Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 1:1-31

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, [and] fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, [I have given] every green herb for food: and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." — Genesis 1:1-31 (ASV)

EXCURSUS B: ON THE NAMES ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH-ELOHIM.

Throughout the first account of creation (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3) the Deity is simply called Elohim. This word is strictly a plural of Eloah, which is used as the name of God only in poetry, or in late books like those of Nehemiah and Daniel. It is there an Aramaism, God in Syriac being Aloho, in Chaldee Ellah, and in Arabic Allahu—all of which are merely dialectic varieties of the Hebrew Eloah, and are used constantly in the singular number.

In poetry, Eloah is sometimes employed with great emphasis, as, for instance, in Psalms 18:31: “Who is Eloah except Jehovah?” But while the sister dialects thus used the singular in both poetry and prose, the Hebrews used the plural Elohim as the ordinary name of God. The difference is that to the one, God was simply power, strength (the root-meaning of Eloah); to the other, He was the union of all powers, the Almighty. The plural thus intensified the idea of the majesty and greatness of God; but besides this, it was the germ of the doctrine of a plurality of persons in the Divine unity.

In the second narrative (Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 3:24), which is an account of the fall of man, with only such introductory matter regarding creation as was necessary for making the history complete, the Deity is styled Jehovah-Elohim. The spelling of the word Jehovah is debatable, as only the consonants (J, H, V, H) are certain, the vowels being those of the word Adonai (Lord) substituted for it by the Jews when reading it in the synagogue. The first vowel is a mere apology for a sound, and pronounced a or e, according to the nature of the consonant to which it is attached.

It is generally represented now by a light breathing, thus—Y’hovah, ‘donai. Regarding the spelling, Ewald, Gesenius, and others argue for Yahveh; Fürst for Yehveh, or Yeheveh; and Stier, Meyer, etc., for Yehovah. The first has the analogy of several other proper names in its favor; the second, the authority of Exodus 3:14; the last, those numerous names like Yehoshaphat, where the word is written Yeho. At the end of proper names, the form it takes is Yahu, from which also Yah. We should also note that the first consonant is really y; but two or three centuries ago, j seems to have had the sound that we give to y now, as is still the case in German.

But this is not a matter of mere pronunciation; there is a difference of meaning as well. Yahveh signifies “He who brings into existence;” Yehveh, “He who shall be, or shall become;” what Jehovah may signify, I do not know. We must further note that the name is undoubtedly earlier than the time of Moses. At the date of the Exodus, the v of the verb had been changed into y. Thus, in Exodus 3:14, the name of God is Ehyeh, “I shall become,” not Ehveh. Had the name, therefore, come into existence in the days of Moses, it would have been Yahyeh, Yehyeh, or Yehoyah, not Yahveh, etc.

The next fact is that the union of these two names—Jehovah-Elohim—is very unusual. In this short narrative, it occurs twenty times; in the rest of the Pentateuch, only once (Exodus 9:30); in the whole remainder of the Bible, about nine times. Moreover, in Psalms 50:1, there is the reversed form, Elohim-Jehovah. There must, therefore, be some reason why in this narrative this peculiar junction of the two names is so predominant.

The usual answer is that in this section God appears in covenant with man, whereas in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3 He was the Creator—the God of nature and not of grace. He had, indeed, a closer relation to man, as being the most perfect of His creatures (Genesis 1:26), but this relation was different only in degree and not in kind.

This explanation is true but insufficient; nor does it clarify how Jehovah became the covenant name of God, and Elohim His generic title. Whatever the right answer may be, we must expect to find it in the narrative itself. The facts are so remarkable, and the connection of the name Jehovah with this section so intimate, that if Holy Scripture is to command the assent of our reason, we must expect to find the explanation of such peculiarities in the section in which they occur.

What, then, do we find? We find this: the first section gives us the history of man’s formation, with the solemn verdict that he was very good. Nature without man was simply good; with man, creation had reached its goal.

In this succeeding section, man ceases to be very good. He is represented in it as the object of his Maker’s special care and, above all, as one put under law. Inferior creatures work by instinct—that is, practically by compulsion—and in subjection to rules and forces that control them. Man, as a free agent, attains a higher rank.

He is put under law, with the power of obeying or disobeying it. God, who is infinitely high and self-contained, also works by law. However, His law comes from within, from the perfection of His own nature, and not from without, as must be the case with an imperfect being like man, whose duty is to strive for what is better and more perfect.

Furthermore, even in the first section, man was described as created in God’s image, after His likeness. But as law is essential to God’s nature—for without it He would be the author of confusion—so it is to man’s.

But as this likeness is a gift conferred upon him, and not inherent, the law must come with the gift, from outside, and not from himself; and it can come only from God. Thus, man was necessarily, by the terms of his creation, made subject to law, and without it there could have been no progress upward. But he broke the law, and fell.

Was he, then, to remain forever a fallen being, hiding himself away from his Maker, with the bonds of duty and love that formerly bound him to his Creator broken irremediably? No. God is love; and the purpose of this narrative is not so much to give us the history of man’s fall as to show that a means of restoration had been appointed.

Scarcely has the breach been made before One steps in to fill it. The breach had been caused by a subtle foe, who had beguiled our first parents in the simplicity of their innocence; but in the very hour of their condemnation, they are promised an avenger who, after a struggle, shall crush the head of their enemy (Genesis 3:15).

Now this name, Y-h-v-h, in its simplest form Yehveh, means “He shall be,” or “shall become.” With the substitution of y for v, according to a change that had taken place generally in the Hebrew language, this is the actual spelling that we find in Exodus 3:14: namely, Ehyeh ‘sher Èhyeh, “I shall be that I shall be.”

Now, in the New Testament we find that the received name for the Messiah was “the coming One” (Matthew 21:9; Matthew 23:39; Mark 11:9; Luke 7:19–20; Luke 13:35; Luke 19:38; John 1:15; John 1:27; John 3:31; John 6:14; John 11:27; John 12:13; Acts 19:4; Hebrews 10:37). And in the Revelation of St. John, the name of the Triune God is, He who is and who was, and the coming One (Revelation 1:4; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 11:17).

But St. Paul tells us of a notable change in the language of the early Christians. Their solemn formula was Maran-atha, “Our Lord is come” (1 Corinthians 16:22). The Deliverer was no longer future, no longer “He who shall become,” nor “He who shall be what He shall be.”

It is not now an indefinite hope: no longer the sighing of the creature waiting for the manifestation of Him who shall crush the head of his enemy. The faint ray of light that dawned in Genesis 3:15 has become the risen Sun of Righteousness; the Jehovah of the Old Testament has become the Jesus of the New, of whom the Church joyfully exclaims, “We praise You as God: we acknowledge You to be Jehovah.”

But from where did this name Jehovah arise? Distinctly from the words of Eve, so miserably disappointed in their primary application: I have gotten a man, even Jehovah, or Yehveh (Genesis 4:1). She, poor fallen creature, did not know the meaning of the words she uttered. However, she had believed the promise, and for her faith’s sake the spirit of prophecy rested upon her.

She gave him on whom her hopes were fixed the title that was to grow and swell onward until all inspired truth gathered round it and into it. And at length Elohim, the Almighty, set His seal to it by calling Himself I shall be that I shall be (Exodus 3:14).

Eve’s word is simply the third person of the verb of which Ehyeh is the first, and the correct translation of her speech is, “I have gotten a man, even he that shall be,” or “the future one.” But when God called Himself by this appellation, the word, so indefinite in her mouth, became the personal name of Israel’s covenant God.

Thus, in this title of the Deity, formed from the verb of existence in what is known as the future or indefinite tense, we have the symbol of that onward longing look for the return of the golden age, or age of paradise. This is described elsewhere in the Bible as the reign of the Branch that shall grow out of Jesse’s root (Isaiah 11:4–9).

The hope was at first dim, distant, and indistinct, but it was the foundation of all that was to follow. Prophets and psalmists were to tend and foster that hope, and make it clear and definite. But the germ of all their teaching was contained in that mystic four-lettered word, the tetragrammaton, Y-h-v-h.

The name may have been popularly called Yahveh—though of this we have no proof; the Jews certainly understood by it Yehveh—“the coming One.” After all, these vowels are not as important as the fact that the name has the pre-formative yod.

The force of this letter prefixed to the root form of a Hebrew verb is to give it a future or indefinite sense. And I can find nothing whatsoever to justify the Assertion that Jehovah—to adopt the ordinary spelling—means “the existent One,” and still less to attach to it a causal force and explain it as signifying “He who calls into being.”

Finally, the pre-Mosaic form of the name is most instructive, as showing that the expectation of the Messiah was older than the time of the Exodus. The name is really man’s answer to, and acceptance of, the promise made to him in Genesis 3:15. Why should not Eve, to whom the assurance was given, be the first to profess her faith in it?

But in this section, in which the name occurs twenty times in the course of forty-six verses, there is a far deeper truth than Eve supposed. Jehovah (Yehveh) is simply “the coming One,” and Eve probably attached no very definite idea to the words she was led to use.

But here He is called Jehovah-Elohim, and the double name teaches us that the coming One, the future deliverer, is God, the very Elohim who at first created man. The unity, therefore, and connection between these two narratives is of the closest kind: and the prefixing in this second section of Jehovah to Elohim, the Creator’s name in the first section, was the laying of the foundation stone for the doctrine that man’s promised Savior, though the woman’s seed, was an Emmanuel, God as well as man.