Notes Critical and Practical, on the Book of Genesis. By George Bush [pp. 271-301]

Bush on Genesis.
to complete the work of creation, should assign some definite
and uniform length to these "peculiar" days, that when the
second, third, fourth, &c., are spoken of, we may understand
at least the successive lapses of some fixed period, and still
regard the seventh as a seventh portion of the whole.
To affirm that the day blessed and hallowed was a day of
ordinary length, while all the preceding were extraordinary,
is to mar one of the most beautiful features of the ritual
economy. But we can conceive no possible ground for such
an assertion. When, in the inspired narrative, a period is
designated as the sixth day, and one directly following as the
seventh day, without at all notifying the reader of any peculiar meaning in either case, who could believe that an interval of twenty-four hours was intended by one, and an indefinite number of weeks, months, or years, by the other?
Again-When the Deity could as easily have perfected the
work of creation at a bidding,, as he could fashion a full
grown man, or "build a woman on a rib," the most plausible
reason for his occupying any space of time in the transactions,
would seem to be, that such a course might subserve some
important design for the future; and how admirable the
symmetry of these arrangements, when we view the procedure as intended to lay the foundation for a most important
institution to be observed through all generations. If this
were indeed the grand motive for such a distribution of the
work, how much more natural, simple, and congruous, the
division generally understood, than that which this theory
proposes.
But the author seems to claim from usage more than will
answer his design. He asks for msx as here used, the sense
of "peculiar, especially distinguished, from others of the
same class,'"' and understands ni, here to mean "a day of
indefinite length." Combining the words as in the original,
we have''ni ai',' signifying, according to Prof. Bush, "a peculiar day of indefinite length." This would prove the
first day to have been peculiar, and especially distinguished
from the following (lays of the creative week, if it would
prove any thing.
The prohibition of blood as an article of diet, the author
clearly deduces from Gen. ix. 4; but in touching upon the
design of such an ordinance, he presents not, as we think,
the main idea with sufficient prominence. The peculiar
sacredness which attached to blood in religious worship
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