PERIOD I.
THE ANTE-DILUVIAN ERA.
CHAPTER I.
CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES.
1. The first book of the Bible, which is Genesis, begins with a history of the Creation. The words “In the beginning,” with which it opens, give us no chronological data by which we are able to form any estimate of the time. Seven divisions, called “days,” have special appointments assigned to each in that which is usually called “the work of creation,” including the appointment of a day of rest.
Before the beginning of the days there existed a state of chaos, the earth being “without form and void” and darkness being upon the face of the waters.
The first act was the calling into being LightThe appointment of Day and Night closed the work of the first day.
The separation of the waters beneath “the firmament,” or expanse, from those above “the firmament” constituted the work of the second day.
The formation of dry land, called earth, and the appearance of vegetable growth, called grass, herbs, and trees, occurred on the third day.
On the fourth day lights appeared in “the firmament,” or expanse, and on the fifth day the first animal life moved in the waters and birds in the air, the latter called “winged fowl.” On the sixth day the earth brought forth living creatures, “cattle, creeping things, and beasts;” and finally man was created, made after God’s image, with dominion over all that had been here created.
The seventh day was set apart as a day of rest, a day of which it is said, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” Gen. 2:3.
2. After the creation of man he was placed in a garden which the Lord God planted “eastward in Eden.” The locality of Eden is unsettled, but the opinion of many scholars is that it is not far off from the head of the Persian Gulf. The garden is described as “eastward in Eden,” and it is supposed to have been in the eastern part of a district called Eden. Prof. Sayce derives Eden from an ancient word meaning “the desert.” If this be correct, the garden of Eden was more remarkable for its contrast with the great Syrian desert in its immediate vicinity.The rivers mentioned by name are Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates. The Euphrates at the present day joins the ancient Hiddekel, which is now called the Tigris, at a point one hundred miles northwest from the Persian Gulf, and the stream formed by the union of the two rivers is called the Shat el-Arab. The Pison and Gihon have not been satisfactorily identified.