Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Genesis 1:16 - Basic English
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ge 1:16 |
Basic English |
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. |
| |
King James |
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. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| two great lights--In consequence of the day being reckoned as commencing at sunset--the moon, which would be seen first in the horizon, would appear "a great light," compared with the little twinkling stars; while its pale benign radiance would be eclipsed by the dazzling splendor of the sun; when his resplendent orb rose in the morning and gradually attained its meridian blaze of glory, it would appear "the greater light" that ruled the day. Both these lights may be said to be "made" on the fourth day--not created, indeed, for it is a different word that is here used, but constituted, appointed to the important and necessary office of serving as luminaries to the world, and regulating by their motions and their influence the progress and divisions of time. |
| The Scofield Bible Commentary, by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, [1917] |
greater light
The "greater light" is a type of Christ, the "Sun of righteousness" (Mal 4:2). He will take this character at His second advent. Morally the world is now in the state between; (Gen 1:3-16); (Eph 6:12); (Act 26:18); (Pe1 2:9). The sun is not seen, but there is light. Christ is that light (Joh 1:4); (Joh 1:5-9) but "shineth in darkness," comprehended only by faith. As "Son of righteousness" He will dispel all darkness. Dispensationally the Church is in place as the "lesser light," the moon, reflecting the light of the unseen sun. The stars (Gen 1:16) are individual believers who are "lights"; (Phi 2:15-16); (Joh 1:5).
A type is a divinely purposed illustration of some truth. It may be:
(1) a person (Rom 5:14)
(2) an event (Co1 10:11)
(3) a thing (Heb 10:20)
(4) an institution (Heb 9:11)
(5) a ceremonial (Co1 5:7).
Types occur most frequently in the Pentateuch, but are found, more sparingly, elsewhere. The antitype, or fulfillment of the type, is found, usually, in the New Testament .
made
The word does not imply a creative act; (Gen 1:14-18) are declarative of function merely. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
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, Pe2 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 splendor 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 see the note on Gen 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 splendor 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! See Clarke's note on Gen 1:1. |
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the arch of heaven, for a division between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for marking the changes of the year, and for days and for years:
15 And let them be for lights in the arch of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so.
16 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.
17 And God put them in the arch of heaven, to give light on the earth;
18 To have rule over the day and the night, and for a division between the light and the dark: and God saw that it was good.
7 Take away, then, the old leaven, so that you may be a new mass, even as you are without leaven. For Christ has been put to death as our Passover.
11 But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things of the future, through this greater and better Tent, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this world,
20 By the new and living way which he made open for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
11 Now these things were done as an example; and were put down in writing for our teaching, on whom the last days have come.
14 But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come.
5 And the light goes on shining in the dark; it is not overcome by the dark.
15 So that you may be holy and gentle, children of God without sin in a twisted and foolish generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,
16 Offering the word of life; so that I may have glory in you in the day of Christ, because my running was not for nothing and my work was not without effect.
16 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.
5 And the light goes on shining in the dark; it is not overcome by the dark.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came for witness, to give witness about the light, so that all men might have faith through him.
8 He himself was not the light: he was sent to give witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to every man, was then coming into the world.
4 What came into existence in him was life, and the life was the light of men.
9 But you are a special people, a holy nation, priests and kings, a people given up completely to God, so that you may make clear the virtues of him who took you out of the dark into the light of heaven.
18 To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me.
12 For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world-rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good: and God made a division between the light and the dark,
5 Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a solid arch stretching over the waters, parting the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the arch for a division between the waters which were under the arch and those which were over it: and it was so.
8 And God gave the arch the name of Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven come together in one place, and let the dry land be seen: and it was so.
10 And God gave the dry land the name of Earth; and the waters together in their place were named Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let grass come up on the earth, and plants producing seed, and fruit-trees giving fruit, in which is their seed, after their sort: and it was so.
12 And grass came up on the earth, and every plant producing seed of its sort, and every tree producing fruit, in which is its seed, of its sort: and God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the arch of heaven, for a division between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for marking the changes of the year, and for days and for years:
15 And let them be for lights in the arch of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so.
16 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.
2 But to you who give worship to my name, the sun of righteousness will come up with new life in its wings; and you will go out, playing like young oxen full of food.
1 At the first God made the heaven and the earth.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
8 But, my loved ones, keep in mind this one thing, that with the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years are no more than one day.