Pearl of Great Price Commentary - Moses 2

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
            CHAPTER 2
     (June —October 1830)
God creates the heavens and the earth—All forms of life created—God makes man and gives him dominion over all else.
 1 AND it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I areveal unto you concerning this bheaven, and this cearth; dwrite the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the eAlmighty God; by mine fOnly Begotten I gcreated these things; yea, in the beginning I hcreated the iheaven, and the earth upon which thou standest.
MOS 2:2 And the earth was without aform, and void; and I caused bdarkness to come up upon the face of the deep; and my cSpirit dmoved upon the face of the water; for I am God.
 1a Alma 12:30; Moses 1:42
   b Ex. 19:3; Ezek. 40:2
      Rev. 21:10; Moses 1:42
 2a

The First Day
MOS 2:3 And I, God, said: Let there be alight; and there was light.
MOS 2:4 And I, God, saw the light; and that light was agood. And I, God, divided the blight from the darkness.
MOS 2:5 And I, God, called the light Day; and the darkness, I called Night; and this I did by the aword of my power, and it was done as I bspakea; and the evening and the morning were the first cday.

The Second Day
MOS 2:6 And again, I, God, said: Let there be a afirmament in the midst of the water, and it was so, even as I spake; and I said: Let it divide the waters from the waters; and it was done;
MOS 2:7 And I, God, made the firmament and divided the awaters, yea, the great waters under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so even as I spake.
MOS 2:8 And I, God, called the firmament aHeaven; and the evening and the morning were the second day.

The Third Day
MOS 2:9 And I, God, said: Let the awaters under the heaven be gathered together unto bone place, and it was so; and I, God, said: Let there be dry land; and it was so.
MOS 2:10 And I, God, called the dry land aEarth; and the gathering together of the waters, called I the Sea; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good.
MOS 2:11 And I, God, said: Let the earth bring forth agrass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed should be in itself upon the earth, and it was so even as I spake.
MOS 2:12 And the earth brought forth grass, every herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed should be in itself, after his akind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good;
MOS 2:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

The Fourth Day
MOS 2:14 And I, God, said: Let there be alights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years;
MOS 2:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.
MOS 2:16 And I, God, made two great lights; the greater alight to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the bgreater light was the sun, and the lesser light was the moon; and the stars also were made even according to my word.
MOS 2:17 And I, God, set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
MOS 2:18 And the asun to rule over the day, and the moon to rule over the night, and to divide the light from the bdarkness; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good;
MOS 2:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The Fifth Day
MOS 2:20 And I, God, said: Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath lifea, and fowl which may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
MOS 2:21 And I, God, created great awhales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had created were good.
MOS 2:22 And I, God, blessed them, saying: Be fruitful, and amultiply, and fill the waters in the sea; and let fowl multiply in the earth;
MOS 2:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

The Sixth Day
MOS 2:24 And I, God, said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind, and it was so;
MOS 2:25 And I, God, made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything which creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and I, God, saw that all these things were good.
MOS 2:26 And I, God, said unto mine aOnly Begotten, which was with me from the bbeginning: Let cus dmake man in our eimage, after our likeness; and it was so. And I, God, said: Let them have fdominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
MOS 2:27 And I, God, created man in amine own image, in the image of mine Only Begottena created I him; male and female created I them.
MOS 2:28 And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be afruitful, and bmultiply, and replenish the eartha, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Replenish the Earth 
This is some discussion concerning the implied meanings of the word 're-plenish'. Does this mean that the earth once before had life upon it and that now again man was commanded to 're-fill' the earth? We do know that 'the earth' was 'void' and 'the earth' was 'without form', though 'the earth' and its materials where present to be untilized in this current organizatinal creation of which the Lord speaks to Moses concerning 'this earth'. The revealed scriptures teach us that 'as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens therof even so shall another come'. Whether this speaks of a plan of 'recycling' or of a plan of 'progressive evolution' one might consider. Joseph Smith has taught that there is no such thing as immaterial matter and that all things have, do and will continue to exist and that the matter of creation is not to make something out of nothing.

The thesaurus yeilds that 'replenish' can be take to mean both to 'fill' and/or to 'refill'. It can also be taken to me to 'top off' something that ' is already particlely filled such as 'refreshing' a drink though the drink in the glass is not all gone. Certainly if the current status of the materials of the earth at the time of its creation reported to Moses was that is was 'void' and without 'form', it would seem that life as we consider it to be in association the higher existance of the plants, animals and man would not be at that time existant. This eliminates the consideration of 'topping off' any already existant population of man at the time of the creation reported to Moses as being of 'this earth'. But it still leaves open the question of a 'prior' earth upon which there was a prior state of living things. Science would suggest that this might be the case as the earth has seemed to suggest periods of extinction and renewal. But in any case, the process of creation as presented in the Bible is that of one which is directed by the intelligent forces of God and not one that is left to happenstance and chaos. And while one grouping and field of science seems to consider the chances of chaos to be the stuff our world is made of, other fields of science and learn such as the mathmatics of the matter would say it is not even possible that such could so happen by chance. It would be a greater possiblity to blow up a printing office and have the result to be that of a finished bound book than for such a world as this to have evolved without the guiding hand of intelligence behind it.

 27a in the image of mine Only Begotten For God the Father is was already an exalted celestial being of spirit enhoused by flesh and bone to have state that man was in his own image is one thing, but for it to be stated that man was also in the image of the Only Begotten of the Father at this stage is another. For at this time the Son was only a personage of 'Spirit' as he had not yet entered into the mortality of this second estate to receive his body of flesh and bone. Thus it is consistant with the teachings of Joseph Smith that the physical body of a man is in the same form and image as the spirit of a man which that body houses. There is logic in this for a pair of pants takes on the form and image of the legs it is made to cover. And while both the spirit of a man and his physical body will both have 'head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose', there is now solid point which states that the physical body of this corrupt mortality must need be considered to be exactly form fitting. For indeed there are such mortal physical imperfections of this natural body which certainly are not those to be associated with the spirit it houses which is of the perfection of the image of God.
 28a Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth This is the first and greater commandment which God does give unto Adam and Eve. The lesser 'Law' to not partake of the 'Forbidden Fruit' is but a rule with an associated consequence attached. It was no great immorale sin which Adam and Eve commited by partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God had told Adam and Eve the result of doing so. That is they would no longer 'live forever' in their newly 'created' physical state. That is they would in consequence of partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil be subject to physical death. When Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of that tree they did 'transgress the rule' and they subsequently would suffer the consequence of their actions. At times this life does offer such choices. One must chose one item over another. To achieve one thing another is forgone. Adam and Eve chose to 'Multiply and Replenish' rather than to 'Not Partake'. Lucifer but hurried the process, which may have eventuated anyway, a long.
MOS 2:29 And I, God, said unto man: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which shall be the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for ameat.
MOS 2:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein I grant life, there shall be given every clean herb for meat; and it was so, even as I spake.
MOS 2:31 And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things which I had made were very agood; and the evening and the morning were the bsixth day.