the First Week after Epiphany
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J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Genesis 1:16
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God then made two great lightes: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesse light to rule the night: he made also the starres.
And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the smaller light to rule the night; and the stars also.
God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
So God made the two large lights. He made the larger light to rule during the day and the smaller light to rule during the night. He also made the stars.
And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
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 made the two great lights: the greater light to be the ruler of the day, and the smaller light to be the ruler of the night: and he made the stars.
God made two powerful lights, the brighter one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. He also made the stars.
God made the two great lights — the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night — and the stars.
And God made the two great lights, the great light to rule the day, and the small light to rule the night,—and the stars.
And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the starres also.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
God made the two great lights—the greater light (the sun) to rule the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night; He made the [galaxies of] stars also [that is, all the amazing wonders in the heavens].
And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also.
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.
God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.
And God made two lights, the greater light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night, and the stars.
And God made the two great luminaries: the great luminary to rule the day, and the small luminary and the stars to rule the night.
So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also.
Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars.
Then God made the two great lights, the brighter light to rule the day, and the smaller light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and The stars.
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.
So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars.
And God made twei grete liytis, the gretter liyt that it schulde be bifore to the dai, and the lesse liyt that it schulde be bifore to the niyt;
And God maketh the two great luminaries, the great luminary for the rule of the day, and the small luminary -- and the stars -- for the rule of the night;
God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.
And God made 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 made two great lyghtes: a greater lyght to rule the day, and a lesse lyght to rule the nyght, and [he made] starres also.
God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars.
And God made two greate lightes: one greater light to rule the daye, and a lesse light to rule the night, and (he made) starres also.
God made two big lights, the larger to take charge of Day, The smaller to be in charge of Night; and he made the stars. God placed them in the heavenly sky to light up Earth And oversee Day and Night, to separate light and dark. God saw that it was good. It was evening, it was morning— Day Four.
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.
God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.
So God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and also the stars.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
to rule: Heb. for the rule, etc. Deuteronomy 4:19, Joshua 10:12-14, Job 31:26, Job 38:7, Psalms 8:3, Psalms 19:6, Psalms 74:16, Psalms 136:7, Psalms 136:8, Psalms 136:9, Psalms 148:3, Psalms 148:5, Isaiah 13:10, Isaiah 24:23, Isaiah 45:7, Habakkuk 3:11, Matthew 24:29, Matthew 27:45, 1 Corinthians 15:41, Revelation 16:8, Revelation 16:9, Revelation 21:23
he made the stars also: Or, with the stars also
Reciprocal: Job 9:9 - maketh Job 38:33 - the ordinances
Cross-References
And God made the expanse, and it divided between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
And God called the expanse, heavens. So it was evening - and it was morning, a, second day.
And God said - Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together, into one place, and let the dry - ground appear. And it was so.
And the land brought-forth vegetation - herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, whose seed is within it, after its kind, And God saw that it was good.
And God said - Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day and the night, - and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
or lest thou shouldest lift up thine eyes towards the heavens and see the sun and the moon, and the stars - all the host of the heavens, and shouldest be seduced, and shouldest bow thyself down to them and he led to serve them, - the which Yahweh thy God hath assigned unto all the peoples under all the heavens;
If I looked at the sun, when it flashed forth light, or at the moon, majestically marching along;
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
When I view thy heavens, the work, of thy fingers, moon and stars, which thou hast established,
From one end of the heavens, is his going forth, and, his circuit, to the other end thereof - and, nothing, is hid from his glowing heat.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And God made two great lights,.... This was his own work which he himself did, and not by another; and may be particularly observed to express the folly of idolaters in worshipping these luminaries which were the creations of God, and were placed by him in the heaven to serve some purposes on earth beneficial to men, but not to be worshipped. These two "great lights" are the sun and the moon; and they may well be called great, especially the former, for the diameter of the sun is reckoned to be about eight hundred thousand miles. According to Mr. Derham i its apparent diameter is computed at 822,145 English miles, its ambit at 2,582,873 miles, and its solid contents at 290,971,000,000,000,000: the lowest account makes the sun a hundred thousand times bigger than the earth; and according to Sir Isaac Newton it is 900,000 bigger. The moon's diameter is to that of the earth is about twenty seven per cent, or 2175 miles, its surface contains fourteen hundred thousand square miles k: it is called great, not on account of its corporeal quantity, for it is the least of all the planets excepting Mercury, but because of its quality, as a light, it reflecting more light upon the earth than any besides the sun.
The greater light to rule the day: not to rule men, though the heathens have worshipped it under the names of Molech and Baal, which signify king and lord, as if it was their lord and king to whom they were to pay homage; but to rule the day, to preside over it, to make it, give light in it, and continue it to its proper length; and in which it rules alone, the moon, nor any of the other planets then appearing: this is called the "greater" light, in comparison of the moon, not only with respect to its body or substance, but on account of its light, which is far greater and stronger than that of the moon; and which indeed receives its light from it, the moon being, as is generally said, an opaque body:
and the lesser light to rule the night; to give light then, though in a fainter, dimmer way, by reflecting it from the sun; and it rules alone, the sun being absent from the earth, and is of great use to travellers and sailors; it is called the lesser light, in comparison of the sun. Astronomers are of opinion, as Calmet l observes, that it is about fifty two times smaller than the earth, and four thousand one hundred and fifty times smaller than the sun; but these proportions are otherwise determined by the generality of modern astronomers: however, they all agree that the moon is abundantly less than the sun; and that it is as a light, we all know.
[He made] the stars also; to rule by night, Psalms 136:9 not only the planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, but the vast numbers of stars with which the heavens are bespangled, and which reflect some degree of light upon the earth; with the several constellations, some of which the Scriptures speak of, as Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the south, Job 9:9
Job 38:31 though some restrain this to the five planets only.
Ed. Contrast the foolishness of modern cosmology with the writings of the early church father, Theophilus when he states j:
"On the fourth day the luminaries came into existence. Since God has foreknowledge, he understood the nonsense of the foolish philosophers who were going to say that the things produced on earth came from the stars, so that they might set God aside. In order therefore that the truth might be demonstrated, plants and seeds came into existence before stars. For what comes into existence later cannot cause what is prior to it.''
i Astro-Theology, B. 1. c. 2. B. 6. c. 2. j Cited from Impact 251. ICR "Acts and Facts" (May 1994) Theophilus, "To Autolycus" 2. 4, Oxford Early Christian Texts, as cited in Louis Lavalle, "The Early Church Defended Creation Science" Impact 160. ICR "Acts and Facts" (October 1986): ii. k Chambers's Dictionary in the word "Moon". l Dictionary in the word "Moon".
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- VI. The Fourth Day
14. ×××ר maÌ'oÌr, âa light, a luminary, a center of radiant light.â
×××¢× moÌâeÌd, âset time, season.â
Words beginning with a formative × musually signify that in which the simple quality resides or is realized. Hence, they often denote place.
17. × ×ª× naÌthan âgive, hold out, show, stretch, hold out.â Latin: tendo, teneo; ÏειÌÎ½Ï teinoÌ.
The darkness has been removed from the face of the deep, its waters have been distributed in due proportions above and below the expanse; the lower waters have retired and given place to the emerging land, and the wasteness of the land thus exposed to view has begun to be adorned with the living forms of a new vegetation. It only remains to remove the âvoidâ by peopling this now fair and fertile world with the animal kingdom. For this purpose the Great Designer begins a new cycle of supernatural operations.
Genesis 1:14, Genesis 1:15
Lights. - The work of the fourth day has much in common with that of the first day, which, indeed it continues and completes. Both deal with light, and with dividing between light and darkness, or day and night. âLet there be.â They agree also in choosing the word âbe,â to express the nature of the operation which is here performed. But the fourth day advances on the first day. It brings into view the luminaries, the light radiators, the source, while the first only indicated the stream. It contemplates the far expanse, while the first regards only the near.
For signs and for seasons, and for days and years. - While the first day refers only to the day and its twofold division, the fourth refers to signs, seasons, days, and years. These lights are for âsigns.â They are to serve as the great natural chronometer of man, having its three units, - the day, the month, and the year - and marking the divisions of time, not only for agricultural and social purposes, but also for meeting out the eras of human history and the cycles of natural science. They are signs of place as well as of time - topometers, if we may use the term. By them the mariner has learned to mark the latitude and longitude of his ship, and the astronomer to determine with any assignable degree of precision the place as well as the time of the planetary orbs of heaven. The âseasonsâ are the natural seasons of the year, and the set times for civil and sacred purposes which man has attached to special days and years in the revolution of time.
Since the word âdayâ is a key to the explanation of the first dayâs work, so is the word âyearâ to the interpretation of that of the fourth. Since the cause of the distinction of day and night is the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis in conjunction with a fixed source of light, which streamed in on the scene of creation as soon as the natural hinderance was removed, so the vicissitudes of the year are owing, along with these two conditions, to the annual revolution of the earth in its orbit round the sun, together with the obliquity of the ecliptic. To the phenomena so occasioned are to be added incidental variations arising from the revolution of the moon round the earth, and the small modifications caused by the various other bodies of the solar system. All these celestial phenomena come out from the artless simplicity of the sacred narrative as observable facts on the fourth day of that new creation. From the beginning of the solar system the earth must, from the nature of things, have revolved around the sun. But whether the rate of velocity was ever changed, or the obliquity of the ecliptic was now commenced or altered, we do not learn from this record.
Genesis 1:15
To shine upon the earth. - The first day spreads the shaded gleam of light over the face of the deep. The fourth day unfolds to the eye the lamps of heaven, hanging in the expanse of the skies, and assigns to them the office of âshining upon the earth.â A threefold function is thus attributed to the celestial orbs - to divide day from night, to define time and place, and to shine on the earth. The word of command is here very full, running over two verses, with the exception of the little clause, âand it was so,â stating the result.
Genesis 1:16-19
This result is fully particularized in the next three verses. This word, âmade,â corresponds to the word âbeâ in the command, and indicates the disposition and adjustment to a special purpose of things previously existing.
Genesis 1:16
The two great lights. - The well-known ones, great in relation to the stars, as seen from the earth.
The great light, - in comparison with the little light. The stars, from manâs point of view, are insignificant, except in regard to number Genesis 15:5.
Genesis 1:17
God gave them. - The absolute giving of the heavenly bodies in their places was performed at the time of their actual creation. The relative giving here spoken of is what would appear to an earthly spectator, when the intervening veil of clouds would be dissolved by the divine agency, and the celestial luminaries would stand forth in all their dazzling splendor.
Genesis 1:18
To rule. - From their lofty eminence they regulate the duration and the business of each period. The whole is inspected and approved as before.
Now let it be remembered that the heavens were created at the absolute beginning of things recorded in the first verse, and that they included all other things except the earth. Hence, according to this document, the sun, moon, and stars were in existence simultaneously with our planet. This gives simplicity and order to the whole narrative. Light comes before us on the first and on the fourth day. Now, as two distinct causes of a common effect would be unphilosophical and unnecessary, we must hold the one cause to have been in existence on these two days. But we have seen that the one cause of the day and of the year is a fixed source of radiating light in the sky, combined with the diurnal and annual motions of the earth. Thus, the recorded preexistence of the celestial orbs is consonant with the presumptions of reason. The making or reconstitution of the atmosphere admits their light so far that the alternations of day and night can be discerned. The making of the lights of heaven, or the display of them in a serene sky by the withdrawal of that opaque canopy of clouds that still enveloped the dome above, is then the work of the fourth day.
All is now plain and intelligible. The heavenly bodies become the lights of the earth, and the distinguishers not only of day and night, but of seasons and years, of times and places. They shed forth their unveiled glories and salutary potencies on the budding, waiting land. How the higher grade of transparency in the aerial region was effected, we cannot tell; and, therefore, we are not prepared to explain why it is accomplished on the fourth day, and not sooner. But from its very position in time, we are led to conclude that the constitution of the expanse, the elevation of a portion of the waters of the deep in the form of vapor, the collection of the sub-aerial water into seas, and the creation of plants out of the reeking soil, must all have had an essential part, both in retarding until the fourth day, and in then bringing about the dispersion of the clouds and the clearing of the atmosphere. Whatever remained of hinderance to the outshining of the sun, moon, and stars on the land in all their native splendor, was on this day removed by the word of divine power.
Now is the approximate cause of day and night made palpable to the observation. Now are the heavenly bodies made to be signs of time and place to the intelligent spectator on the earth, to regulate seasons, days, months, and years, and to be the luminaries of the world. Now, manifestly, the greater light rules the day, as the lesser does the night. The Creator has withdrawn the curtain, and set forth the hitherto undistinguishable brilliants of space for the illumination of the land and the regulation of the changes which diversify its surface. This bright display, even if it could have been effected on the first day with due regard to the forces of nature already in operation, was unnecessary to the unseeing and unmoving world of vegetation, while it was plainly requisite for the seeing, choosing, and moving world of animated nature which was about to be called into existence on the following days.
The terms employed for the objects here brought forward - âlights, the great light, the little light, the stars;â for the mode of their manifestation, âbe, make, give;â and for the offices they discharge, âdivide, rule, shine, be for signs, seasons, days, yearsâ - exemplify the admirable simplicity of Scripture, and the exact adaptation of its style to the unsophisticated mind of primeval man. We have no longer, indeed, the naming of the various objects, as on the former days; probably because it would no longer be an important source of information for the elucidation of the narrative. But we have more than an equivalent for this in variety of phrase. The several words have been already noticed: it only remains to make some general remarks.
(1) The sacred writer notes only obvious results, such as come before the eye of the observer, and leaves the secondary causes, their modes of operation, and their less obtrusive effects, to scientific inquiry. The progress of observation is from the foreground to the background of nature, from the physical to the metaphysical, and from the objective to the subjective. Among the senses, too, the eye is the most prominent observer in the scenes of the six days. Hence, the âlights,â they âshine,â they are for âsignsâ and âdays,â which are in the first instance objects of vision. They are âgiven,â held or shown forth in the heavens. Even âruleâ has probably the primitive meaning to be over. Starting thus with the visible and the tangible, the Scripture in its successive communications advance with us to the inferential, the intuitive, the moral, the spiritual, the divine.
(2) The sacred writer also touches merely the heads of things in these scenes of creation, without condescending to minute particulars or intending to be exhaustive. Hence, many actual incidents and intricacies of these days are left to the well-regulated imagination and sober judgment of the reader. To instance such omissions, the moon is as much of her time above the horizon during the day as during the night. But she is not then the conspicuous object in the scene, or the full-orbed reflector of the solar beams, as she is during the night. Here the better part is used to mark the whole. The tidal influence of the great lights, in which the moon plays the chief part, is also unnoticed. Hence, we are to expect very many phenomena to be altogether omitted, though interesting and important in themselves, because they do not come within the present scope of the narrative.
(3) The point from which the writer views the scene is never to be forgotten, if we would understand these ancient records. He stands on earth. He uses his eyes as the organ of observation. He knows nothing of the visual angle, of visible as distinguishable from tangible magnitude, of relative in comparison with absolute motion on the grand scale: he speaks the simple language of the eye. Hence, his earth is the meet counterpart of the heavens. His sun and moon are great, and all the stars are a very little thing. Light comes to be, to him, when it reaches the eye. The luminaries are held forth in the heavens, when the mist between them and the eye is dissolved.
(4) Yet, though not trained to scientific thought or speech, this author has the eye of reason open as well as that of sense. It is not with him the science of the tangible, but the philosophy of the intuitive, that reduces things to their proper dimensions. He traces not the secondary cause, but ascends at one glance to the great first cause, the manifest act and audible behest of the Eternal Spirit. This imparts a sacred dignity to his style, and a transcendent grandeur to his conceptions. In the presence of the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, all things terrestrial and celestial are reduced to a common level. Man in intelligent relation with God comes forth as the chief figure on the scene of terrestrial creation. The narrative takes its commanding position as the history of the ways of God with man. The commonest primary facts of ordinary observation, when recorded in this book, assume a supreme interest as the monuments of eternal wisdom and the heralds of the finest and broadest generalizations of a consecrated science. The very words are instinct with a germinant philosophy, and prove themselves adequate to the expression of the loftiest speculations of the eloquent mind.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 1:16. And God made two great lights — Moses speaks of the sun and moon here, not according to their bulk or solid contents, but according to the proportion of light they shed on the earth. The expression has been cavilled at by some who are as devoid of mental capacity as of candour. "The moon," say they, "is not a great body; on the contrary, it is the very smallest in our system." Well, and has Moses said the contrary? He has said it is a great LIGHT; had he said otherwise he had not spoken the truth. It is, in reference to the earth, next to the sun himself, the greatest light in the solar system; and so true is it that the moon is a great light, that it affords more light to the earth than all the planets in the solar system, and all the innumerable stars in the vault of heaven, put together. It is worthy of remark that on the fourth day of the creation the sun was formed, and then "first tried his beams athwart the gloom profound;" and that at the conclusion of the fourth millenary from the creation, according to the Hebrew, the Sun of righteousness shone upon the world, as deeply sunk in that mental darkness produced by sin as the ancient world was, while teeming darkness held the dominion, till the sun was created as the dispenser of light. What would the natural world be without the sun? A howling waste, in which neither animal nor vegetable life could possibly be sustained. And what would the moral world be without Jesus Christ, and the light of his word and Spirit? Just what those parts of it now are where his light has not yet shone: "dark places of the earth, filled with the habitations of cruelty," where error prevails without end, and superstition, engendering false hopes and false fears, degrades and debases the mind of man.
Many have supposed that the days of the creation answer to so many thousands of years; and that as God created all in six days, and rested the seventh, so the world shall last six thousand years, and the seventh shall be the eternal rest that remains for the people of God. To this conclusion they have been led by these words of the apostle, 2Pe 3:8: One day is with the Lord as a thousand years; and a thousand years as one day. Secret things belong to God; those that are revealed to us and our children.
He made the stars also.] Or rather, He made the lesser light, with the stars, to rule the night. See Claudlan de Raptu PROSER., lib. ii., v. 44.
Hic Hyperionis solem de semine nasci
Fecerat, et pariter lunam, sed dispare forma,
Aurorae noctisque duces.
From famed Hyperion did he cause to rise
The sun, and placed the moon amid the skies,
With splendour robed, but far unequal light,
The radiant leaders of the day and night.
OF THE SUN
On the nature of the sun there have been various conjectures. It was long thought that he was a vast globe of fire 1,384,462 times larger than the earth, and that he was continually emitting from his body innumerable millions of fiery particles, which, being extremely divided, answered for the purpose of light and heat without occasioning any ignition or burning, except when collected in the focus of a convex lens or burning glass. Against this opinion, however, many serious and weighty objections have been made; and it has been so pressed with difficulties that philosophers have been obliged to look for a theory less repugnant to nature and probability. Dr. Herschel's discoveries by means of his immensely magnifying telescopes, have, by the general consent of philosophers, added a new habitable world to our system, which is the SUN. Without stopping to enter into detail, which would be improper here, it is sufficient to say that these discoveries tend to prove that what we call the sun is only the atmosphere of that luminary; "that this atmosphere consists of various elastic fluids that are more or less lucid and transparent; that as the clouds belonging to our earth are probably decompositions of some of the elastic fluids belonging to the atmosphere itself, so we may suppose that in the vast atmosphere of the sun, similar decompositions may take place, but with this difference, that the decompositions of the elastic fluids of the sun are of a phosphoric nature, and are attended by lucid appearances, by giving out light." The body of the sun he considers as hidden generally from us by means of this luminous atmosphere, but what are called the maculae or spots on the sun are real openings in this atmosphere, through which the opaque body of the sun becomes visible; that this atmosphere itself is not fiery nor hot, but is the instrument which God designed to act on the caloric or latent heat; and that heat is only produced by the solar light acting upon and combining with the caloric or matter of fire contained in the air, and other substances which are heated by it. This ingenious theory is supported by many plausible reasons and illustrations, which may be seen in the paper he read before the Royal Society. On this subject Genesis 1:3.
OF THE MOON
There is scarcely any doubt now remaining in the philosophical world that the moon is a habitable globe. The most accurate observations that have been made with the most powerful telescopes have confirmed the opinion. The moon seems, in almost every respect, to be a body similar to our earth; to have its surface diversified by hill and dale, mountains and valleys, rivers, lakes, and seas. And there is the fullest evidence that our earth serves as a moon to the moon herself, differing only in this, that as the earth's surface is thirteen times larger than the moon's, so the moon receives from the earth a light thirteen times greater in splendour than that which she imparts to us; and by a very correct analogy we are led to infer that all the planets and their satellites, or attendant moons, are inhabited, for matter seems only to exist for the sake of intelligent beings.
OF THE STARS
The STARS in general are considered to be suns, similar to that in our system, each having an appropriate number of planets moving round it; and, as these stars are innumerable, consequently there are innumerable worlds, all dependent on the power, protection, and providence of God. Where the stars are in great abundance, Dr. Herschel supposes they form primaries and secondaries, i.e., suns revolving about suns, as planets revolve about the sun in our system. He considers that this must be the case in what is called the milky way, the stars being there in prodigious quantity. Of this he gives the following proof: On August 22, 1792, he found that in forty-one minutes of time not less than 258,000 stars had passed through the field of view in his telescope. What must God be, who has made, governs, and supports so many worlds! For the magnitudes, distances, revolutions, &c., of the sun, moon, planets, and their satellites, see the preceding TABLES. Genesis 1:1.
