Genesis Chapter Two

Last post I looked at Genesis 1:1 to 2:3. This post I will look at the second creation account Genesis 2:3 onwards.

This shows clear stylistic differences; in the King James version, the creator is Lord God, not God, and in the Hebrew this is God in the singular, Yahweh. What we have is two creation myths merged together, and the match-up is not great...

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

Setting the scene; there were no plants yet - though is could be understood to mean that the seeds were in the ground at this point. Mankind was not around to cultivate plants, nor was there rain to grow them. so nothing grew.

Young Earth creationists sometimes interpret the reference to mists to be a water canopy, but even Answers in Genesis recognises this is a flawed position - see the end of this web page.

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

In this creation account man is created first, woman will come later. And that man appears in a desolate world, with no plants or animals.

8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

So God creates the Garden of Eden, possibly the only place with plant-life at this time, and Adam can live there.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The universe is an unimaginably huge place; why on Earth would God put Adam next to this forbidden tree? It kind of makes sense if you believe the universe is only the world to the horizons.

Oh, and let us note that God was lying here. Adam did not die the day he ate that fruit; he lived a long time after.

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

So now the animals are created. How do Biblical inerrantists get around the fact that God has to create animals twice? They pretend that this is just about God calling the animals he had created in Genesis 1 for Adam to name.

The word used is "form", in Hebrew וַיִּצֶר֩. Used elsewhere in the Bible, this word indicates something being created, but you can ignore what words actually mean when you are a Biblical inerrantist!

There are between 9,000 and 10,000 species of birds that Adam had to name. It is not clear what a beast of the field is, but just mammals and reptiles that is nearly 13,000 animals he has to think of a name for! Say it takes him 2 minutes to think of a name, that is going to take him three months, working 8 hours a day. I wonder how many of them he could remember at the end of those three months?

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Finally God creates woman. In the first account man and woman are equal, but in the second, man is first, and woman lagging some way behind.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Apparently this was only a "just so" story to explain why men marry women.