,;cr. 4. The duration of the seventh <la, but o. period of indefinite extent. Of day of necessity determines the length of the toU.:.·se the len!!th of day one practically othf:r six. Without anticipating the exposi- determines the length of all the six. If it tion of eh. ii. 1-4 (q. v.), it may be said that ,rns a solar day, then they must be con- God's sabbatic rest is understood by the best siJucd such. But ns the present sidereal interpreters of Scripture to have continued an·angements for the meaJ!urenient of time from creation's close until the present hour; were not then established, it is clearly gra- so that consistency demands the previous six tuitous to proceed on the assumption that it days to be considered a.a not of short, but of was. Hence, neither is it to be accepted indefinite duration. 5. The lo.nguagc of tho without demonstration that they were not fourth co~mandmcnt, when interpreted in likewise periods of prolonged duration. It is accordance with the present tl1eory, confirms ol,vious they were if it was; and that it was the probability of its truth. If the six days 1q.1penra to be suggested by the terms in in Exod. XL 11 ere simply natural days, 11fod1 it i;; described. This conclusion, that then the seventh ,lay, in which Goel is reprc- rn. 1. 3-5.J TIIE BOOK OF GENESIS.