Genesis 6:9

§ 4. THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH ( CH . 6:9-9:29).

EXPOSITION

These are the generations of Noah . "Novi capitis initium = "haec est historia Noachi (Rosenmüller; cf. Genesis 5:1 ). Noah ( vide Genesis 5:29 ) was a just man . צַדִּיק : not of spotless innocence (Knobel); but upright, honest, virtuous, pious ( vir probus ); from צָדַּק , to be straight, hence to be just; Piel to render just or righteous (Eccl. Lat; justificare ) , to declare any one just or innocent (Gesenius); better "justified" or declared righteous, being derived from the Piel form of the verb (Furst). "Evidently the righteousness here meant is that which represents him as justified in view of the judgment of the Flood, by reason of his faith, Hebrews 11:7 " (Lange). "To be just is to be right in point of law, and thereby entitled to all the blessings of the acquitted and justified. When applied to the guilty this epithet implies pardon of sin among other benefits of grace" (Murphy). And perfect . תָּמִים : complete, whole ( τε ì λειος , integer ); i.e. perfect in the sense not of sinlessness, but of moral integrity (Gesenius, Calvin). It describes "completeness of parts rather than of degrees in the renewed character" (Bush). "The just is the right in law, the perfect is the tested in holiness" (Murphy). If, however, the term is equivalent to the τελει ì ωσις of the Christian system ( 1 Corinthians 2:6 ; Hebrews 7:11 ), it denotes that complete readjustment of the being of a sinful man to the law of God, both legally and morally, which is effected by the whole work of Christ for man and in man; it is "the establishment of complete, unclouded, and enduring communion with God, and the full realization of a state of peace with him which, founded on a true and ever valid remission of sins, has for its consummation eternal glory" (Delitzsch on Hebrews 7:11 ). In his generations. בְּדְֹרֹתַיו , from דּוּר , to go in a circle; hence a circuit of years; an age or generation ( generatio, seeulum ) of men. The clause marks not simply the sphere of Noah's virtue, among his contemporaries, or only the duration of his piety, throughout his lifetime, but likewise the constancy of his religion, which, when surrounded by the filth of iniquity on every side, contracted no contagion (Calvin). "It is probable, moreover, that he was of pure descent, and in that respect also distinguished from his contemporaries, who were the offspring of promiscuous marriages between the godly and the ungodly" (Murphy). And Noah walked with God . The special form in which his just and perfect character revealed itself amongst his sinful contemporaries. For the import of the phrase see on Genesis 5:22 . Noah was also a preacher of righteousness ( 2 Peter 2:5 ), and probably announced to the wicked age in which -he lived the coming of the Flood ( Hebrews 11:7 ).