The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 119

prosupposes the paradisaical innoconce of of the generations to be forthwith recorded. the first pair (eh. ii.). Thus homogeneous in Then it wns thnt the heo.vcns nnd the enrth it.self, it likewise ccnnects ,cith tlu pr~eding in their development took a clenr nnd decided step forward in the direction of man and the stct?"cn through eh. ii., which, as a monograpl1 human family (wes it in the appearance of on man, supplies a more detaill!d account of vegetation !) ; and in this thought perhnpe his cren tion than is gh-en in the narrative of will be found the koy to tbo si~1ificance of the ,ix days' work, ond, by depicting man's the new name for the Divine Demg which is settlement in Eden as n place of trial, 11rc- used exclusively throughout the present section-Jehovah Elohim. From the fre- pa res the wny for tho subsequent recital of quency of its use, and the circumstnnce that his se<luction and sin, and of his consequent it never has the article, Jehovah may be expulsion from the gnrden. regarded as the proper personnl name of God. Eithe.r falsely interpreting Exod. xx. 7 and Ver. 4.-These are the generations is the Levit. xxiv. 11, or following some encieut usual heading for the different sections into superstition (myste1ious names of deities which the Rook of Genesis is divided (vid. were used generally in the Enst; the Egyptian eh. v. 1; Yi. 9 ; x. 1 ; xi. 10, 2i; xxv. 12, Hermes had a name which (Cic. 'de Natura l 9 ; xxHi. 1 ; xxxvii. 2). Misled by the Deorum,' 8, 16) durst not be uttered: Fiirst), LXX ., wlio render toldoth by ;, {3/{3~oc: tl1e le.ter Hebrews invested this nomen tetra- y11,i,uw~, Ranke, Ticle, H::ivernick, Tuch, grammaton with such sanctity that it might Ewald, nnd 8tiihelin disconnect the entire not be pronounced (Philo, •Vit. Mosis,' iii. 619 1 verse from the second section, which says 529). Accordingly,itwa.s their custom to write 11othi11g about the origination of the heavens it in the sacred text with the vowel points of on<l the earth, and append it to the preceding, Adonai, or, if that preceded, Elohim. Hence iu which their creation is described. Ilgen considerable doubt now exists as to its cor- improves on their suggestion by transferring rect pronunciation. Etymologically viewed it to the commencement of eh. i, as an ap- it is a. future form of havah, an old form propriate superscription. Dreschler, Vaihin- of hayah; uncertainty as to whnt future ger, Ilohlen, Oehler, l\Iacdonald, et alii divide has occasioned many different suggestions as the verse into two clauses, and annex the to what constituted its primitive vocalisation. former to what precedes, commencing the According to the evidence which scholam ensuing narrntive with the latter. All of have collected, the choice lies between (1) these proposals are, however, rendered un- Jahvch (Gesenius, Ewnld, Reland, Oehler, necessary by simply observing that toldoth Macdonald, the Samaritan), (2) Yehvch or (from yaladh, to bear, to beget; hence be- Yebeveh (Furst, W. L. Alexander, in Kitto's gettings, procreations, evolutions, develop- 'Cyclopeclia '), and (3) Jehovah (Michaelis, ments) does not describe the nntecedcnts, but l\Ieyer, Stier, Hoelmann, 'fregelles, Murphy). the conscquents, of either thing or person Perhaps the preponderance of authority in- (Rosen., Keil, E:allich). The toldoth of clines to the first ; but the common punctu- Noah are not the genealogical list of the ation is not so indefensible as some writers patriarch's nncestry, but the tabulated re- allege. Gesenius admits that it more satis- gister of his posterity ; and so the genera- factorily accounts for the abbreviated sylla- tions of the heavens and the earth refer not bles 1il~ and p than the pronunciation which to their original production (Gesenius), but to be himself favours. l\Iurphy thinks that the their onward movements from creation down- substitution of Adonai for Jehovah was wards (Keil). Hence with no incongruity, but facilitated by the agreement of their vowel with smgular propriety, the first half of the points. The locus classicus for its significa- present verse, ending with the words when tion is Exod. iii. 14, in which God defines they were created, literally, in their creation, himself as" I am that I am," and commands stands at the commencement of the section Moses to tell tho children of Israel tlmt in which the forward proivession of the uni- Ehyeh had sent him. Hengstcnberg encl verse is traced. The pomt of departure in Keil conclude that absolute self-existence is this su bsequcnt cvol ution of the material the essential idea re11rcscnted by the name heavens and earth is further specified as (cf. Exo<l. iii. 14; owv, LXX.; Rev. i. 4, 8; o being in the day that the Lord God (Jehovah WV 1tni o,"jv 1tai olpxoµ,vo,·, vid. Furst, 'Lex. Elohim) made the earth and the heavens; sub nom. '). Baumgarten and Delitzsch, lay- r,ot the heavens and the earth, which would ing stress on its future form, regard it as = Lave signified the universe ('1,W. on eh. i. 1), the Becoming One, with reference to the and carried back the writer's thought to the revelation, rather than the cssenct>, of the initial act of creation ; Lut the ea1ih and the Divine nature. Macdonald, from the cir- atmospheric firmament, which indicates the cumstance that it was not used till after the period embracing the second and (possibly) fall, discovers a pointing forward to Jehovah the third creative days as the terminus a quo es oipx611wo, in connection with redemption. m. H. 4--7.] Tirn BOOK OF GENESI8. 41