Genesis 1 SERIES - Verse 1

Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Vs.1 

 

A general definition of this great First Cause, as far as human words dare attempt one, may be thus given: 

--The eternal, 

--independent, 

--and self-existent Being: 

the Being whose purposes and actions spring from Himself, without foreign motive or influence: 

The original word אלהים Elohim, God, is certainly the plural form of אל El, or אלה Eloah, and has long been supposed, by the most eminently learned and pious men, to imply a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature.

In the beginning - Before the creative acts mentioned in this chapter all was Eternity. 

---Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies: but prior to the creation of these bodies there could be no measurement of duration, and consequently no time; therefore in the beginning must necessarily mean the commencement of time which followed, or rather was produced by, God's creative acts, as an effect follows or is produced by a cause.

 

Created - Caused existence where previously to this moment there was no being. 

 

Observe, in this verse, four things:— 

(1.) The effect produced—the heaven and the earth, that is, the

world, including the whole frame and furniture of the universe, the world and all things therein.

(2.) The author and cause of this great work—GOD. The Hebrew word is Elohim, which bespeaks.

The power of God the Creator. El signifies the strong God; and what less than almighty strength could bring all things out of nothing?

(3.) The manner in which this work was effected: God created it, that is, made it out of nothing. There was not any pre-existent matter out of which the world was produced.

(4.) When this work was produced: In the beginning, that is, in the beginning of time, when that clock was first set a going: time began with the production of those beings that are measured by time. Before the beginning of time there was none but that Infinite Being that inhabits eternity. 

---Should we ask why God made the world no sooner, we should but darken counsel by words without knowledge; for how could there be sooner or later in eternity?

 

 If He is the Creator, no doubt He is the owner and possessor of heaven and earth.