Genesis 2

Genesis 2 – Gives the details of creation

1 “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed.”

Creation is complete, not continuing.

Chapter 2 is a more detailed explanation of the creation – written by Adam?

If everything created was “good”, when and where were “hell” created? Hell is translations of “grave” – Eccl 9:5: “The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered

2 “On the seventh day, having finished his task, God *rested from all his work”

* shabath - the word “Sabbath”

John 19:30 – “…It is finished…” Jesus’ last words from the cross.

Matter & energy no longer being made. Entropy starts (all things move toward equilibrium – disorder).

Chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis form a unit distinguished by the fact that God is called Yahweh Elohim (Lord God), repeated constantly all the way through, a phrase which occurs elsewhere in the Torah only once, in Exodus 9.30 where it is connected with the thought that the earth is Yahweh’s, and thus with creation.

No mention of “evening and day” on this day.

3 “And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from his work of creation.” (NLT)

3 “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God *created and **made.” - KJV

*created = bara – to create something from nothing
**made = asah – to create something from something

Mark 2:27 – “Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath.”

Seven healings on Sabbath – Mt 12:8: “For I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath."

Ex 31: 14-17 “Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death. The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day forever. It is a permanent sign of my covenant with them. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but he rested on the seventh day and was refreshed." Yet, Israel in captivity for 70 years - 2 Chronicles 36:20: “The few who survived were taken away to Babylon, and they became servants to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. So the message of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate for seventy years, just as the prophet had said.”

According to kabbala (Jewish mysticism), on the night on which "that man" - a Jewish euphemism for Jesus - was born, not even a trace of holiness is present. Hasidic admorim (sect leaders) would cut a year's supply of toilet paper for Sabbath use (to avoid tearing toilet paper on Sabbath) on this night. Actually, this disrespectful act has profound kabbalistic significance, because kabbalistic literature extensively discusses Christianity as waste material excreted from the body of the Jewish people. Today, precut toilet paper for Sabbath use is available on the market; thus, the custom's relevance has diminished.

There is a Sabbath of years – the land was rested every 7 years. The Jubilee was every 70 years – all land reverted to original ownership.

Colossians 2:16 “So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new-moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, himself.”

4 “This is the *account (family history, generations) of the creation of the heavens and the earth when the LORD God made the heavens and the earth,”

*account = towledah - “family history”

The continually recurring phrase in Genesis ‘this is the history (towledah) of --’ demonstrates that much of the material, if not all, is taken from tablets, as ‘this is the history of’ is typical of the heading or footnote found on tablets to identify them.

This is the real beginning of chapter 2.

5 “there were no plants or grain growing on the earth, for the LORD God had not sent any rain. And no one was there to cultivate the soil.”

What is now lacking is cultivated plants (vegetation already there), because there is no one to cultivate, and rain, together with the creation of the one who is to be the cultivator and general controller of His creation. So God now acts to create a cultivator, Man, and set him over all His creation.

6 “But *water (a mist) came up out of the ground and watered all the land.”
* water = ed: Means a subterranean, fresh-water river

There’s no rain in the new earth, but there is a river.
If there was no rain, how could any vegetation at all grow? It was because a ‘mist’ or ‘ground water’ or ‘rising river’ or some other water source arises constantly from the earth and waters the ground. “ed” occurs in Job 36:27 where it probably means cloud, vapor or mist (‘He draws up the drops of water which distil in rain from his ed’).

Thus, contrary to some, the earth was not a dry and barren waste at this stage. The coming of rain would, in fact, be a mixed blessing. Man would then be dependent on the vagaries of the weather rather than on a constant supply. In Eden, there is plentiful water from the great River.

The Man and Woman in Eden

7 “And the LORD God *formed a **man's body from the ***dust of the ****ground and *****breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living ******person”

*formed = yatsar - to mold into a form; especially as a potter.
The word for ‘formed’ is, among other uses, used of the potter shaping his material – Rom 9:21: “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” There is no detailed description of how God does it. The aim is to show the twofold side to man’s creation, the aspect which ties him firmly to earth and the aspect which brings him in touch with heaven. In one sense man is of the earth, earthy -1 Cor 15:47: “Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.” He is of the dust of the ground. In the other, his life is inbreathed by the breath of God. He has life from God. Isaiah 64:8 “And yet, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand.

**man's = adam -; from a Hebrew word meaning ruddy, red. Man (adam) is made ‘of the dust of the ground (adamah)’. He is outwardly made of earthly materials. His name Adam will ever remind us of his earthly source. He is made of common materials, like the rest of the world, of the ‘adamah’. But where he is unique is in receiving the breath of God.

***dust = aphar - dust (as powdered or gray); hence clay, earth, mud:--ashes, dust, earth, ground, morter, powder, rubbish. ” The “dust” refers to the elements in the earth.

****ground = adamah - soil (from its genetive redness):--country, earth, ground, land.

*****breathed = naphach - to puff, in various applications (lit. to inflate, blow hard, blow, breathe. “breath” is “pneuma” in Greek.

John 20:22 ‘Then he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”’

Job 32:8 “Surely it is God's Spirit within people, the breath of the Almighty within them, that makes them intelligent.”

God breathes into him, something that He does not do with the animals, demonstrated that this new life is something unique that makes him distinctive from the rest of creation. He is not just an animal, he possesses something extra, something that comes directly from God. This confirms what Genesis 1.26 means by ‘the image of God’. He has received ‘spirit’ (neshamah - breath, spirit). Compare Isaiah 42.5 where both neshamah and ruach (spirit) are used in parallel when connected with man. He is uniquely a ‘living being’ in a sense that no other is.
******person = nephesh – translated “soul” in the King James. A breathing creature.

The writer now immediately moves on to the focus of his whole account, which is the creation of man, and God’s provision for him. Thus, he will go on to depict God’s provision for him of fruitful trees in a chosen place, of abounding water, of animals to provide companionship of a kind, and, finally, of the one who was to be his suitable companion, and the precursor of the fall. Each is introduced as it becomes necessary for his story, but the ideas are not chronological. See as evidence of this verses 8 and 9 where God ‘plants a garden’, ‘puts man in it’, then ‘causes to grow’ the abundant trees, then verse 15 where it is again stated that He puts man in it (v.15). This kind of repetition is found continually in Genesis. It was intended to reinforce the basic ideas to the listener. Clearly the ‘causing to grow’ parallels ‘planted’, and the writer hardly conceives of the man having to wait for the trees to grow. The trees were ‘caused to grow’ before the man was placed there.

8 “Then the LORD God planted a *garden in **Eden, in the ***east, and there he placed the man he had created.”

* garden = gan – a fenced in area, a garden. The word ‘gan’ (garden) signifies a protected place of fruitfulness. It was not a cultivated, enwalled garden, but a fruitful, tree-covered area of land set apart by God for man’s use.

** Eden = edin, the fertile plain. Paradise in the Septuagint.

***east – east of where God made Adam. An implication that God made Adam then Adam watched as God planted the garden.

‘The Lord God’ (Yahweh Elohim) - the combining of divine names for a god is not unusual in ancient literature. The writer wishes to stress that the Elohim of creation is Yahweh (‘the one who is’, or ‘the one who causes to be’ - see Exodus 3:14). No other is involved. It has also been suggested that here we have the combination of the God of creation (Elohim) with the God of history (Yahweh) as creation moves into ‘history’. See for this Psalm 100:3: where Yahweh is Elohim, Who has made us (creation) and is our shepherd (history)).

9 “And the LORD God *planted all sorts of trees in the garden--beautiful trees that produced delicious fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the **knowledge of good and evil.”

* “planted” = made to grow.

** “knowledge” = sense or perception of by experience. The verb ‘to know’ never means for the Hebrew to know intellectually. It means to know by experience. The man would know evil in contrast with good because he would experience it.

Note that it is a tree-covered plain ‘in Eden’. Eden is the country in which it is found, not the name of the ‘gan’. The name may be taken from the Sumerian ‘edin’ meaning plain. Later, because it is in Eden or in ‘the plain’, it will be called ‘the gan of Eden’ v.15. ‘Eastward’ may signify that it was in the east of Eden, or that it was eastward from where the writer was. (The sun rises in the east).

Hebrew verbs are not exact as to tense. They indicate rather completed or incomplete action without indicating when the activity took place. It is not necessary to assume that man was made before the ‘garden’. The writer is not describing the order in which things were made, but is bringing them in as they apply, and stressing that God had made them too. He is saying ‘God did this’ and ‘God did that’ without meaning they happened in sequence. We who are more chronologically oriented could translate, ‘now God had planted a tree-covered plain in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed’.

So God has made good provision for man. Unlike later, man does not have to search out his food or work for it. The place where he first becomes man is fruitful and plenteous, self-producing, and provides plenty of shade. (the Septuagint will describe it as ‘Paradise’). Jesus said to the thief – “Today, you shall be with me in Paradise”.

Here we have ‘made to grow’ instead of ‘planted’. He not only put them there but made them grow. God is sovereign over every part of His creation. No labor was required from man; they grew of their own accord under God’s hand. The Garden was ‘made to grow’ before man was formed so that his home was already ready for him.

The verse brings out God’s concern for man. The trees not only provide sustenance, but they are also pleasant to look at. God is concerned not only for man’s palate but for his aesthetic enjoyment. This is one question atheistic evolution has never explained. Why is the world on the whole so beautiful? The writer gives us the answer. It is for man’s good pleasure. Again we note that the concern is not with the creation of vegetation, but specifically with God’s provision for man. The trees are specially chosen for their usefulness to man.

The trees of ‘life’ and of ‘knowing good and evil’ are mentioned at this point to stress that they are two among the trees of the garden. In themselves, apart from their function, they are nothing special. The tree of life is mentioned in many stories elsewhere, but always as inaccessible to man. It is only the Lord God Who wants man to have everlasting life. In those accounts it regularly provides life by its fruit being continually eaten. The fact that man has to be excluded from the tree to prevent him living for ever suggests it had a similar continuing function. Thus it would appear that its fruit is seen as containing some element which prolongs life to a great extent. This is not scientifically impossible, although we may regret that it is no longer obtainable. In other stories it conveys immortality once and for all.

This tree is stated to be ‘central to the garden’ because to God and the writer it is the all-important one.

This tree does not offer men special knowledge. It offers knowledge of a unique kind, indeed of a kind that man does not want, the knowledge by experience of what is good and what is evil. Such knowledge can only be found by committing evil. Then and then alone can the distinction be fully clear. The eating of the fruit would be a specific, open and deliberate act of defiance.

The tree was not put there as a temptation. It was there as a reminder to man of God’s supremacy. Both trees were intended as a blessing.

Thus in the ‘center’ of the garden is the tree which is the source of everlasting life and the tree which is a reminder of God’s sovereignty, a kind of sacred grove where man can commune with God and be reminded of His goodness.

The first tree was planted by God - not by Adam, but by Adam’s Maker— God. But the second tree, the tree to which our Lord was nailed, was planted by man. In marked contrast from the first tree, it was the hands of the creature and not the Creator which planted the second tree

10 “A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches.”

“flowed” – in past tense. Rivers, but no rain. No such structure today – the flood changed the topography.

The descriptions show that the author intended the place to be approximately identifiable, if not certain, and his description suggests that he had a good knowledge of it.

The river that waters the plain splits into four after it leaves the plain. The last two rivers are well known. They were the lifeblood of Mesopotamia. Thus all will know that the river that flows through the plain is a fruitful river. The other two rivers are unidentifiable to us. Rivers change their courses, and many cataclysms and floods have taken place which have changed the courses of rivers.

11 “One of these branches is the Pishon, which flows around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found.”

The reference to gold and precious things demonstrated that man had every good thing available to him (he is not restricted to the garden).

12 “The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.”

13 “The second branch is the Gihon, which flows around the entire land of Cush.”

The Cush mentioned in connection with the Gihon is not necessarily the Sudan or Ethiopia. It may refer to Kassite territory (Akkadian kassu), East of the Tigris, or indeed to a Cush unknown to us at all. In Genesis 10 Cush is the ‘father’ of Nimrod, who was connected with Babel, Erech and Archad in the land of Shinar (the Babylon area), and who built Nineveh (vv.8-12). The place was, however, clearly significant to the writer. What is probable is that the descriptions indicate to us that Eden was in the Mesopotamian region, possibly in the Armenian mountains, which are the source of the great rivers.

14 “The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of Asshur. The fourth branch is the Euphrates.

15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.”

Notice that the man has already been ‘put’ in the Plain in verse 8. This stresses again that the writer is not thinking chronologically. One event does not necessarily follow another. While he is telling us what happened, it is not in sequence. In verse 8, his being placed there is mentioned to show how God has provided for him. Here it is mentioned to stress God’s purpose in putting him there.

The man is placed there ‘to serve and to guard’. Trees do not need to be tilled, and it is doubtful if there is here any thought of pruning. The purpose in putting man here was to act as priest and king. ‘Serving’ God is later the task of priests, and the ‘guarding’ connects with his having dominion over the wild beasts in 1:28. It is the latter who may cause depredations in the Plain. So the man is there to maintain worship of, and obedience to, God and to protect God’s handiwork on His behalf.

16 “But the LORD God gave him this warning: "You may freely eat any fruit in the garden.”

God’s provision is wide and generous. The man may eat of anything grown in the Plain, including the Tree of Life. One tree only is forbidden to him, the tree of knowing good and evil. This tree is a symbol to him of God’s over-lordship. Every time he sees the tree it will remind him that there is One Whom he must obey, One Who is his Lord. Though man is lord of the earth, he will recognize that he is subject to the Lord of Heaven.

We need not see it as meaning that there was anything magical in its fruit. It was simply that it was the test of man’s willingness to obey God.

17 “except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die."

The consequence of disobedience would be death, for it would signify that he had rebelled against God, and in such a state he could not be allowed to live for ever.

“except” – this is the test given to Adam.

Literally, “dying, you shall die”.

Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ” – Rom 5:12-13: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned before the law was given, sin was in the world…”

18 “And the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him."

First we note God’s concern that the man should not be alone and that he should be fully provided for with someone suitable for him and worthy of him - i.e., on a level with him.

19 “So the LORD God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird. He brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and Adam chose a name for each one.”

Adam - Hebrew “the man”, and so throughout this chapter.
God, Who had formed the living creatures out of the ground, now brought them to the man so the man could name them. Notice that the domestic animals, the cattle, are not said to have been brought. They are already there.

But we notice here immediately what is not said. It is not said that the animals are brought to find out if they are suitable. Indeed it is impossible to conceive that the writer suggests that God keeps trying to achieve a suitable companion and failing. He has far too high a view of God. The idea is rather that the animals are ‘brought’ to be named and that, in the course of that, their unsuitability is incidentally emphasized. (Note the indirect form of ‘there was not found a suitable helper’).

By naming the living creatures the man is shown to have rule over them. At the same time he is entering into some kind of relationship with them so that they would provide him with some kind of companionship. But, of course, none was suitable to be his life companion, as everyone had known would be the case from the start. It was not expected that a suitable helpmeet would be found, for this is just the writer’s way of emphasizing the fact that the animals with which the man came in contact were not in fact suitable as complete companions. We note that the creeping things are not included. They would not be subject to man’s dominion.

20 “He gave names to all the livestock, birds, and wild animals. But still there was no companion suitable for him.”

‘Was not found.’ - ‘matsa’. Note that there is no subject. It is therefore indefinite - ‘there was not found’. It is not God who was looking for the suitable companion.

21 ‘So the LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. He took one of Adam's ribs and closed up the place from which he had taken it.”

Or “took a part of Adam's side”.
The deep sleep, when God will do something exceptional and a mystery is about to be revealed, is paralleled elsewhere (compare Genesis 15:12) although the parallel is not exact as Abraham was conscious. The stress is on the fact that the creation of the woman is a mystery.

Note that the word translated ‘rib’ (tsela), in most versions is almost without exception translated ‘side’ in the Old Testament. It means literally “a curved section”. It was later tradition that inaccurately turned it into a rib. The description, which avoids detail, is of some remarkable process by which the woman devolved out of the man. The process and the method are not revealed. Is this cloning?

The woman is seen to be man’s equal, for she is one half of him, his ‘other half’’. So the woman is both his helper and his equal. In New Testament terms the man is the head of the woman as Christ is the head of the church. In Genesis, the idea is that the man has some kind of extra status, for he is the one made by God to act on God’s behalf on earth, and she is the helper. But the woman is his close helper, and equal in all except that status.

22 “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam.”

All men except Adam have come from a woman, but the first woman came from a man!

God’s last act of creation in Genesis is the woman.

23 "At last!" Adam exclaimed. "She is part of my own flesh and bone! She will be called `woman,' because she was taken out of a man."

Monogamous heterosexual marriage created by God.

23 ‘Then the man said, “This one at this time now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, this one shall be called Woman (isha) because this one was taken out of Man (ish)”.’

The woman is not just produced from one of his ribs, but is made up of his flesh and bones. The man names the woman, thus once more establishing his position over her, but this time the ‘woman’ is given a name similar to his own. The naming is an act cementing a close relationship as well as revealing his special status. While she too is subject to him, she is also his close companion.

Here was one at last who could stand on a par with man as his helpmate.

24 “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. “

It is because of this close relationship between a man and his mate that that relationship supersedes that of his parents. When they enter into sexual union they become one, bound in a relationship closer than any other. Family loyalties still hold, but the loyalty between a man and his wife is primary. Notice that sexual relations are treated as normal and good. There is no suggestion anywhere in this account that sex is to be seen as somehow sinful.

The fact that the man is said to leave his father and mother indicates that here a new unit is forming. There will, of course, still be family ties and responsibilities, but essentially by marriage the man is stepping out to form a new unit with his wife which is unbreakable, and complete in itself. The impression given is that a man will have one wife.

Mt 19:3-6 –“Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: ‘Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for any reason?’ ‘Haven't you read the Scriptures?’ Jesus replied. ‘They record that from the beginning `God made them male and female.' And he said, `This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together."

Eph 5:31 – ‘As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one."’

25 “Now, although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame.”

Like a small child. Only human beings wear clothes.

This does not primarily mean naked before each other, but naked before God. Their state of total innocence meant that they were unashamed of who and what they were. They had nothing to hide from, and no need to fear God’s scrutiny. They were totally open to God and to each other in body and soul. It was an indication that all was well with them.

Later being ‘naked’ before God would be seen as a terrible situation, for it meant that all their sins were revealed, but there was no fear of this here. See Isaiah 47.3; Lamentations 1.8; Ezekiel 16.36; 23.18; 2 Corinthians 5.3; Hebrews 4.13.