THE book of Genesis is one of the most wonderful of the books of the Old Testament. It tells us about the beginning of things—how God created all things out of nothing. Notwithstanding what men say about the opening chapters of Genesis we are here taught the truth most sure concerning Creation. How different it is from Darwin’s speculations set forth in his Origin of Species—a book which a keen-eyed critic characterised as having a lie in the very title as Darwin did not after all tell us about the origin of species.
The book of Genesis tells us about the beginning of things. Here we are told of the first sin committed that took place in the world, the controversy between Cain and Abel, and it was a controversy about the true religion, a controversy which is still raging in the world to-day; in this book we have an account of the first murder committed, the murder of a brother, and it was committed in connection with the controversy over religion. But the book also tells of the early beginning of that people who were to receive such tokens of God’s care in their long and chequered history and of whom the Messiah, after the flesh, came. It is not our purpose to continue further, at present, in this strain, but to direct attention to the wonderful and carefully worked out plan we have in the construction of the book and in doing so to expose a much trumpeted fallacy of the Higher Criticism. The so-called “assured results” of modern scholarship of the destructive type announce with no hesitating voice
that in Genesis i. and ii. we have two distinct accounts of the Creation derived from two different documents. Now, though Chapter II. does appear to repeat again, to a great extent, what has been said in Chapter i., yet, a careful study will show that the manner in which the subjects are dealt with in the two chapters is in accordance with a definite plan that is carried out throughout the whole book.
The book opens with an introductory section (Chapter i.-ii., 3), which declares how God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. This is followed by ten sections, which make up the rest of the book and are introduced by titles of a uniform pattern. The titles are as follows: 1. “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth” (Gen. ii. 4). 2. “This is the book of the generations of Adam” (Gen. v. 1). 3. “These are the generations of Noah” (Gen. vi. 9). 4. “These are the generations of the sons of Noah” (Gen. x. 1). 5. “These are the generations of Shem” (Gen. xi. 10). 6. “These are the generations of Terah” (Gen. xi. 27). 7. “These are the generations of Ishmael” (Gen. xxv. 12). 8. “These are the generations of Isaac” (Gen. xxv. 19). 9. “These are the generations of Esau” (Gen. xxxvi. 1). 10. “These are the generations of Jacob” (Gen. xxxvii. 2). The main design of the book seems clearly to have been to trace the line of descent of the chosen race from the beginning to the point where it was ready to expand to a great nation, whose future organisation was already foreshadowed, its tribes being represented in the twelve sons of Jacob, and its tribal divisions in their children. “The genealogies contained in the book,” says Dr. W. H. Green of Princeton, “are not merely incidental or subordinate, but essential, and the real basis of the whole. They are not to be regarded as addenda to the narrative, scraps of information introduced into it; they constitute the skeleton or framework of the history itself. They are not separate productions culled from different sources, and here inserted by the writer as he found them. . . . . These exhibit at once the kinship of Israel to all nations of the earth, all being of one blood and sprung from one common stock, and
their separation from the rest of mankind for a special purpose, God’s gracious choice of them to be his peculiar people until the time should arrive for spreading the blessing of Abraham over all the earth.” It will thus be seen from the plan so clearly outlined by Dr. W. H. Green that we have in Genesis a book with a very definite plan before the writer’s mind very carefully carried out.
The question as to whether Chapter ii. contains another account of the Creation additional to that in the first now falls to be discussed. 1. In answering this question it is to be noticed that it does not profess to be an account of the Creation, but something additional to it and different from it. It is introduced by the words: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.” Does the phrase, “these are the generations,” refer to the preceding section or is it introductory to the following section? The usage seems to point clearly to it being introductory to what follows. It occurs ten times in Genesis (chaps. ii. 4; v. 1; vi. 9; x. 1; xi. 10; xi. 27; xxv. 12 xxv. 19; xxxvi. 1; xxxvii. 2), and in every instance but the present, indisputably as the title of the section to which it is prefixed as may be clearly seen from the sections to which attention has been called at the beginning of this article. Since this is so, the formula, in this case also, must be taken as introductory, that is, as referring to what is coming after instead of that which goes before.
The expression has sometimes been interpreted to mean an account of the origin of the heavens and earth and that it is to be taken as explanatory of what is said in the first chapter. But this explanation will not carry us through when we come to the words in the other sections where it occurs. “The book of the generations of Adam” is a list of his descendants. “The generations of Noah” gives an account of Noah’s family. “The generations of the sons of Noah” and “the generations of Shem” trace the lines of their descendants. This usage is in keeping with the meaning of the Hebrew word which denotes that which is begotten, the offspring of a progenitor. Such being the case,
the title, “generations of the heavens and the earth,” announces as the subject of the section it introduces an account of “the offspring of the heavens and the earth,” and is not an account of how the heavens and the earth were made. In other words, the title introduces an account of man as the offspring of heaven and earth. His soul coming direct from God—from heaven; while his body was made of the dust of the earth. It will be seen how naturally the section in the second chapter falls in with what goes before when this explanation is adopted. Genesis i. 1 announces that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” that is, its theme is the Creation. Chapter ii. 4 announces “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth,” the theme being the offspring of the heavens and the earth, or the history of the first man and his family. This is followed by “the generations of Adam,” in which his descendants are traced to Noah and his sons. Then follow the generations of Noah,” and so on to the end of the book.
The words, “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (chapter ii. 4), are not an introduction to an account of the making of the heavens and the earth, but presuppose it as having already been done. “No mention is made of the formation of the earth,” says Dr. W. H. Green, whose argument we have been following in the presentation of the above facts, “or the production of the dry land; none of the sea and its occupants; none of the firmament or of the sun, moon and stars; none of covering the earth with its varied vegetation, but only of planting a garden in Eden and making its trees grow from the ground (verses 8, 9). When man was banished from Eden he was to eat ‘the herb of the field’ (iii. 18), whose existence is thus assumed, but whose production is only spoken of in chapter 1. These particulars could not be omitted from an account of the creation.” It will be seen from what has been said that Chapter ii. is not a second account of Creation and that it has not been prepared independently of Chapter i. without regard to that chapter.
A careful study of Chapter iii. will reveal that Chapter ii. is an introduction to the narrative of the fall. In order to
make this tragic occurrence intelligible, it was necessary to explain, says Dr. Green: “1. The two constituents of man’s nature, his body formed of the dust of the earth, and the breath of life imparted directly by God Himself. This was necessary in order that the reader might comprehend on the one hand the potential immortality set within his reach, and on the other hand the sentence actually incurred that dust must return to dust (chap. iii. 19). 2. The locality, which was the scene of the temptation and fall, the Garden of Eden, with its tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (verses 8-17). 3. The actors, Adam and Eve, in their superiority to the rest of creation, and their relation to each other (verses 18-25).” To have inserted these into Chapter i. would have marred its symmetry. This chapter deals with the creation of the world. The plan of Chapter i. made it necessary to reserve the account of the Garden of Eden to the next section where it naturally falls into place. Chapter i. embraces the whole world and all that it contains, while Chapter ii. gives an account of the Garden of Eden which was fitted up for our first parents. A study of the two chapters makes it quite plain that the second is in no way parallel to the first, but its natural sequel. It introduces the reader to a new stage in the unfolding of the divine plan which it is the purpose of the book of Genesis to unfold.