p. 60 | GENESIS 2:2 by W. H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 15, 1878

By W. H. Littlejohn

Having been recently requested to explain the declaration in Gen. 2:2, that God ended his work on the seventh day, we have thought it advisable to submit for publication the criticism of Dr. Adam Clarke on the words in question. It is as follows:—

“On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made.] It is the general voice of Scripture, that God finished the whole of the creation in six days, and rested the seventh; giving us an example that we might labor six days, and rest the seventh from all manual exercises. It is worthy of notice, that the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Samaritan, read the sixth day instead of the seventh; and this should be considered the genuine reading, which appears from these versions to have been originally that of the Hebrew text. How the word sixth became changed into seventh, may be easily conceived from this circumstance. It is very likely that, in ancient times, all the numerals were signified by letters, and not by words at full length. This is the case in the most ancient Greek and Latin MSS. and in almost all the rabbinical writings. When these numeral letters became changed for words at full length, two letters, nearly similar, might be mistaken for each other: ו, vau, stands for six; ז, zain, for seven: how easy to mistake these letters for each other, when writing the words at full length, and so give birth to the reading in question?”

From the above, the candid reader will readily discover that when Gen. 2:2 is properly translated it harmonizes perfectly with the declaration found in the fourth commandment, Ex. 20:8-11, and in other portions of the Scriptures, to the effect that the whole of the work of creation was completed in six literal days, and that no work whatever was performed on the seventh day, which was made exclusively a day of rest. Even if it could be shown that the words, “God ended his work on the seventh day,” would imply that he must have performed more or less work on that day, that fact would in no wise release us from the duty of abstaining from labor during the whole of the Sabbath day; for, even though we should grant for the sake of the argument, that God did perform a certain amount of labor on the last day of creation week, still it would be unquestionably true that

he rested during a portion of its hours, at least, and, consequently, that it would be perfectly legitimate for him—should he see fit to do so—to require us to commemorate his partial rest by the cessation on our part from labor during the whole day.

But the question need not be discussed at length. The whole difficulty arises from a mistranslation, as proved by the criticism of so eminent a divine as Dr. Clarke, who, though an observer of the first day of the week, frankly concedes that the passage, when properly rendered, in no wise conflicts with those portions of the word which prove that God rested the whole of the seventh day.

W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

GENESIS 2:2.