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dropped and the lamed, doubled. Now both these words are derived from the root (Alaha,) he worshipped, adored, was struck with astonishment, fear, or terror: and hence, he adored with sacred horror and veneration, cum sacro horrore ac veneratione coluit, adoravit. WILMET.-Hence 8 (ilahon,) fear, veneration, and also the object of religious fear, the Deity, the supreme God, the tremendous Being. This is not a new idea; God was considered among the ancient Hebrews as the fearful or tremendous Being: and hence Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, Gen. xxxi. 53. To complete the definition, Golius renders (alaha,) juvit, liberavit, et tutatus fuit, 'he succoured, liberated, kept in safety or defended.' Thus, from the ideal meaning of this most expressive root, we acquire the most correct notion of the Divine Nature; for we learn that God is the sole object of adoration, that the perfections of his nature are such as must astonish all those who piously contemplate them, and fill with horror all who would dare to give his glory to another, or break his commandments: that consequently, he should be worshipped with reverence and religious fear; and that every sincere worshipper may expect divine help in all his weaknesses, trials, difficulties, temptations, &c. freedom from the power, guilt, nature, and consequences of sin; and to be supported, defended, and saved to the uttermost and to the end."*

Created(Bara.) "This word," says Parkhurst, " denotes the production either of substance or form, the creation or accretion of substance or matter. Now here it cannot relate to form, because, as it follows in the next verse, the earth was without form♫ (Tohu,) or in loose atoms." It must, therefore, denote to create, produce into being. "The Rabbins," says Dr. Clarke, "who are legitimate judges in a case of verbal criticism on their own language, are unanimous in asserting that the word (Bara,) expresses the commencement of the existence of a thing, or its egression from nonentity to entity."

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* Dr. A. Clarke, in loco.

Eth) אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ,The Heavens and the Earth

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hashshamayim we-eth haaretz.) "The word (Eth) which is generally considered as a particle, simply denoting that the word following is in the accusative or oblique case, is understood by the Rabbins in a much more extensive sense. • The particle Neth,' says Aben Ezra, signifies the substance of the thing.' The like definition is given by Kimchi, in his Book of Roots. This particle,' says Mr. Ainsworth, first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in it, to comprize the sum and substance of all things.' ticle Neth,' says Buxtorf, (Talmudic Lexicon, sub voce) ' with the Cabalists, is often mystically put for the beginning and the end, as A (alpha) and 2 (omega) are in the Apocalypse.' On this ground, these words should be translated: God in the beginning created the substance of the heavens and the substance of the earth: i. e. the prima materia, or first clements, out of which the heavens and earth were successively formed. The Syriac translator understood the word in this sense, and to express this meaning, has used the word ♫* (Yoth,) which bas this signification, and is very properly translated in Walton's Polyglott, ESSE cœli et ESSE terræ, 'the being or substance of the heaven, and the being or substance of the earth.' St. Ephraim Syrus, in his comment on this place, uses the same Syriac word, and appears to understand it precisely in the same way. Though the Hebrew word is certainly no more than the notation of a case in most places; yet understood here in the sense above, it argues a wonderful philosophic accuracy in the statement of Moses, which brings before us not a finished heaven and earth, as every other translation appears to do, though afterwards the process of their formation is given in detail, but merely the materials out of which God built the whole system in the six following days."+

Heavens, (Shamayim.) This word, according to Parkhurst, signifies the disposers or placers, from the root (soom)

• This Syriac word, like the Heb. (eth) sometimes merely denotes the accusative case.

VOL. I.

† Dr. A. Clarke in loco.

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to put, place, dispose, or arrange. And he observes, "This - appellation was first given by God to the celestial fluid, or air, when it began to act in disposing and arranging the earth and waters. Gen. i. 8. Aquila and Theodotion render it by Anp (Aër,) Job. xxxv. 11., and our translators frequently by the air. See Gen. i. 30. vii. 3. 2 Sam. xxi. 10. Prov. xxx. 19. Eccles. x. 20. In this, not only the birds fly, Gen. i. 20; the meteors, as rain, dew, &c. are formed, Gen. xxvii. 28. Deut. xi. 11. xxviii. 12. xxxiii. 2. Isa. lv. 10., but also the sun, moon and stars are placed, Gen. i. 14-17." From this it appears, that the word denotes not only our atmosphere but the whole region of air, or at least, the solar system. These two divisions of air would seem to be intimated by the word being in the dual number.

Verse 2. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

.Ruach Elohim) רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים,The Spirit of God

This passage has been very variously and strangely interpreted. Some understanding by it an elementary fire, others the sun, others the angels, others an occult principle termed the anima mundi or soul of the world, and others magnetic attraction. Of these opinions there is no need to say any thing; their absurdity is their own refutation. The opinion, however, which has obtained most, in opposition to the received version, sanctioned by many eminent biblical critics, and which appears extremely plausible and well supported, is, that it denotes a violent wind. The foundation of this opinion is the ambiguity of the word (Ruach,) which signifies both wind and spirit, as Gen. viii. 1. "And God made a (ruach) wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged;" and the well known principle in the Hebrew language, that a superlative force is frequently given by adding one of the divine names to a noun; as Gen. xxiii. 5. D (Nesee Elohim,) a prince of God, i. e. a mighty prince. Gen. xxx. 8. np (Naphtoolay Elohim,) the wrestlings of God, i. e. mighty wrestlings. Psa. 80. 11. 88 (Arzay El,) the cedars of God, i. e. great or high cedars. But against such an opinion we may remark,

1st, The ancient and modern versions do not appear to authorize this translation. It is true that the Chaldee "(Rucha min Kodam doya,) may signify, either, a wind from before Jehovah, i. e. a mighty wind, or a spirit from before Jehovah, but the latter sense is more in accordance with the other versions, the Septuagint rendering it πvɛυμɑ des and the Vulgate Spiritus Dei. And in Bereshith Rabba, on

Zeh) זֶה רוּחוֹ שֶׁל מֶלֶךְ הַמָּשִׁיחַ this place, it is thus interpreted

rucho shel melech hammasheeach,) "This is the Spirit of the King Messiah."

2dly, The word non (merachepheth) translated moved, is the present participle in Piail of the word (rachaph) and properly denotes, brooding over, or that tremulous motion made by a bird, while either hatching its eggs or fostering its young. So in Deut. xxxii. 11. “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth (yeracheph) over her young. Hence probably the notion which prevailed among the ancients, that the world was generated from an egg. Now if we connect the idea of a mighty wind, with this tremulous motion, we shall at once perceive their incongruity. For a mighty wind would certainly never have brooded or fostered on the face of the deep, but rushed along with the greatest impetuosity. Upon the whole, we would, therefore, infer, that our common version is perfectly correct, and well agrees with the obvious sense of scripture By his Spirit in other places; as, for instance, Job, xxvi. 13. he hath garnished the heavens." And we cannot avoid remarking the extraordinary concession of a Jew to the Divinity of the Messiah, in Bereshith Rabba. For if the Spirit of God be the spirit of Messiah, consequently the Messiah must be God. This well coincides with the words of the inspired Evangelist, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." John i. 1, 2, 3.

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II. On the New Testament.

MATTHEW, Chap. 1.

Verse 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

The Book of the Generation, BIBAOE TENEZENE. This expression would appear to be a Hebraism, answering to the Hebrew niin 90 (Sepher Toledoth,) as it does in the LXX of Gen. v. 1.; though Wetstein, as remarked by Parkhurst, cites from Herodotus, lib. ii. γενεαλοίεισι δε αυτων την ΓΕΝΕΣΙΝ, they reckon their genealogy or descent." The Syriac well expresses it (by (kethovo deeleedoothai) the writing, narrative, or rehearsal of the generation or birth, (ver. 18.) of Jesus; for though the word yvos, (as the correspondent Heb. word) is elsewhere of that latitude, as to comprise also the history of our Lord's life, and death, and resurrection, yet it is here to be restrained to the birth of Christ, as appears, 1st, from the parallel phrase auτn ʼn Biểλos Yevεσews avoρwπwv, this is the book, or the rehearsal of the generation of men, from Adam to Noah (Gen. v.1.); 2d, from the design of the apostle here, which is to set down the descent of Christ from Abraham, and his alliance to king David by his father Joseph; and 3d, from the 18th verse, which, after this narrative of it, proceeds to shew the manner of his birth, by saying, now the birth (n yeveσs) of Jesus Christ was on this wise."

Verse 23. A virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. H πаplevoç ev yaσтρL εξει, και τέξεται υιον.

“That the Heb. Alma (7) is duly rendered πapßevos, a virgin, we prove against the Jews, 1st, from the authority of their own Septuagint, who so rendered it 300 years before St. Matthew wrote his gospel: 2d, From the derivation of the word Alma from y (alam) to hide, cover, conceal; for virgins, according to the custom of the eastern nations, were kept in secret apart

*Whitby, in loco.

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