聖經註釋書

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And the earth was without form and void, — that is, as yet it had neither essential nor accidental perfection. The Lord afterward did form it into light, the firmament, the water, and the earth; so beginning above, and building downwards (in the new creature he doth otherwise); and in three days laying the parts of the world, and in other three days adorning them. The Rabbins tell us that Tohu and Bohu do properly import Materia prima and privatio; Ahlsted., Lexic. Theol ., p. 111. and others of Tohu , derive Chaos , whence the ancient Latins called the world Chobus , and borrowed their word Inchoo ( εγχυω ), …

And darkness was upon the face of the deep, — that is, not of hell, as Origen expounds it, but of the deep waters ( αβυσσος , see the like, Luke 8:31 ), which "as a garment covered the earth, and stood above the mountains." Psalms 104:6 This darkness God created not, for it was but the want of light. And to say that God dwelt in darkness till he had created light, was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees, as if God were not light itself, 1 John 1:5 and "the Father of lights"; James 1:17 or, as if God had not ever been a heaven to Himself, "Ere ever he had formed the earth and the heavens." Psalms 90:2 What he did, or how he employed himself before the creation, is a sea over which no ship hath sailed, a mine into which no spade hath delved, an abyss into which no bucket hath dived. Our sight is too tender to behold this sun. A thousand years, saith a great divine, Dr. Preston, Of God’s Attributes , p. 34. [Rather, 2 Peter 3:8 - ED.] are to God but as one day, … And who knoweth what the Lord hath done? Indeed, he made but one world to our knowledge; but who knoweth what he did before, and what he will do after? Thus he. As for St Augustine:

“The bishop Lybicus was shaping the underworld according to these verses, he said these ideas which he helps to be examined by means of such a mind.” Praesul ad haec Lybicus, fabricabat Tartara, dixit, His, quos scrutari talia mente iuvat.

Excellently another, Cuff’s Differ. of Ages , p. 22. who wanted not wit: As in the element of fire, saith he, there is a faculty of heating and enlightening; whence proceedeth heat and light unto the external near bodies; and besides this faculty, there is also in it a natural power to go upward; which, when it cometh into act, is received into no other subject, but the fire itself: so that if fire could, by abstractive imagination, be conceived of as wanting those two transient operations, yet could we not justly say it had no action, forasmuch as it might move upward, which is an immanent and inward action. So, and much more so, though we grant that there was no external work of the Godhead, until the making of the world, yet can there be no necessary illation [inference — of idleness, seeing it might have (as indeed it had) actions immanent, included in the circle of the Trinity. This is an answer to such as ask, What God did before he made the world? God, saith Plotinus the Platonist, Ferebatur super aquas non pervagatione, sed potestate, non per spatium locorum, ut sol super terram, sed pepotentiam sublimitatis suae. - Eucherius not working at all, but resting in himself, doeth and performeth very great things.

And the Spirit of God moved, … — Or hovered over, Dei Dicere est Efficere , "of God, to say is to accomplish" and hatched out the creature, as the hen doth her chickens; or as the eagle fluttereth over her young, to provoke them to flight. Deuteronomy 32:11 Or as by a like operation, this same Holy Spirit formed the child Jesus in the Virgin’s womb, in that wonderful "overshadowing" Luke 1:35 . The Chaldee here hath it, "The Spirit breathed"; and David saith the same. Psalms 33:6 He became, to that rude dead mass, a quickening, comforting Spirit. He kept it together, which else would have shattered. And so he doth still, or else all would soon fall asunder, Hebrews 1:3 Psalms 104:29 were not his conserving mercy still over, or upon, all his works. Psalms 145:9

Sabin, Poet.

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Ge 1:3-5.

第一日。

3. 神說——這短語在記述中屢次出現，意為：定意、命定、設立；而神決定的旨意在每一個情形中都隨即帶來立即的結果。無論太陽是與地球同時被造，還是遠在地球之前被造，那籠罩着混沌的濃厚霧氣和水汽，已使全地被一層固定的陰暗所遮蓋。但藉着神的命令，光變成可見的；厚密的陰雲被驅散、衝破或稀釋，光便漫佈在諸水之上。其效果描述於「日」這名稱中，在希伯來文意為「暖」、「熱」；而「夜」這名稱則意為「捲起」，因夜將萬物包裹在陰暗的罩衣之中。

• III. 第一日

3. אמר 'āmar，「說、命」。這動詞之後接著所說的內容，或用說話者自己的話，或用相當的表達。在這方面它與英語的 "say" 相當。

אור 'ôr，「光」。光就是那在視覺器官上造成可感印象的東西；它屬於偶爾產生同樣效果的一類事物。

ויאמר vayo'mer，「那時說」。至此我們進入敘事，即一連串事件的記錄。連接詞加於動詞之前，表明其所記事件與前文的關聯，因此這裏存在時間次序上的先後相繼。在事件的鏈條中，敘事按發生的次序進行；並行的數條事件鏈，勢必須記在接連的段落之中。第一段把一條事變的線索推展到一個合宜的歇腳處，下一段可以回頭接續另一條線索的記錄。因此，以連接動詞開頭的新段落，在時間上當與前文敘事中距其結束點或遠或近的某一句相連，而不是與前一段的最後一句相連（見 Genesis 1:5 及 Genesis 2:3 的註釋）。甚至單獨一節也可以自成一段，指向前一句之前的某一時點。

在敘事中這樣連接的動詞，希伯來文置於起始態或不完成式，因為敘述者把諸事件設想為各從已過之事生長而出。他自己沿時間的路徑逐步跟隨這些事變，因此每件事起始的一面，在它實際登上存在之舞台時，是朝向他的。

既然眼前的事件屬於過去的時間，這動詞以我們英語動詞的過去式譯出已足夠。英語的這一時態目前是不定的，因為它並不確定事件的狀態是開始、持續還是完成。然而它原本可能指這三種狀態中的第一種，後來才漸漸成為不定，這並非沒有可能。英語的現在式起初也可能表示起始，繼而表示未完成或不定。

3. ראה rā'âh，「看見」ὁράω horaō；אור 'ôr，「發光」；ראה rā'âh，「藉光看見」。

טיב ṭôb，「好的」。其反義是：רע rā‛。

4. קרא qārā'，「呼喊、呼叫」。

ערב ‛ereb，「晚上、日落」。指日落前後的一段時間。ערבים ‛arebayı̂m，「兩個晚上」，指日落之前的某段時間，以及日落到暮光終了之間的時間。הערבים בין bēyn hā‛arbayı̂m，「兩個晚上之間的間隔，從日落到暮光終了」，這是卡拉派與撒瑪利亞人的說法；「從日頭偏斜到日落」，這是法利賽人與拉比派的說法。它可以是指一個的開始到另一個的開始、一個的終了到另一個的終了、或一個的開始到另一個的終了。最後一種最適合這語詞出現的所有經文。這些經文共十處，全在律法書中 Exodus 12:6; Exodus 16:12; Exodus 29:31, Exodus 29:41; Exodus 30:8; Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:3, Numbers 9:5, Numbers 9:8; Numbers 28:4。宰殺晚祭的羊羔與逾越節的羊羔、喫後者、以及點燈，都在這樣指定的間隔之內進行。

在聖言這部分的末尾，我們見到第一個 פ (p)。這在導論第七節已有說明。

第一日的工作是召光進入存在。這裏的用意顯然是要除去前一節所提缺陷之一——「淵面黑暗」。因此這創造之工的場景，與它所要驅散之黑暗的場景重合。超自然能力介入此處、使光臨在，暗示自然之力不足以成此效果。但這並不確定光是否早已存在於別處，甚至曾一度透入如今黑暗的這區域，而在深淵面以外的其他空間領域中仍舊盛行；也不確定光究竟是藉極軸的變動、藉上空氣體介質的稀薄化、或藉甚麼別的途徑，帶著它那可喜而振奮的影響臨到地球的這一區域。我們只讀到：那時光尚未照亮眾水的深淵，而藉神大能的話，它那時被召入存在。這是創造大能的作為，因為這是召那先前在該處不存在的事物進入存在，而非僅僅出於自然的開展。因此，這裏所記全能之作為，與第一節斷言其絕對創造的那自然宇宙的諸元素中已有光存在，二者並不衝突。

Genesis 1:3

那時神說。——在 Genesis 1:3，神說話。由此我們得知，祂不僅存在，更是那能表達自己旨意、並與祂有理性的受造物交通的一位。祂不僅藉其創造顯明，也親自顯明自己。倘若光在沒有可察覺的原因之下進入存在，我們仍會憑那直觀原理——凡先前不存在之物出現，即要求一個充分的原因——推知一位首因。但當神在祂有理性的受造物耳中說「要有光」，光便隨即出現，他們便察覺神在吩咐，正如光在顯現。

言語是屬靈彰顯的正當方式。思想、意志、行動是靈的動作，而言語是所思、所願、所行的指標。如今，神的本質既是那思想並行動的靈，神的形像便是靈在其中說話、並以其他方式面對有理性存在之觀察的那個形式。這樣，在這三節裏，我們有了神、神的靈、神的話。正如「靈」一詞由無生命之物轉用於指有理性的行動者，「話」一詞也能接受同樣的轉用。

聖經的疏忽批評者反對把神描述為「說話」、或行任何僅屬人體或人靈方有的舉動。他們說這是神人同形論或神人同感論的說法，蘊含對神一種粗劣、物質或屬人的觀念，因此配不上神和祂的聖言。但他們忘記了那思想與言語的大法則——我們藉以把握類比，並以明智的經濟原則用同一名字稱呼這些類似物。我們用於心智事物的幾乎所有詞語，原本都是從我們描述物質世界的詞彙借來的，因此實為比喻，直到長久的習慣使隱喻被遺忘，它們才在一切意圖和目的上成為字面的。哲學家們從未、也永不能設計出比這更卓越的方式，來節省詞語、標記類比、並貼切地表達屬靈之事。我們用於心智觀念的措辭雖從較低的領域提升而來，卻沒有把我們陷入唯靈論，反而使我們能以極純淨恰當的方式談論形上之事。

並且，這既適用於人的思想和行動，也同樣真實地適用於神的道路和作為。只要我們心中有對神的正確觀念，那麼我們在論及屬神之事時所必須、也理所當然要使用的比喻語言，就不會因它原本應用於人的類似物而染上任何錯謬。聖經傳達了對至高神充分的觀念，這正是它論神之事所必用的隱喻語言的合宜矯正。因此，以理性研讀聖經從未產生偶像崇拜；反倒把關於獨一真神屬靈本性的正確概念，甚至傳給了它的批評者。

還當記得：一切語言的根本原則就是以符號指事物，比喻不過是這原則按節約法則的特定應用，而東方尤其慣用比喻性的語言。西方的形上學不可誤判，免得被發現誤解了東方的美學。

在這自我彰顯的神身上觀察到那在人裏面有其相似物的偉大原型，是很有意味的。這裏我們看到造符號、表意指的能力在運作。這神聖命令頒出時是否有受造的見證人在場，此處並未告知。然而他們的在場並非必要——正如對自我彰顯並非必要一樣，對言語之舉的意義也非必要。神可以彰顯自己並說話，縱使無人看、無人聽。

我們在此也看見名字先於事物存在，因為名字首先所指的，乃是心思中所默想的事物。

自我彰顯的神與自我彰顯的說話之舉，在此先於創造之工、即事物進入存在。這教導我們：創造有別於自我彰顯或流出。神存在；祂彰顯自己；祂說話；末了祂發出能力，事便成了。

要有光。——「有」這字單單表明光的「存在」，無論它以何種途徑、從何方進入那特定的地方。它可能是出於純粹創造、從無造有的絕對作為；但也同樣可以由任何超自然的運作所成——除去別無他法克服的障礙，為已存在的光開路，使其透入迄今黑暗的區域。因此這片語與「光自萬物之始即先存於宇宙其他基本部分之中」完全相合；也同樣不違於以下事實：熱——光的一個種類或形態——自起初以來，就一直存在於普及自然之過程藉以運行其無數循環的一切化學變化之中。

And God said, Let there be light - הי אור ויהי אור Yehi or, vaihi or. Nothing can be conceived more dignified than this form of expression. It argues at once uncontrollable authority, and omnific power; and in human language it is scarcely possible to conceive that God can speak more like himself. This passage, in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, fell in the way of Dionysius Longinus, one of the most judicious Greek critics that ever lived, and who is highly celebrated over the civilized world for a treatise he wrote, entitled Περι Ὑψους, Concerning the Sublime, both in prose and poetry; of this passage, though a heathen, he speaks in the following terms: - Ταυτῃ και ὁ των Ιουδαιων θεσμοθετης(ουχ ὁ τυχων ανηρ,) επειδη την του θειου δυναμιν κατα την αξιαν εχωρησε, καξεφηνεν· ευθυς εν τῃ εισβολη γραψας των νομων, ΕΙΠΕΝ Ὁ ΘΕΟΣ, φησι, τι; ΓΕΝΕΣΘΩ ΦΩΣ· και εγενετο. ΓΕΝΕΣΘΩ ΓΗ· και εγενετο."So likewise the Jewish lawgiver (who was no ordinary man) having conceived a just idea of the Divine power, he expressed it in a dignified manner; for at the beginning of his laws he thus speaks: God Said - What? Let There Be Light! and there was light. Let There Be Earth! and there was earth." - Longinus, sect. ix. edit. Pearce.

Many have asked, "How could light be produced on the first day, and the sun, the fountain of it, not created till the fourth day?" With the various and often unphilosophical answers which have been given to this question I will not meddle, but shall observe that the original word אור signifies not only light but fire, see Isaiah 31:9 Ezekiel 5:2. It is used for the Sun, Job 31:26. And for the electric fluid or Lightning, Job 37:3. And it is worthy of remark that It is used in Isaiah 44:16, for the heat, derived from אש esh, the fire. He burneth part thereof in the fire (במו אש bemo esh): yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha! I have seen the fire, ראיתי אור raithi ur, which a modern philosopher who understood the language would not scruple to translate, I have received caloric, or an additional portion of the matter of heat. I therefore conclude, that as God has diffused the matter of caloric or latent heat through every part of nature, without which there could be neither vegetation nor animal life, that it is caloric or latent heat which is principally intended by the original word.

That there is latent light, which is probably the same with latent heat, may be easily demonstrated: take two pieces of smooth rock crystal, agate, cornelian or flint, and rub them together briskly in the dark, and the latent light or matter of caloric will be immediately produced and become visible. The light or caloric thus disengaged does not operate in the same powerful manner as the heat or fire which is produced by striking with flint and steel, or that produced by electric friction. The existence of this caloric-latent or primitive light, may be ascertained in various other bodies; it can be produced by the flint and steel, by rubbing two hard sticks together, by hammering cold iron, which in a short time becomes red hot, and by the strong and sudden compression of atmospheric air in a tube. Friction in general produces both fire and light. God therefore created this universal agent on the first day, because without It no operation of nature could be carried on or perfected.

Light is one of the most astonishing productions of the creative skill and power of God. It is the grand medium by which all his other works are discovered, examined, and understood, so far as they can be known. Its immense diffusion and extreme velocity are alone sufficient to demonstrate the being and wisdom of God. Light has been proved by many experiments to travel at the astonishing rate of 194,188 miles in one second of time! and comes from the sun to the earth in eight minutes 11 43/50 seconds, a distance of 95,513,794 English miles.

And God said,.... This phrase is used, nine times in this account of the creation; it is admired by Longinus the Heathen in his treatise "of the Sublime", as a noble instance of it; and it is most beautifully paraphrased and explained in Psa 33:6 as expressive of the will, power, authority, and efficacy of the divine Being; whose word is clothed with power, and who can do, and does whatever he will, and as soon as he pleases; his orders are always obeyed. Perhaps the divine Person speaking here is the Logos or Word of God, which was in the beginning with God, and was God, and who himself is the light that lightens every creature. The words spoke were, let there be light, and there was light: it at once appeared; "God commanded light to shine out of darkness"; as the apostle says, Co2 4:6 this was the first thing made out of the dark chaos; as in the new creation, or work of grace in the heart, light is the first thing produced there: what this light was is not easy to say. Some of the Jewish Rabbins, and also some Christian writers, think the angels are designed by it, which is not at all probable, as the ends and use of this light show: others of them are of opinion, that it is the same with the sun, of which a repetition is made on the fourth day, because of its use and efficacy to the earth, and its plants; but others more rightly take it to be different from the sun, and a more glimmering light, which afterwards was gathered into and perfected in the body of the sun (f). It is the opinion of Zanchius (g), and which is approved of by our countryman, Mr. Fuller (h), that it was a lucid body, or a small lucid cloud, which by its circular motion from east to west made day and night (i); perhaps somewhat like the cloudy pillar of fire that guided the Israelites in the wilderness, and had no doubt heat as well as light; and which two indeed, more or less, go together; and of such fiery particles this body may well be thought to consist. The word "Ur" signifies both fire and light. (f) Vid. Menasseh ben Israel conciliator in Gen. qu. 2. (g) De Operibus Dei, par. 3. l. 1. c. 2. col. 239. and l. 2. c. 1. (h) Miscell. Sacr. l. 1. c. 12. (i) Milton seems to be of the same mind:----- -----and forthwith light. Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep, and from her native east To journey thro' the airy gloom began, Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle Sojourned the while.----- Paradise Lost, B. 7. l. 243, &c.

He commanded, not by such a word or speech as we use, which agreeth not with the spiritual nature of God; but either by an act of his powerful will, called the word of his power, Heb 1:3 or, by his substantial Word, his Son, by whom he made the worlds, Heb 1:2 Psa 33:6, who is called: The Word, partly, if not principally, for this reason,

Joh 1:1-3, Joh 1:10.

There was light; which was some bright and lucid body, peradventure like the fiery cloud in the wilderness, giving a small and imperfect light, successively moving over the several parts of the earth; and afterwards condensed, increased, perfected, and gathered together in the sun.

Verses 3-5. - The evolution of the cosmos was accomplished by a series of Divine formative works which extended over a period of six successive days. In the character of those cosmic labors a progression is distinctly visible, though not continuous throughout Unless, with Aristotle, the celestial luminaries are regarded as ζῶα λογικά, and so classed in the category of organized and living beings, it is impossible to find in their production an advance upon the preceding vegetation. Arbitrary transpositions of the days, as of the third and fourth, in order to make the first half of the creative week an inorganic, and the second half an organic, era, are inadmissible. The arrangement of the days that accords most exactly with the requirements of the case, and most successfully preserves the order and connection of the record, is that which divides them into two triads (Lange, Kalisch, Dana, &c.), as exhibited underneath: -

1. Light.

2. Air, Water.

3. Dry Land and Plants.

4. Lights.

5. Fowl, Fish.

6. Animals and Man = - each triad Beginning with the Making of Light, and ending with a double creation, and the works performed On the Second having each a definite Relation to the labors executed On the First On the First creative Day the formative energy of the Divine Word, eliminates the light from the dark chaotic mass of earth, on the second uplifts the atmosphere above the waters, and on the third distinguishes the dry land from the sea - at a later period in this same day clothing the dry land with vegetation, as if to prophesy some correspondingly higher advance in the creation work at the close of the second series. At this stage, instead of pressing forward with its operations, the demiurgic potency of the invisible Artificer appears to pause, and, reverting to the point from which it started, enters on its second course of labors. On the fourth day the light developed on the first is concentrated and permanently fixed in the celestial luminaries; on the fifth the air and waters, which were separated on the second, are filled with fowl and fish, their respective inhabitants; and on the sixth the dry land of the third day is occupied by animals, the mute prediction of the third day's vegetation being fulfilled by the creation of man. Verse 3. - Day one. And God said. This phrase, which is ten times repeated in the narrative of the six days' work, is commonly regarded as an instance of anthropomorphism, a peculiarity of revelation, and of this chapter in particular, at which rationalism affects to be offended. But any other mode of representing the Deity would have failed to convey to finite minds an intelligent idea of his nature. "Touching the Almighty, who can find him out?" The most that God himself could do in communicating to his creature man a conception of his ineffable and unapproachable Godhead was to supply him with an anthropomorphic image of himself - "the Word made flesh." Deeper insight, however, into this sublime statement discerns that "anthropomorphism" does not exhaust its significance. God spoke; but to whom? "This was an omnipotent word," says Luther, "spoken in the Divine essence. No one heard this word uttered but God himself... The Father spoke within." It is observable too that every time the word goes forth from Elohim it is followed by instantaneous movement in the chaos, as if the word itself were inherently creative. Remembering, then, that the doctrine of a personal Logos was not unknown to the later theology of the Old Testament (cf. Psalm 33:6; Psalm 148:5), and is clearly revealed in the New (John 1:1; Hebrews 11:3), it is difficult to resist the inference that here we have its roots, and that a correct exegesis should find in the creative word of Elohim an adumbration of the Devar Jehovah of the Hebrew Psalter, the Logos of John's Gospel, and the Rema Theou of the writer to the Hebrews. Let there be light: and there was light. The sublimity of these words, which arrested the attention of the heathen Longinus ('De Sublimitate,' 9.), and which Milton ('Paradise Lost,' 7.) and Du Bartas, an elder poet (viz. Kitto in loco), have tried to reproduce, is in great measure lost in our English version. Γενηθήτω φῶς καὶ ἐγένετω φῶς (LXX.) and sit lux et fuit lux (Vulg.) are superior translations of יְהִי־אור וַיְהִי־אוד which might be rendered, "Light be, and light was."' With reference to their import, the least satisfactory explanation, notwithstanding the eminent names that have lent it their support (Bush, Kitto, Murphy, Wordsworth), is that which understands the sun to have been created a perfectly finished luminous body from the first, though hitherto its light had been intercepted by the earth's vapors, which were now dispersed by Divine command. But the language of Elohim is too exalted to be applied to so familiar a phenomenon as the dissipation of terrestrial mists, and, besides, expressly negatives the hypothesis in question by affirming that the light was summoned into being, and not simply into appearance. The historian, too, explicitly asserts that the light was, i.e. began to be, and not merely to be visible. A modification of this view, viz., that the sun and moon were now created, but did not become visible until the fourth day (Inglis), must likewise be rejected, as according neither with ver. 1, which says that the heavenly bodies were created in the beginning, nor with vers. 16, 17, which declare that not until the fourth day were they constituted sources of light for the earth. The exigencies of the text, as well as the ascertained facts of physical science, require the first day's work to be the original production of light throughout the universe, and in particular throughout our planetary system (Kalisch, Lange, Delitzsch, Dawson). Calvin, though much more deeply concerned about the refutation of Servetus, who maintained that the Word only began to be with the creation of light, was able to perceive that this light was independent of the sun and moon; in this agreeing with Augustine, who, however, conjectured it to be not material, but spiritual in its nature ('De Genesi ad Literam,' lib. 1, 100. 3). Nor does it in the slightest conflict with ver. 1 to suppose that light was now for the first time produced, light being a mode or condition of matter, and not a distinct element or substance, as was at one time believed. Luminosity is simply the result of incandescence, although what specific change is effected on the constitutions or adjustments of the molecules of a body by the process of heating which renders it luminous science is unable to explain. Any solid body can be rendered incandescent by being heated up to between 700° and 800° Fahrenheit. Any liquid that can absorb as great a quantity of heat likewise emits light. Gases do not appear to be capable of incandescence, though the phenomena attending their sudden condensation discover light-producing properties in their composition. As to how the light of incandescent bodies is transmitted to the eye, the Pythagorean and Newtonian theory of small, impalpable particles of luminous matter being constantly emitted from their surfaces towards the eye may be said to have been successfully displaced by that of Descartes, Huygens, and Euler, which accounts for the phenomena of vision by the existence throughout space, and in the interstitial spaces of bodies, of an infinitely attenuated ether, which is thrown into undulations by luminous bodies precisely as the atmosphere is made to vibrate by bodies which are sonorous. But whichever theory be adopted to solve the mystery of its transmission, that of emanation or of undulation, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the creation of light, which formed the opus operatum of the first day, was in reality the evolution from the dark-robed, seething mass of our condensing planet (and probably from the other bodies in our solar system) of that luminous matter which supplies the light. It seems unnecessary to add that it could not have been either the subterranean fire which produced the igneous rocks of geology (Tayler) or caloric (Clarke); though, as aor is used in Scripture for heat (Isaiah 44:16), fire (Isaiah 31:9; Ezekiel 5:2), the sun (Job 31:26), lightning (Job 37:3), and there is every reason to believe that light, heat, and electricity are only modifications of the same force, we may be warranted in embracing all the three in its significance.

THE CREATIVE DAYS.

(3) And God said.—Voice and sound there could be none, nor was there any person to whom God addressed this word of power. The phrase, then, is metaphorical, and means that God enacted for the universe a law; and ten times we find the command similarly given. The beauty and sublimity of the language here used has often been noticed: God makes no preparation, He employs no means, needs no secondary agency. He speaks, and it is done. His word alone contains all things necessary for the fulfilment of His will. So in the cognate languages the word Emir, ruler, is literally, speaker. The Supreme One speaks: with the rest, of hear is to obey. God, then, by speaking, gives to nature a universal and enduring law. His commands are not temporary, but eternal; and whatever secondary causes were called into existence when the Elohim, by a word, created light, those same causes produce it now, and will produce it until God recalls His word. We have, then, here nature’s first universal law. What is it?

Let there be light: and there was light.—The sublimity of the original is lost in our language by the cumbrous multiplication of particles. The Hebrew is Yhi ôr wayhi ôr. Light is not itself a substance, but is a condition or state of matter; and this primæval light was probably electric, arising from the condensation and friction of the elements as they began to arrange themselves in order. And this, again, was due to what is commonly called the law of gravitation, or of the attraction of matter. If on the first day electricity and magnetism were generated, and the laws given which create and control them, we have in them the two most powerful and active energies of the present and of all time—or possibly two forms of one and the same busy and restless force. And the law thus given was that of gravitation, of which light was the immediate result.