Genesis 1

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1. In the beginning That is, of this material, visible, and temporal world, (which was not without beginning, as many of the ancient heathen philosophers supposed,) and of time with relation to all visible beings. The creation of the spiritual, invisible, and eternal world, whether inhabited by the holy or fallen angels, is not here included or noticed. God The Hebrew word אלהים Elohim, here and elsewhere translated God, has been considered by many learned men as signifying ... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:2

Genesis 1:2. The earth When first called into existence, was without form and void: confusion and emptiness, as the same original words are rendered, Isaiah 34:11. It was without order, beauty, or even use, in its present state, and was surrounded on all sides with thick darkness, through the gloom of which there was not one ray of light to penetrate not even so much as to render the darkness visible. The Spirit of God moved, &c. To cherish, quicken, and dispose them to the... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:3

Genesis 1:3. God said Not by an articulate voice; for to whom should he speak? but in his own eternal mind. He willed that the effect here mentioned should be produced, and it was produced. This act of his almighty will is termed, Hebrews 1:3, the word of his power. Perhaps, however, his substantial Word, his Son, by whom he made the worlds, Hebrews 1:2, and Psalms 33:6; Psalms 33:9, is here intended, and whom the ancient fathers of the Christian Church thought to be termed the Word,... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:4

Genesis 1:4. God saw the light, &c. He beheld it with approbation, as being exactly what he designed it to be, pleasant and useful, and perfectly adapted to answer its intended end. God divided Made a separation between the light and the darkness, as to time, place, and use, that the one should succeed and exclude the other, and that by their vicissitudes they should make the day and the night. Though the darkness was now scattered by the light, it has its place, because it has its... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:5

Genesis 1:5. God called, &c. God distinguished them from each other by different names, as the Lord of both. The day is thine, the night also is thine. He is the Lord of time, and will be so till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity. The evening Including the following night, and the morning, including the succeeding day, were the first natural day, of twenty-four hours. Some, indeed, by evening understand the... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:6

Genesis 1:6. Let there be a firmament This term, which is an exact translation of the word used by the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament, by no means expresses the sense of the word used by Moses, רקיע , rakiang, which merely means extension or expansion. And as this extension or expansion was to be in the midst of the waters, and was to divide the waters from the waters, it chiefly, if not solely, means the air or atmosphere which separates the water... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:9-10

Genesis 1:9-10 . God said, &c. From the production, or separation from gross matter, of light and air, and the assigning them their proper places and uses in the creation, God proceeds, on the third day, to separate, put in order, and control the clement nearest to them in quality and use, fluid like them, comparatively simple, and pure, and although not elastic, yet of great power. Let the waters be gathered into one place The abyss in the bowels of the earth, Genesis 7:11, and... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:11-12

Genesis 1:11-12 . Let the earth bring forth grass Here we rise to organized and vegetative bodies. Thus, before God formed any living creature to abide upon the earth, he wisely provided for its sustenance. The herb yielding, seed, whose seed is in itself; that is, in some part of itself: either in the root, or branch, or bud, or fruit; which is sufficient in itself for the propagation of its kind, from generation to generation, as long as the world shall endure, without any new creation.... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:14-15

Genesis 1:14-15 . Let there be lights, &c. God had said, Genesis 1:3, Let there be light; but that was, as it were a chaos of light, scattered and confused: now it was called and formed into several luminaries, and so rendered more glorious, and more serviceable. Let them be for signs, “An horologe machinery divine!” to mark and distinguish periods of time, longer or shorter; epochas, ages, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. For seasons By their motions and influences, to... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:16

Genesis 1:16. Two great lights Or enlighteners, מארת , meoroth, distinguishable from all the rest, for their beauty and use. Moses terms the moon a great light, only according to its appearance, and the use it is of to us, and not according to the strictness of philosophy. For there is abundant proof that most of the stars are much greater than the moon; although their immense distance makes them appear so much smaller to us. The greater light Not only greater, as it appears to us, but... read more

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:1

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:2

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:3

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:4

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:5

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:6

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:9-10

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:11-12

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:14-15

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:16

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