Comments on select passages of the Holy Scriptures

Front matter

"UNITED ~§TATES~OF AMERICA.

I

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Chapter I

Verse 1. In the beginning.

The difficulties and uncertainty which seem to surround this programme of creation — this announcement of the work — have resulted from inattention, and from the employment of imagination, instead of legitimate criticism.

The subject of revelation is not the globe itself, nor the vast works of creation; but simply the creation of this dynasty. This is shown in the Mosaic account itself; for the account of creation contains nothing besides the constituents of this dynasty, and makes no mention of the globe itself, nor of the angels, nor of the fixed stars, which, not being included in the narrative, were not included in the work of the six days.

This is taught in the first verse of the next chapter, where it [is affirmed, " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them." So also ii. 4.

As the creation of our dynasty was the subject of the inspired writer, we can easily interpret the word beginning. It was the beginning of this dynasty — the beginning of these six days' works — the beginning of the historic period. Whatever creations or works may have occurred before are neither mentioned nor alluded to. If the geologist sees the evidence of former dynasties in the globe, we can not impeach that evidence: for the narrative of Moses refers only to this dynasty. This is made evident b}^ verses 8 and 10, in which the inspired writer defines the terms heaven and earth which are used in the first verse. And we are thereby precluded from taking them in any other sense.

2. And the earth was without form, and void.

This could not have meant the globe was without a spherical form, and void of material substance; for neither could be true. But both are true of the dry land, the materials of which were not as yet formed into dry land ; as such land it was without form, and void — without existence as dry land.

8 GENESIS— CHAP. I.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep— the sun not being yet created, darkness prevailed. This darkness was not caused by intervening clouds obscuring the sun ; for, as the atmosphere was not yet created, there were no clouds in the heavens ; and, as the sun was not yet created, it could not be obscured.

3. And God said, Let there be light.

This production of light, on the first day, does not seem to have been for vision, as there was no e}^e created; but it was necessary for the calendar and for vegetation.

4. And God divided the light from the darkness.

The light was not disseminated over the whole face of the globe; but was separated from the darkness, and confined to one hemisphere, like a cloud; so that the globe revolving on her axis as now, there would be twelve hours of darkness and twelve of light, thus constituting a day of twenty-four hours, as at present. As the darkness preceded the light it was natural to say, And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6. And God said, Let there be a firmament.

This firmament was the atmosphere, which is of a density sufficient to sustain the smoke and mists of evaporations from the earth and waters.

8. And God called the firmament heaven (ernim).

Thus the word heavens, in the first verse, is defined and limited. To give this word any other signification, in the first verse, is to disrespect divine authority.

This also enables us co ascertain the meaning of the word beginning, in the first verse ; for as the narrative relates to this dynasty — the creations specified in detail as occupying the six days constituted the commencement, the beginning, the origin of this dynasty; as if it had been written, The beginning, the origin of this dynasty, was thus, or as follows.

9. And God said, Let the waters under the whole heaven be gathered unto one place.

That is, let the waters and the dry land be separated, each to its own place.

10. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters called he seas.

The dry land was called earth, it being one of the productions of the six days, and so extensive a one, it was by me-

GENESIS— CHAP. I. 9

tonymy appropriated to all the terrestrial productions, comprehending all that was not celestial. It comprehended seas, rivers, lakes, and all the collections of water, and all the fish that inhabit them; as also the birds, and animate and inanimate creatures that inhabit the land. But it does not include the globe itself, which is not included in the productions of the six days.

That all terrestrial things on the globe are comprehended under the terms, earth and dry land, is shown chap. vi. 13; in which the Lord said of mankind, I will destroy them with the earth. All the terrestrial creations on the globe were destroyed by the flood, except specimens of each, which were contained in the ark, except the fish which water would not inj ure.

Although God would destroy men with the earth, yet he did not destroy the globe itself. Which shows that earth and dry land did not include the globe. Chap. vii. 21-23.

11. And God said, Let the earth bring grass.

On the third day all vegetable kingdoms were created, and endowed with the attribute of reproduction. The earth was only to bear them upon its face, not produce them of its own power or efficiency. These vegetables were created by the divine hand, and reproduced afterward by the germination of seeds yielded by those first created. Those first created, both animals and vegetables, were created in maturity, and placed, the vegetables in proper positions in the earth, and animals upon it: ripe fruits being essential for the sustenance of those animals which needed them.

The vegetable kingdom having seeds in themselves, yielding germs for reproduction, teaches us the divine economy upon this point, as well in relation to animals as to vegetables.

14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven.

These lights were the sun and the moon. The creation of these lights was on the fourth day; while the existence of the globe itself was antecedent — it existed at least four days before the sun — the secondary before the primary. This is a seeming anomaly, as if the hand of Adam had been created four days before his body.

It is natural to inquire for the cause of this seeming anomaly. If modern investigations in geology show that prior dynasties have occupied this globe, and perished in succession from on* it, then it appears that it had a prior existence to the creation narrated by Moses: and then its existence prior to the creation

10 GENESIS— CHAP. I.

of [the sun seems natural. If the globe existed four days at least before the sun, it was held and sustained in its place by miraculous power.

As geology shows that vegetables grew on the globe during former dynasties, it is natural to conclude that it had a former sun, was a satellite of a former central sun, was a member of a former solar system, which being abolished or broken up, this globe being reserved and removed to its present location in the heavens, was made the nucleus of this new solar system, which was completed on the fourth day, by the creation of the sun, moon, and wandering stars, or planets or comets associated with it.

The wisdom and goodness of this arrangement appear in the ground which it affords for our faith, as well as for the cultivation of science.

The subject also affords an argument for the divine authenticity of revelation. The definitions of the words heavens and earth in the eighth and tenth verses show a provision made to meet the discoveries of geology.

16. He made the stars also.

If the inspired writer were evidently narrating the origin of this dynasty, as is sufficiently shown by Gen. i. 1, 8, 10, and ii. 1, 4, it is respectful to him to believe that he does not digress from his subject in this sixteenth verse to any thing outside of this dynasty: and that he had no reference to the fixed stars; but only the wandering stars of this system, the planets and comets that belong to it.

17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven.

We are not to understand the sun, moon and wandering stars are located in the atmospheric firmament; but only that they so appear to us. Things in divine revelation are often described as they appear. When three heavenly messengers appeared to Abraham, they appeared as men; and although this is called the Lord's appearing to him, it is also said to have been three men; because they appeared as men. Gen. xviii. 1, 2. So also it is that the sun and moon stood still, because it so appeared. Josh. x. 13.

20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth.

Not that the water could cause their production; but that the waters contain them, or that they might live and grow in the waters.

26. And God said, Let us make man in our image ? after our likeness.

As Jehovah has no body, nor bodily shape, these words, image and likeness, are to be understood in relation to God's moral image, and intellectual image and government. Man was to have government over the earth, but not over the globe. Which shows again what is before said of earth in v. 1. His government was to be over the things created upon the globe, which are enumerated. He had only a partial sovereignty over the works of the six days; for the location of rivers, mountains and lakes were beyond his jurisdiction.

29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

The exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not here made. From this we learn that the inspired writers do not load revelation fvdth exceptions and limitations in every place that may seem to require them, deeming it sufficient that they are mentioned in some other place. Although it is said, I have given you for food the fruit of every tree, we know that it is to be received with limitation. This is likewise illustrated in manv places. Josh. xiv. 8. 1 Cor. iv. 5. 1 Tim. ii. 4. Rom. x. 13; and xi. 26.

30. I have given every green herb for meat.

Although every green herb or plant is said to have been given for food; yet there were exceptions of the forbidden fruit, of unwholesome and poisonous plants. This is a rule of extensive applicatior, that exceptions are often omitted; and are to be learned in other places. See 1 John ii. 2. 1 Cor. xii. 7. Zech. viii. 10. Matt. x. 22. Mark i. 37; and v. 20.

Chapter II

Yerse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Thus all the works in the narrative were finished. The creations of the six days were the heavens and the earth; and as they consisted of a numerous variety of creatures, vegetables, animals, and creeping things, they are called a host. The terms, earth and dry land, were names for all these organizations that were terrestrial; just as all the celestial organizations were comprehended under the word heavens.

If they were finished in this manner, then they were finished in no other. The globe itself, with all its rocks, and fossils, its minerals, with all its internal constituents, is the work of an earlier period. So was the water; as no mention is made of the creation of water on any one of the six days, but of its separation from the earthy materials, and the abyss of mixed materials, it is assumed as existing at the beginning of creation; we learn that the globe itself, as well as the fixed stars, and the angels, were creations of the same divine hand at some former period or periods: and it may be millions of years earlier, but years may not be appropriate to the measure of earlier duration, it is better to say, duration equal to a million or millions of our years.

2. And on the seventh day God ended his work.

He ceased from the work of creating at the end of the sixth day. That is, he did not create anything after the sixth day. He created nothing more after he had created Eve. Thus he set an example of resting from work on the Sabbath. We are not therefore at liberty to suppose that nothing has been added to creation since the sixth day: all that constitute the vegetable and animal kingdoms of this dynasty, with all that belongs to our solar system, were finished, completed on the sixth day. If it were not so, the ground which this divine resting laid for the Sabbath is taken away.

As the inspired writer does not indulge in digressions, we apply all to this dynasty; and to nothing beyond it. If any of the fixed stars of heaven are now discontinued, and new ones created, or new worlds and new systems in other portions of space, it makes no discrepancy with what is spoken exclusively of our own system.

In the vegetable kingdoms, each species had its seed in itself for reproduction, and creation was finished before the Sabbath; the same is equally true of all the animal kingdoms, who by the law of reproduction with which they were endowed, have reproduced their kind, each one, by propagation.

3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

Both divine authority and divine example unite to sanction the observance of this holy, consecrated day. Having been thus early consecrated it is only necessary to allude to it in the fourth commandment, by saying, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. If the souls of men are not reproduced by propagation, but are new creations, then the ground of the f

Sabbath is taken away, and the divine teaching is rendered nugatory. If we regard this divine teaching, the Sabbath has a sanctity which it is difficult fully to appreciate, and which sets a seal of bold, high-handed profanity upon its desecration. The man who profanely gathered sticks on this sacred day was stoned to death for his heaven-daring presumption.

The prophet Isaiah warns us to turn away our foot from treading upon the high authority which sanctifies this holy day. lviii. 13. "It is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Exod. xxxi. 13. Ezek. xx. 12, 20.

Created and made are used here as synonymous, and do not necessarily import origination from nothing, but equally apply to creating from existing materials. Light and the firmament were created from nothing, while plants, animals and man were created of the ground, as Eve from Adam's rib. But all were equally creations.

As the reason for the sanctity of the Sabbath was God's resting from the wonderful and glorious work of creation, it must needs be of perpetual and universal obligation. Although it was subsequently incorporated with the ten commandments, it did not originate with the Mosaic ritual, nor depend upon it. Indeed all the ten commandments being moral in their nature are of perpetual obligation.

Neither is its perpetuity nor its sanctity impaired by its being carried over to the first day of the week, but rather confirmed; for it receives a new and additional authority by our Lord's finishing his greater work of atonement and humiliation, and rising from the dead on the first day. It is now called the Lord's day, and commemorates both the work of creation, and the work of redemption. If the law for the Sabbath be not repeated in the gospel, it is because it was not necessary : the example of our Lord and of his disciples being sufficient, as it is respecting the sacraments ; for it is no where revealed that baptism and the Lord's Supper have come in the places of circumcision and the passover. The fact is obvious that they have come into the places of the others.

Whatever was revealed in the Old Testament is binding under the gospel, unless it be in some way abrogated, as are sacrifices and circumcision ; for the moral law is unchangeable.

4. These are the generations of the heavens and earth.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

This is the origination of this dynasty, which consists of all the things that were made in the six days of creation.

Day here signifies the time or period of creation of whatever length it may have been.

The name Lord for Jehovah is used here for the first time in the Scriptures — the word was only God (JElohim), no other name being used; none other being deemed suitable for the period. But after the subjects of creation were introduced, and the name God (Elohim) being introduced as the Divine Author, it seems to have been deemed proper to introduce the name for God which had been given to Moses 2500 years later, when Israel came out of Egypt. This revelation was not written and given to Israel until they had come out of Egypt, and after the name Jehovah (commonly translated Lord in our English version) had been made known to Israel, ihey could understand it, and were prepared for its use. But this name for God was unknown to Israel, was unknown to every one of them, until Moses was sent to deliver them from bondage.

Wherever this name Lord (Jehovah) was used in the book of Genesis, as verses 6, 8, and xxvii. 20, 27, it was in like manner used by anticipation as to the subject, for it was an anachronism as to the events recorded, not ever being used by Isaac nor heard by him as a divine name; although it was in common use as a word in the language, in its original grammatical sense.

5. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth.

The plants and trees were created in maturity, with their fruit in maturity upon them according to the season. If it were not in season for fruit as to some of them, they had bloom or young fruit upon them, growing to be matured in season. Else Adam and Eve, and the low r er animals, had been unsupplied if they had been obliged to fast until the grass, the herbs, and the trees had grown out of the ground. As Adam and Eve had been created in maturity, so was the vegetable kingdom created in maturity.

But there was not a man to till the ground.

Here also is what has seemed to be an anachronism, and has perplexed many; as the creation of man is expressly stated in the first chapter. But there need be no such perplexity, because Moses is repeating the history of man's creation, and takes up the narrative again to give a more full account of it, and supply many particulars which he had purposely omitted in the first chapter.

6. And there went up a mist from the earth, etc.

This was dew — evaporated water, borne up by the atmosphere.

7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

In creating Adam the whole human family were created; for they were all involved in him, were all comprehended in the first pair. Nothing pertaining to this dynasty, the heavens and the earth, has been created since. Exod. xx. 11.

As the vegetable species contained each its seed for reproduction within itself, so did each species of the animal kingdoms; each had its capability of reproduction in itself; so that the work of creation was complete. And herein was provision for the Sabbath, seeing creation was finished. The human soul is therefore reproduced by propagation, seeing that every other source is excluded; for thus the heavens and the earth were finished, ^nd all the host of them. That is every thing belonging to this dynasty, and detailed in the book of Genesis.

8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.

In the eastern part of the large district named Eden, the garden was placed. This lay on both sides of the river Euphrates, which river was the eastern boundary of Palestine.

There has been no little difficulty in settling the exact location of this spot, but the mention of Assyria, Ethiopia and Euphrates affords an approximation to its location. But it is important to remark that this Ethiopia is not that in Africa, but one lying further north, and including Midian, where Moses took his wife; for he has been accused of marrying an Ethiopian woman, who was a Gentile, though not a colored woman.

The flood may be supposed to have made such alterations in beds of rivers, and the face of the country, as to render the location of the garden difficult at this period, or impossible.

17. But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The reasons are not given for this prohibition, but doubtless they were infinitely wise and good. As the cultivation of piety, holiness and virtue are so much more important to man than any gratifications of sense, we can be at no loss respecting it. *

This opportunity for these children of God to give the evidence of their love and obedience to God, the Author of their being, should have been esteemed as a precious favor to them, as it was a necessary regulation of government. This law neither the creature nor the Creator could dispense with. Its weighty and eventful sanction was in infinite benevolence to man.

He needed this momentous sanction to quicken his obedience; and the Lawgiver condescended to enact it, as we are now favored with the sanction of remediless ruin if we fall from grace. Heb. vi. 4, 6.

It has been esteemed one of the most difficult problems in theology, that man, being holy, could sin and fall. But Eve could not have done it if she had not been deceived. But being deceived, she ate, and incurred the curse, which was peremptory and unconditional, leaving no room for excuse or palliation.

What induced Adam to eat we are not told, but the woman gave the fruit to him, and he ate, and thereby incurred the curse with her. In that moment the divine sentence fell upon both of them, by their becoming mortal and depraved.

They could remain on earth for a time, as we do who are lying under the same curse.

The divine sentence was verified to the letter, in the fact that at that moment they became mortal or subject to mortality.

The doubt that is harbored whether the penalty was death only, or other penalties also, is to disregard both the context and the law itself, for neither the law itself, with its sanction, nor the context, will allow any other interpretation. If other judgments might justly be inflicted, it does not alter the penalty itself, which was death, and only death. The whole code of divine revelation throughout both Testaments confirms this fact. The sacrificial death of the types, and the sacrificial death of the Antitype for atonement, establish this position. If the death of Christ is e^very where held up as the propitiation, then death and death only was the penalty; else there is no atonement and no salvation.

If it be asked, did not the transgression incur the desert of eternal punishment, and is not eternal misery inflicted for it in the case of the unredeemed? I answer, true; but these concessions do not change the law, nor add any thing to the letter of the divine sanction annexed to it. For we can neither add nor diminish; His law is finished. As the sentence pronounced upon the woman differed from the sentence upon the man in several particulars, and both differed from the threatened penalty, we perceive, that the penalty did not contain all that their sin rendered them liable to, and justly deserving of. The woman was sentenced to the sorrows of parturition, and with subjection to her husband. Neither of which was laid upon Adam, whose sentence was different.

As all these were incurred by their sin, and all differed from the penalty, we may learn, that the penalty did not contain all that their sin exposed them to; and also that different subjects might be made to endure degrees as the individual cases required. But all must suffer death, the penalty of the law, which can not be broken.

If then, all sinners deserve eternal death, although it be not in the penalty, it cannot follow, that one not imbued with moral evil, must endure the same if his circumstances be so different as not to require it, he being under the same law. Yet he need not suffer eternal death, which is neither in the penalty, nor required by the circumstances of his individual case; yet he must endure that which is the penalty, viz., death, by himself, or by his substitute without any possible escape. In other words, the righteous and infinite substitute need not suffer that eternal death which the sinner deserved, and which was not in the penalty. But in becoming their substitute and taking their law place under the penalty, he of necessity had to suffer the exact penalty of the law they had broken. Which seems to have been what was by the Lawgiver deemed requisite under the circumstances. What cause then have we to admire the wisdom and goodness of the Lawgiver in so gloriously providing for redemption, and making it possible. If the Lawgiver inserted nothing but death in the penalty, in order that the substitute might endure it, then those persons who add to it both spiritual and eternal death, making the endurance of the penalty impossible to the substitute, are doing what they can to darken counsel, and to throw obscurity over a plain subject.

When the penalt}^ was annexed to the law of Paradise the Divine Lawgiver had reference to the propitiation of Christ, and put into the penalty what ought to have been in it; and not what the transgression deserved, for then atonement and salvation had been impossibilities.

The precept might have been given without the penalty, as in parallel cases. Exod. xx. 3, 17. Lev. xxiv. 12-14.

Had there been no penalty annexed to the prohibition, the 2 price that would have been demanded of the surety would have been the same. Annexing the penalty did not change the result; the Lawgiver demanded just the propitiation that divine justice required — neither more nor less. When he annexed the penalty, he knew what its amount was just as well as he knew afterward. But annexing the penalty threw light upon the sacrificial code, and assists man's understanding of the whole subject.

An ex post facto law is unobjectionable in the divine government, because the divine government is perfect. An ex post facto penalty will be just the same with a prce facto one; and therefore in the divine government may either precede or succeed the transgression. Num. xv. 32-35.

The penalty annexed was not what Adam and Eve incurred, nor what the serpent incurred. Gen. iii. 14, 15. And it was not what the surety incurred; for he suffered what was not in the penalty, in the painful manner of his death on the cross, in the hidings of the Father's face, in the ignominy of his death between two thieves, in the previous scourging, his mock robes of royalty, his crown of thorns, his reed, and the sad gloom of the sepulcher. All these he suffered in addition to the penalty; because whatever was proper had to be laid upon him, but what was in the penalty seems to have been still more indispensable. Matt. v. 18.

The Mediator then did suffer the exact literal penalty of the law when he endured the death of the cross. But he suffered it as a substitute for man — sinful man, which verified the divine word, and maintained divine justice.

As so much has been said that is calculated to obscure this subject, and to prejudice the minds of Christians, I suggest the following passages for satisfaction: Isa. liii. 8-12. Dan. ix. 26. Eom. vi. 3-11. 1 Cor. xv. 3. Gal. iii. 13, 22, 27, 28, 29. Eph. i. 2-7.

Since nothing but the literal penalty of the law would satisfy the justice of God, the Son took on him the very manhood, that he might suffer death; and suffering in union with the infinite attributes of the divine nature allied to it, the death became of infinite value, and i nfinite efficacy; for sin being against the infinite Sovereign, and against his commandments, was rendered an infinite evil, and deserving an infinite punishment, such as eternal misery. The death of Christ was such an infinite atonement, or was of infinite value and efficacy. Although the sinner could not meet this demand of justice without enduring it eternally; yet the infinite person, suffering death on the cross, made atonement for the finite sinner of infinite value and efficacy, w r hich therefore canceled the sinner's debt, and freed him from his infinite load of guilt. And it had this efficacy because he was infinite, and because the very penalty he endured was the very death of the sanction; and his blood cleanses from all sin. 1 John i. 7, 9.