"Corto frrenum viris et mulLn-ibus non laxa- dependent conclition. Though lord r,f th11 vit, ut in vngas libiclines ruercnt, absque creation, he wna yet to draw the mcnns of his dolectu et pudore; sed a sando cnsto"lue con- subsistence from the creature which he ruled. jugio incipien•, descendit o.d generntionem" Whether mo.n waa a vegetarian prior to the (Oolvin), And replenish the earth. The fall is debated. On the one lian<l it is con- new-created rnce was intended to occupy tho tended that the original grm, t rloes not form- onrlh. How for during tho first age of the ally exclude the animals, and, in fact, says worhl tliis Divino purpose was realised con• nothing nbont man's relation to the animals t:inucs mnttcr of debnto (eh. x.). After the (:Macdonald); that we cannot positively lllood U10 confusion of tongues effected a dis- nffirm that man's dominion over the animals persion of tho nations over tho three great did not involve the use of them for food continents of tho old world. At the present (Murphy); and that as men offered sacrifices day rnnn has wandered to tho ends of the from their flocks, it is probable they ate the earth. Yet vast realms lie unexplored, wait- flesh of the victims (Calvin). On the other ing his arrival. This clause may be described hand it is argued that the Divine lang:uago ns the colonist's charter. And subduo it. cannot be held as importing more than it 'l'ho commission thus received was to utilise really says, and that eh. ix. 3 distinctly for his necessities the vast resources of the teaches that man's right to the animal crea- earth, by a~ricultural and mining operations, tion dates from the time of Noah (Kalisch, by geographical research, scientific discovery, Knobel, Alford, &c.). Almost all nations and mechanical invention. And have do• have traditions of a golden age of innocence, minion over the fish of the Eee., &c. I. e. when men abstained from killing animals (cf. oYcr the inhabitants of all the elements. The Ovid, 'JIJet.,' i. 103-l0G). Scripture alone Di vine intention with regard to liis creation anticipates a time when such shall again be was thus minutely fulfilled by his invcstituro a characteristic of earth's inhabitants (Isa. with supremacy over all the other works of the xi. 7 ; !xv. 25). Divine hand. Ps. viii. is the "lyric echo" of Ver. 30.-And to every beast of the earth, this ori/!inal sovereignty bestowed on man. and to every fowl of the air, and to every Ver. 29.-Provision for the sustenance of thing th&t creepeth upon the earth, whe:rein tlic newly-appointed monarch and his sub- there is life, I have gh-en every green he1·b jects is next made. And God said, Behold, I for meat. The first of the three classes of havo given you every herb bearing seed, plants, grass, was assigned to the animals for which is upon the face of all the earth, o.nd food. From this Delitzsch infers that prior every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree to the introduction of sin the animals 'l!'err. yielding sead; to yon it shall be for meat. not predaceous. The geological evidence of Of the three cla'sses into which the vegetable the existence of death in prehistoric times is, creation was divided, grass, herbs, and trees however, too powerful to be resisted ; and tho (ver. 12), the two last were nssiipied to man Biblical record itself cnnmerates among tho for food. lliacdonald thinks tnat witl1out pre-adamic animals the chayyah of the cfiehl, this express conveyance man would haYe been which clearly belonged to the carniTOra. warranted to partake of them for nourish- Perhaps the most that can be safely couclmlcd ment, warranted by the necessities of his from the languaie is " that it indicates naturo. Tho same reasoning, hon·ever, would merely the general fact that the sup11ort of ha vc entitled him to kill the lower animals the whole animnl kingdom is basco.l on ngc• if he jud&ed them useful for his supP.ort. tation" (Da,vson). Murphy with more truth remarks, "Of two Yer. 31.-And God sa.w every thing that things proceeding from the same creative • he ha.d mado, and, behold, it was vory good. hand, neither has any original or inherent Literally, lo! good very! Not simply gooo.l, right to interfere in nny wny with the other. but good exceedingly. It is not man alono 'l'he abRolnte right to each lies in the Creator that God surveys, but the completed cosmos, alone. The one, it is t1110, may need tho with mnn ns its crown nnd glory, decus et other to support its life, as fruit is needful to tulamcn. " It is not merely a benediction man ; and, therefore, the just Creator can- which ho utters, but nn expression of al· not make one creature dependent forsubsist- miration, as we may say "ithout nny fear o! cnco on onother without granting to it the the nnthropomorphism -Eu!]e, bene p1·c- nso of that other. But this is a matter be- clare I" (T. Lewis). And the evening and tween Creator and creature, and not by nny the morning were the sixth day. 1t sccm:i means between creature and creature." The unnecessnry to add that this day corresponds primitive charter of mnn's common property to the Cainozoic or tertiary era of geology, 111 the earth, o.nd all thnt it contains, is the tho Pnlreontologicnl remains of which suffi.• present section of this ancient document. cicntly attest the truth of the Divine record Among other reasons for the formal convey- in asserting thnt nnimals were anterior to nnco to nnn of the hc1"!1s nuJ trees mny be man in their nppcurancc on the earth, an,l noted a desire to keep him mi11tlful of his that nrnn is or comparntiwly rcc~1,t mi.;1"'- 32 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [en. I. 24-31.
The alloged evidence of prehistoric man is 2. Were delightful the strong monsters. • loo fragmentary o.nd hypothetical to be ac- 3. 'l'hcy caused to be living creatures . .· cepted R~ conclusive ; and yet, eo far aa ·tl1e 4. Cattle of the field, bcRBts of the field, cosmogony of the present chapteris concerned, and creeping things of the field , . . . thore is nothing t-0 prevent the belief that 5. They fixed for the living creutureA . . man is of a much more remote antiquity tho.n 6. • • • . Cattle and creeping things 6000 years. As of the other days, so of this of the city they fixed . • . . I he Chaldean tablets preserve an interesting 0
monument. The seventh in the creation 9. • : . •. ~d th~ god Nin-~i-ku (the series, of which e. fragment was discorcred in lord of noble face) caused to be two . . . one of the trenches at Kouyunjik, runs:- in which it is not difficult to trnce an 11ccou11t ]. When the gods in their assembly had of the creation of the animal kingdom aud crcntccl . of the first pair of human beings. '