NOTES ON GEN. 1, 2

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1875

NOTES ON GEN. 1, 2.

GEN. 1:1. God created. “All visible nature is a multifarious association of very compounded substances, of which the particles must have been in some other state before they were compounded together. The single condition of the elements must have preceded their union in the composition; and thus it is physically impossible that a compound can have been eternal. Composition and eternity are as incompatible as to be and not to be.”—Turner.

The heavens. Rather the substance of the heavens. So Aben Ezra, Ainsworth, Walton’s Polyglott, Buxtorf, the Syriac translation, Robertson, and Dr. A. Clarke.

Verse 5. Evening and morning. “A Hebrew phrase for the whole day.”—Patrick.

“It is acknowledged by all, that the evening and the morning are not here to be understood according to our common usage, but are put, by a synecdoche, each of them for one whole part of the natural day. But because it may be doubted which part each of them signifies, some understand by evening the foregoing day; and by morning, the foregoing night, and so the natural day begins with the morning or the light, as it did with the ancient Chaldeans. Others by evening understand the first night or darkness, which was upon the face of the earth, (verse 2) which probably continued for about twelve hours, the beginning whereof might fitly be called evening, and by morning the succeeding light or day, which may reasonably be supposed to continue the other twelve hours or thereabouts. And this seems the truer opinion. 1. Because the darkness was before the light, as the evening is put before the morning, verses 5 and 8, and afterwards. 2. Because this best agrees both with the vulgar and with the Scripture use of the terms evening and morning. 3. Because the Jews, who had the best opportunity of knowing the mind of God in this matter, by Moses and other succeeding prophets, began both their common and sacred days with the evening, as is confessed, and may be gathered from Lev. 23:32.”—Poole.

Day. “A day requires the existence and revolving motion of the earth alone. This is mentioned by Moses as beginning before the sun was made the center of our astronomical system. As this fact denotes the diurnal movement to be distinct from the sun, and independent of it, it is another instance of the correctness of the Mosaic account.”—Turner.

Verse 10. It is observable that God himself gave names to those creatures over which Adam could not exercise dominion; but left him to give names to the rest. Without doubt the original names were expressive of the nature of the creatures.

Verses 1–10. “The structure of the earth, and the mode of distribution of extraneous fossils or petrefactions, are so many direct evidences of the truth of the Scripture account of the formation of the earth; and they might be used as proofs of its author having been inspired, because the mineralogical facts discovered by modern naturalists were unknown to the sacred historian.”—Jameson.

Chap. 2:3. “This is evidently historical, and not by anticipation, for the reason subsisted from the beginning; and was more cogent immediately than it would be at a distance of more than two thousand years, when the command was solemnly renewed from mount Sinai, long after sin had marred the beauty of the great Creator’s works, and it concerns the whole human race, as much as the nation of Israel. This is confirmed by the custom of measuring time by weeks, which has generally prevailed in the world; and which is most reasonably accounted for, by supposing it to have arisen from an original tradition handed down from Adam and Noah to all their posterity. And the silence of Moses concerning the observance of the Sabbath by the patriarchs, so proving that they were not commanded to observe it, will not render it so much as probable that they did not actually keep it, to those who attentively consider how much darkness rests on many similar subjects, in the scriptural history of the church. Yet some intimations are given in this book which show that the patriarchs divided time into weeks, and regarded the seventh day. (8:6–14; 29:27). The Sabbath, being made for man, was no doubt coeval with his creation. Even in the state of innocence, Adam and Eve were employed in dressing and keeping the garden; and though exempt from sin and suffering, yet their rational nature was capable of a far more exalted state; and they were taught to consider themselves as preparing for it by progressive improvement. The seventh-day, therefore, being blessed and sanctified by God, separated from common employments and consecrated to religious worship; on it especially they were required to remember their Creator, to contemplate his works, and to render him their tribute of thankful praise; and this would, even in paradise, be conducive to the glory of God, and beneficial to them; perhaps absolutely necessary to their safety and felicity, (Ex. 16:22–27; 20:8–11).”—Scott.

Seventh. “The Heb. shabah, from which comes the German sieben, and the English seven, is derived from a root signifying to be full, complete, entirely made up; seven, therefore, is often called the perfect number. No number recurs in Scripture so often; and as it cannot have an abstract virtue or significancy, its constant use here carries in it some important allusion. What more probable then that it is founded on this history here?”—Bush.

“One of the most striking confirmations of the Mosaic history of the creation, from heathen sources, is the general adoption of the division of time into weeks, which extends from Europe to Hindostan, and has equally prevailed among the Hebrews, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and northern barbarians. The other divisions of time arise from natural causes, respecting the sun and moon. The division into weeks, on the contrary, seems perfectly arbitrary, and to have been derived from some remote tradition (as that of the creation), which was never totally obliterated from the memory of the Gentiles.”—T. H. Horne.—Comprehensive Commentary.