addition (v.i.). The whole conception is as unscientific (in the modern sense) as it could be—(a) in its geocentric standpoint, (b) in making the distinction of day and night prior to the sun, (c) in putting the creation of the vegetable world before that of the heavenly bodies. Its religious significance, however, is very great, inasmuch as it marks the advance of Hebrew thought from the heathen notion of the stars to a pure monotheism. To the ancient world, and the Babylonians in particular, the heavenly bodies were animated beings, and the more conspicuous of them were associated or identified with the gods. The idea of them as an animated host occurs in Hebrew poetry (Ju. 520, Is. 4026, Jb. 387 etc.); but here it is entirely eliminated, the heavenly bodies being reduced to mere luminaries, i.e. either embodiments of light or perhaps simply 'lamps' (v.i.). It is possible, as Gu. thinks, that a remnant of the old astrology lurks in the word dominion; but whereas in Babylonia the stars ruled over human affairs in general, their influence here is restricted to that which obviously depends on them, viz. the alternation of day and night, the festivals, etc. Comp. Jb. 3833, Ps. 1367-9 (Jer. 3135). It is noteworthy that this is the only work of creation of which the purpose is elaborately specified.—luminaries (מְא[וֹ]רֹת)] i.e. bearers or embodiments of light. The word is used most frequently of the sevenfold light of the tabernacle
used of the eyes (Pr. 1530), and once of the divine countenance (Ps. 908).—ברקיע הש׳]
the gen. is not partitive but explicative: Dav. § 24 (a).—G
inserts at this point: εἰς φαῦσιν τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἄρχειν τῆς ἡμέρας κ. τ. νυκτὸς, καί..—לאתת]
In Jer. 102 אתות השמים are astrological portents such as the
heathen fear, and that is commonly taken as the meaning here, though
it is not quite easy to believe the writer would have said the sun and
moon were made for this purpose.[1] If we take אֹת in its ordinary sense
of 'token' or 'indication,' we might suppose it defined by the words
which follow. Tuch obtains a connexion by making the double ו = both . . . and ("as signs, both for [sacred] seasons and for days and
years"): others by a hendiadys ("signs of seasons"). It would be less
- ↑ The prophetic passages cited by Dri. (Gen. 101) all contemplate a reversal of the order of nature, and cannot safely be appealed to as illustrations of its normal functions.
