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النشر الإلكتروني

THE

SUNDAY LESSONS

OF

THE OLD TESTAMENT.

KK 2

GENESIS.

Genesis is one of the Five Books of Moses, and contains a short account of the creation, and of the first ages of the world, to within 60 or 70 years of the birth of Moses.

CHAP. I.

In the beginning (a) God (b) created

the heaven, and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form, and void (c); and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit (d) of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3. And God said, "Let there be light:" and there was light. 4. And God saw the light that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5. And God called the light, Day; and the darkness he called, Night: and the evening and the morning were the first day. 6. And God said, "Let there "be a firmament (e) in the midst of the "waters, and let it divide the waters "from the waters." 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so. 8. And God called the firmament, Heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day. 9. And God said, "Let "the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, "and let the dry land appear:" and it was so. 10. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he, Seas: and

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(a) v. 1. In the beginning." B. C. 4004.

(b) "God." The word here, and in other parts of this chapter translated "God," is a plural noun, and yet is followed by a verb singular: so that Moses might understand that, under the term “God," more than one Being was included, and yet that those Beings were so united, that they might properly be considered as only one.

(c) v. 2. "Void," i. e. with nothing upon it, neither grass, herb, tree, or animal.

(d) "The Spirit," i. e. (as most divines suppose,)" the Holy Ghost." Judith, in her animated thanksgiving upon the death

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God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass (g), 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. 12. And the earth brought forth grass (h), and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14. And God said, "Let there be "lights in the firmament of the heaven, "to divide the day from the night: and "let them be for signs, and for seasons, "and for days, and years. 15. And "let them be for lights in the firma"ment of the heaven, to give light upon "the earth" and it was so. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, 18. and to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20. And God said, "Let "the waters bring forth abundantly

of Holofernes, (A. C. 640.), says, "Let all "creatures serve thee, for thou spakest, "and they were made; thou didst send "forth thy Spirit, and it created them. "Judith xvi. 14." See also Prov. viii. 22 to 31. where Wisdom (personified) is described as having been with the Lord, when he appointed the foundation of the earth.

(e) v. 6, 7, 8. 14, 15. 17, 20. "A firmament," rather " an expanse," 66 an open "space."

(g) v. 11, 12. "Grass," rather "pro"duce." Herbs and trees were the things produced.

(h) v. 12. "Grass and herb," or pro"duce-herb."

"the moving creature that hath life, "and (i) fowl that may fly above the "earth in the open firmament of hea❝ ven." 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multi"ply, and fill the waters in the seas, "and let fowl multiply in the earth.” 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24. And God said,

(i) v. 20. "Fowl, &c." or "let there be "fowl to fly, &c. 1 Newton, 96."

(k) v. 26. "Us" and "our" in the plural number; as if the speaker were not alone, nor acting alone. So Gen. iii. 22. “The "Lord God said, Behold, the man is "become as one of us." And Gen. xi. 7. the Lord said, "let us go down, and "confound their language:" and this text (says Waterland) has been understood of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, (or at least of Father and Son,) by the whole stream of Christian writers. Waterl. 69. 70. In the Epistle of St. Barnabas, and in the Apostolical Constitutions, the words are considered as addressed by God the Father to God the Son. "To the "Son he saith, Let us make, &c. λéyu 7ã "dig Пoinσoμey, &c. 1 Barn. Ep. s. 6. Coteler's "Edit. p. 19." "The Holy Scripture "witnesseth that God said to the only "begotten Christ, Let us make man — σε θεία γραφή μαρτυρέι λέγοντα τὸν Θεὸν Τῷ μονογενει « Χρισῷ, Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον. Αpost. Con. "stitutions, Lib. 5. c. 7. p. 312." So, after observing that it could not have been to the angels that God spake, Justin Martyr says, "But this progeny, really "begotten by the Father, was with the "Father before any of the things that "were made; and it was to him the Father 4 spake. ̓Αλλὰ 747ῳ τὸ 7ῷ ὄντι ἀπὸ 17 παιρὸς σε προβληθεν γέννημα, ποὺ πανλῶν τῶν ποιήματων σε σύνην τῷ πατρὶ, καὶ τείῳ ὁ πατὴρ προσιμίλει. "Justin M. Dial. cum Tryphone, 285." "And who was he," says Chrysostom, "to whom God said, Let us make man? "Who but he, the Angel of the Great "Council, the Wonderful Counsellor, the "Mighty One, the Prince of Peace, the "Father of the future age, the only"begotten Son of God, the Equal to the "Father in essence, by whom all things

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"Let the earth bring forth the living "creature after his kind, cattle, and "creeping thing, and beast of the "earth after his kind :" and it was so. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26. And God said, "Let us () make man in our "image, after our likeness (1): 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,

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“ were made. Τις ἦν ἐςλιν ἔλος πρὸς ἐν φησὶ, Η ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον, τὶς δὲ ἄλλος, ἀλλ ̓ ἡ τῆς “ μεγάλης βελῆς ἄγγελος, ὁ θαυμαστός σύμβουλος, σε ὁ ἐξεσιαστής, ὁ ἄρχων τῆς ἐιρήνης, ο παλήρ σε 7ῦ μέλλοντος αἴωνος, ὁ μονογενὴς 18 θεὲ παῖς, ὁ σε 7ῷ πατρὶ ὅμοιος κατὰ τὴν ἐσίαν, δι' δ Τὰ πάντα "map. 1 Chrys. 8th Homil. on Gen. i. "Saville's Edit. p. 47." And again in his Discourse upon the Holy Trinity, Saville's Edit. vol. 6. p. 955. "With whom did "God take counsel? With the angels, "they say but the angels have not the "image of God. It was then to his Co"worker, the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. "God, therefore, even the Father, speaks "to God the Son, and to God the Holy Ghost, "let us make man after our image." He says not "my image and

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yours, nor my image and thine: but the "Scripture signifying that there was one "image of the Holy Trinity says, "and "God made man, according to the image "of God made he him." è μol év, polà σε Τίνος συμβελεύεται ὁ θεὸς; μετὰ τῶν ἄγγελος,

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φησὶν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐκ ἔχεσιν δι ἄγγελοι τὴν εἰκόνα σε 18 θεῖο λέγει δὲ πρὸς Τὸν συνδημιεργὸν ὑπὸν, καὶ σε τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα — λέγει ἦν ὁ θεὸς καὶ παλὲς πρὸς σε τὸν Θεὸν τὸν ‘υιὸν, καὶ θεὸν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, σε ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εικόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ ἐκ « ἐιπὲν ἐμὴν καὶ ὑμῶν, ἐδὲ ἐμὴν καὶ σὴν, σημαίνεσα εἰ δὲ η γραφη μίαν εικόνα τῆς ἄγιας Τρίαδος είναι, σε λέγει, καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, καὶ σε εικόνα θεῖ ἐποίησεν αυτόν.” And St. Augus tin says, (De Trinitate, Lib. 1. vol. 3. p. 89.) "bad the Father made man without the "Son, it would not have been written, Let

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does not say,

us make, &c." and again, (De Genes, Lib. 1. vol. 3. p. 197. Paris Edit.) God "Let us make man after thy "image, or my image, but after our image "or likeness: from which plurality who "shall dare to separate the Holy Ghost?" (2) "In our image, after our likeness,"

"and over every creeping thing that "creepeth upon the earth." 27. So God created man in his own image; in, the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish "the earth, and subdue it: and have do"minion over the fish of the sea, and over "the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 29. And God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, "which is upon the face of all the earth, "and every tree, in which is the fruit of a "tree yielding seed: to you it shall be "for meat (m). 30. And to every beast "of the earth, and to every fowl of the "air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I "have given every green herb for meat:" and it was so. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

CHAP. II.

THUS the heavens and the earth were

i. e. (probably)" pure, innocent, and "rational; bearing a resemblance to God "in the faculties of the mind. 2 Lightf. "1327." The word " image" has this sense, Col. i. 15.-iii. 10.—Rom. viii. 29. -and 1 Hebr. iii. Bodily resemblance could not here have been intended, because "God is a spirit, John iv. 24." without body or parts, (1st of the 39 articles); and "no man hath seen him at any time, "John i. 18." When Adam is said, (Gen. v. 3.) to have "begat a son in his own "likeness, after his image," the meaning probably is, that that son had, naturally, corrupt and depraved propensities, instead of that pure disposition in which Adam

was created.

(m) v. 29. “For meat." This verse contains no permission to eat animal food; and until they had bred, the killing any female animal would have put an end to that species. (n) v. 2. "Ended," i. e. " had ended." By the end of the sixth day every thing was made.

(o) v. 3. "Sanctified it." Though it is not expressly stated that the Sabbath was observed before the time of Moses, that

finished, and all the host of them. 2. And on the seventh day God (n) ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it (o): because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made. 4. These are the

generations (p) of the heavens, and of the earth, when they were created; in the day that the LORD God made the earth, and the heavens, 5. and every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9. And out of the ground made the

was most probably the case; why otherwise should Moses mention its being sanctified at this time? The reason assigned for its institution is a reason why it should be observed in all ages, and by all people. Before the ten commandments were given, viz. when the Israelites first had manna, they were not to gather any on the seventh day, because that was "the rest of the

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holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Exod. "xvi. 23." Christians have made the first day of the week their Sabbath instead of the seventh, because it was on the first day that our Saviour rose from the dead; it was on that day in particular that the apostles used to assemble for religious purposes; and it was on that day, that the gift of the Holy Ghost was first conferred. See Mark xvi. 9. John xx. 19. - Acts ii. 1 to 4. See 2 Lightf. 642-3. The importance God in later times attached to an observance of the Sabbath will appear, post. Isaiah lvi. 2. 4. 6. and post.

Isaiah lviii. 13.

(p) v. 4. "These are the generations, " &c." i. e. "this is an account of the "creation, &c."

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