The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 103

~un, which wns tl,crcby con~t.il 11tcd chief they could not keep nloof from nn 1il.Jcrmtion \umi1rnry or "ligl1t-holdcr" for the systom, which form~d tho very focus of tho pi:incipnl the moon nnd p)Rncts becoming, nR n neces- l~11Skrn religions they yielded to that tempt- Mry consequence, "light-holders" in tho ing influcnco, anr, ignominious incer~o rose secondary sense of "light-reflectors." It is profusely in honour of the sun and the hosts intcresti11g to note that some such explana- c,f hc.wcn-Jc.r. xix. 13; J<:zek. viii. 16 ; tion a~ this appears to have suggested itself Zeph. i. 5 ; Wisd. xiii. 2" (Kalisch). to Willet, who \\Tote hcfore the birth of Ycrs. 17, ~S. -And God set (literally, Newton, nnd nt a time when solar physics gave) them (i. e. sun, moon, nnd stnrs) in 11J1d spectrum nnalysis were things of the the firmament of the heaven to give light remote future. " It is not unlike," says upon the earth, and to rule over the day and he, "hut that this light (of the finit day), over the night, and to divide the light from after the creation of the celestial bodies, the darkness. • An intimntion the.t on tliis might Le drawn upward and hn,·e his re- ,lay the 11stronomic.-u arrangements for the flection upon the beame of the sunnc and of ilhnnination of the globe and the measure- other starl"(>s." And ngain, ""'hcreas the ment of time were permanently settled. light created the first day is called 01·, but And God saw that it wns good. Laplnce the sta.rres (me:rning the heavenly bodies) w11s inclined to question the Divine verdict nre called nieoroth, as of the light, hence it Tiith reg.ml at least to the moon, which he may appea.rthat these lightsomc (i. e. lumin- thought might have been so placed ns to be ous) bodies were made the receptacles of always full, whereas, at its present distance that light then created, which ,ms now in- from the earth, we are sometimes deprived c1-easecl and united to these lights" (' Hex- of both its light and the sun's together. apla,' vers. 3, 14, London, 1632); an explana- But not to dwell upon the fact that to tion which, though c.crtainly hypothetical, remove the moon four times its present dis- must be regarded as much more in accord- tance from the earth, which it woulcl require anc~ ";t11 the requirements of tlic sacred to be iu order to be always full, would neces-· text than that which-0.iscovers in the making sitate important changes in the other mem- cf the lights only a further dissipation of bers of the solar system which might not be terrestrial mists so as to admit not the ligbt- for the earth's advantage, tho immediate bringiug beams of the cel~al bodies alone, effect of such a disposition of the lunar orb lmt tbe forms of those shining orbs them- would be to gfre us a moon of only one six- selves (Speaker's 'Commentary'). He made teenth the size of that which now dispenses th! stars also. Though tbe st~rs are intro- its silver b~ams upon our darkened globa ducetl solely because of their relation to the (Job xi. 12). earth as Jispensers of light, and no account Ver. 19.-And the evening and the morn- is taken of their constitution as suns antl ing were the fcnrtb day. The Scripture planets, it is admissible to entertain the references to this day's work are both unmcr- opilt.ion that, in their case, as in that of the ous and iustructh·e (cf. Job ix. 9; xxxvii.31; chief luminary of our tellurian heavens, the Ps. viii ; xix. ; civ. ; c:tlvii. ). The Hebrew process of " sun" making reached its cul- writers supply no information as to the 1nin:1tion on the fourth day. Perhaps the astronomical theories which were prevalent chief reason for their parenthetical intro- in their time; yet. "from other sow·ces wo duction in this place was to guard against have facts leadiug to the belief that even in tbe notion that there were any luminaries the time of l\loses there was not a little which were not the work of Elohim, and in practical astronomy in the East, and some particular to prevent the Hebrews, for wl1om good theory, The Chaldea11s at II very early tl,e work was written, from yielding to the period had ascertained the principal circles lieathen practices of star-gazing and star- of the sphere, the position of the poles, nnd worship. " The superstition of reading the the nature of the nf,parent motions of the destiny of man in the stars never took root heavens ns the rcsu ts of revolution on nn among the Israelites ; astrology is excluded inclined axis. The Egyptian astronomers, Ly the first principle of Mosaism-the belief whom we know through '!'hales, 640 n. o., in one all-ruling God, who is subject to no taught the true nature of the moon's light, necessity, no fate, no other will. Jeremiah the sphericity of the earth, nnd the position warns the Hebrews not to be afrnid of the ofits five zones. Pythagoras, CiS0 D.o., knew, signs of heaven,' before which tLe heathen in addition, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the tremble in vain terror (Jer. L 2); and Isaiah identity of the evening and morning star, and speak£ with taunting irony against the the earth's revolution round the sun" (Daw- 'll..strologers, star-gazers, and monthly prog- son, '0. W. ,' p. 207). Modern astronomy, nosticators,' in whose counsel it is folly and though po~sessed of highly probable theories wickedness to rely (Isa. xlviL 13). But the as to the formation of the universe, is still bro.elites had not moral strength enough to unable to speak with absolute precision with re1ist the cxam11leof star-wor~hip in geneml; !egard to this fourth day' e wc.rk. Yet thore en. r. 1-l-Hl.] TlIE nooK OF GENEsrn.