Genesis 1:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Behold, it was very good— The separate productions are pronounced good: but when the whole is perfected, and, as it were, surveyed by the Almighty Master, or Creator, the superlative particle is added, and the whole is pronounced very good, perfectly adapted to answer the end for which it was designed, as well as consummately excellent and beautiful in itself: agreeable to the mind of the Great Designer, without evil or imperfection, or any thing which might impugn his wisdom, goodness, and purity. Mr. Locke observes, that "When Moses tells us of God's pronouncing of every thing that he had made, that it was very good, we are to understand the meaning to be, that it was the best; the Hebrews having no other way to express the superlative." I cannot better conclude this note than with the words of Plato in his Timaeus: "The Architect of the world had a model, by which he produced every thing, and this model is himself. As he is good, and what is good has not the least tincture of envy, he made all things, as far as was possible, like himself. He made the world perfect in the whole of its constitution; perfect too in all the various parts which compose it; which were subject neither to diseases nor decay of age. The Father of all things beholding this beautiful image, took a complacency in his work."