116 Remarks on Prof. Stuart's examination of Gen. I. 



words, whether, in expounding the first chapter of Genesis, as he 

 says philologically, without the aid of modern science, Prof. Stuart 

 has not thrust aside, or actually transgressed, the very rule which 

 he has laid down for his own guidance ? 



He says (p. 50-) "In Gen. 1 : 7, the firmament is represented as 

 an expanse, as it were solid and extended, which retains the waters 

 above, that is, those which fall in showers of rain." And he observes 

 afterwards, " in accordance with this, the windows or lattices of 

 heaven are said to have been opened, that the waters to cause the 

 deluge might descend (Gen. 7 : 11) ; and they are in like manner * 

 said to be closed, when the diluvial rain was restrained. Gen. 8: 

 2. So in Ps. 148 : 4, the waters which are above the heavens, 

 that is, the expanse or firmament, are called upon to praise Jeho- 

 vah." — Prof. Stuart remarks in reference to the first passage now 

 quoted, and he would, most probably, include the others with it, 

 " there can be no good reason for doubt here, that the welkin or ap- 

 parent arch of the heavens, or the clouds over our heads with the 

 atmosphere, is meant." In a case where the reader has been led to 

 expect the most exact philological interpretation, without any as- 

 sistance derived from later discoveries in science, it is not a little 

 strange, and it is much to be regretted, that the steps by which this 

 conclusion has been reached, are not more particularly stated. The 

 reader at once looks about for the mode, in which a firmament " so- 



I 



lid and extended" is philologically made to mean " the clouds over 

 our heads with the atmosphere." After the formal annunciation of 

 a canon for the interpretation of the Mosaic writings, he very natur- 

 ally expects to see as formal an application of it ; and to find the 

 whole process of exposition adjusted to the standard erected by the 

 author himself. 



When Moses says that God made the firmament, that is, according 

 to Prof. Stuart, " an expanse as it were solid and extended," if he 

 means only, that God made what is now called " the welkin or ap- 

 parent arch of the heavens, or the clouds over our heads with the 

 atmosphere," the question at once occurs, whence does this appear? 

 The conclusion in this instance, considering the nature of the discus- 

 sion and the expectation raised, is altogether too remote from the 

 premises. There is also some appearance, from the exposition here 

 given, that Prof. Stuart has made an application of later science to 



Moses. H 



ed 



