5 
lias here its proper power as a direct copulative. This is also evident from 
the verse itself. What is the object of this verse ? Is it not to describe the 
condition or state of the substance of the heavens and the earth, the creation 
of which has just been affirmed ? Prof. Lewis says, ' ' ' without form and void ' 
are expressions, the one referring to utter irregularity of dimensions, and out- 
ward extent, the other to the deficiency of gravity ; denoting, not so much an 
absolute as a relative want of weight, in other words, a fluid or rarified condi- 
tion, with an absence of all cohesion or solidity, or it may be a huge nebulosi- 
ty," &c. ; and again, "the QinD ^^ep is evidently the ^jHri' ^'^i^^otif 
form, mentioned before. It is etymologically different, and yet the word as 
here used, can be only another name for the chaos, though afterwards em- 
ployed to denote other objects which the imagination might regard as present- 
ing some resemblance to the primeval waste." The word waters, in this verse, 
is also used to designate the same as the deep. We would here also remark 
that the word j^^n^iO' i"eiiclered moved upon, is in the Hiphil conjugation, 
and is therefore causative, and would be more properly rendered caused motion 
yn. The phrase the face of, is idiomatical and answers to our word throughout. 
We ca,n now understand the meaning of the verse. Moses is describing, in his 
masterly manner, by a few bold expressions, the appearance of the matter of 
whose creation he had just spoken. It was formless and void, or filling all 
space and without any cohesion or solidity ; it was all dark ; and a motion 
caused by the Spirit of God pervaded it. The Creator now proceeds to form 
this formless and void matter into those bodies which he had from eternity 
designed. The first act was the endowing a part of this dark matter with lu- 
minous properties. Verse 3d. ''And Grod said, let there be light, and there 
was light." The language used does not imply a new creation of matter, but 
simply giving to matter already created luminous power. 
Verse 4th. "And Grod saw the light that it was good, and God divided be- 
tween the light and the darkness." The expression, God saw that it was good, 
does not imply moral goodness, but that it was fitted for the designed end, the 
purpose for which he formed it. This remark applies also to each place in the 
chapter in which the expression occurs. The word here rendered divided, ex- 
presses a gradual act, such as the separation of two dissimilar substances 
would be ; how this separation was finally effected we shall presently see. 
Verse 5th. "And God called the light day, and the darkness he called 
night ; and the evening and the morning were the first day," or literally, 
"evening was, morning was, one day." The name day is here used evidently 
in a different sense, in the first part of the verse, from what it is in the last. 
In the first part, it undoubtedly is a name given to the light to designate its 
special character. Gesenius and others derive it from a root, which signifies 
to be warm, hot, to glow with heat, and therefore its signification as a name 
will be, that which produces heat, or the warmth-producer ; a name which 
fairly expresses its principal character, and is in this respect like our word 
caloric, with which it seems to be identical in meaning ; so also the term night 
is here used, not to designate a portion of time, but as the name of the dark, 
or non-luminous matter from which the luminous had been, in this work of 
the first day, separated. It is, says Wilson, derived from the root 7^7, sig- 
nifying to turn to, or towards, to move around, and as a name would be, the 
moving around matter. 
In the latter part of the verse, the term day means a period of time. Tlie 
trae meaning of this word here, has been one of the chief difficulties in the 
way of the interpretation of this chapter. Many have contended that it means 
in this place, a period of twenty-four hours, or what we call a natural day, 
and their main argument has been the reference to the work of creation in the 
fourth commandment. They contend that God, in the reason which is there- 
given for hallowing the seventh day, settles this point, that the days of crea- 
tion were natural days. Now, there is no fact more evident than that the word 
day is used in the Scriptures in a variety of senses, one of which we have in.. 
