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3. Separation of waters and dry land, and preparation of the earth as a habitation for man and
beast. & 6. Creation of the beasts of the field, the cattle, and all creeping things; and man.
g. The seventh day.
The rest of God on the seventh day contains first of all a negative element.
God ceased from His creative work. But to this must be added a positive element, namely, that
He took delight in His completed work. His rest was as the rest of the artist, after He has
completed His masterpiece, and now gazes upon it with profound admiration and delight, and
finds perfect satisfaction in the contemplation of His production. “And God saw everything that
He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” It answered the purpose of God and
corresponded to the divine ideal. Hence God rejoices in His creation, for in it He recognizes the
reflection of His glorious perfections. His radiant countenance shines upon it and is productive
of showers of blessings.
4. NO SECOND ACCOUNT OF CREATION IN GENESIS 2.
It is quite common for advanced higher
criticism to assume that Gen. 2 contains a second and independent account of creation. The
first account is regarded as the work of the Elohist, and the second as that of the Jehovist. The
two, it is said, do not agree, but conflict on several points. According to the second account, as
distinguished from the first, the earth is dry before the creation of plants; man is created before
the animals, and that alone, not as man and woman; then God created the animals, in order to
see whether they will be fit companions for man; seeing that they fail in that respect, He
creates woman as a helpmeet for man; and, finally, He places man in the garden which He had
prepared for him. But this is clearly a complete misunderstanding of the second chapter.
Genesis 2 is not, and does not pretend to be, a narrative of creation. The superscription ’eleh
toledoth, which is found ten times in Genesis, never refers to the birth or origin of things, but
always to their births, that is, their later history. The expression dates from a time when history
still consisted in the description of generations. The second chapter of Genesis begins the
description of the history of man, arranges its material to suit this purpose, and only repeats so
much of what was said in the previous chapter, without any consideration of chronological
order, as is necessary for the author’s purpose.
5. ATTEMPTS TO HARMONIZE THE NARRATIVE OF CREATION WITH THE FINDINGS OF
SCIENCE.
a. The ideal or allegorical interpretation.
This gives prominence to the idea rather than to the
letter of the narrative. It regards Genesis 1 as a poetic description of the creative work of God,
representing this from different points of view. But (1) it is quite evident that the narrative is
intended as a record of history, and is clearly so regarded in Scripture, cf. Ex. 20:11; Neh. 9:6;
Ps. 33:6,9; 145:2-6; (2) the opening chapter of Genesis “lacks nearly every element of