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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, Bereshith, is neither "from eternity," as in John 1:1; nor "in wisdom" (Chaldee paraphrase), as if parallel with Proverbs 3:19 and Psalms 104:24; nor "by Christ," who, in Colossians 1:18, is denominate…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:1-2
EXPOSITION I. THAT this initial section is not history is apparent from the circumstance that the occurrences it describes belong to a period of time which antedates the dawn of history. That it is not science is evince…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:1
The visible universe. I. ONE, yet NOT SIMPLE. 1. One. In age, origin, and nature one, "the heavens and the earth" also constitute one vast system. Cohering physically through the force of gravitation, which, in its ulti…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:2
And the earth. Clearly the earth referred to in the preceding verse, the present terrestrial globe with its atmospheric firmament, and not simply "the land" as opposed to "the skies" (Murphy); certainly not "the heavens…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:2
Chaos an emblem of the unrenewed soul. I. WITHOUT ORDER: existing in a state of spiritual ruin, and requiting a special process of rearrangement to evolve symmetry and beauty from its confusion (2혻Corinthians 5:16). II.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:6
Day two. The work of this day consisted in the formation of that immense gaseous ocean, called the atmosphere, by which the earth is encircled. And God said, Let there be a firmament (rakiya, an expand, from rakah, to b…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:6-8
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:7
And God made the firmament. How the present atmosphere was evolved from the chaotic mass of waters the Mosaic narrative does not reveal. The primary intention of that record being not to teach science, but to discover r…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:7
The atmospheric firmament. I. THE CREATURE OF GOD. 1. From God it received its being (Genesis 1:7). Not here alone, but in other parts, Scripture declares the firmament to be the Divine handiwork (Psalms 19:1; Psalms 10…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:8
And God called the firmament heaven. Literally, the heights, shamayim, as in Genesis 1:1. "This," says Principal Dawson, "may be regarded as an intimation that no definite barrier separates our film of atmosphere from t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:9-13
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:9
Day three. The distribution of land and water and the production of vegetation on this day engaged the formative energy of the word of Elohim. And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together into one plac…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:9-12
Sea, land, and vegetation, contrasted and compared. I. CONTRASTED, in respect of?? 1. Their constitutions;?봲ea being matter liquid and mobile, land matter solid and dry, vegetation matter organized and living. All God's…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth. In opposition to the firmament, which was named" the heights" (shamayim), the dry land was styled "the fiats," "Aretz" (cf. Sansc; dhara; Pehlev; arta; Latin, terra; Gothic, airtha; Sc…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:11
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, 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. Three terms are employed to describe the v…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind. It is noticeable that the vegetation of the third day sprang from the soil…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:13
And the evening and the morning were the third day. For exposition vid. Genesis 1:5. Has modern geological research any trace of this third day's vegetation? The late Hugh Miller identified the long-continued epoch of p…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:14-19
EXPOSITION Genesis 1:14, Genesis 1:15 Day four. With this day begins the second half of the creative week, whose works have a striking correspondence with the labors of the first. Having perfected the main structural ar…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:14-19
The fourth day. Notice?? I. GOD PREPARES HEAVEN AND EARTH FOR MAN. Light needed for the vegetable world. But when the higher life is introduced, then there is an order which implies intelligence and active rational exis…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:16
And God made two great lights. Perhaps no part of the material universe more irresistibly demands a supreme Intelligence as its only proper origin and cause. "Elegantissima haecce solis, planetarum et cometarum compages…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:16
The celestial luminaries. I. Display the DIVINE WISDOM. "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalms 19:1). M. Comte believed they declared no other glory than that of Hipparchus, Kepler, Newton, and their successors.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:19
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. The Scripture references to this day's work are both numerous and instructive. The Hebrew writers supply no information as to the astronomical theories which were pre…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:20-23
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 1:20
Day five. The waters and the air, separated on the second day, are on this filled with their respective inhabitants. And God said. Nature never makes an onward movement, in the sense of an absolutely new departure, unle…