De Moor VIII:28: The Fifth Day, Part 1

With the domicile prepared in this manner, the inhabitants were put in their places.

On the Fifth Day God created Fish and Birds.  Concerning the marvelous workmanship of the Fish and Birds, and more things concerning both sorts of Animals, noteworthy for acknowledging in them and declaring the manifold virtues of the divine Workman, see the Most Distinguished NIEUWENTYT, Cosmotheoria, Contemplation XXIII; BARTHOLOMEUS VAN VELSEN, Philosophicis Scripturis, chapter XVII, § 90 and following, § 119 and following, tome 2, pages 186 and following, and pages 1027 and following; and also my Venerable Grandfather, BARTHO, LOMÆUS DE MOOR, Professor of Medicine,[1] Oratione de Piscium et Avium Creatione, delivered at Harderwijk, 1716.  We observe only a few things according to the small measure of a compendium.

On the Fifth Day God produced Fish in the Waters and Out Of them, according to the express text of Genesis 1:20, 21; and, nevertheless, with good reason is it said of this work, ‎וַיִּבְרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֔ים, and God created, if you consider the natural ineptitude of that frigid element, namely, of Water, to produce, 1.  Animate things, living, that is, moving themselves by an internal principle, and furnished with the help of organs wherewith they are equipped to receive impressions from other bodies, according to which they direct their own functions.  2.  Of species so diverse, of taste so different and agreeable, 3.  Of such marvelous workmanship, 4.  In number exceedingly stupendous, etc.:  compare our AUTHOR’S Historiam Paradisi, book I, chapter XIX, § 6.

Also the greatest.  Indeed, among the created Fish, on account of their excellence, Moses mentions ‎הַתַּנִּינִם,[2] which term is used both of land animals and of aquatic.  Among land animals it denotes a Dragon, inhabiting waste places, emitting a mournful voice:  when it occurs concerning an aquatic animal, as it does here, it is less certain, whether it denotes Whales, or Dragons, or Crocodiles, distinct from or the same with Leviathan, or all these denoted by a general name.  In Michlol Jophi on Genesis 1 this is found:  הַנְּחָשִים׃ כִּדְמוּת הַגּדוֺלִים הַדָּגִים מִמִּינֵי הֵם תַּנִּינִים, the tanninim are of the species of great fish after the likeness of the serpents.  They appear to have their name from תְּנַן, to smoke, among the Chaldeans.  Concerning Leviathan, COCCEIUS, BOCHART, THEODOR HASE, ALBERT SCHULTENS, holding diverse opinions, are able to be consulted, and are passed over in review by Reverend BOSKOOP in his Commentario on Psalm 139:9, pages 383, 384.

Birds from the Earth.  That the Birds were also formed from the Waters, is indicated by the Septuagint on Genesis 1:20, καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός, Ἐξαγαγέτω τὰ ὕδατα ἑρπετὰ ψυχῶν ζωσῶν, καὶ πετεινὰ πετόμενα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κατὰ τὸ στερέωμα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, and God said, Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls, and birds flying above the earth throughout the firmament of heaven; and by the Vulgate, dixit etiam Deus, Producant aquæ reptile animæ viventis, et volatile super terram sub firmamento cœli, God also said, Let the waters bring forth the creeping thing of living soul, and the thing flying over the earth under the firmament of heaven.  Similarly the Author of the book that is called 4 Esdras, 4 Esdras 6:47, Upon the fifth day thou saidst unto the seventh part, where the waters were gathered, that it should bring forth living creatures, fowls and fishes:  and so it came to pass.  Hence the same was generally believed by the Ancients, among whom MARESIUS, Systemate Theologico, locus V, § 23, note b, mentions Jerome, Augustine, Cyril, Damascenus, adding others also.  Therefore, there were not wanting among the Ancients, those that in the time of Fasting were eating Birds no less than Fish, because they had the same origin from the Waters, as SOCRATES[3] relates, observing the distinction that was obtaining among Christians with respect to the Lenten Fast, not only with respect to time, but also with respect to the selection of foods, Historia Ecclesiastica, book V, chapter XXII, page m. 286, Ἔστι δὲ εὐρεῖν οὐ μόνον περὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἡμερῶν διαφωνοῦντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἀποχὴν τῶν ἐδεσμάτων οὐκ ὁμοίαν ποιουμένους·  οἱ μὴν γὰρ, πάντῃ ἐμψύχων ἀπέχονται·  οἱ δὲ, τῶν ἐμψύχων ἰχθῦς μόνους μεταλαμβάνουσι·  τινὲς δὲ σὺν τοῖς ἰχθύσι, καὶ τῶν πτηνῶν ἀπογεύονται, ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ αὐτὰ κατὰ τὸν μωϋσέα γεγενῆσθαι λέγοντες, there is to be found not only those disagreeing over the number of days, but also not engaging in the same abstinence of foods:  some wholly abstain from things having life; others feed on fish only of all living creatures:  some, together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that, according to Moses these were likewise made out of the waters.

Among the More Recent Men there are not wanting those that in this agree with the Ancients, inasmuch as they think that Birds also were brought forth from the Water:  thus, besides many others mentioned by Voetius, for example, VRIESIUS, Exercitationibus Rationalibus XXIII, § 10, with the whole progeny of birds and fish brought forth on the fifth day from the common womb of the waters; with the former sent away into the air, and the latter retained in the maternal bosom.  But also MARESIUS, in the passaged cited, requests a firmer argument, for drawing back here from the more commonly received opinion, than what is alleged out of Genesis 2:19.  However, we do not doubt that our AUTHOR, with VOETIUS, Disputationum theologicarum, part I, pages 720, 721, PISCATOR, HEINRICH ALTING, TURRETIN, and others more rightly affirm the Birds to have been created out of the Earth; 1.  since a basis for seeking their origin from the Waters is wanting:  for there is no such thing, as in the Septuagint and Vulgate, in the Hebrew text, where in Genesis 1:20, after the command concerning the producing Fish from the Water we have an Atnah ( ֑ );[4] after which a new command follows concerning the Birds, which subsists of itself, and has nothing in common with those things that were preceding concerning Fish, except that it was mentioned and set forth for execution at the same time.  Again, in verse 21, the Flying creatures, created by God after their kind, are expressly distinguished from the Swimming creatures created by God likewise after their kind, by the interposition of a Rebia ( ֗ ).[5]  2.  On the other hand, it is narrated expressly enough in Genesis 2:19,[6] that every bird of heaven and every beast of the field was formed out of the Ground:  neither is the observation of MARESIUS, in the place cited, solid, that the ‎וַיִּצֶר, and He formed, was able to pertain to the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven at the same time, but the ‎מִן־הָאֲדָמָה, out of the ground, is able to have regard to the beasts of the field alone.  Indeed, the simplicity of the text, which the accentuation also serves, shows that these things, וַיִּצֶר֩ יְהוָ֙ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָ֗ה, and the LORD God formed out of the ground, pertain to each other, and all these things taken together equally are to be referred the animals of both sorts that are then mentioned,כָּל־חַיַּ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙ וְאֵת֙ כָּל־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם, evern beast of the field and every fowl of the air.  To which, 3.  our AUTHOR adds, that the more solid Substance of Birds also demonstrates this, that the same did not spring from the Waters, but from the Ground; just as Birds also seek their nourishment from the Ground, not from the Water like Fish; compare our AUTHOR’S Historiam Paradisi, book I, chapter XIX, § 5.

At the same time, these Earth-born Animals were destined to live in the Air, and by flight to hand in this lower region of the Heavens, whence they were assigned the name of the Birds of Heaven.

[1] Bartholomæus De Moor (1649-1724) served as Professor of Medicine at Groningen (1706), and later at Harderwijk (1713).

[2] Genesis 1:21:  “And God created great whales (‎אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים), and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind:  and God saw that it was good.”

[3] Socrates of Constantinople, sometimes called Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), was an historian from Constantinople who wrote Historiam Ecclesiasticam.

[4] Genesis 1:20:  “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life (‎חַיָּ֑ה), and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”  The Atnah ( ֑ ) is the strongest disjunctive accent within a verse.

[5] Genesis 1:21:  “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind (‎לְמִֽינֵהֶ֗ם), and every winged fowl after his kind:  and God saw that it was good.”  The Rebia ( ֗ ) is a strong disjunctive accent.

[6] Genesis 2:19:  “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air (‎וַיִּצֶר֩ יְהוָ֙ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָ֗ה כָּל־חַיַּ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙ וְאֵת֙ כָּל־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם); and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them:  and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”