Genesis 1

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:7

The atmospheric firmament. I. THE CREATURE OF GOD . 1. From God it received its being ( Genesis 1:7 ). Not here alone, but in other parts, Scripture declares the firmament to be the Divine handiwork ( Psalms 19:1 ; Psalms 104:2 ). Whence we may note— 2. From God it received its function ( Genesis 1:6 ),—to divide between the upper and the lower waters,—which was— 3. From God it received its name. II. THE SERVANT OF MAN . 1. Indispensable . ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:8

And God called the firmament heaven . Literally, the heights, shamayim , as in Genesis 1:1 . "This," says Principal Dawson, "may be regarded as an intimation that no definite barrier separates our film of atmosphere from the boundless abyss of heaven without;" and how appropriate the designation "heights" is, as applied to the atmosphere, we are reminded by science, which informs us that, after rising to the height of forty-five miles above the earth, it becomes imperceptible, and... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:9

Day three . The distribution of land and water and the production of vegetation on this day engaged the formative energy of the word of Elohim. And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear . To explain the second part of this phenomenon as a consequence of the first, the disclosure of the solid ground by the retirement of the waters from its surface, and not rather vice versa , is to reverse the ordinary processes of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:9-12

Sea, land, and vegetation, contrasted and compared. I. CONTRASTED , in respect of— 1. Their constitutions ; — sea being matter liquid and mobile, land matter solid and dry, vegetation matter organized and living. All God's creatures have their own peculiar natures and characteristic structures. Each one's nature is that which makes it what it is. A change of constitutional characteristics would be equivalent to an alteration of being. The nature and structure of each are... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:10

And God called the dry land Earth . In opposition to the firmament, which was named" the heights" ( shamayim ), the dry land was styled "the fiats," "Aretz" (cf. Sansc; dhara ; Pehlev; arta ; Latin, terra ; Gothic, airtha ; Scottish, yird ; English, earth ; rid. Gesenius). Originally applied to the dry ground as distinguished from the seas, as soon as it was understood that the solid earth was continuous beneath the water masses, by an easy extension of meaning it... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:11

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Three terms are employed to describe the vegetation here summoned into existence. Kalisch regards the first as a generic term, including the second and the third; but they are better understood as distinct classes:— read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:12

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind. It is noticeable that the vegetation of the third day sprang from the soil in the same natural manner in which all subsequent vegetation has done, viz; by growth, which seems to resolve the well-known problem of whether the tree was before the seed, or the seed before the tree, in favor of the latter alternative, although in the order of nature the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:13

And the evening and the morning were the third day. For exposition vid . Genesis 1:5 . Has modern geological research any trace of this third day's vegetation? The late Hugh Miller identified the long-continued epoch of profuse vegetation, since then unparalleled in rapidity and luxuriance, which deposited the coal-measures of the carboniferous system, with the latter half of this Mosaic day. Dana, Dawson, and others, rejecting this conclusion of the eminent geologist on the ground that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:14-15

Day four . With this day begins the second half of the creative week, whose works have a striking correspondence with the labors of the first. Having perfected the main structural arrangements of the globe by the elimination from primeval chaos of the four fundamental elements of light, air, water, and land, the formative energy of the Divine word reverts to its initial point of departure, and, in a second series of operations, carries each of these forward to completion—the light by... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:14-19

The fourth day. Notice— I. GOD PREPARES HEAVEN AND EARTH FOR MAN . Light needed for the vegetable world. But when the higher life is introduced, then there is an order which implies intelligence and active rational existence. The signs are for those that can observe the signs. The seasons, days, and years for the being who consciously divides his life. II. THE LUMINARIES ARE SAID TO RULE THE DAY AND NIGHT . The concentration of light is the appointed method of its... read more

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:7

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:8

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:9

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:9-12

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:10

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:11

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:12

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:13

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:14-15

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:14-19

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