This publication explains what the biblical Old Testament is. Sadly, many readers pay attention to the wars, prohibitions, genealogies and punishments that God sent for not keeping the commandments. Be aware that this is not the only thing the Bible is about. The Old Testament, just like the New, testifies to a person and you just need to see it.
To begin with, these sacred books have been translated into many languages of the peoples of the world. The Old Testament was translated into ancient Greek as early as the third century before it was intended mainly for Jews who could not read native language, and is known as the "Septuagint". He is the most ancient of those that have come down to us. According to the legend preserved in the message of Aristeus, the Septuagint was created by 72 learned men within 72 days. They tried for the ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy, who became interested in the holy book. And the sages lived and were engaged in the translation of the Sacred on the island of Pharos.
From the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. appear Latin translations of the Bible, and created by Jerome at the end of the III century. The Vulgate is still recognized as an official text to this day. The Egyptian and Coptic translations were published around the same time. In the fourth century AD, Ulfil translates the Old Testament into Gothic. In the next, fifth century, there appears Armenian (Mesropa), Georgian and Ethiopian. The last two translations of Scripture are still in use today.
The well-known King James Bible is the most widely used English translation, executed at the beginning of the 17th century at the request of the King of England. Some parts of the Holy Texts were translated into Russian in the 17th-19th centuries, but did not receive wide distribution at that time. Commonly recognized for Russian-speaking Christians today are the "Canonical Books of the Old Scriptures, and their translation itself was made by the decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1852, and published in 1876.
Believers seeking truth are more interested in Old Testament interpretation than history and translations. The title of the collection, consisting of 39 books, testifies to some kind of agreement (union). The covenant is a union agreement and in the 15th chapter of the book "Genesis" the ritual of its conclusion is described. Abram sacrificed animals, shedding their blood on the ground, and then saw the coming down fire and smoke. These signs were accompanied by the Voice of God, which promised him and his descendants lands from the Nile to the Euphrates.
Also during the conclusion of the Covenant (sealed with the blood of sacrificial animals), Abram learned that his people would live in slavery for 400 years. Then God will free his descendants, bring them out of slavery and return them to the promised lands. A little later, the Lord changes the name of Abram to Abraham and promises to make him the father of many nations. The new name of the participant in the Covenant with God is translated as "Father of many nations."
In fact, he is the father not only of Jews, but of all people who today recognize Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is what is written in the Epistle of the Holy One to Galatians - 3:29. It says that those belonging to Jesus are the true descendants of Abraham and the heirs of the promises of Heavenly Father. If the Old Testament implies the receipt of the possession of earthly territories by a certain people, then today believing Christians expect from God a new earth and a new heaven, in which there is only room for righteousness and holiness. Another Apostle, Peter, writes about this in the third chapter of his second epistle.
As you read and interpret the Bible, you should be mindful of the words of Christ. He said that while examining the Scriptures (Old Testament), you need to know that they all testify about Him. Jesus said this to the Pharisees, who, diligently studying the Holy Books, could not discern the Image of the Lord, who came down from Heaven and became like all of us.
If you arm yourself with the knowledge that the entire Bible is dedicated to Christ and study it diligently, you can see that His types are seen in each of the 39 books of the Old Testament. Also, all these Sacred texts prepare the children of God for the New Testament by faith in the crucifixion, death and resurrection of the Savior of the world Jesus Christ. God loves the crown of his creation - man, and this should be known and remembered while reading the Bible.
The foundation of all religion rests on our relationship to God as our Creator, and it is quite appropriate that the book of divine revelations, which was to become our guide, support and rule of religion in this world, begins in a similar way with a simple and complete description of the creation of the world in the answer to the first question of a good conscience: "... where is God, my Creator?" (Job 35:10) On this issue, pagan philosophers are grossly mistaken, being superficial in their ideas. Some claim the eternity of the world and its self-existence, others - about the accidental combination of atoms. Thus, the world, with its wisdom, did not know God, but made significant efforts to lose Him. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures, wishing with the help of the revealed religion to preserve and improve natural religion, to restore it from extinction and correct its shortcomings from the moment of the Fall to revive the commandments of the law of nature, first expounds this principle of the cloudless light of nature. He says that this world from the beginning of time was created by a Person of infinite wisdom and power that existed before the beginning of time and worlds. An introduction to God's word sheds this light (Ps 119: 130). The first verse of the Bible gives us a more reliable and superior, more satisfying and useful knowledge of the origin of the universe than all volumes of philosophers. The living faith of humble Christians understands this matter better than the sublime fantasy of the greatest minds (Heb. 11: 3).
This chapter gives (I) a general idea of the creation process (v. 1, 2).
(II) An accurate description of the deeds done on individual days, clearly and in a definite order recorded in the diary. The creation of the light on the first day (vv. 3-5);
in the firmament on the second day (vv. 6-8);
the sea, the earth and its fruits - on the third day (vv. 9-13);
the light of heaven on the fourth day (vv. 14-19);
fish and birds on the fifth day (vv. 20-23);
creatures (v. 24,25), a man (v. 26-28) and food for both - on the sixth day (v. 29,30).
(III) Review and praise of the whole work (v. 31).
Verses 1-2... These verses present the work of creation in its summary and rudimentary state.
I. In its summary (v. 1), where, to our own consolation, we find the first article of our confession, which says that God the Father Almighty is the Creator of heaven and earth, and in such a God we believe.
1. In this verse, notice four points:
(1) The result of the work done - God created the heavens and the earth, that is, the world, including the structure and contents of the universe - the world and everything in it (Acts 17:24). The world is a large house with an upper and a lower floor. Its structure is stable and dignified, uniform and livable, and every room is well and wisely furnished. Here Moses sought to describe the visible part of it, so he does not mention the creation of angels. But the earth has not only a surface adorned with grass and flowers, but also an interior enriched with metals and precious stones (which include most of its solid nature and are more valuable, although their creation is not mentioned here), so the heavens are not only adorned for our eyes outside with visible shining lamps, the creation of which we read here, but inside they are filled with glorified creations that we cannot see, more heavenly, striking and superior in dignity and superiority to the same degree as gold and sapphires are superior to the lilies of the field. In the visible world, it is very easy to observe the great multitude different types creations that are vastly different in nature and structure from each other. How many are Thy works, O Lord, and how good!
For great beauty. Heavenly blue and green earth fascinate the eye of the curious observer, much more striking is their decoration. Then how excellent must be the beauty of the Creator!
For the greatest accuracy and consistency. For those who, with the help of a microscope, have the opportunity to carefully examine the affairs of nature, they turn out to be much more beautiful than any works of art.
For great power. The world is not a heap of dead and inactive matter, but each creation is more or less inherent in driving force; the earth itself has a magnetic force.
For the great order and interconnection of creations, for the precise harmony of their movements, for the admirable connection between causes.
Behind a great secret. Nature has a phenomenon that cannot be solved, mysteries that cannot be measured and explained. But based on what we see in heaven and on earth, we can easily conclude about the eternal power and trinity of the great Creator and thereby provide ourselves with many topics for His praise. And let our creation and placement, as people, remind us, as Christians, of our duty - to always have heaven before our eyes, and earth under our feet.
The presence of several persons in the Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The plural name of God in the Hebrew language speaks of Him as of many personalities, although He is one, and for the Gentiles, perhaps it was a deadly smell to death, hardening them in idolatry, and for us - a fragrant smell to life, confirming our doctrine of The Trinity, which, although vaguely mentioned in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New. The Son of God - the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father - was with Him at the creation of the world (Prov. 8:31), moreover, Scripture often says that the world was created by Him, and nothing was created without His participation (John 1: 3,10 ; Eph 3: 9; Col 1:16; Heb 1: 2). Oh, what lofty thoughts this should form in our minds about that great God, to whom we are approaching in religious worship, and about that great Mediator, in whose name we are approaching!
(3) The manner in which this work was done: “God created the heavens and the earth,” that is, made them out of nothing. No pre-creation material from which they were created existed. Of course, birds and fish were created from water, and creatures and man from the earth, but earth and water were created from nothing. According to the law of the ordinary forces of nature, it is impossible to create anything out of nothing; no artisan can work unless he has something to work on. But for the omnipotent power of God, it is not only possible to create something out of nothing (since the God of nature is not obliged to obey the laws of nature), but also during creation it is impossible that it was the other way around, since for the honor of the Eternal Mind there is nothing more offensive than the assumption of the existence of an eternal substance. Thus is the superiority of the power of God manifested, and all the glory must belong to Him.
(4) When this work was done: at the beginning, that is, at the beginning of time when the clock was first started. Time began to exist from the moment when those creations were created, which were measured by time. Before the beginning of time, there was nothing but the Infinite Personality inhabiting eternity. If we asked God why He did not create the world earlier, then with his illiterate words, we would only darken the intention, for how can it be earlier or later in eternity? He created him at the beginning of time according to His eternal purposes, which began before the beginning of time. Jewish rabbis say that before the creation of the world, God created only seven things: the law, repentance, heaven, hell, the throne of glory, the house of the sanctuary, and the name of the Messiah. But for us it is enough to say, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1: 1).
2. Therefore, let's learn that (1) atheism is folly, and atheists are the greatest fools in nature, because they see a world that could not make itself, and do not recognize the existence of God who created it. They certainly have no excuse, since the god of this world has blinded their minds.
(2) God is the almighty Lord of all by undeniable right. Since He is the Creator, then, undoubtedly, is the owner and owner of heaven and earth.
(3) With God everything is possible, and therefore blessed are the people who have Him as their God, whose help and hope are in His name (Psalm 120: 2; 1 3: 8).
(4) The God we serve is worthy of our service and yet exalted above all praise and praise (Neh. 9: 5,6). If He created the world, He does not need our ministries and does not receive any benefit from them (Acts 17: 24,25), but at the same time He justly demands them and deserves our praise (Rev 4:11). If everything comes from Him, then everything should belong to Him.
II. This is how creation is represented in its embryonic state (v. 2), which describes the first substance and the first motive force.
1. Disorder, chaos was the first substance. Here it is called the earth (although the earth was actually created only on the third day, v. 10), since it most resembled what was later called earth, a simple earth, devoid of any adornments, which was a huge heavy mass. It is also called the abyss due to the enormous space it occupies and the waters with which it was mixed and which were subsequently separated from the earth. And from this limitless mass of matter, later by the power of the Eternal Word, all bodies, firmament and visible heavens were created. The Creator could have done His work flawlessly from the very beginning, but by His gradual actions He demonstrated the usual method of influencing His providence and grace. Pay attention to the description of this chaos.
(1.) There was nothing attractive about him, for the earth was formless and empty. Toho and Bohu - ruin and destruction - this is how these words are interpreted (Isa. 34:11). He was formless and useless, inhabited by no one, without adornments, gloomy, uninhabited, without images of things to come and the very images of things (Heb. 10: 1). Now the earth has almost returned to the same state because of the sin of man, from which the creation groans. “I look at the earth, and, behold, it is desolate and desolate ...” (see Jer 4:23). For those whose hearts are in heaven, this lower world, in comparison with the upper one, has remained ruin and destruction. On this earth, one cannot see true beauty and enjoy satisfying fullness. All this can be found only in God.
(2) If there was something pleasing to the eye in this chaos, there was still no light to see, since darkness, thick darkness, was over the abyss. God did not create this darkness (in the sense that Scripture speaks of the creation of darkness and calamities by Him, Isaiah 45: 7), since there simply was no light, which was also not needed until objects appeared that could be seen from using it. There was no need for light, and there was no need to complain about its absence, since there was nothing to see but disorder and emptiness. If the work of grace performed in the soul is a new creation, then such chaos represents the state of an unregenerate soul without grace. Disorder, confusion and evil deeds reign in it; there is no good deed in it, since there is no God in it either; it is gloomy and represents darkness. We are in this state by nature until almighty grace brings about a blessed change.
2. The Spirit of God was the first driving force. He was hovering over the water. When we think about the formless and empty land, we get a picture of a valley filled with dead and dry bones. How can they live? Could this messy mass of matter be shaped into a wonderful world? Yes, if the spirit of life from God enters into him (Eze 37: 9). Therefore, we have the hope that since God began the work and continues it, then who or what will be able to prevent Him? Scripture says that God created the world by His Spirit (Ps 32: 6; Job 26:13) and the new creation was created by the same mighty power. He hovered over the abyss just as Elijah prostrated himself over a dead child, how a bird gathers its chicks under its wings and covers them with them to warm and caress (Mat.2337), like an eagle calls its nest, hovers over its chicks (Deut 32 :eleven). From here, learn that God is not only the creator of our being, but the source of life and movement. Dead matter will always remain dead if He does not revive it, and this prompts us to believe that God will resurrect the dead, and the power that was able to create this world out of disorder, emptiness and darkness at the beginning of time will be able to bring out our vicious bodies at the end of time. from the grave (although it is a land of darkness ... where there is no device, where it is dark, like darkness itself, Job 10:22) and make them glorified.
Verses 3-5... These verses provide a further description of the first day of creation, in which we see (1) that God created light first of all visible creatures, but not in order to be able to see with it (since darkness and light are identical for Him) and so that with the help of the light we can see His works and His glory in them, so that we can work while it is day. The works of Satan and his servants are works of darkness, and the One who does truth and goodness goes to the light and thirsts for it, so that its works may be revealed (John 3:21). Light is a great beauty and blessing for the universe. As the firstborn, in comparison with all other visible creations, he is most similar to the great Parent in purity and strength, brightness and charity. It is very similar to a spirit, because thanks to it we see other things and are sure of its existence, but we do not know its nature and cannot describe it or say in which way the light is poured (Job 38: 19,24). Let the light guide us and help us to see with faith the One who is light himself - an infinite and eternal light (1 John 1: 5), to see the Father of lights (James 1:17), who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16). The first work done in the soul of the new creature is light; the blessed Spirit captivates will and feelings, enlightening the mind and entering the heart through the door, like a good shepherd to whom the sheep belong, while sin and Satan, like thieves and robbers, make their way in a different way. He who, because of sin, was darkness, thanks to grace, became the light of the world.
(2.) That the light was created by the word of God's power. He said, "Let there be light"; He wished and commanded him - and the light immediately appeared. And the light became exactly in the form that corresponded to the original idea of the Eternal Reason. Oh the power of the word of God! He said - and it happened, it really happened, effectively, forever; He not only put on a show so that the light would serve for some time, but He commanded - and it appeared; He had dictum, factum - word and peace. The peace of God (that is, His will and enjoyment of it) is fast and powerful. Christ is the Word, the main eternal Word, with the help of which the light was produced, since in Him was the light and He was the true Light, the light of the world (John 1: 9; 9: 5). The divine light shining in the sanctified soul was created by the power of God, the power of His word and the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, opening the mind, dispelling accumulations of ignorance and mistakes, giving the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Christ, who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness (2 Cor. 4 : 6). Darkness would forever cover the face of fallen man if the Son of God did not come and give us light and intelligence (1 John 5:20).
(3) That God approved the produced light that He wished: "And God saw the light that it was good ..." That was exactly what He wished for, and it corresponded to the purpose for which it was intended. The light was useful and beneficial; the world that is now a palace was a dungeon without it. The light was friendly and pleasant. The light is truly sweet (Eccl 11: 7), it delights the heart (Prov 15:30). What God commands, He will approve and graciously accept; He will rejoice in the work of His hands. Fortunately, this is what is such in the eyes of God, for He does not see in the same way as man. If light is good, then how good is He who is the source of light, from which we receive it and to whom we are obliged to praise for it and for all the services we perform thanks to it!
(4) What did God separate light from darkness, that is, placed it far from each other, so that they would never unite and be reconciled, for what does light have in common with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14). At the same time, He divided the time between them, setting the day for light and night for darkness, so that they would regularly follow one another. Although now the darkness was dispelled with the help of light, God did not condemn it to eternal exile, deciding to alternate it with light and give it a certain place, since it was also useful; for as the morning light promotes the cares of the day, so the evening shade helps the night's rest; she pulls down the curtain around us so that we can sleep better (see Job 7: 2). God divided the time between light and darkness in a similar way to remind us that this world is a mixture and change. In heaven there is a perfect and permanent light, and there is no darkness at all; absolute darkness reigns in hell and there is no glimpse of light; and in that world a great gulf is established between them. And in this world they are constantly changing, and every day we pass from one to another in order to learn to expect the vicissitudes of God's providence - peace and calamity, joy and sorrow - and could balance one with the other, adapting to both, as we do it is about light and darkness, welcoming them and making the best of them.
(5) That God separated one from the other by different names; God called light day and darkness night. He gave them names, being the Lord of both, for “Your day and Your night” (Ps 73:16). He is the Lord of time, and so it will be until day and night cease, and the flow of time is swallowed up by the ocean of eternity. Then let us acknowledge that God has instituted a constant change of day and night, and dedicate both to His honor, working for Him every day and resting in Him every night, meditating on His law day and night.
(6) That this was the first day of creation, and on that day was completed good job... And there was evening and there was morning, one day. The darkness of the evening preceded the morning light and served as a contrast to it in order to emphasize it favorably and make it shine brighter. It was not only the first day of the created world, but also the first day of the week. I drew attention to this in order to honor this day, since the new world began in a similar way from the first day of the week early in the morning at the resurrection of Christ - the light of the world. In Him a source of light from above visited this world; and we can consider ourselves eternally happy if this morning star has risen in our hearts.
Verses 6-8... These verses describe the second day of creation, when the firmament was created, and we can read (1) the command of God regarding it: "... let there be a firmament ..." - a space (emphasizes the Hebrew meaning of the word), similar to a spread sheet or a spread curtain. This refers to all visible objects located above the earth, between it and the third heaven - the atmosphere, its upper, middle and lower spheres - the celestial globe, all the celestial spheres of the Upper Light. This firmament reaches those heights where the stars are located, since in Scripture it is called the firmament of heaven (v. 14,15), and descends to the lower spheres, where birds fly, as it is also called the firmament of heaven (v. 20). When God created light, He commanded the atmosphere to be a storehouse and a vehicle for its rays - to be a means of communication between the invisible and visible worlds, for although there is an incomprehensible distance between heaven and earth, nevertheless it is not an insurmountable chasm that exists between heaven and hell. This firmament is not a dividing wall, but a wall of communion (see Job 26: 7; 37:18; Psalm 104: 3; Am 9: 6).
(2) About her creation. In order not to create an opinion that God only commanded, but created someone else, He adds: "And God created the firmament ..." What God requires of us, He first works in us, or it will not be accomplished. He who commanded to have faith, holiness and love creates them by the power of His grace, accompanying His word, in order to have all the praise. Lord, give that which You command, and then command everything that You please. Scripture says that the firmament is the work of the fingers of God (Psalm 8: 4). Although its immense length proclaims that this is the work of His prostrate muscle, the attractive beauty of its structure demonstrates that this work of art is the work of His fingers.
(3) About its purpose and usefulness: "... may it separate water from water", that is, it draws a distinction between the waters curled up in the clouds and those that fill the ocean, waters in the atmosphere and waters on earth. Note that the distinction between them is carefully observed (Deut.11: 10,11), and in this sense Canaan is preferred over Egypt, since Egypt was drunk and became fruitful thanks to the waters under the firmament, while Canaan was watered from the firmament, even the dew of heaven, which does not depend on man (Micah 5: 7). In the firmament of His power, God has chambers and storehouses, from where he irrigates the earth (Psalm 103: 13; 64: 10,11). He also has storehouses of snow and treasures of the city, which he protects for a time of trouble, for the day of battle and war (Job 38: 22,23). How great is God, who was concerned about comfort for all who serve Him, and destruction for all who hate Him! It is good to have Him as your friend, and it is bad to have Him as your enemy.
(4) As God called it: "And God called the firmament Heaven." This visible heaven is the sidewalk for the holy city. Scripture says that over this firmament God sits on His throne (Eze 1:26), as He prepared it in heaven; therefore, the heavens are said to reign (Dan 4:23). Is not God above heaven? (Job 22:12). Of course, the contemplation of the visible heavens should prompt us to think about the Heavenly Father. The height of heaven should remind us of the superiority of God, of the infinite distance between Him and us; the brightness and purity of heaven should remind us of His glory, majesty and perfect holiness; the vast space that heaven occupies, and the fact that they surround and influence the earth, should remind us of His vastness and His pervasive providence.
Verses 9-13... These verses describe the third day of creation - the formation of the sea and land, the earth becomes fruitful. Until now, the power of the Creator has acted and was occupied by the upper part of the visible world: the light of heaven was lit, the firmament of heaven was formed, and now He descends to this lower world, the earth, which was intended for the sons of men to be a dwelling place for them and provide everything they need for life. And these verses describe how she becomes fulfilling these two requirements - how a house is erected for them and the table is laid. Note:
I. How the waters were collected and the dry land appeared so that the earth would become a ready-made dwelling place for man. Point out that now, instead of the disorder that prevailed (v. 2), when earth and water were mixed and a huge mass, order was created by the beneficial separation between the two elements. God said: "Let it be so - and it was so"; as soon as it was said, it happened.
1. The waters that covered the earth were commanded to retreat and gather in one place, namely, in those depressions that were convenient for them and were intended for their rest. Similarly, the purified water, collected and placed in the right place, He called the seas. Although there are many of them and they are located in remote areas, although they wash different banks, at the same time, underground or on its surface, they are all united with each other and thus represent one whole - a reservoir of waters, where all rivers flow (Eccl. 1 : 7). In Scripture, waters and seas often symbolize misery and suffering (Ps 41: 8; 68: 3,15,16). In this world, God's people do not avoid such difficulties, but their consolation lies in the fact that these are waters that are under heaven (there is no water in heaven), that they are all in the place that God has designated for them, and within those limits, which are approved for them. These verses gracefully describe how at the beginning the waters were gathered together, how they are still kept within the same boundaries that the Most High first defined for them, and in Psalm 103: 6-9 are mentioned as a theme for praise. Those who set out on ships to the sea must acknowledge and every day thank the Creator for the wisdom, strength, and mercy shown in the fact that the great waters serve man in his trade and commerce; but those who sit at home should consider themselves indebted to the One who keeps the sea within the boundaries and gates established for it and calms the haughty waves (Job 38: 10,11).
2. Dry land emerged from the waters and was called land; He gave the land to the sons of men. It seems that the earth existed before, but it was useless, as it was under water. Thus, many gifts received from God are useless as they remain buried. Identify them and they will be useful. We, who enjoy the benefits of the land to this day (although since that time it was once sunk and dried up again), must recognize ourselves as its tenants, completely dependent on God, whose hands formed the land (Ps 94: 5; Jonah 1: 9).
II. How the land was equipped for human habitation and support (v. 11,12). Obeying God's command, the earth immediately produced fruit to support life and became fruitful, growing grass for livestock and greenery that is good for man. The Lord also took care of provision for the future, preserving the constant inheritance of various types of vegetables, which were numerous, different from each other and unusual, producing a seed according to their kind, so that during his life on earth a person could take food from the earth for his own good. Lord, what is a person that you visit and care about? What care has been shown for him and what security has been provided for the preservation and maintenance of his guilty and reprehensible life, which he could have been deprived of thousands of times! Note here, (1) that not only the earth belongs to the Lord, but also its fullness, since He is rightfully its owner and can distribute not only it itself, but also what is on it. The earth was empty (v. 2), but now, according to the spoken word, it was filled with God's riches, which still belong to Him - my bread and my wine ... my wool and linen (Hos 2: 9). Although we are allowed to use them, God still owns them and they should be used for His service and honor.
(2.) That general providence is a process of continual creation, and our Father still does. The earth continues to obey His commands, producing grass, greenery, annual harvest; and although in accordance with the usual course of nature these phenomena cannot be called miracles, at the same time they are constant examples of the indefatigable strength and inexhaustible mercy of the great Creator and Lord of the world.
(3) Although God usually makes use of the secondary factors according to their nature, at the same time He does not need or become attached to them, for although the precious fruits of the earth are usually produced by the influence of the sun and the moon (Deut 33:14), at the same time we find that the earth has produced a huge amount of fruit, possibly ripening before the creation of the sun and moon.
(4.) That it is better to take care of the necessary before the opportunity arose to use them: before the animals and man were created, grass and herbs were prepared for them. Thus, God acted wisely and mercifully in relation to man, so let man not be reckless and stupid in relation to himself.
(5) That God should have glory for all the blessings we receive from the fruits of the earth, whether for food or for healing. He who hears the heavens will also hear the earth (Hos 2: 21,22). And if, thanks to grace, we strive for the One who is the source, then even when the streams dry up and the fig tree does not bloom, we can rejoice in Him.
Verses 14-19... These verses tell the story of the fourth day, when the sun, moon, and stars were created. A description of their creation is given, but not by themselves and their nature, in order to satisfy our curiosity, but in their interaction with the earth, which they were supposed to serve as luminaries. This alone is enough to give us a reason for praise and thanksgiving. Saint Job mentions this as an example of the glorified power of God who organized the heavens by the Spirit (Job 26:13), and in these verses we are presented with a description of their splendor, which not only adorns the world above, but is also largely a blessing for the lower one. and although the heavens are high, they show respect to the earth, and therefore she must show respect to them. These verses describe the creation of the heavenly bodies:
I. In general (v. 14,15), where (1) the command concerning them sounds: "... let there be lights in the firmament of heaven." Earlier, God said, “Let there be light” (v. 3). And there was light, but it was a chaos of light, scattered everywhere in disorder. Now he was collected and formed into several luminaries, thus becoming more glorified and useful. God is the God of order, not chaos, and since He is light, He is the Father and Creator of the luminaries. These luminaries were supposed to be located in the firmament of heaven - that vast space that surrounds the earth and is visible to everyone, for no one, having lit a candle, covers it with a vessel, but puts it on a candlestick (Luke 8:16), and the firmament of heaven is a stable golden candlestick, from where these candles send their light to everyone in the house. Scripture says that the firmament itself has a light of its own (Dan 12: 3), but it is not enough to give light to the earth. And perhaps for this reason, at the end of the second day, when the firmament of heaven was created, it was not clearly said that it was good until it was decorated with luminaries on the fourth day and became useful to man.
(2) It speaks of their usefulness for the earth.
They were supposed to serve to distinguish between time, day and night, winter and summer, which replace each other depending on the movement of the sun, whose sunrise makes day, and sunset - night, approaching the tropics - summer, and moving away from them - winter. Thus, there is a time for everything under the sun (Eccl. 3: 1).
They should serve as a direction of action, being signs of a change in the weather, so that the plowman can plan his actions with understanding, predicting from the appearance of the sky (when the secondary causes begin to work) the weather - whether it will be fair or unpleasant (Mat.16: 2,3). They also need to shine on the earth so that we can walk (John 11: 9) and work (John 9: 4) according to the requirements of each day. The heavenly luminaries do not shine for themselves or the world of the higher spirits, which do not need them. They shine for us, for our benefit and pleasure. Lord, that there is a man, that You care about him so much! (Ps 8: 3,4). How ungrateful and innocent we are when, after God has created the lights for our work, we sleep, have fun, wasting time for work, and neglect great work for which they were sent into the world! The heavenly bodies were created to serve us, and they do it in good faith, shining at the right time without fail. And we were created as luminaries in this world to serve God, but do we correspond in this way to the purpose of our creation? No, our light does not shine before God as His lights shine before us (Matt 5:14). We burn the candles of our Master, without thinking about the work entrusted to Him.
II. In particular (vv. 16-18).
1. Note, The heavenly bodies — the sun, moon, and stars — are the work of the hands of God.
(1) The sun is the largest of them all; it is more than a million times larger than the earth; it is more glorified and useful among all heavenly bodies, being a noble example of the wisdom, power and mercy of the Creator and an invaluable blessing for the creatures of this lower world. Let us learn (see Ps 18: 2-7) to give God the glory worthy of His name as the Creator of the sun.
(2) The moon is a lesser luminary, but it is also considered one of the great luminaries; and although it is inferior in rank to many stars by virtue of its magnitude and borrowed light, at the same time it surpasses them by its ministry, governing the night, and usefulness to the earth. The most valuable are those who are most useful, and the greatest luminaries are not those who have the greatest gifts, but who humbly and faithfully do the good that is in their power. Whoever wants to be great among you, let him be your servant (Mat 20:26).
(3) He also created the stars, which are here referred to as objects open to the naked eye, without division into planets and fixed stars by their number, nature, location, magnitude, movement or influence exerted, for Scripture was not written in order to to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God and make us holy. These luminaries were created to rule (v. 16, 18);
this means that they were not to have supreme sovereignty as God, but to be His governing representatives, subject to Him. The lesser luminary, the moon, was supposed to rule at night, but in Psalm 135: 9 the stars are mentioned along with the moon for this rule: "The moon and stars are for the rule of the night." They were only to light up at night (Jer 31:35). The best and most honorable way of government is to give light and do good, and this command is respected by those who shine like a lamp and whose life is beneficial to others.
2. From all this recognize (1) the sinfulness and folly of ancient idolatry, when people worshiped the sun, moon, and stars; it, according to some, takes its source, or at least has the form of some forgotten traditions of patriarchal times regarding the management and dominion of the heavenly bodies. Their descriptions here show that they were both God's creations and servants of man, and therefore such idolatry, when man makes deities of them and gives them divine honors, is a great insult to God and a great censure to man (see Deut 4:19) ).
(2.) That we act wisely in our duty and daily worship of God, who created all things and made His creations for us what they are. The change of day and night obliges us to make a solemn sacrifice of prayer and praise every morning and every evening.
Verses 20-23... Until now, every day has produced noble and excellent creations that we can never sufficiently admire. But we did not read about the creation of any living thing until the fifth day, as these verses tell about. The work of creation not only moved smoothly from one creation to another, but gradually moved from a less perfect creation to a more perfect one, teaching us to strive for perfection and make efforts to ensure that the last works are our best deeds. On the fifth day, fish and birds were created; both are created from water. Although the flesh of fish and birds is different, at the same time they were created together and from water, since the First Cause can create different creations from the same secondary causes. Notice, (1.) First, the creation of fish and birds (v. 20,21). God commanded them to happen. He said: "... let the water produce abundant ..."; this does not mean that water has its own productive power, but let living creatures be created from it - fish in water and birds flying over it. He himself uttered this command - God created large fish, etc. Perhaps the insects, of which there are so many varieties and as many in number as other animals, and the structure as interesting, were created on the same day; some combine them with fish, others with birds. I remember that Mr. Boyle said that he admired the wisdom and power of the Creator, manifested in both the ant and the elephant. Here attention is drawn to the different types of fish and birds that belonged to a particular species and had a certain number of created individuals, since the water produced them abundantly. Particularly noted is the creation of the great whales - the largest fish, whose mass and strength exceeded the strength and mass of any animal, which is a wonderful proof of the power and greatness of the Creator. There is an emphatic remark about the whale (more than anyone else), seemingly in order to define which animal is referred to by the name of Leviathan (Job 41: 1). The skillful structure of the bodies of animals, their different sizes, outlines and nature, together with the admirable power of the sensual life with which they are endowed, with due reasoning, serve not only to drown and shame atheists and unbelievers for their objections, but also to revive in the pious and pious souls high thoughts and high praise to God (Psalm 103: 25, etc.).
(2) For their blessing for further duration. Life is a dwindling thing. Its strength is not similar to that of stones. This is a candle that will burn out if it is not blown out earlier. Therefore, the great Creator not only created individuals, but also took care of the reproduction of various species. God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply (v. 22). God will bless His own business and will not abandon it; whatever God does endures forever (Eccl. 3:14). The power of God's providence preserves all creation to the same extent that His creative power first produced them. Fertility is the result of God's blessing and must be attributed to Him. The annual breeding of birds and fish is also the fruit of His blessings. Therefore, let us give glory to God for the continued generation of these creatures to this day for the good of man (see Job 12: 7,9). It is a pity that catching fish and birds (in itself innocent entertainment) is sometimes abused, distracting from God and our duty, while they can be used to lead us to reflect on the wisdom, strength and goodness of the One who created these creatures. , and encourage us to stand still in awe of Him, as birds and fish do to us.
Verses 24-25... In these verses, we are presented with the first part of the creations created on the sixth day. A day earlier, the sea was filled with fish, birds flew in the heavens, and on this day the creatures of the earth were created: cattle and crawling creatures related to the earth. On this day, as before, (1) the Lord said: "Let the earth produce ...", but this did not mean that the earth had the ability to produce animals or that God decided to transfer His power to create to it; these words mean: “Let these creatures arise now to dwell on the earth; let them arise from it, their corresponding species, consistent with each other and with the divine plans for their creation. "
(2) He also did this work; He created them all according to their appearance, not only giving them different appearance but also different nature, behavior, food and lifestyle. Some were made tame and attached to humans, others were wild and lived in nature. Some ate grass and herbs, others flesh; some were harmless, others greedy; some were cocky, others fearful; some served man, but were not fit for food (like a horse), others were raised for food, but did not serve man (like, for example, sheep), some were suitable for both (like, for example, an ox) ;
and still others were not suitable for either one or the other (wild beasts). In all this, the wisdom of the Creator is manifested and proclaimed.
Verses 26-28... These verses describe the creation of man, who was also created on the sixth day, to which we must turn Special attention in order to know yourself. Note:
I. Man was created the last of all creation, so that there would be no suspicion that he in any way helped God create the world. The question "where were you, or representatives of your family, when I laid the foundations of the earth?" (Job 38: 4) must humble and mortify him. Nevertheless, the creation of man was the last manifestation of honor and favor towards him - honors, since creation proceeded from less to more perfect, and favor, since it would not be good to place him in his intended place until it was fully prepared for him. and is equipped with everything necessary for his salvation. As soon as man was created, all visible creations appeared before him so that he could consider and be comforted. Man was created on the same day as the creatures, since his body was created from the same earth as their bodies, and while he is in the body, he inherits the same earth with them. God forbids us to indulge our bodies and their desires, so that we do not make ourselves like a creature that will perish!
II. The creation of man was a more significant and outstanding act of divine wisdom than the creation of other creations. These events are described with some solemnity and an obvious difference from the rest. Until now, it was only said: “Let there be light,” “Let there be firmament,” and “Let water or earth produce ...”, but now the command looks more like a meeting: “Let us create a man for whom all other creations were created. We must take this matter into our own hands. " On previous occasions He spoke as having authority, but in this one as having feelings, Whose joy was with the sons of men (Prov. 8:31). It seems that this was the kind of work that He was seeking to do, saying, "Finally, with the preparations, let's get down to the real thing now, let's create man." Man had to be different from all creatures created before him. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth were to be united in him, and he was to have common features with them. Therefore, God not only commits himself to do this work, but He likes to pretend that He has gathered a council to reflect on it: "Let's make man." The three persons of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - consult and cooperate on this, since a person was to be faithful and dedicated to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we, having a good foundation, are baptized in this name, for thanks to this great name we exist. Let the man be ruled by the One who said: "... let us create man ..."
III. Man was created in the image and likeness of God. The words "image" and "likeness" express the same thing, but at the same time make each other more expressive. They mean the identical image and the closest possible similarity of any of the visible creations. Man did not resemble any creature created before him, but was similar to his Creator; at the same time, there is a great distance between God and man. Only Christ is the expression of the image of the Personality of Godhead as the Son of His Father, who is of the same nature. And only a few of God's honors are bestowed on a person who is God's image to the same degree as a reflection in a mirror or an image of a king on a coin. The image of God imprinted on a person includes three points.
1. His nature and structure, but not a body (since God has no body), but the nature and structure of the soul. With this honor God awarded the human body, so that the Word could become flesh and the Son of God could put on a body similar to ours; and soon He will clothe our bodies with a glory similar to His own. And we can say with confidence that He, with the help of which God created the worlds, not only created the great world, but also man, small world, at the very beginning, having formed a human body in accordance with the purpose determined for Himself at the onset of the fullness of time. It is the human soul, the great soul, that bears God's image in a special way. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent immortal spirit, an active active spirit - similar to God, the Father of Spirits and the soul of the world. The Lamp of the Lord is the spirit of man. The human soul, considered in its three noble properties - intelligence, will and active power - is perhaps the purest and most radiant mirror in nature through which we can see God.
2. The place assigned to him and the authority given: "... let us make man in our image, and let them rule." Since man was given the right to rule over the lower creatures, he is the representative or deputy of God on earth. Lower creatures cannot fear God and serve Him, therefore God commanded them to fear man and serve him. At the same time, his control of himself, based on freedom of choice, is more in line with God's image than his control over creatures.
3. His purity and virtue. The image of God sealed in man is knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10). God created man to be right (Eccl. 7:29). All his natural powers had an innate likeness of the will of God. His mind saw divine things purely and correctly, and in his understanding there were no delusions or mistakes. His will willingly and comprehensively fulfilled the will of God without opposition or perseverance. All his senses were correct, and he did not have excessive appetites or passions. His thoughts were easily directed and concentrated on the best objects, and there was no fuss or confusion among them. All the lower forces obeyed the decrees and instructions of the higher ones without any discontent or rebellion. Such saints and happy were our first parents who bore the image of God. And the honor shown in the beginning to a person is a good explanation why we should not speak badly about each other (James 3: 9) and act badly towards each other (Genesis 9: 6). This also explains why we should not humiliate ourselves by indulging in sin, but devote ourselves completely to the service of God. But how did you fall, son of the dawn? How was the image of God imprinted on a person erased? How little of it remained in the man, and how badly he was damaged! The Lord renews this image in our souls with His sanctifying grace!
IV. Man was created male and female, and they were blessed to be fruitful and multiply. God said: "Let us make man" - and the action immediately followed: "And God created man." He did what was decided. For us, words and deeds are different things, but not for God. He created man and woman, Adam and Eve: first he created Adam from the earth, and then Eve from his rib (Ch. 2). It seems that God created many pairs of different creatures, but didn't he make one man? (Mal 2:15, English transl., KJV). The person had a remnant of the Holy Spirit, and this fact is used by Christ as an argument against divorce (Mat.19: 4,5). Our first father, Adam, had only one wife, and if he had kicked her out, he would have no one to marry; this clearly implies that the marriage bond should not be divorced for pleasure. Angels were not created male and female, since they were not commanded to increase their lineage (Luke 20: 34-36), and man was created two sexes, so that his lineage would continue and his number would increase. Fire and candles - the lamps of this lower world - have the ability to flare up before being extinguished; but this is not the case with the heavenly bodies: the stars do not light the stars. God created only one male and female representative, so that all the peoples of the earth would know that the same blood flows in them, that they come from one common tree, and this would induce them to love each other. God, giving people the opportunity to transmit the nature they received, told them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth." Thereby He gave them (1) a great inheritance, commanding them to fill the earth; she was given to the sons of men. They were created to inhabit the entire face of the earth (Acts 17:26). This was the place that God assigned to man to be the servant of His providence in the government of the lower creatures; so that he would be, as it were, the mind of this sphere, governing God's generosity, thanks to which other creatures live, but about which they do not know; that he would be the collector of His glory in this lower world and exalt it into the heavenly storehouse (Ps 144: 10);
and finally, that it passes the fitness test for the best condition.
(2) A large and long family. In order for her to enjoy this inheritance, God blessed her, and thanks to this blessing, their offspring had to spread to the farthest corners of the earth and continue until the last time. Fertility and reproduction depend on God's blessing; so, Obed-Edom had eight sons, because God blessed him (1 Chronicles 26: 5). Thanks to this blessing, which God said in the beginning, humanity still exists and the race passes and the race comes.
V. On the day when God created man, He gave him dominion over the lower creatures - over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air. Although a person does not care about them, he has power over them, especially over every animal that creeps on the ground, which he cares about, and they are all at his disposal. Thus, God wanted to honor man, so that he felt more strongly his duty to honor his Creator. Because of the Fall, this dominion has been largely lost and diminished. At the same time, God's providence continues to provide the sons of men with everything necessary for their safety and existence, and God's grace gives the saints a greater and better right than dominion over creatures, which has been defiled by sin, for everything belongs to us if we are Christ's (1 Cor. 3: 22).
Verses 29-30... These verses represent the third part of the creations created on the sixth day, which did not represent new creations, but was only a manifestation of a merciful concern for food for all flesh. --Ps 135: 25. He who created man and beasts took special care of their safety (Ps 35: 7). Here is presented:
I. Food for man (v. 29). Herbs and fruits were to be his food, including bread and all the fruits of the earth. This was allowed to him, but not flesh, which was allowed only after the flood (Gen. 9: 3). Before the great flood, especially before the earth was cursed because of the fall of man, its fruits were undoubtedly more pleasant to the taste and more strengthening and nourishing for the body than fat and oil than all the royal dishes in our time. Observe here:
(1) what should humble us. As we were created from the earth, we are supported by it. There was a time when people ate angelic food, the bread of heaven, but they died (John 6:49), it was like food from the earth for them (Ps 103: 14). But there is food that abides for eternal life, and the Lord gives it to us forever.
(2) What should make us grateful. The Lord is concerned about our body; from Him we receive comfort and support in this life, and we must thank Him. He gives us in abundance everything so that we rejoice - not only the most necessary, but also many delicacies and various consolations for a beautiful life and pleasure. What a great debt we owe to Him! How, as we live by God's bounty, we should be attentive to Him and give Him glory!
(3.) What should make us moderate and content with our lot. Although Adam was given dominion over birds and fish, at the same time God limited his food to herbs and fruits, and the first man never complained about this. Although he subsequently desired the forbidden fruit in order to receive the promised wisdom and knowledge, at the same time, we do not read anywhere that he longed for the forbidden flesh. If God gives us food to sustain life, then let us not ask (like Israel murmuring) food to satisfy our lusts (Ps 77:18; see Dan 1:15).
II. Food for animals (v. 30). Does God care for oxen? Of course it does; He provides them with suitable food. God cares not only for the oxen, which were used in sacrifices and served man, but even young lions and ravens did not escape the attention of His providence. They ask for and receive their food from God. So let us give God the glory for his generosity to the lower creatures that feed from His table every day. He is a great homeowner, very wealthy and generous, satisfying the desires of every living thing. May this encourage the people of God to entrust Him with all the care of themselves and not worry about what we eat and what we drink. The one who provided for Adam, who did not take care of himself, and continues to provide for all creatures without their care for themselves, will not allow those who trust in Him to need any good (Matthew 6:26). He who feeds His birds will not allow His children to die of hunger.
Verse 31... In this verse we are presented with the approval and conclusion of the entire work of creation. As far as God is concerned, His work was perfect; Once He began the work, He will certainly end with His providence and grace, just as in this case of creation. Note:
I. God examined the deeds He had done: "And God saw all that He had created." He is doing the same now. All the works of His hands are before His eyes. He who created everything sees everything; He who created us sees us (Ps 139: 1-16). Omniscience cannot be separated from omnipotence. All His works are known to God from eternity (Acts 15:18). But in this case, the Eternal Mind solemnly meditated on the works of His wisdom and the results of His power. This is how God showed us an example of looking at our affairs. Having given us the power to meditate and survey, He expects us to use that power, to see our way (Jer 2:23) and reflect on it (Ps 119: 59). Having finished our daily chores and embarking on a night's rest, we should reflect with our hearts on what we have done that day. Likewise, when we finish our work week and enter the Sabbath rest, we must also prepare ourselves to meet God. And when we finish our path in life and we have to enter into the peace of the grave, then it's time to remember that we can die repentant and thus free ourselves from it.
II. God was satisfied with His works. When we review our affairs, we find, to our own shame, that much has been done very badly. But when God examined His own, He saw that everything was very good. He didn't declare them good until he examined them to teach us not to answer the question until we heard it. The work of creation was done very well. God did everything well, there was no flaw or lack in His works.
1. Everything was fine. It was good, because it was consistent with the intention of the Creator and was the way He wanted it. When the time came to compare the copy with the great original, it turned out to be accurate; there were no typos and not a single misplaced smear. Well, because the creation was fit for the purpose of its creation and fit for its purpose. Good, since it served the person whom God had appointed the master of the visible creatures. Good, since it all served the glory of God. In all visible creation there is something that demonstrates the Personality of Godhead, His perfection, which tends to generate in the human soul a religious attitude towards God and reverence for Him.
2. It was quite good. About every day of work, except for the second, it was said that it was good, but now it is very good. The reason for this was the following:
(1.) Man was now created who was the leader of the ways of God, whose destiny was to be the visible image of the glory of God and the mouth of the creatures in the glorification of God.
(2) Now everything was created; separately each component of creation was good, but all together it was very good. The glory and goodness, beauty and harmony of the works of God, manifested in providence and grace (as well as in creation) are best manifested when they are done. When the cornerstone is erected, then we can exclaim: "... grace, grace on it!" (Zech 4: 7). Therefore, one should not judge ahead of time.
III. The time when this work was completed: "And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day." So, God created the world in six days. This does not mean that God could not make the world in an instant. He said, "Let there be light." And there was light. He could say, "Let there be peace," and the world would have formed suddenly, in the blink of an eye, as in the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:52). But God created the world in six days to show that He is not bound by anything and acts freely, doing His work in a certain way and at a certain time, so that His wisdom, power and mercy will be revealed to us, so that we can reflect on them more clearly, to bring us an example of labor for six days and rest on the seventh. Therefore, this became the basis for the fourth commandment. The Sabbath day has been so instrumental in supporting religion in the world that God kept it in mind at creation. Now that we have read that God has examined His work, let us reconsider our thinking about it; and we will find that they are very unsatisfactory and insufficient, and our praise is superficial and monotonous. So let us encourage ourselves and all our insides to worship Him who created heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters according to the calls of the everlasting gospel, which is preached to every nation (Rev. 14: 6,7). All His works in all places of His dominion bless Him, and therefore bless, my soul, the Lord!
The first two chapters of the book are devoted to description of stages the creative period of God the Creator, when He began to create another form of life, different from the one in which He Himself resides: God is a spirit INVISIBLE to the human eye - a celestial dwelling, and on earth God decided to create a man in a VISIBLE body. - Psalm 113:24.
Having made the decision to create man, Jehovah - the God of the Bible - Ex. 15: 3 - created and made the planet Earth suitable for him, having prepared it in such a way that it would become possible for the carnal man and other inhabitants to live on it.
The creation of the planet and the formation on it of the physical and climatic conditions that ensure the life of the future man lasted for many millions or billions of years, however, God left a message to man that the period of His creation of the earthly world order consisted of 6 stages - or creative days, for God has a time interval incomprehensible to man, and one day for Him is like a thousand years for man -2 Peter 3: 8. It is about them that we are talking about in the 1st chapter of the book. The period of creation of the spiritual world and other devices in Jehovah's universe is not considered here
1:1,2
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 But the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.
Creation events are described from the perspective of an earthly observer, therefore, although it is said here that, as it were, in the first place ( at the beginning) God created the earth and the sky -
it should be understood that the Sun was created no later than the Earth, otherwise there would have been nothing to keep the Earth in orbit in the solar system and it would have flown away to unknown distances of space (see also analysis of Genesis 1:15)
Here we are talking about the fact that at the moment when God planned to create man on earth - at first He drew attention to the fact that the Earth is unsuitable for life, the light does not penetrate there(formless and empty, and darkness over the abyss
)
and it's time to transform it.
«. . the spirit of God was running. . " - what does this mean? Some Bible translations say here: "a strong wind was blowing." If you blow literally on anything, a breeze is formed. God in the process of creation used Your strength- Jer. 10:12, 13, but just like the force of the invisible wind can only be seen by its manifestation and action : shakes trees, blows down roofs, etc. In the same way, Jehovah offered to describe His strength to people in the likeness of the wind: The Creator acted with His power, for there was a process of creation. God Created Using His Power ... Later, Moses described how Jehovah “blows” with his power and works miracles with it - Ex. 15: 8,10, Psalm 73:13.
1:3-5
And God said: Let there be light. And there was light.
4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light day and the darkness night. And there was evening and there was morning: one day
The first thing God started with was the formation of light within the Earth.
What do you mean "there was light"? Apparently, until this moment, the light of the sun of the Earth did not reach because of the dense water column that enveloped the planet Earth (this is clear from 6.7 texts)
But after certain transformations, light began to penetrate the Earth, and God liked it.
And there was evening and there was morning: one day
... second, third, etc. - only 6 such days of creation with God. Each day of God's creation ended in the evening, and in the morning the next day of creation began and He was again ready to transform the Earth until the evening, by the morning of the next day the Earth was ready to begin the next stage of transformations - and so 6 times.
Is this a literal "day", calculated in human understanding as a time of 24 hours a day? No, since the time of reckoning the day on Earth began to be from the 4th "day" of creation (see Genesis 1:15).
This expression means that the period (stage or era) of any one transformation of the Earthhad its beginning and end, God created in stages, and not continuously: he finished the work of one stage - after that he moved on to the next.
Geological scientists today admit that the day of the creation of the world means a certain stage in the historical development of our planet. And modern geological science divides the history of the earth's development into six major eras: pre-geological, Archean (ancient), Proterozoic (primary life), Paleozoic (ancient life), Mesozoic (middle life) and Cenozoic (new life).
ON SCIENCE (FIRST DAY) According to Burleshin's theory, our planet has existed for at least 7 billion years. The scientist identifies the first day of creation with the early period of the pre-geological era, which lasted 2-2.5 billion years. Of these, from a hundred to several hundred million years, modern theorists assign to the formation of the Earth, the Moon, and other planets of the Solar System from the primary cloud orbiting the Sun. With the formation of the earthly firmament, the concept of heaven appears. And the separation of light (day) and darkness (night) means the rotation of the Earth around its axis and simultaneously around the Sun.
1:
6-8
And God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate the water from the water.
7 And God created the firmament, and separated the water that is under the firmament from the water that is above the firmament. And it became so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
In the second stage, God divided the water layers that envelop the planet into the water of the planet and the water layer located above the sky (in the atmosphere)
And God said ... and it became so
- these words, which accompanied each stage of creation, contain information about the Creator, which reflect His essence.
The name "Jehovah" (the tetragrammaton verb YHVG
- Ex. 15: 3, 33:19, 34: 5 - means
« giving to become»
or
« giving to be»
everything that He has planned -
Psalm 32: 9). Today He gives us all the opportunity to BECOME Christians. His system of things or His being- are described in His word - the Bible.
Jehovah has the ability to fulfill any of His purposes, or "Makes everything become"(gives everything to be) that he intends to accomplish .-- Is. 55: 10,11.
He also gives the opportunity to BECOME and each of the people - "in His own image and likeness. None of His creations can know His intentions, unless He Himself announces them - Is.55: 8,9., Amos 3: 7. B In relation to people, He has good intentions, which he will definitely carry out in due time, EVERYTHING WILL BECOME so that God will be - everything in everything - Jer.29: 11, Rev.21: 4, 1 Cor.15: 28.
1:
9-13
And God said: Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it became so.
10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters called seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, herb yielding seed, a fruitful tree, yielding fruit after its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And it became so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, in which is its seed after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
The third stage of creation formed dry land on Earth by collecting the planet's water in the seas. This made it possible to place vegetation on the land of the Earth
various kinds, including trees, necessary for the formation of the composition of air suitable for human breathing.
Recall from 1: 2: by this time sunlight began to penetrate the earth, but as if in a diffused form due to the dense layers of the atmosphere, consisting of a large amount of moisture (thick fog). The penetration of sunlight set in motion the mechanism of photosynthesis of plants, as a result of which the air was enriched with oxygen.
1:14-1
9
And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to separate day from night, and for signs and seasons and days and years;
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth. And it became so.
16 And God made two great luminaries: a greater one shone to govern the day, and a lesser one shone to govern the night, and the stars;
I have not yet heard an intelligible answer (from those who deny God's authorship), from which the writer of the book of Genesis knew that the Sun is larger than the Moon, because for the Earth observer they are the same, the Moon is even larger.
17 And God set them up in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth,
18 and rule day and night, and separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
The fourth stage of creation transformed the Earth's atmosphere, made it more transparent, the clouds gradually dissipated, as a result of which the sun, moon and stars could be seen from the Earth: if there was an observer on Earth at that time, he would have decided what exactly at that moment were the heavenly bodies were "created", since up to that moment he could not see them.
(recall from Genesis 1: 2: although the Sun was created before the fourth stage of creation, before the Earth was enveloped by the thickness of the water layer in the atmosphere, therefore the celestial bodies from the Earth were not visible)
ON SCIENCE (FOURTH DAY). According to Burleshin's theory, the fourth day coincides with the late period of the Proterozoic era, which lasted about 100 million years. At this stage, the Earth's atmosphere becomes transparent, the earth's firmament after a long darkness of the previous stages is heated by the rays of the Sun, illuminated by the light of the Moon and stars. Therefore, the allegorical description of the divine act of the fourth day becomes quite natural and understandable. Otherwise, why would God need to create the Sun anew, to separate day (light) from night (darkness)? After all, this deed was done by Him on the first day of creation.
The texts about the appearance of the luminaries in heaven explain that the time of reckoning for earth system things for days or days according to the movement of the Moon and the Sun began to be in 4th stage of creation. Thus, these texts support the idea that the expression "day" cannot mean a literal 24-hour day, as some Bible readers believe.
In addition, if the period of the DAY of creation, described as "there was evening and there was morning, day one" is taken literally, then it turns out that in fact God worked from evening to morning, that is, AND AT NIGHT, and DAY in Israel it was equal to 12 hours, not 24 (that's exactly how -12 hours - they counted the day in Judea - from John 11: 9)
Since the Bible books were written by the Jews (Rom. 3: 2), then the concept of "DAY" should be perceived as a twelve-hour day ( with the literal perception of the word "DAY")
Understanding this also helps to understand that the DAY OF CREATION of God could not be a literal day of 24 hours, as, for example, believe in the SDA.
And understanding this, in turn, helps to determine that with this state of affairs regarding the periods of creation - a literal week consisting of 7 days with a length of 24 hours each - could not be in the period of God's creation, as well as the Sabbath itself, which can be a literal seventh day only if the days of the week are calculated in 24 hours.
1:20-25
And God said: Let the water bring forth reptiles, the living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great fish, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters brought forth, after their kind, and every bird of the feathers after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind. And it became so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after its kind, and every thing that creeps on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(and 2: 7.19
)
- in these verses the phrase is used for the first time "Living soul"... The meaning of the word “soul” has been modified by now and has several variants, for example: the soul is an invisible inner part of a person's body, which after his death continues to live in some other form and is an immortal substance. How exactly she continues to live after the death of a person - each nation, by virtue of its traditions and mentality, assumes differently. However, all these opinions are not true - objective and do not reflect the true state of affairs, for they are human. An objective picture of the meaning of the word "soul" can only be given by
The creator of the “soul”, explaining to people through His word - the Bible - its true meaning.
According to the Bible and the verses quoted, "Living soul" - this is Jehovah's creation that lives, has signs of life and performs functions determined by God during life. It is known that living are not only people and animals. All BIO logical objects, including the world of microbes and plants, have a number of the same characteristics: the life cycle of development from birth to death, which is provided breath of the spirit of life... The spirit of life is not a soul, it is what makes the soul alive. No breath - no spirit of life - no life - no living soul - Genesis 7:22 (Below in the text - Genesis 2: 7 - see what “spirit of life” means).
If we consider it primitively, then, for example, the clock is powered by a charged battery. The energy of the battery has run out - there is no "life" in the watch. An imperfect person of this system of things, “disconnected” from the power source of “permanent” life - from Jehovah (Psalm 35:10) - in this sense practically does not differ from the animal world. Its physiological cycle is similar to the cycle of any other living creature on earth: it is born, eats, sleeps, works to eat, looks for a match for it, multiplies, grows old, dies. Throughout life they breathe, after death they do not breathe and become a lifeless soul - Eccl. 3: 19.20
So, the biblical meaning of the word "living soul" is:
1.
"Living (biological) individual" in general;
2.
"Man" - Deut. 12:20; Ezek. 18: 4.20;
3
.
« the inner essence of a person's personality
» , his feelings and experiences (conscience), feelings or desires (Matthew 26:38;
Ex. 15: 9; Deut. 12:20; 23:24);
4.
"Animal" - Numbers 31:28;
5.
"Life" - Matt. 16:25.
Since only Jehovah is the source of life - Psalm 35:10 - a person cannot explain exactly what is life... However, he can understand the difference between living and inanimate creation of Jehovah by dividing all the created objects known to him into animate are alive, and inanimate are inanimate. The person himself cannot create a living object, only To the creator of life- Jehovah.
For people - God symbolically described the process of "reviving" Adam, which was as if molded from clay (created from the elements contained in the earth), and, until Jehovah did not revive him, he was "Lifeless soul" and could not function as a biological system.
Collocation "Immortal soul" - not found in the Bible ... On the contrary, the Bible says that “the soul that sins will die” - Ezekiel 18: 4,20. Since because of Adam all sin, so in this system dies all - Romans 5:12. In order to have eternal life, it is necessary to be “connected” on a permanent basis to the source of eternal life - to Jehovah, that is completely trust and obediently submit to the Creator .
Devil- the first living individual that
put forward the idea of immortality despite disobedience to Jehovah
by deceiving Eve that their life does not depend on the Creator - Genesis 3: 4,5. Jehovah also warned the first people that their life depends only on obedience to Him - Genesis 2:17. Without the guidance of the Creator, man is the essence of creation -
unable to function for a long time for the benefit of itself for a long time.
- Jer. 10:23.
And everyone who believes in the possibility of living after death in some other form and at the same time neglecting the requirements of the Creator are deceived by the devil just like Eve.
A little about the state after death.
Any soul is alive
means living
a biological individual, equipped with the spirit of life - life force
... With the death of a living individual, the spirit of life disappears and the individual ceases to function, in particular, a person ceases to think, act and feel himself - Psalm 145: 3,4, Eccl. 9: 4-6,10, therefore, after death, nothing continues the personality of the deceased.
The Bible also contains information that any a person dying becomes dust no matter what lifestyle he led - Eccl. 9: 2.3. Torment people on fire to God " it didn't even come to my heart"- Jer.7: 31b. Existence hell- in terms of places of torment- also a subjective fruit of the human imagination due to insufficient knowledge about the Creator. For, for example, in the prophecy on Christ it says: " You will not leave my soulin hell and you won't let your holy one see corruption"- Acts 2: 31,32, which actually happened: the body of Christ in 3 days in hell did not decay, for he was resurrected by the Father. Jesus, being sinless, could not be in hell in the sense of a "place of torment" ... He was in hell in terms of "Places of decay"... From the point of view of the Bible "hell"(Greek word) or "Underworld" mean in Russian - "Grave"- a place of decay, burial of the dead, where it is possible hide from suffering - Job 14:13, Is 57: 1
In the parable of Lazarus, the word “hell” is mentioned and the torment of the rich man is associated with it (Luke 16: 22,23), which may lead inattentive Bible readers to the idea of the reality of torment in hell. Upon careful reading of this parable, you will notice that the rich man is tormented after death, and in the Bible with death is described as a state of sleep or rest
- Job 3: 11-18, John 11: 11-13, The deceased is called "the deceased" or "the dead" - unaware that they convey his correct state.
In addition, in the parable he suffers
myself
rich , and - bodily
since he asks
material water on carnal language
, which cannot be after death - Luke 16:24. This parable, like many of Jesus' parables, has not necessarily a literal, but a spiritual meaning about
great difference in the essence of the death of the sinner and the righteous
, for the death of the righteous is also not the end and ahead of him awaits a wonderful future in the system of God - Proverbs 14:32, 2: 21,22, Numbers 23:10.
All the righteous, sleeping in the sleep of death - Dan.12: 2, but during their lifetime who loved the Creator of life and life under His leadership - John 5: 25-30, as well as the unrighteous, who did not have time to decide on the choice of life path for some reason during their lifetime -Acts.24: 15- will be "awakened" by Christ - returned to life in God's system of things. All the rest who did not recognize the Creator and condemned by God , will never be resurrected and will not join the joy of the righteous - Psalm 48:15
What will be a person brought back to life by Christ? The same in the inner essence, what he was
before his death sleep
, with the same set of contents of mind and heart, realizing
that it is he and not someone else
- Job 19: 25-27. This is similar to how a person, awakened after an ordinary sleep, continues to lead the way of life that he usually led. Jesus showed the essence of the resurrection: Lazarus, “awakened” - brought back to life by Christ, returned to his family, recognizing all its members as well as everyone else - from John 11: 11-13,38-44, 12: 1.
It would be unfair, for example
instead of God's faithful friend Abraham
bring back to life in paradise on earth someone else... It is also unfair not to give the opportunity
Abraham to be convinced that Jehovah will fulfill in relation to HIM
His promise will give exactly HIM the opportunity to live on the true paradise promised land in the conditions of the heavenly "city" - the reign of Jehovah - Heb. 11:16
Like a man who sowed in the ground wheat seed, has no reason to expect a rose or chick to grow so the human seed of flesh, "sown" in the earth after death, cannot rise up as a tree or an animal. T ak , through the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15: 35-38,The Bible refutes the human doctrine of reincarnation ... However, the resurrected person will still be different from the person he was before death: revived to life by the Spiritual Father, the resurrected person will not inherit the more sinful essence of the sinned Adam. The harmony between the desires of his flesh and spirit will no longer be broken - Rom. 7: 15-25, and his new body will no longer grow old and die, as God intended from the very beginning, for in God's system of things - in the Kingdom of God - there will be no death, no old age, no sorrow - Rev. 21: 4 ...
1:26
And God said: Let us make man in Our image in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth.
Only man, although like animals, was created from the dust of the earth -
was honored to be created in the image and likeness of God.
It is clear that the image and likeness of a person with God cannot be literal and absolute, since God is a Spirit, and a person is material. This expression means that God was taken as a model as the basis of the characteristics of man as a creation, therefore in man there is something of the image and likeness of God. For example, man is given the ability to rule over the entire earth; a person has arms, muscles, eyes, ears - everything that God figuratively describes His appearance, introducing a person to Himself through the Bible (Ps. 88:14; Zech. 2: 8; Ps. 85: 1).
The person also possesses and inner qualities God: a sense of justice, a sense of love and dignity, a sense of satisfaction from their deeds, etc., in the aggregate, making a person personality
- biological an individual with its own face(appearance) and aware of it through reason.
Man is also endowed and abilities God: the ability to create, analyze, think logically, make choices, etc.
In a word, the image and likeness of God means that everything that God endowed man with during creation - He himself also possesses:
Will not he who planted the ear hear? and the one who has formed the eye will not see?
( Psalm 93: 9)
Man cannot know exactly the fullness of God's nature. But, at least, what a person is endowed with - abilities, capabilities, personality traits, reason, feelings, etc. - in all this he is similar to the image of God (God has all this)
1:2
7
And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created them.
Here the text does not contain the word "likeness", but one should not think that God, announcing the creation of man in the image and likeness of the Above, created him only in the image, not fulfilling His intention. For it is further repeated that Adam was created in the likeness of God:
Here is the genealogy of Adam: when God created man, in the likeness of God created him(Genesis 5: 1)
Reason obliges a person by the method of observation and research of everything that surrounds him, come to a logical conclusion that there is Thoth
Who created man and made his life comfortable - Heb. 3: 4. Having a mind means have the ability to see more than the eyes can see –
understand the reasons happening. Other biological individuals do not have this property,
do not have the opportunity
understand who is behind all creation and have no desire
understand it.
Learning to see the invisible - perhaps even more important - 2 Cor. 4:18 am. There are two ways, which, according to the Creator, will help to see the Invisible, that is, to understand that He is.
1stway - considering His creations- Romans 1: 18-20, Psalms 18: 1-5. When a person examines the creations of human hands, for example, a TV set, he can use the method of reflection to characterize the designer of a TV set and imagine the state of his mental abilities and capabilities. In the same way, considering the creation of Jehovah - flowers, animals, people, the arrangement of the heavens, etc. - a person has the opportunity by means of reflection to imagine the Creator of all this, to characterize Him and evaluate what colossal work has been done in order to make people on earth comfortable.
Thinking like this will help you develop a sense of gratitude to our Creator , a wish get to know him better that Jehovah advises us through Jacob- Jacob 4: 8 - and as a result - to love God. Immediately with love for God - they are not born, you need to learn to love God all your life.
After that, you should use 2nd way– read His word , in which Jehovah left a lot of information about Himself, about His intentions regarding people and the future of the earth –1 Thess. 2:13, from John. 5:39, which will also help you love God. All who do not use their minds to find God - Acts. 17:26, 27 - and does not care to have God in mind - Romans 1:28 - like animals, unable to appreciate the actions of the Creator and be grateful to Him for all that they use freely - Eccl. 3:18. Animals - WITHOUT smart - without a thinking mind (unable to find the Creator, appreciate what he did for them and express their gratitude to Him). Similarly, those people who deny the existence of the Creator are called "insane" - Psalm 13: 1, 48: 11-15, Jer.4: 22
1:28-30
And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, and over every animal that creeps on the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb that sows seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has tree fruit that sows seed; - [this] will be food for you;
30 But to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the air, and to everyone that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I [gave] all herbal herbs for food. And it became so.
Having created humans, God explained to them why He did this (explained to them the meaning of their life), and entrusted them with a responsible task - to take care of His creation and develop it -2: 15. People had to first populate the entire planet with perfect descendants who knew their Creator - the Father, who allowed them to use His "things": the planet, animals, plants, water, etc.
In other words, Jehovah settled the tenants in HIS earthly apartment - Leo. 25:23. It is similar to how people rent out their apartment with things to tenants for a certain fee and conclude a kind of agreement with them with certain requirements regarding the safety of the apartment. In a similar way, Jehovah rented out His earthly home to people for eternity and invited them to fulfill the terms of the "contract", which will be discussed below in the text (see Genesis 2: 9).
In fact, this "program" for the creative and harmonious development of a happy society on Earth under the care of the Creator- and there is that destination(some people like the word "fate" more), predestined by the Creator for intelligent and perfect His creations.
1:31
And God saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Very good
- Jehovah was satisfied with what and whom He created in 6 stages of creation. All His creations are good, perfect, complete,
they cannot be improved
- to improve - that is,
do better than God did
- Deut. 32: 4, Eccl. 3:14.
If a person tries to improve the creation of Jehovah, having very limited knowledge about the interconnection of chains in the harmony of the existence created by Him, this inevitably leads to the destruction of the harmony of life on earth and grave consequences. For example, rash deforestation, blocking river beds, using pesticides, shooting wolves, crows, sparrows, testing nuclear weapons, and so on, lead to an environmental disaster and global warming.
After this stage, the seventh stage was to begin.
However, as we will see further -
7th stage had no end
, since the expression was not applied to him: “there was evening and there was morning, the seventh day” -2: 1-3. We only read the story that the morning began after the completion of the 6th stage (there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day
)
God sure is that
and the seventh stage in His creation will be worthy of His praise
so He sanctified and blessed next 7th day- the period when perfect people who love the Creator will live on the heavenly planet under His leadership - Rev. 21: 4., 2 Peter 3:18.
This is the period when Jehovah Can Rest - to rest in the full sense of the word, since He will no longer need to vigilantly control the vital activity of His earthly rational creations, for everyone who will live in the 7th day on earth , voluntarily choose the life path of God, will never again violate His harmony of being and will not defame the essence of Jehovah.
At the moment, this period is still did not come, since people have lost the state of perfection and violated the harmony of their relationship with the Creator - Deut. 32: 4,5. 7th day is just forming, and all who wish to live in God's new world still have the opportunity to prepare for this - 2 Timothy 3: 16,17.
Now is the day of salvation
- a period in the history of mankind when through preaching and teaching about God's rule, people are found who love His way
- Matthew 24:14, Luke. 4:19, 2 Cor. 6: 2.
Warn of danger
coming from God to the world of the wicked -
Jehovah's Command for Every Person He Called
, so that by His word to find the children of God who have gone astray and not to be guilty of the death of those who disobey Him - Ezek. 33: 7-9
The first day of creation
Genesis 1: 1. At the beginning
As with the Holy Fathers, and in all subsequent interpretative literature, there are two main typical interpretations of this word. According to the prevailing opinion of some, this is a simple chronological indication “of the beginning of the creation of visible things” (Ephraim the Syrian), that is, of all that, the history of the gradual formation of which is set forth immediately below. According to the allegorical interpretation of others (Theoph. Ant., Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, etc.), the word "in the beginning" here has an individual meaning, containing a hidden indication of the eternal birth from the Father of the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity - the Son of God, in By whom and through whom all creation was completed (John 1: 3; Col. 1:16). Biblical parallels related to this give the right to combine both of these interpretations, that is, how to find here an indication of the idea of the Father's birth of the Son or Logos and the ideal creation of the world in Him (John 1: 1-3, 10, 8:25; Psalm 83: 3; 1 Pet. 1:20; Col. 1:16; Rev. 3:14), and with even greater right to see here a direct indication of the external implementation of the pre-eternal plans of the divine Universe at the beginning of time, or, more precisely, together with this very time (Ps. 101: 26, 83: 12-13, 135: 5-6, 145: 6; Heb. 1:10; Proverbs 8: 22-23; Is. 64: 4; Is. 41 : 4; Ser. 18: 1; etc.).
created god
- the word is used here bar, which according to the common belief of both Jews and Christians, as well as in all subsequent biblical usage, primarily serves as an expression of the idea of divine work (Gen. 1: 1, 2: 3-4; Isa. 40:28, 43: 1; Psalm 148: 5; Ex. 34:10; Num. 16:30; Jer. 31:22; Mal. 2 and others), has the meaning of creative activity or creation from nothing (Num. 16:30; Is. 45 : 7; Psalm 101: 26; Heb. 3: 4, 11: 3; 2 Mac. 7, etc.). This, therefore, refutes all materialistic hypotheses about the world as an original essence, and pantheistic ones about it as an emanation or outflow of a deity and establishes a view of it as the work of the Creator, who called the whole world from nonexistence to being by the will and power of His divine omnipotence. ...
heaven and earth.
Heaven and earth, as two specific opposite poles of the entire world globe, usually serve in the Bible as a designation for “the entire universe” (Ps. 101: 26; Isa. 65:17; Jer. 23:24; Zech. 5: 9). In addition, many find here a separate indication of the creation of the visible and invisible worlds, or Angels (Theoph. Ant., Basil the Great, Theodorite, Origen, John Damascene, and others). The basis of the latter interpretation is, firstly, the biblical use of the word "heaven" as a synonym for celestials, that is, angels (1 Kings 22:19; Matthew 18, etc.), and secondly, and the context of this story, in which the subsequent chaotic disorder is attributed to only one earth, that is, the visible world (verse 2), by which the “heaven” is separated from the “earth” and even as if opposed to it as a comfortable, invisible mountain world. Confirmation of this can be found both in the Old (Job 38: 4-7) and especially in the New Testament (Col. 1:16).
Genesis 1: 2. The earth was formless and empty,
The concept of “earth” in the language of the Bible often embraces the entire globe, including the visible sky as its outer atmospheric shell (Gen. 14:19, 22; Ps. 68:35). In this very sense, it is used here as well, as is obvious from the context, according to which the chaotic mass of this "earth" subsequently separated out of itself solid and water (Gen. 1: 7).
The words "formless and empty", which characterize the primitive mass, imply the thought of "darkness, disorder and destruction" (Isa. 40:17, 45:18; Jer. 4: 23-26), that is, they give an idea about a state of complete chaos, in which the elements of the future light, air, earth, water and also all the embryos of plant and animal life did not yet yield to any distinction and were, as it were, mixed with each other. The best parallel to these words is the passage from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, which says that God created the world from "non-moldable substance" (Wis. 11:18) and (2 Pet. 3: 5).
and darkness over the abyss,
This darkness was a natural consequence of the absence of light, which did not yet exist as a separate independent element, being separated from the primitive chaos only later, on the first day of the week of creative activity. "Over the abyss" and "over the water." In the text of the original, there are two Hebrew words related in meaning (tehom and maim), meaning a mass of water that forms a whole "abyss"; by this, an indication is made of the molten liquid-like state of the primordial, chaotic substance.
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.
In the explanation of these words, the interpreters quite differ among themselves: some see here a simple indication of an ordinary wind sent down by God to drain the earth (Tertullian, Ephraim Sirin, Theodorite, Aben-Ezra, Rosenmüller), others - to an Angel, or a special intelligent force, assigned for the same purpose (Chrysostom, Kaizetan, etc.), and still others, finally, on the Hypostatic Spirit of God (Basil the Great, Athanasius, Jerome and most of the other exegetes). The latter interpretation is preferable to others: it indicates the participation in the creation of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit of God, who is Himself that constructive and providential power, which, according to the general biblical view, determines the origin and existence of the whole world, not excluding man (Gen. 2: 7; Ps. 32: 6; Job 27: 3; Is. 34:16; Acts 17 and others). The very action of the Holy Spirit on chaos is likened here to the action of a bird sitting in a nest on eggs and warming them with its warmth to awaken life in them (Deut. 32:11).
This, on the one hand, allows us to see in chaos a certain action of natural forces, analogous to the process of gradual formation of an embryo in an egg, on the other, both these forces and their results are directly dependent on God.
Genesis 1: 3. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light.
For the omnipotent Creator of the universe, the thought or word and the realization of this thought or deed are completely identical with each other, since for Him there are no obstacles that could interfere with the fulfillment of the incipient desire. Hence, His word is the law for being: “For He said, and it was done; He commanded, and it appeared ”(Psalm 32: 9). Following many of the Church Fathers, Met. Filaret believes that in the word “said”, not without reason, one can find the sacrament of the Hypostatic Word, which here, just as the Holy Spirit used to be, is secretly supplied by the Creator of the world: “This divination is explained by David and Solomon, who obviously adapt their expressions to Moses ”(Ps. 32: 6; Prov. 8: 22-29).
let there be light.
This is clearly indicated by the Apostle Paul, speaking of God as “commanding a light out of darkness to shine” (2 Cor. 4: 6). The creation of light was the first creative and educational act of the divine universe. This primordial light was not an ordinary light in the perfect sense of this word, since until the fourth day of creation, in which the night lights appeared, there were no sources of our light, but was that luminiferous ether, which, being in an oscillatory state, dispersed the primitive darkness and thereby creating the necessary conditions for the future appearance of all organic life on earth.
Genesis 1: 4. And God saw the light that he was good,
Thus, according to the Psalmist, “the Lord rejoices in His works”! (Psalm 103: 31) The light here is said to be “good” because it is the source of joy and happiness for all living things.
and God separated the light from the darkness.
By this, God did not completely destroy the original darkness, but only established the correct periodic change of it with light, necessary to maintain life and preserve the strength of not only man and animals, but also all other creatures (Ps. 103: 20-24; Jer. 33: 20, 25, 31:35).
Genesis 1: 5. And God called light day and darkness night.
Dividing light from darkness and establishing the correct alternation between them, the Creator names them the corresponding names, calling the period of the reign of light by day, and the time of the reign of darkness - night. Scripture gives us a number of indications of the origin of this divine institution (Psalm 103: 20-24, 148: 5; Job 38:11; Jer. 33:20). We are deprived of the opportunity to judge positively about the nature and duration of these primitive days: we can only say that at least in the first three days before the creation of the sun, they, in all likelihood, were not identical with our real days.
And there was evening and there was morning:
Many of the interpreters, on the grounds that first the "evening" is set, and then the morning, want to see in the first nothing more than that chaotic darkness that preceded the appearance of light and thus preceded the first day. But this will be an obvious stretch of the text, since before the creation of light, there could be no such delimitation of days, nor the very name of their two main constituent parts. Another delusion rests on the indicated error, that the counting of the astronomical day should, as it were, begin in the evening, as, for example, Ephraim the Syrian thinks. But St. John Chrysostom believes more correctly that the reckoning of the day should go from morning to morning, since, we repeat, the very possibility of distinguishing between day and night in the days began no earlier than from the moment of the creation of the light or from the time of the onset of the day, that is, saying modern language, from the morning of the first day of creation.
day one.
In the Hebrew original, there is not an ordinal, but a quantitative numeral "day one", for in fact the first day of the week of creation was still the only one in it.
Concluding our speech about the first day of the creative week, we consider it appropriate to speak here, in general, about these days. The question of them constitutes one of the most difficult exegetical problems. Its main difficulty lies, firstly, in a certain understanding of the biblical days of creation, and secondly, and even more, in the agreement of these days with the modern data of astronomy and geology. We have already seen above that it is rather difficult to apply our usual astronomical measure with its 24-hour duration to the first days of creation, which preceded the appearance of the sun, which, as you know, depends on the movement of the earth around its axis and on the rotation of it now one or the other. side to the sun. But if we assume that this relatively insignificant obstacle was somehow removed by the power of divine omnipotence, then all the rest, in fact, biblical data, and the division of these days into morning and evening, and a certain number, and their strict sequence, and the historical nature of the narrative itself, - all this speaks for the strictly literal meaning of the biblical text and for the astronomical duration of these biblical days. Much more serious is another objection coming from science, which, based on the analysis of the so-called geological strata, has a number of geological epochs required for the gradual formation crust and several millennia for the successive emergence of various forms of plant and animal life on it.
Fathers and teachers of the Church, among whom representatives of the Alexandrian school - Origen, Saints Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria, and others, even stood for an allegorical interpretation of the biblical days in the sense of more or less prolonged periods - was still strongly occupied with the idea of an agreement on this point of the Bible with science. Following them, a whole series of subsequent exegetes tried in one way or another to modify the direct, literal meaning of the biblical text and adapt it to the conclusions of science (the so-called periodistic and restorative theories). But the direct, literal meaning of the biblical text, the ancient Christian tradition and Orthodox interpretation generally do not allow such free handling of the biblical text and, therefore, require a literal understanding of the term "day" in it.
So, the Bible talks about ordinary days, and science about entire periods or eras. The best way out of this contradiction is, in our opinion, the so-called "visionary" theory. According to the meaning of this theory, the biblical story about the creation of the world is not a strictly scientific and in fact detailed reproduction of the entire history of the actual process of world formation, but only its most important moments, revealed by God to the first man in a special vision (visio). Here, the entire history of the origin of the world, which developed in a time unknown to us, passed before the spiritual gaze of man in the form of a whole series of pictures, each of which represented known groups of phenomena, and both the general character and the sequence of these pictures were correct, albeit an instantaneous reflection of the actual stories. Each of these visionary pictures formed a special group of phenomena that actually developed during the same period, in the vision that was named one or another day.
It is relatively easy to answer the question why the geological epochs of creation received the name of an ordinary “day” in the biblical cosmogonic vision: because “day” was the most convenient, simplest and most easily accessible chronological measure for the consciousness of primitive man. Therefore, in order to introduce into the consciousness of the first person the idea of the sequential order of the creation of the world and the separation of its processes, it was most expedient to use the image of the day, already familiar to him, as an integral and complete period of time.
So, on the issue of the days of creation, the Bible and science by no means clash with each other: the Bible, meaning ordinary days, marks by this only various moments of the cosmogonic vision, in which God was pleased to reveal to man the history of the universe; science, pointing to geological epochs and long periods, has in mind to investigate the actual process of the origin and gradual organization of the world; and such an assumption of scientific hypotheses does not in the least shake the divine omnipotence, for which it was completely indifferent - whether to create the whole world in the blink of an eye, whether to use a whole week for this, or, having put into the world certain expedient laws, provide them with a more or less natural flow, leading to long-term world formation. The latter, in our opinion, is even more in line with the idea of the divine wisdom and goodness of the Creator. The visionary history that we have indicated here, finding its defenders among the fathers and teachers of the Church (St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Theodorite, Junilius African), is shared by many of the newest exegetes (see more about this in A. Pokrovsky's dissertation “The Biblical Scientist on the Primitive religion ").
Second day of creation
Genesis 1: 6. And God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water,
The firmament - literally from the original, "prostration", "cover", for as such the Jews imagined the heavenly atmosphere surrounding the globe, as it is especially clearly expressed in the famous words of the Psalmist: "you stretch out the heavens like a tent" (Psalm 103: 2, 148 : 4; cf. Isa. 40:22). This solid or atmospheric shell of the earth, according to the general biblical view, is considered the birthplace of all winds and storms, as well as all kinds of atmospheric precipitation and weather changes (Ps. 148: 4-8, 134: 7; Job 28: 25-26, 38 : 24-26; Isa. 55:10; Matt. 5:45; Acts. 14:17; Heb. 6 and others).
Genesis 1: 7. And he separated the water that is under the firmament from the water that is above the firmament.
The latter waters here obviously mean water vapor with which the celestial atmosphere is usually saturated and which, thickening from time to time, pours out on the earth in various forms, for example, in the form of rain, hail, frost, fog or snow. Under the first, of course, we mean ordinary water, which penetrated the entire earthly chaos and on the next, third day of creation, collected in special natural reservoirs - oceans, seas and rivers. The Apostle Peter says something similar about the role of water in the process of world formation (2 Pet. 3: 5). To the naive mind of the primitive Jew, the heavenly atmosphere was drawn in the form of some kind of hard cover, separating the atmospheric waters from the waters of the earth; from time to time this hard shell opened in one place or another, and then the heavenly waters poured out onto the earth through this hole. And the Bible, speaking, according to the recall of the Holy Fathers, the language of the sons of men and adapting to the weakness of our mind and hearing, does not consider it necessary to make any scientific amendments to this naive worldview (St. John Chrysostom, Theodorite, etc.).
Genesis 1: 8. And God called the firmament Heaven.
In the language of the Jews, there were three different terms to express this concept, according to their opinion about the existence of three different heavenly spheres. The sky, which is called here, was considered the lowest and closest abode of birds, accessible to the immediate eye (Ps. 8: 4; Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23).
The third day of creation
Genesis 1: 9. And God said: Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.
By virtue of this divine command, the two main constituent parts of the primitive chaos, earth and water, separated from each other: the waters merged into different water basins - seas and oceans (Ps. 32: 7, 103: 5-9, 135: 6; Prov. 8:29), and the land formed islands and continents covered with various mountains, hills and valleys (Ps. 64: 6; Isa. 40:12).
Genesis 1:10. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters called seas.
The Bible does not tell us anything about how and for how long this process of separation of water from land and self-formation of the earth's crust took place, thereby opening up full scope for scientific research. In the cosmogonic vision, with which the Bible deals, only the general character and the final result of this third period of world formation or, in the language of the biblical vision, the third day of creation, is noted.
Genesis 1: 11-12. And God said: Let the earth grow green, the herb that sows seed [after kind and after likeness: her, and] a fruitful tree, bearing fruit after its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And it became so.
And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind [and after its likeness], and a tree [fruitful] bearing fruit, in which is its seed after its kind [on the earth].
In these few words of the cosmogonic vision, a whole grandiose picture of the gradual emergence on the earth of various types of plant, organic life is displayed, produced by the earth not due to spontaneous generation, but according to the special forces and laws given to it by the Creator.
However, the indication that covering the earth with plants and trees was not an instant miraculous act, but was directed by creative force along a natural channel, apparently lies in the very nature of the biblical text in question, as in God's addressing the earth with the command to produce various types plants according to its inherent laws, and in the sequence with which a list of different types of this vegetation is kept, which fully corresponds to the data of modern geology: first, generally green or grass (geological ferns), then flowering vegetation (giant lilies and, finally, trees (primitive shrubs and trees), (1 Kings 4:33) The omnipotence of the Creator, of course, did not suffer at all from this, since the primary source of the vital energy of the earth was none other than God himself, and His highest wisdom in such a purposeful arrangement of the world was revealed in all its power and obvious clarity, which is expressively indicated by the Apostle Paul in famous place from Romans (Romans 1:20).
The fourth day of creation
Genesis 1:14. And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven [to illuminate the earth and] to separate day from night,
Here is a cosmogonic vision of a new peacemaking period in which the earth separated from the solar system. The biblical story about this itself, again, is conducted adaptively to the infant worldview of primitive man: so, the luminaries seem to be as if affirmed on the outer heavenly firmament, as they are, in fact, and are depicted in our everyday, unscientific representation. Here, for the first time, the current reason for the differentiation of day into day and night, consisting in the influence of the luminaries, is indicated. This, as it were, gives an indirect confirmation of the idea that the three preceding days of creation could not, therefore, be an ordinary astronomical day, and that they received such a character in the biblical narrative later, as certain certain moments of the cosmogonic vision.
The Bible shows us the threefold purpose of the heavenly bodies: first, they must separate day from night, and the sun was supposed to shine during the day, and the moon and stars were to shine at night; secondly, they should serve as time regulators, that is, the different phases of the sun and moon should have shown the periodic change of months and seasons of the year; finally, their immediate purpose in relation to land is to illuminate it. The first and last purpose of the heavenly bodies are completely clear and understandable by themselves, while the middle one requires some explanation.
and for signs,
Under these signs, one should not at all mean any superstitious veneration of heavenly bodies or similar astrological fortune-telling, which were widespread among the peoples of the ancient East and were cruelly condemned in the chosen people of God (Deut. 4:19, 18:10). But this, according to the interpretation of Blessed Theodoret, means that the phases of the moon, as well as the times of rising and setting of various stars and comets, served as useful guidelines for farmers, shepherds, travelers and sailors (Gen. 15: 5, 37: 9; Job 38: 32-33; Ps. 103: 14-23; Matt. 2:12; Luke 21:25). Very early on, the phases of the moon and the position of the sun began to serve as signs of the division of the year into months and the unification of the latter during the seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter (Psalm 73: 16-17). Finally, subsequently, the phases of the moon, especially the new moon, began to play a very prominent role in the cycle of sacred biblical times or Hebrew holidays.
Genesis 1:16. And God created two great luminaries: a greater luminary to govern the day, and a lesser one, to govern the night,
Although these great luminaries are not named here by name, from the entire context of the narrative, as well as from the corresponding biblical parallels pertaining here (Ps. 103: 19, 73:16, 135: 7-9, 148: 3-5; Jer. 31:35), it is clear that the sun and the moon are meant here. But if such a name is fully justified by science in relation to the sun, as the astronomical center of the entire world system, then it does not at all stand up to scientific criticism in relation to the moon, which, according to the exact data of astronomy, is one of the relatively small planets, far inferior in this respect even earth. Here we have new proof that the Bible does not set out the provisions of science, but speaks in the language of the sons of men, that is, in the language of everyday thinking, based on direct sensory perception, from the point of view of which the sun and moon are really the largest values on the heavenly horizon.
and stars.
Under the common name of stars we mean here all those millions of other worlds that, being removed from our earth to vast spaces, are drawn to our naked eye only in the form of small luminous points scattered throughout the sky. No wonder the contemplation of the majestic firmament touched and inspired many Old Testament biblical writers to glorify the wisdom and goodness of the Creator (Ps. 8: 3-4, 18: 1-6; Job 38: 31-33; Isa. 40: 21-22, 25 -26, 51:13, 66: 1-2; Jer. 33:22; Rev. 5, etc.).
Genesis 1: 17-18. and God set them up in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth, and to rule day and night,
The Creator, as the Psalmist says, the moon and stars - to control the night (Ps. 135: 9), while the sunrise has determined to be the beginning of a working day for a person (Ps. 103: 22-23). The prophet Jeremiah expresses this idea even more clearly, glorifying the Lord Almighty, who "gave the sun for illumination by day, ordinances to the moon and stars for illumination at night" (Jer. 31:35).
The fifth day of creation
Genesis 1:20. And God said: Let the water bring forth
The term "water", as is obvious from the context, is used here in a more general and broader sense - it means not only ordinary water, but also the air atmosphere, which, as it is already known, in the language of the Bible is also called "water" (Gen. 1: 6-7). Here, just as before (Genesis 1:11), in the very image of the biblical expression - "let the water produce" (or, "let them multiply in the waters"), again there is a hint of the participation of natural agents in the creative process, in in this case, water and air as the environment in which the Creator determined to live and reproduce corresponding to the kinds of animal life.
reptiles, a living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven.
The appearance of plants on the third day was the beginning of organic life on earth, but still in its most imperfect, primary form. Now, in full agreement with the data of science, the Bible notes the further course of development of this life on earth, it points to the emergence of two vast, related animal classes: the inhabitants of the water element and the kingdom of birds that fill the air space.
The first of these classes in the Hebrew text is called sherets, which does not only mean "reptiles or water reptiles", as our Russian and Slavic texts translate, but also includes fish and all aquatic animals in general (Lev. 11:10). Likewise, under the "feathered bird" is meant not only birds, but insects, and in general all living creatures equipped with wings, even if they were at the same time not deprived of the ability to walk and even on four legs "(Lev. 11 : 20-21).
If, as we noted above, in the preceding verse there is some indication of the action of natural forces in the process of the emergence of new species of animal life, then this verse leaves no doubt that all these so-called natural acts ultimately have their supernatural source in God. Who alone is the Creator of everything, in the strict sense of the word.
Genesis 1:21. And God created great fish
The Slavic text calls them "whales" great, closer to the Hebrew text, which contains the word: tanninim, which generally means water animals of huge size (Job. 7:12; Ps. 73:13; Ez. 29: 4), large fish, including whales (Ps. 103: 25; Jon. 2:11), the big serpent (Jer. 51:34; Isa. 27: 1) and the crocodile (Ezek. 29: 3), in a word, the entire class of large amphibians or amphibians (Job 40:20). This gives an expressive indication that the original species of amphibians and birds were gigantic in size, which is confirmed by the data of paleontology, which reveals a whole vast class of extinct antediluvian animals, striking with their colossal size (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, gigantic lizards, etc.).
Genesis 1:22. And God blessed them, saying:
The appearance of the first real life (animal as opposed to vegetable) is marked by a special extraordinary act of the Creator - His blessing. By virtue of this creative blessing, all creatures newly created by Him receive the ability to reproduce "after their own kind," that is, each of the species of animals - to reproduce their own kind.
be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas,
In the Hebrew text, both of these words have the same meaning, and the very combination of them, by the property of the Hebrew language, indicates a special strengthening of the thought contained in them about the natural reproduction of living beings by birth.
and let birds breed on the earth.
A subtle new feature: earlier the air was called the element of birds, as the area in which they fly (Gen. 1:20), now the land is added, on which they build their nests and live.
The sixth day of creation
Genesis 1:24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping thing, and the beast of the earth after its kind.
Here again, as in the two previous cases (Gen. 1:11, 20), it is indicated that there is some influence of the natural forces of nature, in this case the earth itself.
Genesis 1:25. And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after its kind, and every thing that creeps on the earth after its kind.
The general concept of "animal soul" is divided here into three main types: the first of them "animal of the earth" - these are wild animals or animals of fields and forests, such as, for example, a wild cat, lynxes, bears and all other animals of the desert (Ps. 79 : 14, 103: 20-21, 49:10, 78: 2; Isa. 43:20). The second type of these animals embraces a rather significant class of domestic animals, that is, tamed by man, which include: horses, oxen, camels, goats and in general all both large and small livestock (Gen. 34:23, 36: 6, 47:18; Num. 32:26); in a broad sense, it sometimes includes the larger wild animals, for example, the elephant and the rhinoceros (Job 40:15). Finally, the third class of these animals consists of all those that crawl on the ground, crawl on it, or have such short legs that, walking on the ground, they creep on it; this includes all snakes, worms (Lev.11: 42), lizards, foxes, mice and moles (Lev.11: 29-31). Sometimes, in a shorter and less strict speech, all three of the above classes of terrestrial animals are combined in one first of them, namely in the concept of “the beasts of the earth” (Gen. 7:14). All these animals were divided into two sexes, which is evident both from their ability to reproduce each according to his genus, and from the fact that the example of their life opened the eyes of the first man to his sad loneliness and, thus, served as an occasion for the creation of a helper like him -wives (Gen. 2:20).
Creation of man
Genesis 1:26. And God said: Let us make man
From these words it is clear that before creating man, this new and amazing creature, God held advice with someone. The question of whom God could consult with was still before the Old Testament prophet: “Who understood the spirit of the Lord, and was an adviser with Him and taught Him? With whom does He consult ”? (Is. 40: 13-14; Rom. 11:34) and the best answer to it is given in the Gospel of John, which speaks of the Word that was from time immemorial with God and in union with Him created everything (John 1: 2-3) ... This, - he said, - points to the Word, Logos, - the eternal Son of God, is also called the "wonderful Counselor" by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9: 6). Elsewhere in Scripture, He, under the guise of Wisdom, is directly portrayed as the closest participant in God the Creator in all places of His creation, including in the creation of “the sons of men” (Proverbs 8: 27-31). This idea is further clarified by those interpreters who refer this advice to the mystery of the incarnate Word, who was pleased to perceive the bodily nature of man in unity with His divine nature (Phil. 2: 6-7). According to the consensus opinion of the majority of the Holy Fathers, the divine council under consideration here took place with the participation of the Holy Spirit, that is, between all persons of the Holy Trinity (Ephraim the Syrian, Irenaeus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodorite, Augustine, etc.).
As for the content of this very advice, its name, according to the explanation of Metropolitan Philaret - consequently and by the action of advice, is depicted in the Holy Scriptures God's foresight and predestination (Acts 2:23), that is, in this case - the realization of the thought of the creation of man , from the ages existed in the divine plan of the Universe (Acts 15:18). Thus, here we find one of the most ancient traces of the existence of the mystery of the Trinity in the antediluvian world, but then, according to the best interpreters, it was darkened in the minds of the first people as a result of the Fall, and then, after the Babylonian pandemonium, it completely disappeared from the consciousness of the Old Testament for a long time. of humanity, from which she was even deliberately concealed for pedagogical purposes, namely, so as not to give Jews, always inclined to polytheism, an unnecessary temptation in this regard.
human
The Hebrew text uses the word here adam... When this word is used without an article, it does not express the proper name of the first husband, but serves only as a household name for “man” in general; in this sense it applies equally to both men and women (Gen. 5: 2). As can be seen from the following context, in this very sense this word is also used here - denoting the entire primordial couple, which are given divine blessings for reproduction and dominion over nature (Gen. 1:27). By using the singular of the common noun concept "man", the everyday writer thereby more clearly emphasizes the truth of the unity of the human race, about which the writer Prince. Acts says, "From one blood He (God) brought forth the whole human race" (Acts 17:26).
in our image [and] in our likeness
Here are used two related words, although they contain some shades of thought: one means an ideal, a model of perfection; the other is the realization of this ideal, a copy from the specified sample. “The first (κατ´ εἰκόνα - in the image), - argues St. Gregory of Nyssa, - we have by creation, and the last (κατ´ ὁμοίωσιν - in the likeness) we do at will”. Consequently, the image of God in man is an inalienable and indelible property of his nature, while God-likeness is a matter of man's free personal efforts, which can reach fairly high degrees of its development in man (Matthew 5:48; Eph. 5: 1-2), but can sometimes be completely absent (Gen. 6: 3; Rom. 1:23, 2:24).
As for the very image of God in man, it is reflected in the many different powers and properties of his complex nature: both in the immortality of the human spirit (Wis. 2:23), and in the original innocence (Eph. 4:24), and purity (Eccl. 7:29), and in those abilities and properties that the primordial man was endowed with for knowing his Creator and love for Him, and in those royal powers that the first man possessed in relation to all lower creatures (Gen. 27:29) and even in relation to his own wife (1 Cor. 11: 3), and, especially, in the trinity of his main spiritual forces: mind, heart and will, which served as a kind of reflection of the divine trinity (Col. 3:10). The Scripture calls only the Son of God a complete and all-perfect reflection of the divine image (Heb. 1: 3; Col. 1:15); man was a comparatively very weak, pale and imperfect copy of this incomparable model, but nevertheless he stood in an undoubted kinship relationship with Him and from here received the right to the name of His family (Acts 17:28), son or child of God (Luke 3: 38), as well as directly - “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11: 7).
Genesis 1:27. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
In the very repetition of parallel concepts - "in His own image", "in the image of God" one cannot fail to see some hint of the participation of various Persons of the Holy Trinity in the act of human creation, mainly of God the Son, who was His immediate performer (in His image). But, due to the fact that the Son is the radiance of the glory of God and the image of His Hypostasis, the creation in His image was together with Him and the creation in the image of God the Father (in the image of God). Attention is also drawn here to the fact that man was created only "in the image" of God, and not added "in likeness", which finally confirms the correctness of the above-mentioned opinion that only one image of God constitutes the innate property of his nature, while God-likeness is something different from this consists in one or another degree of free, personal development of the properties of this divine image by a person along the way of their approach to the Prototype.
man ... husband and wife created he them.
Misinterpreting this passage, some (especially the rabbis) want to see in it the basis for the theory of androgyny of the first person (that is, the combination of male and female sex in one person). But this delusion is best refuted by the pronoun "them" standing here, which, if it were about one person, would have to have the singular form - "his", and not "them" - the plural.
Genesis 1:28. And God blessed them, and God said to them: be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea [and over the beasts,] and over the birds of the air, [and over every cattle, and over all the earth,] and over every animal that creeps on the ground.
The power of the creative blessing, once taught before to the lower animals, was only related to their reproduction; man is granted not only the ability to reproduce on earth, but also the right to possess it. The latter is a consequence of the high position that man, being the image of God on earth, had to occupy in the world.
The Creator, according to the Psalmist, which the apostle also repeats, “crowned him with glory and honor; made him ruler over the works of your hands; He put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, and also the wild beasts, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, everything that passes along the paths of the sea. " (Ps. 8: 6-9; Heb. 2: 7-9). This is one of the best expressions of the thought about the greatness and beauty of the primordial Adam (that is, man), restored to his primitive dignity, lost through the Fall, by the second Adam - your Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 2: 9-10).
The very domination of man over nature must be understood both in the sense of man's use for his own benefit of various natural forces of nature and its riches, and in the sense of direct service to him by various species of animals, which are counted here only in the order of their sequential origin and according to their most general groups.
This thought is perfectly expressed in the following inspired lines of I. Zlatoust: “How great is the dignity of souls! Through her powers, cities are built, seas are crossed, fields are cultivated, countless arts are discovered, wild animals are tamed! But most importantly, the soul knows God, who created it and distinguishes between good and evil. Only one person from the entire visible world sends prayers to God, receives revelations, studies the nature of heavenly things and even penetrates into divine secrets! For him there is the whole earth, the sun and the stars, for him the heavens are open, for him were sent apostles and prophets, and even the Angels themselves; for his salvation, finally, the Father sent down his Only Begotten Son! "
Genesis 1: 29-30. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb that sows seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has tree fruit that sows seed; - you: this will be for food;
but to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the air, and to every creeping thing on the earth, in which there is a living soul: gave I am all herbal greens for food.
Here is the oldest news about the primitive food of man and animals: for man, various herbs with their roots and trees with their fruits served as it, for animals - herbal greens. Based on the silence of the everyday writer about meat as a food item, most commentators believe that at the first time before the Flood, or at least the Fall, it was not used not only by humans, but even by animals, among which, therefore, not there were birds of prey and beasts. The first news of the introduction of meat and wine into human food dates back to the era after the flood (Gen. 9: 3). One cannot but see in this a special divine thought about all newly created beings, expressed in the care of their preservation and maintenance of their life (Job 39: 6; Ps. 103: 14-15, 27, 135: 25, 144: 15- 16; Acts 14, etc.).
Genesis 1:31. And God saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.
The final formula of divine approval of the whole work of creation differs significantly in the degree of its power from all the others that preceded it: if earlier, after the creation of various types of plants and animals, the Creator found that their creation satisfied him and was "good" (Gen. 1: 4 , 8, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25); now, looking at the whole picture of the finished creation and seeing its complete harmony and purposefulness with one common gaze, the Creator, as the Psalmist says, rejoiced about his creation (Psalm 103: 31) and found that it, considered as a whole, “is very good ”, That is, it fully meets the pre-eternal plans of divine economy for the creation of the world and man.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
This day was the last act of cosmogonic vision, the conclusion of the entire creative six-day. The deeply historical antiquity of the biblical cosmogony is confirmed by rather consistent traces of it, preserved in the language of antiquity (argumentum ex consensu gentium).
Among them, the ancient legends of the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldees, from where Abraham himself, the ancestor of the Jewish people, later came out, are of particular importance and value. We have these Chaldean traditions in the fragmentary records of the Chaldean priest Berosus (in the 3rd century BC) and, what is even more valuable, in the recently discovered cuneiform tablets of the so-called. "Chaldean genesis" (in 1870 by the English scientist George Smith). In the latter, we have a striking in its closeness (albeit imbued with polytheism) parallel to the biblical history of creation: here, as in the Bible, the division into six successive acts, each of which is dedicated to its own special table, approximately the same content of each of these tables, as in the history of each of the biblical days, the same general sequence and - what is especially curious - the same characteristic techniques, expressions and even separate terms. In view of all this, the comparison of the biblical cosmogony with the data of the Chaldean genesis receives high interest and great apologetic importance (for more details see the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky: "Biblical teaching on primitive religion", pp. 86–90).
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According to scientists, the Old Testament (the first book of the Bible) was written in the 15th-4th centuries. BC. It is a translation of ancient sacred Jewish texts, which the Jews themselves call Tanakh. This collection includes as many as 39 books.
Jewish collection Tanakh
Tanakh is a combined record of Torah (Law), Neviim (Prophets) and Ketubim (Scripture). According to many researchers, they began to combine these sacred texts back in the time of King Solomon, and finished a couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. It is believed that this work was carried out by Ezra with assistants. However, nothing is known for certain about this.
Sections of the Old Testament
The Old Testament, although rather tentatively, can be divided into five main parts:
- The Law of the Pentateuch, or Torah (Genesis - Deuteronomy);
- Recognized as historically accurate books (I. Navina - Esther);
- Instructive books (Job - Song of Songs);
- Prophecies (Isaiah - Malachi).
Septuagint
The text of the ancient Tanakh was first translated into another language some time after the expulsion of the Jews from Babylon (III-II centuries BC). Some representatives of this people did not return to Jerusalem, but settled in Alexandria and other cities of Egypt and Greece. After a while they, having adopted social traditions local residents, practically stopped speaking their native language. They still have faith in their God. Therefore, they asked Jewish scholars to translate the Tanach into Greek.
Seventy elders took up this work. After a while, the translated Tanakh saw the light of day. The resulting book was named "The Septuagint" (which means "Seventy"). It is believed that it was this translation of the Old Testament that the apostles of Christ and other writers of the New Testament used. From him, Cyril and Methodius translated the stories of the Old Testament into Church Slavonic. The fact is that it was the Septuagint that was always used by the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. Other branches of Christianity used later translations from the Greek version or from the Hebrew original.
Canonized in Europe version
Unlike Ancient Russia, in Europe there was a long debate about which translation of the Tanakh should be considered canonized. The Jewish canon itself did not include apocrypha. The Catholic Old Testament that existed at that time consisted of several books. As a result, in Great Britain the translation made from the Masoretic Hebrew text in 1611 (commissioned by King James) becomes the official version. This work was carried out by forty-seven scientists from various universities. In the process, they often worked separately and then compared the results. In cases of controversy, the decision was taken by a majority vote. Many errors have been found in this translation so far. In addition, the work was carried out under some pressure from King James, who recommended that scientists focus on "the King's right to rule, given from above."
There are other scriptures canonized by the Catholic Church. Thanks to the information preserved in them, it is almost always possible to explain the ambiguities of the Old Testament of King James.
Interpretations. Accommodation method
The first Bible (Old Testament), and in particular the prophecies contained in it, throughout its existence was interpreted by many churchmen and independent researchers. Unfortunately, very often the subjective opinion of the author prevailed over the objective meaning of a particular text. Simply put, the ancient prophecies were tensely interpreted in application to the events of that historical era and the area in which the interpreter himself lived. This method is called the method of accommodation and is condemned both by ordinary researchers and by Christians themselves.
At the same time, the Church itself was more than once accused of mechanically pulling the Old Testament biblical texts to certain events and for a specific purpose. Gnostics in the second century AD believed, for example, that even Christ himself and the apostles interpreted the Old Testament not objectively, but drawn to their own teaching. However, Christians and many researchers are still convinced that as for the coming of the Messiah and Jesus from Nazareth, here the official interpretations of the church are far from the methods of accommodation.
Interpretation of the Old Testament. Historical method
The historical, or literal, method of interpretation is often applied not only to the historical part of the Old Testament, but also to the prophetic one. If we talk about the same coming of the Messiah, then this holy book contains literal indications that such an event should take place. This and other similar direct prophetic indications make it possible with a high degree of probability to assert that a specific person, and precisely Jesus Christ, was to become the Savior of Israel. As direct indications, one can take the words of Isaiah about the birth of the Messiah from the Virgin, the prophecy of Micah about his birth in Bethlehem, as well as the prophecy of Isaiah about the execution of the Messiah.
Typological method
There is one more method by which the interpretation of the Old Testament is carried out - the typological one used by the Christian church. It is based on the fact that all the events described in this book are historically correct, but their moral and religious background is not separate and completely independent, but represents something like preparing the reader for later times - the coming of the Messiah.
According to the opinion of all Christian churches, the ancient Bible (Old Testament) is a book “a teacher to Christ”. A similar method of interpretation was used by the apostles when they wrote their Gospels. The basic principles of typological interpretation include:
- Structural similarity between type and event. This means that the "Image" presented in the interpretation should not be too strongly divorced from the literal words of prophecy.
- Contrasts. So, the good Jesus (the coming Messiah), according to the churchmen, the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament opposes the first sinner Adam, death and destruction - eternal life, terrible shadows and dreams - a happy reality.
- Limitation of the image of interpretation in time. What does it mean? Any image is not finite. The background of any typological interpretation is such that the event presented in it will necessarily be followed by something else.
- Prohibition of deviation from scientific historical reality. According to many authoritative leaders of the church, the events of the Old Testament should be interpreted in such a way that the truth of history remains intact.
The Old and New Testaments are books that have existed for more than one century. One can interpret the first, proceeding from the fact that it is a prelude to the second, or from the fact that it is a completely independent work that has nothing to do with Christ. In any case, momentary, accommodative images will sooner or later sink into oblivion. The truthfulness of the objective ones will certainly become apparent.