THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES,

CALLED

GENESIS.

fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

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25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. 26 ¶ And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; "male and female created he them.

18 Chap. 5. 1, and 9. 6. W sd. 2. 23. 1 Cor. 11. 7. Ephes. 4. 24. 22 Heb. seeding seed. 23 Chap. 9. 3.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that "moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb "bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;" to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is "life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Col. 3. 10. 19 Matth. 19. 4. 20 Chap. 9. 1. 21 Heb. creepeth. 24 Heb. a living soul. 25 Ecclus. 39. 16.

Verse 5. "The evening and the morning were the first day.”—This phrase is explained by the computations of time still in use among the Jews and Mohammedans. They do not measure the day from midnight to midnight as we do, nor from sunrise to sunrise as some other Oriental people, but from sunset to sunset. Hence the night with the following day, and not the day with the following night, makes their day. Our Friday night is their Saturday night. The ancient inhabitants of western and central Europe, the Gauls, Celts, and Germans, measured the day in the same manner.

11, 12.-The word translated "grass" is applicable to every kind of verdure in the state of sprouting, when taken collectively; while that rendered "herb" denotes the maturity of its growth. The terms "herb yielding seed" are very emphatic in the original, which are literally herb seeding seed, exactly imitated by the Septuagint rugov oriqua. Although the object of the Scripture was not to teach men philosophy, but religious and moral truth, yet we often find deep philosophy also. So here we have a most important hint about the distribution of plants, which was made, not by a reference to their colours, size, or foliage, but by a specific allusion to the nature of the seed.

20. "

Moving creature.”—The Hebrew word Sheretz appears to have been extended to all kinds of living creatures, inhabiting either the land or the water, which are oviparous, and therefore, in this instance, includes the finny tribe as well as the other tenants of the deep. They are all remarkable for fecundity. The number of eggs in the roe of a fish cannot be counted, though it may be guessed at by a kind of computation. A familiar but lively instance of fecundity is seen in the common frog about the time of harvest, when the tadpoles have just reached their last stage of transformation. No wonder, then, that in the language of Inspiration, the same word which denotes an oviparous animal in general should, with the necessary grammatical modification, also signify to increase abundantly.

21. "And God created great whales.”—Under the term Tannim, Heb., zn, Gr., are comprehended all those mammiferous tenants of the ocean which belong to the order cetacca. Of this order the sea calf, trichecus manatus, the dolphin, porpoise, and the whale are examples. Though they inhabit the same medium, and resemble fishes in their general form, yet they differ from them in many important particulars; and, for this reason, the Sacred historian has honoured them with a separate mention. They respire by means of lungs, though dest ned to spend their lives in the water, and are therefore obliged, from time to time, to ascend to the surface to inhale the atmospheric air; their blood is warm, and their ears open outwards, though by small orifices. But what is of the highest importance in classification, they suckle their young, and therefore take a place among the mammalia.

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Winged foul."-We are induced at first sight to ask what connexion there is between the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air, that they should occur together in the same verse. In point of external form there is no resemblance, but they are alike oviparous, and are alike destined and equipped for rising in and making their way through a fluid. 24. "Cattle."-Under the term "cattle," seem to be included-all the ruminant animals, and perhaps certain others which resemble them in their herbivorous nature.

"Beast of the earth.”—By this phrase we understand, not only those animals which are properly carnivorous, as the lion and the wolf, but the rodentia (or gnawing), the rabbit, mouse, &c., and the pachydermata (or thick-skinned), the hog, the elephant, &c.

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Creeping thing."-This designation was applied to all the vertebrated animals that live upon the land, whether they run upon four feet, like the lizard and the iguana, or simply glide along the ground by means of abdominal scutella or scales, like the viper and the snake. They all agree in being oviparous, or in propagating their kind by eggs.

29. "Behold, I have given you every herb," &c.—Plants and fruits only being specified as the articles of sustenance allowed to man, it is considered by many commentators that animal food was not permitted until after the Flood, when we find it granted to Noah under certain restrictions. There is no difficulty in supposing animal food not in use in the primitive times; for it can hardly be said to be so, generally speaking, in Asia, at the present day. The mass of the people have it only occasionally and in small quantities, and many do not eat flesh meat more than two or three times in a year. Whether eaten or not, animals were certainly killed for sacrifices before the Deluge.

1 Exod. 20. 11, and 31. 17. Deut. 5. 14. Heb. 4. 4. 2 Heb. created to make. 3 Or. a mist which went up from, &c. 4 Heb. dust of the ground. 5 Ecclus. 17. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 47. 61 Cor. 15. 45. 7 Ecclus. 24. 25. 11 Heb eating thou shalt eat. 12 Heb. dying thou shalt die. 13 16 Heb. builded. 17 1 Cor. 11. 8. 18 Matth. 19. 5. Mark 10. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 16.

Verse 2. "On the seventh day God ended his work."-This should rather be translated had ended, as it appears from the context that he ended on the sixth day, and "rested" (not as implying repose after labour) on the seventh. The Hebrew text is, however, probably corrupted; the Samaritan and Septuagint read the "sixth" day.

8. "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,” &c., to verse 15.-There is probably no subject on which such a diversity of opinions has been entertained as concerning the site of the Paradise in which the progenitors of mankind were placed. Mohammedans even believe that it was in one of the seven heavens, from which Adam was cast down upon the earth after the Fall. "Some," says Dr. Clarke, "place it in the third heaven, others in the fourth; some within the orbit of the moon, others in the moon itself; some in the middle regions of the air, or beyond the earth's

attraction; some on the earth, others under the earth, and others within the earth." Every section of the earth's surface has also, in its turn, had its claim to this distinction advocated. From this mass of conflicting opinions we shall select the two which have been supported by the most eminent authorities, and which seem to have the strongest probabilities in their favour.

It has been assumed that, in whatever situation, otherwise probable, the marks by which Moses characterises the spot are to be found, there we may suppose that we have discovered the site of Paradise. In fixing the first probability, the all but unquestionable fact that the known rivers Euphrates and Tigris are mentioned as two of the four rivers of Eden, is of the greatest importance; and therefore the most exact inquirers have not sought for the spot at any point distant from those rivers. The Euphrates and Tigris being thus then identified with two of the rivers of Eden, there has remained a great latitude in the choice of a site for the garden, some looking for it near the source of those rivers, and others seeking it in the low and flat plains through which they flow in the lower part of their course.

The first position places Eden in Armenia, near the sources of the four great rivers Euphrates, Tigris (Hiddekel), Phasis (Pison), and the Araxes (Gihon). The similarity of sound between Phasis and Pison is considered to strengthen this opinion, as does also the similarity of meaning between the Hebrew name Gihon and the Greek Araxes, both words denoting swiftness.

One consideration that induced a preference for this site is, that the advocates of this opinion considered "heads" as applied to the rivers which went forth from the garden to mean "sources," which would therefore render it natural to look for the terrestrial paradise in a mountainous or hilly country, which only could supply the water necessary to form four heads of rivers. But others, those who would fix the site towards the other extremity of the two known rivers, reckon it sufficient, and indeed more accordant with the text, to consider the "four heads" not as sources, but as channels-that is, that the Euphrates and Tigris united before they entered the garden, and after leaving it divided again, and entered the Persian Gulf by two mouths; thus forming four channels, two above and two below the garden, each called by a different name. "The river or channel," says Dr. Wells," must be looked upon as an highway crossing over a forest, and which may be said to divide itself into four ways, whether the division be made above or below the forest." With this view some writers are content to take the present Shat-ul-Arab (the single stream which is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and which afterwards divides to enter the gulf) as the river that went through the garden; but as Major Rennell has shown that the two great rivers kept distinct courses to the sea until the time of Alexander, although at no great distance of time afterwards they became united, other writers are contented to believe that such a junction and subsequent divergence did, either in the time of Moses, or before the Deluge, exist in or near the place indicated. The deluge must have made great changes in the beds of these and many other rivers, and inferior agencies have alone been sufficient greatly to alter the ancient channels of the Tigris and Euphrates. This is not only rendered obvious by an inspection of the face of the country, but the memory of such events is preserved by local traditions, and they are even specified in the writings of the Arabian geographers and historians. Thus, then, of the two most probable conjectures, one fixes the terrestrial Paradise in Armenia, between the sources of the Euphrates, Tigris, Phasis, and Araxes; and the other identifies the land of Eden with the country between Bagdad and Bussorah; and, in that land, some fix the garden near the latter city, while others, more prudently, only contend that it stood in some part of this territory where an ancient junction and subsequent separation of the Euphrates and Tigris took place.

11. "Pison."-The river Pison is mentioned first, as being the nearest to Arabia Petræa, where Moses wrote, and, on the last mentioned hypothesis concerning Eden, is the westernmost of the two great channels into which the Euphrates and Tigris were divided, after having flowed jointly through the garden. The hypothesis which identifies it with the Phasis has been already mentioned. Faber inclines to make it the Absarus of Pliny, or Batoum of modern geographers, which rises in Armenia and flows into the Black Sea: but Hales believes the Araxes to have a better claim.

"Havilah."-The same hypothesis requires the land of Havilah to be the eastern tract of Arabia, lying near and on the head of the Persian Gulf. Dr. Wells, in his "Historical Geography of the Old and New Testaments," adduces other passages of Scripture in support of this opinion, and shows that the characteristics here given apply to that country. Faber and others, who place Eden in Armenia, identify Havilah with Colchis, which was famous in antient times for its gold. Hales adds Georgia to Colchis to form Havilah.

"Gold."-By this is doubtless meant native gold, or gold free, when picked up, from any admixture of earthy substance, with which it is for the most part found in a state of combination. Native gold, when pure, was highly esteemed, and known in Greek under the term sp9ov, or such as had not undergone the process of fusion to separate the baser matters from it. It is generally found near streams of water, which, as they break down and sweep the crumbling soil with them, convey some of its precious contents at the same time.

12. "Bdellium."-The bdellium, once so famous for its medical virtues, is a kind of gum resin, but from what tree originally gathered is at present only a subject of conjecture. The decision, however, of this question is of little importance, since the bdellium of the Sacred writer was in all probability the pearl, as the Arabic version has rendered it. If we suppose that the land of Havilah lay near the Persian Gulf, there was good reason for mentioning the pearl among the most distinguished of its natural productions.

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Onyx-stone," Eben hash shōham.—The onyx-stone has a whitish ground, and is variegated with bands of white and brown which run parallel to each other. It is a semi-pellucid stone of a fine flinty texture, taking an excellent polish, and is strictly of the flint or siliceous class. The resemblance which its ground colour has to that lunated spot at the base of the human nail was the reason why it was called vuxov, from övž, the nail. The Septuagint has translated bědulach, or bdellium, v9gag, a carbuncle, or the choicest kind of garnet; while for "onyx-stone" we have i λídos ¿zędowes, or prasium, a stone akin to the emerald, but inferior in hardness, lustre, and transparency.

13. "Gihon.”—The statement which makes the Pison the western, makes this stream the eastern channel by which the re-divided stream entered the Persian Gulf. No trace can now be discovered in the country indicative of either this name or that of Pison. But it deserves to be mentioned, that the Arabs are to this day in the habit of calling a stream by different names in different parts of its course. The Tigris has three names before it joins the Euphrates; and if two rivers joined, and afterwards separated, they certainly would, and actually do, call the new channels by names different from the original streams. Some find Gihon in the Araxes; and many in the antient Gyndes, which, entering the Tigris through Susiana, would correspond well even with the hypothesis which places Eden in Irak Arabi. "Ethiopia."-This is, of course, not the country in Africa so called. The word in the original and in the margin of our translation is Cush, and is understood to apply here to the land lying to the east of the channel supposed