And Genesis is equally correct in emphasising the great abundance of marine life at this period—the waters were to swarm with swarms of living creatures (R.V. Margin), and also in specially alluding to the great sea-monsters (wrongly translated whales in A.V.), since these huge saurians were a striking feature of the time. The Hebrew word is said to mean elongated or stretched-out creatures, and as several of them were over 50 feet long, no more suitable term can be imagined. But again we must ask how did the writer know that such creatures were ever plentiful enough, or important enough, to deserve this special mention?
What are called invertebrate animals, such as insects, and shell-fish, do not seem to be included in the narrative. But it never claims to describe everything that was created; and its extreme brevity, combined with the insignificance of these creatures, may well account for their being omitted.
(8.) Land animals.
We next come to land animals, which we are told the earth was to bring forth. As however it is said in the next verse that God made (or evolved) these creatures, this need not mean that they were produced directly from the earth, as in the case of plants. And the position in which they are placed, after fishes and birds and before man, is again correct. It is true that a few animals such as kangaroos, seem to have appeared as early as birds, but land animals as a whole undoubtedly succeeded them. Three classes are mentioned, beasts of the earth, cattle, and creeping things, probably small animals, since another Hebrew word is used for them, later on, which is said elsewhere to include weasels and mice.[20]
[20] Gen. 7. 21; Lev. 11. 29.
(9.) Man.
Last of all we come to the creation of man. Four points have to be noticed here. The first refers to the time of man's appearance, which everyone now admits was not till towards the close of the Tertiary or most recent group of strata; so Genesis is quite correct in placing him last of all. As to the actual date, it says nothing; for its chronology only leads back to the creation of Adam in chapter 2, and not to that of the human race (male and female) in chapter 1. And it is implied in several places, that there were men before Adam[21] and this was in consequence maintained by some writers long before geology was thought of.[22] We need not therefore discuss the difficulties connected with the story of Adam and Eve, as to which the present writer has never seen a satisfactory explanation.
[21] Gen. 4. 13-17, 26; 6. 2-4.
[22] E.g., Peyreyrius, A.D. 1655, quoted in the Speaker's Commentary.
Secondly, the creation of man is represented as of an altogether higher order, than any of the previous ones, since God did not say, "Let the earth bring forth a thinking animal" or anything of that kind, but 'Let us make man.' And this also is quite correct, for man, as we know ([Chapter IV.]) has a free will, which makes him a personal being, and therefore far above everything else on this planet.