《Trapp ’s Complete Commentary– Genesis (Vol. 1)》(John Trapp)

Commentator

John Trapp, (5 June 1601, Croome D'Abitot - 16 October 1669, Weston-on-Avon), was an English Anglican Bible commentator. His large five-volume commentary is still read today and is known for its pithy statements and quotable prose. His volumes are quoted frequently by other religious writers, including Charles Spurgeon (1834 -1892), Ruth Graham, the daughter of Ruth Bell Graham, said that John Trapp, along with C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald, was one of her mother's three favorite sources for quotations.

Trapp studied at the Free School in Worcester and then at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A., 1622; M.A., 1624). He became usher of the free school of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1622 and its headmaster in 1624, and was made preacher at Luddington, near Stratford, before becoming vicar of Weston-on-Avon in Gloucestershire. He sided with parliament in the English Civil War and was arrested for a short time. He took the covenant of 1643 and acted as chaplain to the parliamentary soldiers in Stratford for two years. He served as rector of Welford-on-Avon in Gloucestershire between 1646 and 1660 and again as vicar of Weston from 1660 until his death in 1669.

Quotes from John Trapp:

Be careful what books you read, for as water tastes of the soil it runs through, so does the soul taste of the authors that a man reads. – John Trapp
He who rides to be crowned will not mind a rainy day. – John Trapp
Unity without verity is no better than conspiracy – John Trapp

00 Introduction

Book Overview - Genesis

The Name means beginning, origin, or creation. The leading thought, therefore, is creation and we should study it with a view to finding out everything, the beginning of which is recorded in it. Certainly we have the record of: (1) The beginning of the world which God created. (2) The beginning of man as the creature of God. (3) The beginning of sin, which entered the world through the disobedience of man. (4) The beginning of redemption, seen alike in the promises and types of the book and in the chosen family. (5) The beginning of condemnation, seen in the destruction and punishment of individuals, cities and the world.

The Purpose. The chief purpose of the book is to write a religious history, showing how, after man had fallen into sin, God began to give him a religion and to unfold to him a plan of salvation. In doing this God is revealed as Creator, Preserver, Law-Giver, Judge and Merciful Sovereign.

The Importance of Genesis to Science. While the book does not attempt to explain many matters which are left to investigation, it does set out several facts which indicate the general plan of the universe and furnish a basis for scientific research. Among the more important things indicated are that: (1) There was a beginning of things. (2) Things did not come by chance. (3) There is a Creator who continues to take interest in and control the universe. (4) There was orderly progress in creation from the less and more simple to the greater and more complex. (5) Everything else was brought into existence for man who is the crowning work of creation.

The Religious Importance of the Book. The germ of all truth which is unfolded in the scripture is found in Genesis and to know well this book is to know God's plan for the blessing of man. Above all we learn about the nature and work of God.

Analysis.

Note. In an ordinary academy class I would not tax the students with the memory of more than the general divisions indicated by the Roman notation, I, etc. But, in this, and all other outlines, drill the class till these divisions, with the scripture included, are known perfectly. I would also try to fix some event mentioned in each section.

  1. Creation, Chs. 1-2.
  2. Creation in general, Ch. 1.
  3. Creation of man in particular, Ch. 2.
  1. Fall. Ch. 3.
  2. Temptation, 1-5.
  3. Fall, 6-8.
  4. Lord's appearance, 9-13.
  5. Curse, 14-21.
  6. Exclusion from the garden, 22-24.
  1. Flood, Chs. 4-9.
  2. Growth of sin through Cain, 4:1-24.
  3. Genealogy of Noah, 4: 25-5 end.
  4. Building of the Ark, Ch. 6.
  5. Occupying the Ark, Ch. 7.
  6. Departure from the Ark, Ch. 8.
  7. Covenant with Noah, Ch. 9.
  1. Nations, 10:1-11:9.
  2. Basis of Nations, Noah's sons, Ch. 10. How?
  3. Occasion of forming the nations, 11:1-9. Why?
  1. Abraham, 11:10-25:18.
  2. Genealogy of Abram from Shem, 11:10 end.
  3. Call and promise, Ch. 12.
  4. Abraham and Lot, Chs. 13-14.
  5. Covenant, 15: 1-18: 15.
  6. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, 18:16-19 end.
  7. Lives at Gerar, Ch. 20.
  8. Birth of Isaac, Ch. 21.
  9. Sacrifice of Isaac, Ch. 22.
  10. Death of Sarah, Ch. 23.
  11. Marriage of Isaac, Ch. 24.
  12. Death of Abraham and Ishmael, 25:1-18.
  1. Isaac. 26:19-36 end.
  2. His two sons, 25:19 end.
  3. Divine covenant. Ch. 26.
  4. Jacob's deception, Ch. 27.
  5. Jacob's flight into Haran, Ch. 28.
  6. Jacob's marriage and prosperity, Chs. 20-30.
  7. Jacob's return to Canaan. Chs, 31-35.
  8. Generations of Esau, Ch. 36.
  1. Jacob, including Joseph, Chs. 37-50.
  2. Jacob and Joseph, Chs. 37-45.
  3. Sojourn in Egypt, Chs. 46-48.
  4. Death of Jacob and Joseph, Chs. 49-50.

For Study and Discussion. (1) All that we may learn from this book concerning the nature and work of God. (2) The different things the origin of which this book tells: (a) Inanimate things, (b) Plant life, (c) Animal life, (d) Human life, (e) Devices for comfort and safety, (f) Sin and its varied effects, (g) Various trades and manners of life, (h) Redemption, (i) Condemnation. (3) Worship as it appears in Genesis, its form and development. (4) The principal men of the book and the elements of weakness and strength in the character of each. The teacher may make a list and assign them for study to different pupils. (5) List the disappointments, family troubles and sorrows of Jacob, and study them in the light of his early deception and fraud. (6) The over-ruling divine providence seen in the career of Joseph, with the present day lessons from the incidents of his life. (7) The fundamental value of faith in the life and destiny of men. (8) The Messianic promises, types and symbols of the entire book. List and classify them.

01 Chapter 1

Verse 1

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Ver. 1. In the beginning.] A BEGINNING there was then, whatever Aristotle (a) fancied of the world’s eternity. So true is that of a learned Italians - Philosophy seeks after truth; divinity only finds it; religion improves it. (b) { Veritatem quaerit philosophia, invenit theologia, &c.} But the philosopher would be yet better satisfied. He had read (say some) (c) this first of Genesis, and was heard to say thereupon, Well said, Sir Moses; how prove you what you have so said? { Egregie dicis, domine Moses; sed quomodo probas?} An ancient (d) answereth, I believe it, I need not prove it. { credo, non probo} Another, (e) we believe the holy penmen before heathen wise men. { piscatoribus credimus, non dialecticis} A third, (f) The mysteries of the Christian religion are better understood by believing, than believed by understanding { Multo melius credendo intelliguntur, quam intelligendo creduntur fidei Christianae mysteria. Abbas Tuiciensis.} Theologia non est argumentativa.(g) But, best of all, the apostle, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." [Hebrews 11:3] Divinity doth not use to prove her principles, whereof this is one. No, not Aristotle’s own divinity, (his Metaphysics, I mean) wherein he requires to be believed upon his bare word. Albeit, if Ramus may be judge, those fourteen books of his are the most idle and impious piece of sophistry that ever was set forth by any man. (h) Thus, "Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools." [Romans 1:22] "Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?" [Jeremiah 8:9]

Plato had read Moses, whatever Aristotle had done; and held truly, that the world had a beginning. So did all the philosophers that were before Aristotle, except the Chaldeans, and Hossellus Lucanus, the Pythagorean, out of whom Aristotle took his arguments, which are to be read, {Physic, viii. c. 8, and ii. and l. 1. De Coelo, c. 1, and l. xii.; Metaphysics, c. 7.} But it is more than probable that he taught the world’s eternity in opposition to Plato and others, who rightly concluded the world must needs have had a beginning; otherwise we could not know whether the egg or the bird, the seed or the plant, the day or the night, the light or the darkness, were first; sure it is that he held that opinion rather out of an affectation of singularity, than for any soundness of the matter or strength of argument. Himself, in his first book of Topics, and ninth chapter, saith that it is no more than a topical problem: he should have said a plain paradox, yea, a mere falsity. For "In the beginning," the Jerusalem Targum hath "In wisdom," that is, in God the Son, saith Augustine, according to John 1:3, Hebrews 1:2, Colossians 1:16. And indeed God created all things by his Son Christ; not as by a concreating cause, but as by his own essential Wisdom. [1 Corinthians 1:24; Proverbs 1:20; Proverbs 8:1] And of this mystery and appellation some suppose the heathens had some traditional knowledge; for aa Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, was eternally and ineffably begotten in the divine essence, so they worshipped a goddess whom they called the goddess of wisdom, and feigned that she was begotten by Jupiter of his own brain; and they called her Aθηνη, which word is much like in sound with the Hebrew Adonai, as a reverend man (i) hath well observed.

God created.] Heb. Dii creavit. {Plural subject "Dii" (Gods) singular verb "creavit" . Editor.} The Mystery of the blessed Trinity, called by Elihu, [Job 35:10] Eloah Gnoscai, "God my Makers"; and by David, [Psalms 149:1] "The Makers of Israel," and "Remember thy Creators," saith Solomon. [Ecclesiastes 12:1] To the same sense, sweetly sounds the Haphtera, or portion of Scripture which is read by the Jews, (j) together with this of Moses, viz., Isaiah 42:5. And that of the psalmist, [Psalms 33:6] "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath [or spirit] of his mouth": that is, God the Father, by the Son, through the Holy Ghost, created all. This Trismegist, (k) an ancient Egyptian (for he flourished before Pharaoh), acknowledged, and thence had his name. The Hebrews also of old were no strangers to this mystery, though their posterity understood it not. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, writing on that, [Song of Solomon 1:11] "We will make," &c., interprets it, "I and my judgment hall." Now a judgment hall in Israel consisted of three at least, which in their close manner of speech, they applied to God, who is Three in one, and One in three.

Rabbi Simeon, the son of Johai, brings a place out of Rabbi Ibba, on Deuteronomy 6:4, "Jehovah Elohenu, Jehovah Echad, ‘The Lord our God is one Lord.’" Here the first Jehovah, saith he, is God the Father, Elohenu, the Son (who is fitly called our God, because he assumed our nature, as is well observed by Galatinus), the third Jehovah is God the Holy Ghost. Echad, one, showeth the unity of essence in this plurality of persons; wherefore, saith Luther, doth not Moses begin thus, "In the beginning, God said, Let there be a heaven, and earth," but because he would set forth the three persons in order; the Father, when he saith, God created; the Son, when he saith, God said; and the Holy Ghost, when he saith, God saw the light that it was good?

Created.] Made all things of nothing, in a most marvellous and magnificent manner, as the word signifieth. This Plato doubts of, Aristotle denies, Galen derides as a thing impossible, (l) because, with Nicodemus, he cannot conceive how these things can be. "The natural man," the mere animal, {Qυχικος, 1 Corinthians 2:14} whose reason is not elevated by religion, "pereeiveth not these things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him." The cock on the dunghill meddles not with these matters. Well might St Paul tell the men of Athens, [Acts 17:23-24] (and yet Athens was the Greece of Greece, Eλλας Eλλαδος(m) and had in it the most mercurial wits in the world), that God, "that made all things of nothing," was to them the "unknown God": and Lactantius fitly saith of Plato (who yet merited the style of Divine amongst them), that he dreamed of God, rather than had any true knowledge of him. (n) He nowhere called God the Creator, but Dημιουζγον, the workman; as one that had made the world of a preexistent matter, co-eternal to himself. Atheists of old scorned at the work of creation; and asked, "Quibus machinis," with what tools, engines, ladders, scaffolds, did the Lord set up this mighty frame? But, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed" (set in joint, ξατηζτισηαι, Hebrews 11:3, the word signifieth, as all the members of the body are tied together by several ligaments), "by the word of God," without either tool or toil. [Isaiah 40:28] He not only formed and made, but created all by the word of his power: see all these ascribed unto him in Isaiah 43:7. There were four errors, saith a late learned man, (o) about the creation: some affirmed that the world was eternal; some that it had a material beginning, and was made of something; some held two beginners of things: that one beginner made things incorruptible, and another made things corruptible. Lastly, some said God made the superior creatures himself, and the inferior by angels. This very first verse of the Bible confutes all four. In the beginning, shows the world not to be eternal. Created, notes that it was made of nothing. The heaven and the earth, shows that God was the only beginner of all creatures. God created all: this excludes the angels. In the government of the world, we grant they have a great stroke. [Ezekiel 1:5-6; Daniel 10:1-21; Daniel 11:1-45] Not so in the making of the world, wherein God was alone, and by himself. [Isaiah 44:24] And, lest any should imagine otherwise, the creation of angels is not so much as mentioned by Moses, unless it be tacitly intimated in these words - "The heavens and the earth"; (p) "The world and all the things that are therein"; [Acts 17:24] "Things visible and invisible"; [Colossians 1:16] "whether they be thrones or dominions," &c., called elsewhere "angels of heaven"; [Matthew 24:26; Galatians 1:8] because, probably, created with, and in the highest heaven, as Christ’s soul was created with, and in his body, in the Virgin’s womb, the self-same moment. The highest heaven, and the angels were of necessity, say some, to be created the first instant, that they might have their perfection of matter and form together; otherwise they should be corruptible. For whatsoever is of a pre-existent matter is resolvable, and subject to corruption; but that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed, hath no other change, but by the same hand to return to nothing again.

Ques. But if this were the heaven, what was the earth here mentioned?

Answ. Not that we now tread upon, for that was not made till the third day; but the matter of all that was afterwards to be created - being all things in power, nothing in act.

The Cabbalists observe that there are in this first verse of the Holy Bible six Alephs: and therehence they conclude, that the world shall last six thousand years. But they may be therein as far out as that wise man (q) was who, A.D. 1533, affirmed that the world would be at an end that very year, in the month of October, and that he pretended to gather out of those words, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum: and again those, Videbunt in quem transfixerunt. So some (r) since that, but little wiser, have foretold as much concerning the year of grace 1657, from those words mundi conflagratio; and because the universal flood fell out in the year of the world 1657. According to these groundless conjectures, confuted already by time, some have argued, that because Solomon’s temple was finished in the year of the world three thousand, therefore the spiritual temple shall be consummated in three thousand more. This reckoning comes up to that of the Cabbalists above mentioned; and to that known prophecy of Elias (but not the Tishbite), that as there were two thousand years, plus minus, before the law, and two thousand under the law, so there are to be two thousand under the gospel.

Verse 3

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Ver. 3. And God saith, Let there, &c.] He commanded the "light to shine out of darkness." [2 Corinthians 4:6] "He spake the word, and it was done." [Psalms 33:9; Psalms 148:5] (a) Creation is no motion, but a simple and bare emanation; which is, when without any repugnancy of the patient, or labour of the agent, the work or effect doth voluntarily and freely arise from the action of the working cause, as the shadow from the body. So God’s irresistible power made this admirable work of the world, by his bare word, as the shadow and obscure representation of his unsearchable wisdom and omnipotency.