(4.) Some expositors and scientists account for the light on the first day without the sun by means of electricity or other chemical agents; but it is scarcely possible that Moses and his first readers could have thought of any thing but the sun as the source of that light, especially because “God called it Day,” and the darkness alternating with it then (as ever since the earth began its diurnal revolutions) “he called Night.” This reference to day and night must naturally carry every Hebrew mind to the sun as the source of that light and to its well-known withdrawal at evening as the reason for the darkness and the night.——It need not be supposed that the body of the sun was then visible. The state of the atmosphere might have admitted a portion of his light and yet not have disclosed his face. In our times we have seen cloudy, dark days, with no sun visible, yet with a manifest distinction between day and night.
7. The true sense of the record as to the origin (1) of vegetable life (vs. 11, 12), and (2) of animal life (vs. 20, 21, 24, 25.)——The important words are, “Let the earth bring forth grass” (v. 11); “and the earth brought forth grass” (v. 12). “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature,” etc. (v. 20); “and God created every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly” (v. 21). “Let the earth bring forth the living creature” (v. 24); “and God made the beast of the earth,” etc. (v. 25).——Here note that the historical statements give the true sense of the imperatives, and show plainly that the earth and the waters are not creative but only sustaining powers, and that they bring forth and sustain only under the fiat of the Almighty—only when and as God said, Do it. For the whole tenor of these chapters (Gen. 1 and 2) presents to us God himself as sole and supreme Creator.In the closest connection with the earth’s bringing forth the living creature, we are told that God made the beast of the field. Though the waters brought forth abundantly, yet it was still God himself who created “every living creature that moveth.” The agency of the earth in producing grass is presented in a popular way—the precise, fundamental thought being, that God made the earth his instrument in bringing forth all things that grow; and in like manner in sustaining animal life.
If we will, we are at liberty to push our queries and ask not only who gave life, vegetable and animal, but how? In just what way did he impart that something—be it quality or power or substance—which we call life? and deeper still—What is life? Is it some subtle form of matter, or only some indefinable force given to matter; and if this be it, To what special form of matter is it given? If it be matter, did God sow the tiny germs thereof in the waters and on the land and leave them to be developed under auspicious circumstances? Or did he breathe forth from his own infinite life these life-forces into material things to make plants or animals?——And yet again; What was the status of that lump of dead matter (small or great) at the point when God put into it the life-force and it became living matter, vegetable or animal? Was the first form of the living animal the egg, or its microscopic cell; or was it the fully developed animal, prepared for all life’s functions, and ready to furnish other life-bearing cells for reproduction? On these points what says the record? Not much at the utmost. It does seem to assume that Adam began existence, not an infant in the normally helpless condition of human birth, but with fully developed powers. Beyond this we look in vain to the record for light. We only know that the life-force—that subtle entity which always eludes the most vigilant search—which distances all the strides of scientific scrutiny—which mocks at chemical analysis and never comes to our call;—this life-force we simply know is from God himself and from God alone. The original gift of it is his prerogative and the secret thereof is for evermore with him.
8. In the passage—“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (v. 26) there are two special points to be considered:—(a.) In what sense is man madein the image of God? (b.) The explanation of the plural pronouns, “us” and “our”—“Let us make man in our image.”
(a.) Inasmuch as God is a spirit and never to be thought of as having a corporeal nature—material, tangible to our bodily senses, we are at once shut off from all reference to man’s physical, corporeal nature and shut up to his spiritual nature to find in it the points of this resemblance. Consequently man is made in God’s image as being gifted like his Maker with intelligence and with capacities for moral action—beyond comparison the noblest possible elements of being. He has the sense of moral obligation and the voluntary powers requisite to fulfill such obligation. He can find his supreme joy in voluntarily seeking the good of others, even of all other sentient beings, and in laboring even to the extent of self-sacrifice to promote their welfare. This is the pre-eminent perfection of God—the very point ultimately in which man is made in his image, and capable of becoming more and more Godlike, forever approximating toward his holiness and blessedness.——His intellectual powers are only the servants of these highest and noblest activities of his being.——(b.) The use of the plural pronouns—“Let us make, in our image”—has been accounted for variously. Some would make this plural intensive, corresponding to the emphatic plural in Hebrew nouns. But there seems to be no real analogy in the two cases.——Some make it the plural of dignity (“pluralis excellentiae”), as an oriental monarch puts forth his edict, saying “we,” not I. But the great simplicity of this whole narrative goes against this explanation. Moreover, this usage, so far as it appears in literature, sacred or profane, is later by many ages than Moses. Besides, there is no apparent reason why God should assume more dignity in saying—“Let us make man,” than in saying, Let us make light, or the sun in the heavens. Indeed, the form of the divine behest—“Let there be light,” seems to our ideas the more sublime and the more expressive of God’s supreme dignity.——I see no explanation of this plural that is at all satisfactory save that which assumes a reference to the persons of the Trinity. As one reason for such reference it may be suggested as certainly not improbable—thatthe idea of man, God’s chief work in creation, was coupled with his future history (all present to the divine mind)—as fallen, yet also as redeemed, and specially as redeemed by means of the incarnation of the Son of God in human flesh. Supposing this incarnation present to the divine thought, the significance of this plural would be—Let us proceed to make in our own image this wonderful being whose nature the eternal Son shall one day assume—this man who is to bear relations to us so extraordinary, so wonderful before the angels, so signal before all created minds, so glorious in its results to the whole moral universe! Have not we—Father, Son and Holy Ghost—a most surpassing interest in the creation of this being, man!
9. The relation of Gen. 2: 4–25 to Gen. 1.
Here are two points of some importance to be considered.
(1.) Are the two passages by the same author?
(2.) Do they both speak of the creation of the same first man, i. e. the same Adam, or is the Adam of Gen. 2 another and different first man, brought into being long subsequent to him of Gen. 1: 26–28?
(1.) That the two passages are from different authors has been maintained on the following grounds.——(a.) That v. 4—“These are the generations[8] of the heavens and the earth”—appears like the heading of a new and distinct portion of history.——But nothing forbids that it should be the heading of a new section or chapter of the same continuous history by the same author, resuming his subject with only a very comprehensive allusion to the great facts of creation which he had given in chap. 1, as fully as his plan required. This done he may proceed to a more full account of the creation of man and the events of his early history.——(b.) That the account here differs somewhat from that in Gen. 1, e. g. as to the creation of man, and yet more especially, the creation of woman.——But these differences are not discrepancies and are fully accounted for by the scope and design of this portion, viz. to give the history of the first man and woman in much moredetail.——(c.) But especially this diversity of authors has been argued from the different names of God which appear in these two passages. In chap. 1 and 2: 1–3, the name is simply and exclusively God (Elohim). In chap. 2: 4–25 and in chap. 3, the name is “the Lord God” (Jehovah Elohim).——This difference is indeed a palpable fact, and has been the theme of an indefinite amount of critical speculation based for the most part on the utterly groundless assumption that the same author can not be supposed to have used both these names for God. Those critics (mostly German) who have flooded their literature with disquisitions on this subject assume in the outset that none but a “Jehovist” ever used the name Jehovah, and none but an “Elohist,” the name Elohim, it being in their view impossible or at least absurd that the same author should use sometimes one of these names and sometimes the other—which assumption seems to me supremely arbitrary, irrational, and uncritical. Authors now use at their option the various names for God, either for the mere sake of variety, or because in some connections one seems more euphonious or more significant than another. Why may not an equal license of choice be accorded to Hebrew writers? It is unquestionable that the same Hebrew author does use both of these names for God.——They made far more account than we of the various senses of the several names for the Deity. The names Jehovah and Elohim, were not precisely identical in their suggested ideas, although both are legitimately used of the one true God. Elohim suggests that he is the Exalted, Eternal One, the Infinite Creator of all. This name is therefore specially appropriate in chap. 1. “Jehovah” conceives of him as the Immutable and ever faithful One, coming into covenant relation with his people as the Maker and the Fulfiller of promise. (See remarks on this as God’s memorial name in my Notes on Hos. 12: 5). Hence as the narrative in Gen. 2 and 3 brings God before the mind in these special relations to the first human pair and to the race, this name is here specially appropriate. But lest some might suppose that this Jehovah is thought of as another God than the Elohim of chap. 1—the writer uses both names—the Elohim who is also Jehovah to hisrational creature man and especially to all his obedient trustful people.