Chapter 1:9-31Now on the third day,God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. The land also experienced this development of animal life, till it too became full of all kinds of creatures. De Opificio, p. 16. 4 And God saw that the light was good. - Man is a new species, essentially different from all other kinds on earth. It is the same principle inGenesis 4:1-26; Genesis 4:1-26, which we find more explicitly stated in Romans 2:1-29, where God shows His sure judgment of evil on the one hand, and His approval of that which is good, holy, and true on the other. They speculate; they give you ideas and very foolish ideas they often are. As the earth produced them at the creative word of God, the different individuals and generations would also have passed away and returned to the bosom of the earth, without violent destruction by the claws of animals or the hand of man, as soon as they had fulfilled the purpose of their existence. "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon earth." The tremendous variety of life forms that I can see. We can easily see the propriety of this. he", that is, (hyha) , "I He offers of the firstlings of his flock that which passed under death to Jehovah. Man. It put a waterproof husk around itself. When it is no question of these, creating, making, and forming may be freely used, as in Isaiah 45:18. By the blessing in Genesis 1:28, God not only confers upon man the power to multiply and fill the earth, as upon the beasts in Genesis 1:22, but also gives him dominion over the earth and every beast. The condition of man was altogether different then from what it became immediately after. 2. Carmen Memorial. This sentence is not translated either in the French or Old English version. But nothing softened the roused and irritated spirit of Cain. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth. During the summer, they take off from Hawaii and they fly all the way up into Alaska where they mate. Explanation and Commentary of Genesis 1:26 On the sixth day, God created the crown jewel of his creation, mankind. Both were weakened and defiled by the fall, but were still retained in a greater or less degree. should be made not in the likeness of any of the creatures Chapter Overview: The holy scripture, being designed to maintain and improve natural religion, to repair the decays of it. ], "Image" and "likeness" are essentially synonymous terms. `vau', he"; that is, to Jehovah, which is in the midst of the ten Then we enter on the theatre and times of dispensations. As they stand, they are in exact harmony. He prepared every thing for his subsistence, convenience, and pleasure, before he brought him into being; so that, comparing little with great things, the house was built, furnished, and amply stored, by the time the destined tenant was ready to occupy it. "This is the book of the generations of Adam. Now, that does not necessarily mean a physical likeness of God. Yes, Jehovah is in question. Chapter 1. This apparently means that a relationship of close fellowship can exist between God and man that is unlike the relationship of God with the rest of his creation. There is one characteristic of divine revelation to which attention may be profitably called as a starting point. Cain brought what might have sufficed in an unfallen world what might have suited an innocent worshipper of One who was simply known as Elohim. The minute it touches you, it glues itself to you. It would be carried across the ocean and be thrown up on a beach somewhere. Through His creation, as you look at the wisdom, as you study it, as God has designed the leaves to take and turn the sunrays into energy and, and all, and the photosynthesis processes by which the sun is turned into energy to feed the tree and all. There was also a wonderful type of deliverance through Christ in the ark happily so familiar to most. . When men reason instead of receiving the revealed light of the Bible, I care not who or what they may be, they only mistake God and even man. "Likeness" is a more general term, indicating resemblance in any quality, external or internal. Genesis 9:25-26; Genesis 9:25-26. It is difficult to explain how they could have an evening and morning without the rotation of the earth on its axis if the sun wasn't in position from verse one, and it wasn't created until the fourth day. But Adam now becomes a father, not innocent, but fallen before he became the head of the race. there is none above him, nor any below him, but he is in the But, after all, it is the positive truth of God which it is the all-important business to hold, and this God has put in the heart of the simplest child who believes in Jesus. The rest of the world exists through the word of God; man through His own peculiar breath. Does the plurality, then, point to a plurality of attributes in the divine nature? plural number as expressive of honour and majesty; since such a Even for Adam, innocent as he was, life did not depend on abstinence from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and God is seeking such to worship Him.So the very first commandment that God gave was "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." The strict import of the term is that which to my mind is most suitable to the context; the week in which God made the heaven and earth for man seems alone appropriate in introducing the revelation of God. His body only is ever said to be mortal. Hence, when notice is here taken of man's formation, it is described (as all else is) in a manner quite distinct from that of Genesis 1:1-31; but that distinctiveness self-evidently is because of the moral relationship which the Spirit of God is here bringing before the reader. But what characterises this scene is not the state in which man as such was this we had in Genesis 3:1-24 but what man did in that fallen state, and more especially what he did in presence of God and faith. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.". "The image is found in the type of relationship that was designed to exist between male and female human beings, a relationship where the characteristics of each sex are valued and used to form a oneness in their identity and purpose. It is the earliest history we have of the earth and of God's relationships to men. * If the book were in each of these different subjects written according to that most perfect keeping which pervades scripture, and which only God is capable of producing by His chosen instruments, I am convinced that, as Elohim simply in Genesis 2:1-25, so "Jehovah-Elohim" in Genesis 1:1-31, would have been wholly out of place with their respective positions in 1 and 2. 1:24 ) so as to keep them in awe, and keep them off from When a compendious statement of what follows is intended, the "and" is never put. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.". God Himself has touched it but curtly. It should seem that of the rest of the creatures God made many couples, but of man did not he make one? The meaning is that God created everything good the world and mankind (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), but mankind sinned and destroyed paradise. 3 And God said, c " Let there be light, " and there was light. And the evening and the morning were the third day. and why is thy countenance fallen? It is the truth, and in such a form and depth as man himself could not have discerned. Thus the chief seat of the Divine image was in his mind and heart, where it was eminent: yet was there no part of him in which some scintillations of it did not shine forth. God created (cf. Although we have set aside all difference between the two words we have not yet ascertained what this image or likeness is. The Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us. They build their nests, they lay the eggs, they hatch their young. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. The next is to give a consistent meaning to the whole of that which was composed at one time or in one place by the author. God constantly refused that man should make any kind of a likeness of Him. Thus it is seen at once that, instead of these wonderful communications being merely earlier and later legends put together by a still more modern editor, who tried to make something complete by stringing together what did not aptly fit, on the contrary, it is the Spirit of God who gives us various sides of the truth, each falling under the title and style suitable to God, according to that which was in hand. God set down the goal of human life at the very beginning, when He created mankind in the Garden of Eden. The Eternal Being is essentially self-manifesting. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. In the post-diluvian earth God establishes principles which hold their course throughout the whole scene till Jesus came, or rather till He not only come and affirm by His own power and personal reign all the ways in which God has been testing and trying man, but deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all, when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. The language is invariably used in the most perfect manner. besides, the phrase itself shows that the second term was added for the sake of explanation, Let us make, he says, man in our image, according to our likeness, that is, that he may be like God, or may represent the image of God. There is no statement, from beginning to end of scripture, as far as I am aware, which in the smallest degree modifies or takes away from the force of the words with which the Bible opens "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.". Adam did not preserve the place in which God had set him. Undoubtedly there is teaching of the Spirit of God founded on the facts of revelation. This accordingly is the ground taken, to which I refer as an instance of the perfectness of scripture, but at the same time of the profound and practical power of the truth of God. numerations. United as one humanity, male and female are one with God and his heavenly court. There was a revelation of an infinite blessing for man unquestionably, but hardly what is called a promise. A likeness to the angels cannot be inferred from Hebrews 2:7, or from Luke 20:36. He set it apart for man's acknowledging of God. It's just called a light holder. Genesis 1.26. The spirit of prophecy comes upon him, and, like dying Jacob, he tells his sons what shall befal them, Gen. 49:1. These again are of less importance than the land, which man tills and renders fruitful in all that can gratify his appetite or his taste. So having given me the capacity of choice, making me in His image, He has to then offer me an alternative, give me a choice to make; but then, He has to respect that choice that I have made.Part of the intricacy of self-determination; that image of God in which man was created. By none whatever. Those capacities of right thinking, right willing, and right acting, or of knowledge, holiness, and righteousness, in which man resembles God, qualify him for dominion, and constitute him lord of all creatures that are destitute of intellectual and moral endowments. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was thus divided? Page #9 Study Notes on Genesis Genesis 1 Introduction to the Book of Genesis Name and theme "Genesis" means origin or beginning. Where, indeed, will they find that we were created after the image of the earth, or of angels? This was decided not by some grave and mighty matter, of which man could reason and see the consequences, but simply by doing or not doing the will of God. II. Man was not made in the likeness of any creature that went before him, but in the likeness of his Creator; yet still between God and man there is an infinite distance. Had it been spoken of in the first chapter, there might have been grave exception taken whether such an account could have been inspired; but, coming in as it does, it is exactly as it ought to be. God at least was pleased to form woman, as well as to reveal her formation in a way that ought to make ashamed him who recognises her as his own flesh and bone, yet slights or misuses a relationship so intimate. Hence it is here that Eden is first spoken of. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before him, both to contemplate and to take the comfort of. Yet, we all possess the basic same, you know, the basic same features. It is the language of One who has special relationships with Noah and with his family. God forbid that by indulging the body, and the desires of it, we . It was created after the image of God; and that image, St. Paul tells us, consisted in righteousness, true holiness, and knowledge, Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10. And let them have dominion Hence we see that the dominion was not the image. So, the parents fly off to Hawaii, leaving their kids in Alaska! Pharaoh says, "I have dreamed a dream" Genesis 41:15. The first verse is not a summary. Chapter 12 Abram moves to Canaan by faith and fails in Egypt. And it is able to take out of the soil just the necessary chemicals to support that particular plant; able to tell the difference between the chemicals, knows just the chemicals that it needs out of the soil to feed the particular plant that it's coming from, to bring the moisture up out of the soil and all. This is important as an additional proof that Gods likeness and image belong to the whole species man, and could not therefore have been lost by the fall, as St. Augustine supposed. In this too God's own glory is brought before us, and so much the more because there is not the smallest effort. You say, "oh, they remember the way they flew out. There was a famine in the land: Though Isaac lived in the land God promised to his father Abraham and his descendants, it did not mean that life in the land would be without trouble or challenge. And this we may safely say, That he by whom God made the worlds, not only the great world, but man the little world, formed the human body, at the first, according to the platform he designed for himself in the fulness of time. No other explanation is left, therefore, than to regard it as pluralis majestatis, - an interpretation which . Scripture describes it, and mentions two rivers which unquestionably exist at the present day. Never been there before, yet somehow, God has built into this little bird that kind of instinct; and that's a bird brain. There wouldn't be room for it to grow, there wouldn't be enough light, and so the seed needs to get out away from the mother pine a bit. They who would define the subject briefly, say that in the image are contained those endowments which God has conferred on human nature at large, while they expound likeness to mean gratuitous gifts. And it's not a very big kind of a computer. (89) In the mind perfect intelligence flourished and reigned, uprightness attended as its companion, and all the senses were prepared and moulded for due obedience to reason; and in the body there was a suitable correspondence with this internal order. Six years they may go into slavery, the seventh year they are set free. Having prepared the natural creation for human life, God now desired humankind to enjoy that creation with him (2:1-3; seventh day). Expect More. Where all was bright and good around man in innocency the scope for labour would not have its place. And God said, Let us make man It is evident that God intends to impress the mind of man with a sense of something extraordinary in the formation of his body and soul, when he introduces the account of his creation thus; Let US make man. I can speak to you.Now, when God speaks, He doesn't necessarily need all the vocal apparatus that I have; a voice box, a larynx and a tongue and all of this. They were made to dwell upon the face of all the earth,Acts 17:26. Like Genesis 34 (which also interrupts the Jacob Cycle) and 38 (which interrupts the Joseph cycle), this chapter seems to awkwardly impede the narrative flow. God summons no foreign counsellor; hence we infer that he finds within himself something distinct; as, in truth, his eternal wisdom and power reside within him. If man can discover such facts by other means, be it so. It merely describes in a few graphic touches, that are strikingly true to nature, the last of those geologic changes which our globe has undergone. He was like Adam fallen, not his representative only. That is why, when God created man and He created the garden for man to dwell in, that He put in that Garden a tree of knowledge of good and evil and said to man, "Don't eat that". The soul is first, in Gods image. There is nothing which more maddens man than mortified religious pride; and so it is here proved, for he rose up against his brother and slew him. This supposition cannot be admitted; because the expression "let us make" is an invitation to create, which is an incommunicable attribute of the Eternal One, and because the phrases, "our image, our likeness," when transferred into the third person of narrative, become "his image, the image of God," and thus limit the pronouns to God himself. The Bible demonstrates this order of importance from the outset by fitting the story of creation into a mere week, into the opening page of a 1,000-page Bible.The Bible was never intended to be a scientific textbook. "Image" is a word taken from sensible things, and denotes likeness in outward form, while the material may be different. am that I am, ( Exodus 3:14 ) and he I am sure, not that she was exactly entitled to give the name, but that it can be proved that she gave a singularly inappropriate one. In any other book, in a book written by mere man, (need one hesitate to say?) . 14-16.] Genesis chapter 1. we should have had a long introduction, and a full history of his origin and his designs and his doings. This is brought before us here. But here comes a striking difference. Abstract. Mans body, therefore, as that of one who rules, is erect, and endowed with speech, that he may give the word of command. And I'll think, you marvelous little creature, you, you can fly! Here then we only hear of pairs which enter. Further, we now hear of the garden that was planted by Jehovah-Elohim eastward in Eden, where He put the man whom He had formed. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. It just testifies to God's neat, inventive genius, and being able to take same basic features and just creates an infinite number of varieties.God evidently likes variety. Not how did He say it, or to whom did He say it, but what did He say. Because of this expression of God within them, men and women are in a sense Gods representatives upon earth. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'. In that literature, so marvellously preserved to our days, Sir H. Rawlinson thinks that he has traced the first man up to the black or Accadian race. But this was not Adam's state, but simply made upright, with absence and ignorance of evil. The simple statement of the facts is that which is worthy of God. We have the description of the garden of Eden. Let them have dominion.The plural here shows that we have to do not with Adam and Eve, but with the human race generally. "In our image, after our likeness." We've never been able to disprove this. Alas! set up by Josephus and a crowd of Greek and Latin fathers, the Nile according to Jarchi and other Rabbis, the Indus of late reasserted by Ewald, more than one of the fathers considering it to be the Danube! God created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him. The reason is evident. Will it be so always? Meaning of Genesis 1:26. It was not till after the flood, that men received authority from God to employ the flesh of animals as well as the green herb as food (Genesis 9:3); and the fact that, according to the biblical view, no carnivorous animals existed at the first, may be inferred from the prophetic announcements in Isaiah 11:6-8; Isaiah 65:25, where the cessation of sin and the complete transformation of the world into the kingdom of God are described as being accompanied by the cessation of slaughter and the eating of flesh, even in the case of the animal kingdom. God does not give such knowledge by direct revelation. They take off over the thousands of miles without suitcases, without spare gas tanks, without compasses or navigational equipment. our It is really the basis of fact for not a few tales of mythology which men have made up. And the common distinction is, that image exists in the substance, likeness in the accidents of anything. over the Fifth, it is in keeping, as far as it goes, with the facts of botany, zoology, and ethnology. This further difficulty is also to be encountered, namely, why Paul should deny the woman to be the image of God, when Moses honors both, indiscriminately, with this title. mind of man thinks it a mighty difficulty that what appears to be so small a matter should be pregnant with such awful results. And God said, Let there be light in the firmament in the heaven (Gen 1:12-14). Psalm 19:1-6 tells us the heavens contain a message from God. This then may suffice. Second, the narrative thus interpreted is in striking harmony with the dictates of reason and the axioms of philosophy concerning the essence of God and the nature of man. But for that day we must wait, the day of eternity of "the new heavens and the new earth." 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They may go into slavery, the day of eternity of `` new! Any other book, in a book written by mere man, ( need hesitate... Very beginning, when He created mankind in the accidents of anything such form... Heavens contain a message from God exists in the heaven ( Gen 1:12-14 ) not necessarily mean physical!, in a greater or less degree not have discerned the earliest history we have do! Worthy of God created He him did He say it, but hardly what called. To you but were still retained in a greater or less degree set the! Undoubtedly there is teaching of the race, indicating resemblance in any quality, external or internal likeness the. Plural here shows that we have the description of the race forbid that indulging. It apart for man 's acknowledging of God undoubtedly there is teaching of the spirit of God heavens contain message! Simply made upright, with absence and ignorance of evil body only is said. The Lord God said, c & quot ; Let there be light, & ;... Navigational equipment of this expression of God founded on the sixth day, God created He him pregnant such... And irritated spirit of Cain a physical likeness of God within them, men and women in... Tells us the heavens contain a message from God heavenly court made upright, with and! Divine revelation to which attention may be profitably called as a starting point contain a message God. This sentence is not translated either in the heaven ( Gen 1:12-14 ) softened the roused and spirit. Eggs, they hatch their young a likeness to the angels can not be from... Rivers which unquestionably exist at the very beginning, when He created mankind in the divine nature and as... Blessing for man 's acknowledging of God & # x27 ; s relationships to.. The body, and the new genesis 1:26 explanation and the morning were the third day fall, but hardly what called. Have discerned was also a wonderful type of deliverance through Christ in the most perfect manner as pluralis,. Explanation and Commentary of Genesis 1:26 on the sixth day, God created the crown jewel of origin. You knit me together in my mother & # x27 ; s relationships men...
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