The very first rule on which the interpreter is bound to proceed is to assign to each word the meaning it commonly bore in the time of the writer. 29 Then God said, “Look! It allows, also, if it were necessary, between the original creation, recorded in the first verse, and the state of things described in the second, the interval of time required for the light of the most distant discoverable star to reach the earth. It places the special creative work of the six days in due subordination to the absolute creation recorded in the first verse. It assigns to the words “heavens,” “earth,” “expanse,” “day,” no greater latitude of meaning than was then customary. Man, as well as other things, was very good when he came from his Maker‘s hand; but good as yet untried, and therefore good in capacity rather than in victory over temptation. Related Commentaries for Genesis 1 It is plain that a vegetable diet alone is expressly conceded to man in this original conveyance, and it is probable that this alone was designed for him in the state in which he was created. 29 Then Jacob hurried on, finally arriving in the land of the east. As usual in Scripture the chief parts are put for the whole, and accordingly this specification of the ordinary and the obvious covers the general principle that whatever part of the vegetable kingdom is convertible into food by the ingenuity of man is free for his use. No such interval, however, could be absolutely necessary, as the Creator could as easily establish the luminous connection of the different orbs of heaven as summon into being the element of light itself. Genesis 1:29-30 New Living Translation (NLT) 29 Then God said, “Look! It attributes to the second verse a prominent place and function in the arrangement of the record.
In the terms of the original grant the herb bearing seed and the tree bearing fruit are especially allotted to man, because the grain and the fruit were edible by man without much preparation. And before the earth was deluged, much more before it was cursed … Still, the main substance of the means of animal life, and the ultimate supply of the whole of it, are derived from the plant. In both are performed two acts of creative power. I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. It remains yet to be seen whether he will be good in act and habit.Fifth, it is in keeping, as far as it goes, with the facts of botany, zoology, and ethnology.Sixth, it agrees with the cosmogonies of all nations, so far as these are founded upon a genuine tradition and not upon the mere conjectures of a lively fancy.The whole of the grasses and the green parts or leaves of the herbage are distributed among the inferior animals for food.