Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/123

 sunset to sunset (Tu. Gu. Ben. etc.). The Jewish day may have begun at sunset, but it did not end at sunrise; and it is impossible to take the words as meaning that the evening and morning formed the first (second, etc.) day. Moreover, there could be no evening before the day on which light was created. The sentence must refer to the close of the first day with the first evening and the night that followed, leading the mind forward to the advent of a new day, and a new display of creative power (De. Di. Ho. al.). One must not overlook the majestic simplicity of the statement.

The interpretation of as æon, a favourite resource of harmonists of science and revelation, is opposed to the plain sense of the passage, and has no warrant in Heb. usage (not even Ps. 90$4$). It is true that the conception of successive creative periods, extending over vast spaces of time, is found in other cosmogonies (De. 55); but it springs in part from views of the world which are foreign to the OT. To introduce that idea here not only destroys the analogy on which the sanction of the sabbath rests, but misconceives the character of the Priestly Code. If the writer had had æons in his mind, he would hardly have missed the opportunity of stating how many millenniums each embraced.

6-8. Second work: The firmament.—The second fiat calls into existence a firmament, whose function is to divide the primæval waters into an upper and lower ocean, leaving a space between as the theatre of further creative developments. The "firmament" is the dome of heaven, which to the ancients was no optical illusion, but a material structure, sometimes compared to an "upper chamber" (Ps. 104$13$, Am. 9$6$) supported by "pillars" (Jb. 26$11$), and resembling in its surface a "molten mirror" (Jb. 37$18$). Above this are the heavenly waters, from which the rain descends through "windows" or "doors" (Gn. 7$11$ 8$2$, 2 Ki. 7$2. 19$) opened and shut by God at His pleasure (Ps. 78$23$). The general idea of a forcible separation of heaven and earth

6. ] (G 🇬🇷, V firmamentum) a word found only in Ezk., P, Ps. 19$2$ 150$1$, Dn. 12$3$. The absence of art. shows that it is a descriptive term, though the only parallels to such a use would be Ezk. 1$22f. 25f.$ 10$1$ (cf. Phœn. = 'dish' [Blechschale]: CIS, i. 90$1$; see Lidzb. 370, 421). The idea is solidity, not thinness or extension: the sense 'beat thin' belongs to the Pi. (Ex. 39$3$ etc.); and this noun is formed from the Qal, which means either (intrans.) to 'stamp with the foot' (Ezk. 6$11$), or