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HISTORY OF THE PRIMITIVE AGES
OF MAN.
THE TIME FROM ADAM TO ABRAHAM.
(About 4000 — 2100 B. C.)
Chapter I.
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.
[Gen. 1, 1 to 2, 3.]
IN the beginning[1] God created heaven and earth[2]. The earth was void[3] and empty[4]; darkness was on the face of the deep[5], and the Spirit of God[6] moved over the waters. And God said[7]: “Be light made!” and light was made. This was the first day.[8]
- ↑ In the beginning of time.
- ↑ Heaven and earth, i. e. both the visible and invisible worlds. This sentence relates to the whole of creation generally; what follows, to the creation of the earth in particular.
- ↑ Void. Which means that it was an unformed mass, all confusion and chaos.
- ↑ Empty . Without life in it, or without any plants, animals, or men on it.
- ↑ Deep. i. e. on the unformed mass of primeval matter. This mass was wrapped in gloom and darkness; and, being soft and fluid, is styled “the waters”.
- ↑ Spirit of God. i. e. God, who is a pure Spirit in opposition to the unformed and lifeless mass of mere matter, breathed upon it in order to give life, movement and form to it, and to prepare it for a dwelling-place of men and beasts.
- ↑ Said. i. e. commanded.
- ↑ First day. The sacred writer divides the whole work of Creation, as we now see it before our eyes, into six days followed by the Sabbath or day of rest, in order to impress upon his readers that man should follow the example of God, and work six days and rest in God on the seventh. He consequently apportions a work to each day. By “day” he means exactly the same as we mean, namely, a space of time consisting of twelve hours of work and twelve of rest. God Himself does not work in time, but He can be likened to a man who works six days and finishes all his work in one week. As to the real space of time which the formation of the world required and about which Geologists inquire, the sacred writer says nothing at all. His dramatic narrative is quite independent of it.
