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GENESIS CHAPTER TWO
OBSERVATION STAGE
The purpose of
the observation stage is to maintain focus on the text at hand within the
normative rules of language, context and logic 
which limits the observer to the content offered by the book of Genesis.
This will serve to avoid going on unnecessary tangents elsewhere; and more
importantly, it will provide the framework for a proper and objective
comparison with passages located elsewhere in Scripture.
Remember that something elsewhere may be true, but in the text at hand it may not be in view.
The end of the previous chapter has great bearing upon the context of Genesis chapter 2:
****** (GEN 1:31) EXCERPT FROM GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ******
(Gen 1:31 NKJV) "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
[Henry Morris, The Genesis Record, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1976, p.79-81]:
"God had now completed His work but, before settling down to 'rest' in contemplation of what He had produced, as it were, He first surveyed it all and pronounced the whole creation to be 'very good.' Six times before, He had seen that what He had made was 'good'; but now that it was complete, with every part in perfect harmony with every other part, all perfectly formed and with an abundance of inhabitants, He saw with great joy that it was all (literally) 'exceedingly good.' On each previous day, the account had concluded by saying (literally) 'the evening and the morning were a fifth day.' and so on; but now it says, 'the evening and the morning were the sixth day' (the definite article occurring for the first time in this formula), thus also stressing completion of the work.
This one verse is itself sufficient to refute any theory which tries to accommodate the geological ages concept in the Genesis record of creation. Everything in the universe (the next verse specifically includes all the host of heaven in its scope) was still at this time exceedingly good, in God's own omniscient judgment. There could have been nothing that was not good in all creation: no struggle for existence, no disease, no pollution, no physical calamities (earthquakes, floods, etc.), no imbalance or lack of harmony, no disorder, no sin and, above all, no death! Even Satan was still good at this point; his rebellion and fall must have come later.
Fossils, of course, speak of death - often of violent and sudden death. They also speak of disease and injuries, of storms and convulsions - in short, of a world like the present world, 'the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together' (Romans 8:22). Since death only 'entered into the world' when sin came in through man (Romans 5:12), and since the whole creation was very good before man sinned, it is as obvious as anything could be that the fossil record now found in the sedimentary rocks of the earth's crust could only have been formed sometime after man sinned. The fossils could not have been deposited either before the six days of creation (as in the gap theory) or during the six days of creation (as according to the progressive creation day-age type of theory). How could God have possibly looked upon a world of struggle and travail, and looked into the rocks to see the remains of billions of dead animals (as well as humanlike creatures), and then described it all as exceedingly good? Such a suggestion in effect makes God out to be a monster - not the 'God of all grace' ([Who] cares for every sparrow), not the God of love and mercy (therefore too kind to create a world by such a process as suggested in the geological age concept), the God of perfect wisdom (therefore certainly able to devise a better way than that), the God of omnipotence (thus fully able to create by such a better way), and the God of infinite order (not the 'author of confusion' and of wasteful inefficiency which is implied if the fossil record is indeed a record of prehuman earth history), as revealed in the Bible...
...the cataclysmic events of
the great Flood in the days of Noah are quite sufficient to account for
all the phenomena of the sedimentary rocks and the fossil record. At the
time of man's creation, however, the whole universe was a beautiful,
perfect creation, the finest that the mind and heart of God Himself could
devise for man..." .on
Creation and the Flood vs. Evolution
****** END OF (GEN 1:31) EXCERPT FROM GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ******
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense].
(Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made.
(Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make].
(Gen 2:4 HOLMAN) [These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]."
(AS
WELL AS GEN 2:4a EXAMINED BELOW )
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense]. (Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made. (Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make]." =
Gen 2:1-3 and Gen 2:4a are the conclusion of Genesis chapter one. Note that verse numbers are not part of the original text, but a later addition beginning in the 13th century for convenience sake; and they have not always been correctly configured - as is the case in Genesis chapters one and two.
Genesis 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense]," stipulates the completion of elOhîm's work delineated in Genesis chapter one of the creation of the heavens, the earth and the "host of them" - the last phrase referring to heavenly bodies, especially the stars (e.g., Deut. 4:19).
Genesis 2:2, "and
God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and
[rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made,"
refers to elOhîm having completed His work of creating the heavens,
the earth and all the heavenly bodies "by the seventh day," in
the sense that His work was finished through the sixth day and He rested,
i.e., ceased His creative work on the seventh day. Hence there were
created no other universes, nor more parts of the one universe, as some
contend. On the other hand, this is not to say that God ceased working.
For the contexts that follow throughout Scripture indicate that God gave
Himself to a new work of upholding His Creation, (cf. Col 1:17), and
carrying out His plan of redemption through His Son, (cf. Jn 5:17). So God
[elOhîm] rested on the seventh day from His creative work - a day
which it is implied is of the same duration as each of the previous six
days. For no distinction is specifically made that the seventh day is any
different with respect to duration than the six previous 24 hour days of
creation work .
Later, God commanded His people Israel to set this day apart and dedicate
it to worshipping Him - which limits that day to a 24 hour day, like the
six days of creation, (cf. Ex 20:11).
The fact that the seventh day is not formally summarized as are the other six days at the end of each day certainly does not mean that the seventh day is still continuing, as some day-age advocates have suggested. The Scripture does not say, 'He is resting on the seventh day.' but rather, 'He rested on the seventh day.' Exodus 31:17 even says that 'on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.' Though His work of creation was finished, He very soon had to undertake the great work of redemption, (John 4:34; 5:17 etc.)," (Gen 2:2).
In Gen 2:3 it states, "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make]," God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it in the sense of setting it apart from the six days of Creation to commemorate the completion / cessation of His creative work. Four times throughout Gen 2:1-3 it is noted, hence emphasized, that God finished / completed / rested from His creative work. Hence this commemoration was to bring attention to God's perfect Creation and to its Perfect Creator, (Gen 2:3).
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense].
(Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made.
(Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make].
(Gen 2:4a HOLMAN) "[These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, ... in the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]." =
[Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 'TWOT,' vol 1, op. cit., p. 380, states]:
"Toledoths. Generations, birth... ...derivative of yalad 'to bring forth'...
...As used in the OT, toledoths refers to what is produced or brought into being by someone, or follows therefrom..."
The first phrase of verse 4, (Gen 2:4a), "[These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created," refers back to and concludes Genesis chapter one. It does not refer, as some contend, to what follows - such as a contradictory account of the six days of creation. Note that the language in chapter two does not stipulate that it starts at the beginning of all creation; nor does it portray a rigid chronological sequence as in Genesis chapter one. Nor does chapter two refer to generations of humankind; because:
(1) The phrase "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth..." includes the word "heavens," which does not procreate humans.
(2) No generations coming from man appear in Genesis until well into chapter 4 - far from the specific context of chapters 1 & 2 to which this word might refer.
Keep in mind that non-living things can be correctly described using the word "generations" = "toledoths" as well as living things. For example, 'a fourth generation Ford Thunderbird.' When the word "generations" = "toledoths" does refer to generations of mankind, there are names of specific men linked to it, not so in Genesis chapter two - the only Progenitor stipulated there is "elOhîm" = "God."
[Marvin Lubenow states in 'Bones of Contention', Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994, p. 216]:
"The lexicon defines toledoth as 'history, especially family history' or something associated with origins. This would mean that the term is concerned with ancestors rather than descendants. It also suggests that that phrase looks back to the narrative rather than looking ahead to what follows.
The first use of toledoth in Genesis 2:4 ('these are the generations of the heavens and the earth') clearly establishes that this reference at 2:4 is back rather than ahead. There is simply nothing following Genesis 2:4 that deals with 'the heavens and the earth.'...
...In 1936, P. J. Wiseman wrote a book entitled New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis... Wiseman asked the question, How was information recorded and how were documents formulated in ancient Mesopotamia, which was the geographical context of much of the book of Genesis? The heart of Wiseman's contribution to the problem of the formulation of Genesis was his insight in identifying the toledoth phrases in Genesis with ancient Mesopotamian colophons. A colophon is a scribal device placed at the conclusion of a literary work written on a clay tablet giving - among other things - the title or description of the narrative, the date or occasion of the writing, and the name of the owner or writer of the tablet.
It is not surprising to the student of ancient eastern customs that many of their literary habits were precisely the opposite of our own. For instance, the Hebrews commenced their writing on what to us is the last page of the book and wrote from right to left. In ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) it was the end and not the beginning of the tablet which contained the vital information regarding date, contents, and ownership or authorship. This custom was widespread and persisted for thousands of years."
Therefore Gen 2:4a, "toledoths" refers back to what was produced or brought into being by God - namely the heavens and the earth in the 6 days of creation.
[Henry Morris, op. cit. p. 80]:
"[The] first chapter should have been marked... ...in the middle of verse 4 of Genesis 2. It is there that the first 'toledoth' [= "generations"] ...appears...
"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created."...
...this statement represents the subscript, or signature as it were, of the author of the section that has gone before... ...since there was no human author, no man having been present to observe the creation, no human name is attached as in the case of the other ten "toledoths" that occur later in Genesis. [Only the 'Lord God's' name is 'attached'] The account tells about, not the genealogical and historical records of some patriarch, but about the "genealogy" of the universe itself [of which God is Progenitor]," (Gen 1:1-2:4a).
[Henry Morris, p. 79-81, cont.]
"...The passage in Genesis 2:1-3 is, of course, a marvelous assertive summary that God had now completed His work of creating and making all things. Four times it is emphasized that God had finished His work, and three times it is emphasized that this included all His work.
These points are stressed because it is vitally important for man to realize that the present processes of the cosmos are not processes of creating and making, and therefore it would forever be impossible for him to understand about the origin of things apart from divine revelation. Both the ancient pagan evolutionists and the modern 'scientific' evolutionists continue over and over to repeat this same folly, trying to explain the origin and basic meaning of things in terms of a self-contained, closed universe, an attempt which is absurdly impossible.
2) THE TWO UNIVERSAL LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS REFLECT CREATION'S DEVOLUTION & DETERIORATION
The present processes of the universe are, without exception, processes of conservation and disintegration, as formulated in the two universal Laws of Thermodynamics.
[The first law of thermodynamics is one of energy conservation: "Energy is neither created nor destroyed"
The second law of thermodynamics can basically be stated that in spite of this conservation (First Law), the energy available for useful work does decrease so that the universe can be said to be "running down." Example: The sun's energy is dissipating via heat into the universe. So EVERYTHING IS DE-EVOLVING AND NOT EVOLVING!!]
The processes of the creation period, on the other hand, were processes of innovation and integration 'creating' and 'making'), which are exactly opposite. Science can deal only with present processes, to which alone it has access. It should be completely clear to all who are not willfully ignorant that universal processes of conservation and disintegration could never produce a universe requiring almost infinite processes of innovation and integration for its production.
Therefore, if we really want to know anything about this creation period (other than the fact that there must have been such a period, to produce the universe, a fact certainly required by the implications of the two Laws of Thermodynamics), then such knowledge can be acquired only by divine revelation. And that is exactly what we have here in this marvelous first chapter of Genesis, the divinely revealed record of the creation and formation of all things: how long it took, what the various events and divisions were, what the order of development was, the relations of the various components, and all the other data which man could never be able to determine for himself through his own scientific observations. This completion of God's work of creation is also stressed in the New Testament (Hebrews 4:3, 4, 10; 11:3; Ephesians 3:9; etc.).
(Gen 2:4b HOLMAN) "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens];
(Gen 2:5 CBL INTERLINEAR) And all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil].
(Gen 2:6 NKJV) but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
(Gen 2:7 YLT) And Jehovah God [forms, Heb. "yatsar"] the man - [from] dust from the ground, and [breathes] into his nostrils breath of [lives, plural - Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives into one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit], and the man [becomes] a living creature.
(Gen 2:8 YLT) And Jehovah God [was planting, imperfect mood] a garden in Eden, at the east, and He [was setting, imperfect mood] there the man whom He [had] formed [perfect mood];
(Gen 2:9 YLT) and Jehovah God [was causing, imperfect] to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
(Gen 2:10 YLT) And a river is going out from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it is parted, and [has] become four [riverheads];
(Gen 2:11 NKJV) The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
(Gen 2:12 NKJV) And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.
(Gen 2:13 NKJV) The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.
(Gen 2:14 NKJV) The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
(Gen 2:15 YLT) And Jehovah God [takes, imperfect mood] the man, and [causes him, imperfect mood] to settle down and rest in the garden of Eden, to work it and to keep it [the ground, (ref. Gen 2:5)].
(Gen 2:16 NKJV) And the LORD God [commands] the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
(Gen 2:17 YLT) and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, [you do] not eat of it, for in the day of [your] eating of it - dying [you do] die.'
(Gen 2:18 YLT) And Jehovah God saith, 'It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make to him an helper - as his counterpart.' [lit., corresponding to him].
(Gen 2:19 YLT) And Jehovah God [forms] from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and [brings] in unto the man, to see what he [calls] it; and whatever the man [calls] a living creature, that is its name.
(Gen 2:20 YLT) And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man [has] not been found an helper — as his counterpart.
(Gen 2:21 NKJV) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
(Gen 2:22 YLT) And Jehovah God [builds] up the rib which He [has] taken out of the man into a woman, and [brings] her in unto the man;
(Gen 2:23 HOLMAN) And the man said: "This one, [this time], is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman,' [for she was taken from man,]
(Gen 2:24 YLT) Therefore [does] a man leave his father and his mother, and [has] cleaved unto his wife, and they have become one flesh.
(Gen 2:25 YLT) And they are both of them naked, the man and his wife, and they are not ashamed of themselves."
(Gen 2:4a HOLMAN) "[These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, (Gen 2:4b HOLMAN) "In the day that the LORD God [Heb., "yehwâ elOhîm"] made earth and [the heavens]." =
God is referred to in Genesis 1:1-2:4a, i.e., throughout chapter one, as "elOhîm" rendered "God;" and as "elOhîm yehwâ" rendered "LORD God" or "Jehovah God" from Genesis 2:4b on throughout Genesis chapter two. Its presence in Gen 2:4b signifies and corroborates the beginning of chapter two at that point.
This compound name for God, "elOhîm yehwâ" combines the most sacred, holy and personal name for God "yehwâ" with "elOhîm," the Absolutely Sovereign Creator God Who was involved in every minute detail of His creation - a creation which He had in chapter one repeatedly stated as "good" and "very good," (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). It is clear that author Moses, (cf. Mt 19:7-8; Jn 7:19), changed from a focus upon the Sovereign God Who created the heavens and the earth in a panoramic and distant view in chapter one to a close up of His relationship with that creation - especially Adam - in chapter two. The evidence of this includes close up details of what God had created during the six days of Creation. It is a legitimate and a common literary practice for an author to utilize terms and names which reflect a different point of view to a previous context he himself has written. For example, a man might address a woman by her formal name at first and then, after a while, begin to call her by a nickname indicating that a friendship has been established. This may then evolve into a close, intimate husband and wife relationship wherein endearments are used to address one another. When Moses was inspired by God to write the Hebrew word "elOhîm" throughout chapter one, this established that there was one Sovereign, Almighty, Creator God; Who, all by Himself, created the heavens and the earth. Then, when the focus was to be narrowed to provide more detail, especially on man himself, God inspired Moses to use the compound name for God, "yehwâ elOhîm" which conveys an Almighty, Sovereign, Creator God "elOhîm," Who as "yehwâ," is involved in every detail of His universe in a close personal relationship with it - especially man. Later on, when the account begins to settle in on man himself, (chapter 4), Moses was inspired by God to use the term "yehwâ" alone in order to emphasize God's holiness as well as His personal involvement with mankind.
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., p. 83)]:
"In this section, [chapter two] the most distinctive vocabulary difference is the use of the divine name LORD God ("yehwâ elOhîm") instead of God ("elOhîm") [chapter one]. In Genesis 4, however, LORD ("yehwâ") is used almost exclusively (the name God occurs in 4:25). The different names for God were used in order to portray the absolute sovereignty of God in creating the heavens and the earth, (chapter one: "elOhîm"), the ongoing detail that a personal yehwâ yet almighty God was involved with in His creation, (chapter two: "yehwâ elOhîm"), and the personal involvement that yehwâ maintained in an ongoing manner with His creation, especially man, (chapter 4 on: "yehwâ")."
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense]. (Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made. (Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make]. (Gen 2:4a HOLMAN) [These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created."
[ENDING STATEMENTS OF GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ARE ABOVE]
[BEGINNING STATEMENTS OF GENESIS CHAPTER TWO ARE BELOW]:
(Gen 2:4b HOLMAN) "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens], (Gen 2:5 CBL INTERLINEAR) And all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil]. (Gen 2:6 NKJV) but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." =
The second phrase of verse 4, (Gen 2:4b), "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]" in the Holman Standard Version is the beginning phrase of Genesis chapter 2. It refers not to just one 24 hour day, but to a period of time: the "day" of the six days of Creation delineated in Genesis chapter one. It must be read as the beginning phrase of Genesis chapter two.
C) [(Gen 2:4b-6) THE BEGINNING VERSES OF GENESIS CHAPTER TWO]:
(Gen 2:4b) "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]; (Gen 2:5) and all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil]; (Gen 2:6), but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." =
Gen 2:4b-6 are the beginning verses of the second chapter of Genesis. It looks back to the Creation account in chapter one, zooming in to the earth at the time just after God had the dry land appear, and just before shrubs and plants had grown, on the 3rd day of the 6 day Creation, (Gen 1:9-13). This was before man was created.
Notice that the author begins Gen 2:5 with the conjunction represented by the Hebrew letter named "lamed," transliterated "waw," rendered "and," in the CBL Interlinear. So the Hebrew word "Waw" in Gen 2:5 continues to connect the context of the last phrase in verse 4 with the context of chapter one, zooming in to a close up of the time just prior to the 3rd twenty-four hour day of Creation in Genesis chapter one:
(Gen 2:4b) "In the day [in the sense of period of time] that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens],"
(Gen 2:5) and all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil]."
There was no rain nor anyone to provide cultivation and irrigation, so something had to be done to provide water for the soon to be created plant life, which leads to verse 6: "but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground."
Notice in Gen 2:4b-6 that there are new details when compared to the accounts in Genesis chapter one, such as that it had not yet rained on the earth; and that a mist went up from the earth to water the whole face of the ground; and that there was no man to work the ground - implying man had not yet been created which agrees with the Genesis chapter one's 3rd day account. This implies that some kind of tending to plants and shrubs might be required of man when he is created.
Hence Genesis chapter one - an overview of God's creation of the heavens and the earth, (Gen 1:1-2:4a) - is followed by Genesis chapter two, (Gen 2:4b-25) - a close up, hence a more detailed view of the creation account beginning just prior to the third day.
1) [Compare the context of Gen 1:9-13 with Gen 2:4b-6]:
(Gen 1:9 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so. (Gen 1:10 NKJV) And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (Gen 1:11 NKJV) Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb. that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. (Gen 1:12 NKJV) And the earth brought forth grass, the herb .that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Gen 1:13 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the third day." =
(Gen 1:9 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so. (Gen 1:10 NKJV) And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good." =
[Henry M. Morris states, (The Genesis Record, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1976, pp. 214-217]:
"...Especially on the third day [there] was a tremendous amount of geological work accomplished. On that day, the Genesis account tells us that dry land was made to appear above the surface of the waters... ...This process would necessarily have been accompanied by great erosion and redeposition of surface materials as the waters flowed down into the new basins."
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., p. 61]:
"The 'waters under the firmament' [i.e., on the surface of the earth] still constituted a shoreless ocean, in which probably all other material elements were randomly dissolved or suspended...
...Tremendous chemical reactions [then] got under way, as dissolved elements precipitated and combined with others to form the vast complex of minerals and rocks making up the solid earth - its crust, its mantle, and its core. The materials so formed tended in general.... with many localized exceptions...to arrange themselves isostatically [equal pressure from every side] with heavier materials sinking and lighter materials 'floating,' and with many substances still in suspension or solution.
Great earth movements also got under way, in response to differential heating and other forces. Finally, surfaces of solid earth appeared above the waters and an intricate network of channels and reservoirs opened up in the crust to receive the waters retreating off the rising continents.
Some of these reservoirs were open directly to the waters descending from above, others were formed as great subterranean chambers within the crust itself. All were interconnected by a complex network of tubes and waterways, so that in essence they were all 'gathered together unto one place.'
Although in one 'place', the waters had assembled in numerous distinct basins, [some underground, some adjacent to the ground] so that God called this 'gathering-together of the waters Seas' (i.e., a plural term)...
"He [God] gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; [or "as in a water skin"] He lays up the deeps in storehouses."
"He lays up the deep in storehouses" = He, God, gathers up the waters, the seas, into underground storehouses - into subterranean caverns]
These were, of course, not the same as our present seas, since the antediluvian arrangement of continental and marine areas was completely changed at the time of the Flood.
Finally, these 'foundation(s) of the earth' (cf. Psalm 102:25; Job 38:4; Zechariah 12:1; Isaiah 48:13; etc.) had been perfectly laid, and 'God called the dry land Earth.' This name (Hebrew "eretz") is the same as used in Genesis 1:1 and 2, showing that the formless matter originally created is the same matter as used in the finally constituted solid ground. All of this was accomplished during the first part of the third day of creation."
(Gen 1:11 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb. that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. (Gen 1:12 NKJV) And the earth brought forth grass, the herb .that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Gen 1:13 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the third day." =
So now at the beginning of the third day of Creation that the earth is prepared to grow vegetation, it is ready for the next state of God's creative process, plant life. And Gen 1:11-13 stipulates that by the end of the third day out of the earth came full grown grasses, herbs and trees - each kind able to yield seeds in order to reproduce after its kind. Three main orders of plant life are in view: grasses, herbs and trees, which implies the creation of all types of plants.
[Morris, op. cit., pp. 214-217]:
"On the same day, the record says, God made vegetation of all kinds to appear, implying that there was now a uniform mantle of fertile soil over the surface..."
The Hebrew word translated as "herbs" in this verse comes from the Hebrew masculine noun " eseb":
[TWOT, vol. 2, op. cit., p. 700]:
"(eseb) grass, herb...
...The [Hebrew] masculine noun " eseb" [which] is one of four major synonyms for 'vegetation, verdure, herb, or grass.' The English 'herb,' found in the KJV, is used in the broader and older sense of non-woody tissue vegetation, rather than in the more restricted nuance of seasoning or medicinal plants. 'eseb and its synonyms correspond more closely to the American English use of the word 'plant' than to 'herb.'...
...In the creation account this word has its most important role. On the third creative day God called for the earth to 'sprout forth vegetation [deshe'] plants, ['eseb] yielding seed, and fruit trees [esper] bearing fruit with its seed within, each according to its kind, on the earth; and God saw that it was good' (Gen 1:11: cf. v. 12 for fulfillment). In this context, deshe', 'vegetation' appears to be the broader category, subsuming both ' eseb and ' es, 'plants and trees.' "
"Let the earth sprout" = "sprout" = "dasha" = bring forth, sprout up, spring up
Objectors to a literal 6 day creation maintain that "bring forth" = "dasha" indicates that a long time span was needed for plant life to sprout up - not just one 24 hour day. However a very similar verb form in meaning is used to indicate God's creation of animals on the 6th day:
"Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures ..."
"bring forth" = "yatsa"
The context in both cases is one of a literal 24 hour day in which what was indicated as brought forth was completed in that specific 24 hour time span. So verses 11 & 24 cannot be referring to plant life growing out of seeds from the ground or animal life being born and then growing up. Instead, both verses teach of the sudden creation of both plants and animals in mature form and in abundance.
Consider for a moment that the objectors are correct - that plant life took millions of years to evolve and then animal life would then take another set of eons to arrive in creation. How then would the plant life have survived without the insects which pollinate the plants, and which provide vital nutrients in the soil, etc. etc? God would have had to have supernaturally provided for the plant life's survival? So why not just have God do what He says He did: supernaturally create ALL plant life in maturity in one literal 24 hour day, and then the animal life in maturity several days later so that the interdependencies which He built in could operate for mutual survival. Furthermore, the objectors presuppose a post Flood 'slower-growing-world' existed at the time of creation and not the immeasurably faster-growth-world of creation times. They also limit God from being able to 'sprout up' plants in one day.
Similarly, if the evolutionists are right, (and they are not), then how did animal life evolve first, rather than plant life, and then survive for millions of years if innumerable animal species were directly or indirectly dependent upon plant life for a food supply which supposedly would not be existing until millions of years later?
Promoters of the interpretation that God re-created the earth and life thereon after it fell into chaos and extinction after many ages maintain that plant life was recreated from dormant seeds. But verse 11 of Genesis 1 cannot be limited to exclude the possibility of original creation rather than a re-creation of what was already there. The context and syntax of the passage do not permit this exclusion and other passages do exclude a re-creation or a regrowth from already existing dormant seeds, especially the passages which state that man was there at the beginning of creation, not re-creation:
" [Jesus replied] 'But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female.'"
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., 62-64]:
"Not only had rocks and minerals been formed, but so had a blanket of fertile soil - sand, silt, and clay-sized particles in an ideally graded mixture, with abundant chemical nutrients and soil moisture.
Then God spoke again, this time organizing certain of the chemical elements of the earth into tremendously complex systems, each with a marvelous informational program built into its chemical structure which could henceforth specify the reproduction of other units like itself. There is no suggestion that these systems...possessed any form of consciousness; but each did have its 'seed in itself' and so had the ability of reproducing its kind.
Three main orders of plant 'life' are mentioned: grasses, herbs, and trees.... ...The three are intended to cover all types of plants and these are the most obvious comprehensive categories...
...It is significant that these plants were made, not as seeds, but as full-grown plants whose seed was in themselves. They thus had an 'appearance of age.' The concept of creation of apparent age does not, of course, suggest a divine deception, but is a necessary accompaniment of genuine creation. The processes operating in Creation Week were not the processes of the present era, but were processes of 'creating and making,' and are thus not commensurate with present processes at all..
[Furthermore, God did not say 'Let the land produce seeds which will grow into plants', instead He said 'Let the land sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees [already] bearing fruit, with seed in them...']
Adam was created as a full-grown man, the trees were created as full-grown trees, and the whole universe was made as a functioning entity, complete and fully developed, right from the beginning [even with light arriving from distant stars, vv. 14-16]. The 'apparent age' that might be calculated in terms of present processes [is irrelevant and] would undoubtedly be vastly different from the 'true age' as revealed by the Creator.
In verse 11 occurs the first mention of both 'seed' and 'kind.' Implanted in each created organism was a 'seed,' programmed to enable the continuing replication of that type of organism. The modern understanding of the extreme complexities of the so-called DNA molecule and the genetic code contained in it has reinforced the Biblical teaching of the stability of kinds. [As opposed to the evolution of one kind into another] Each type of organism has its own unique structure of the DNA and can only specify the reproduction of that same kind. There is a tremendous amount of variational potential within each kind, facilitating the generation of distinct individuals and even of many varieties within the kind, but nevertheless precluding the evolution of new kinds! A great deal of 'horizontal' [within species] variation is easily possible, but no 'vertical' [species to species] changes.
It is significant that the phrase 'after his kind' occurs ten times in the first chapter of Genesis....Each organism was to reproduce after its own kind, not after some other kind... ...the evolutionary dogma that all living things are interrelated by common ancestry and descent is refuted by these Biblical statements, as well as by all established scientific observations made to date."
(1 Cor 15:38 NKJV) "But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.
(1 Cor 15:39 NKJV) All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds," [i.e., after its own kind]
[Henry Morris, cont. op. cit., p.64]:
"It should also be mentioned that the formation of plants, even in such complex forms as fruit trees, occurred before the creation of any form of animal life. This, of course, is quite logical, but it does flatly contradict the accepted evolutionary system, which has marine animals, both invertebrates and vertebrates, evolving hundreds of millions of years before the evolution of fruit trees and other higher plants. Furthermore, many plants require pollination by insects, but insects were not made until the sixth day of creation, which fact argues against the possibility that the days of creation could have been long ages. The idea of theistic evolution is counter to the Biblical record of creation in practically every passage." (Gen 2:4b).
1 cont.) [Compare the context of Gen 1:9-13 with Gen 2:4b-6, (cont.)]:
(Gen 2:4b HOLMAN) "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens], (Gen 2:5 CBL INTERLINEAR) And all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil], (Gen 2:6 NKJV) but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." =
So Gen 2:4b, "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]," refers to the six 24 hour days of Creation. Whereupon the next verse, Gen 2:5, "And all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil]," focuses upon on the third day of Creation as stipulated in Genesis chapter one - when there was dry ground. Gen 2:5 stipulates, there was as yet no watering of the ground from rainfall, and therefore no plants had sprouted up. This implies that there were seeds within the ground for that to happen. Furthermore, the phrase, "and. there was no man to till the ground," implies that the plants, and for that matter, the earth, was created for man to take charge of and work at maintaining. Whereupon the LORD God provided a mist to come up from the earth and water the whole face of the ground, implying the occurrence of the sprouting up of plant life throughout the planet.
****** (GEN 2:5-6) EXCERPT FROM STUDY OF GENESIS CHAPTER ONE RELATIVE TO GEN 2:5-6 ******
So God provided through His creative process a mist which would water His soon to be created plant life.
[Henry Morris states, op. cit. p. 84-85]:
"As an introduction to the creation of man, the account [in verses 2:5-6] first describes the condition of the world immediately prior to man's creation... ...a perfectly plausible translation [of these verses] would be...as follows: 'In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens there was as yet no field plant in the earth and no field shrub growing, since the LORD God had not yet established rainfall on the earth and since there was as yet no man to cultivate the ground. But there were water vapors arising from the earth, which kept watering the whole face of the ground.'
The original hydrologic cycle was thus drastically different from that of the present day. The present cycle, which began at the time of the great Flood, involves global and continental air mass movements, and annual and seasonal temperature changes. It is summarized quite scientifically in such Scripture passages as Ecclesiastes 1:6-7, Isaiah 55:10-11; Job 28:24-26; Job 36:26-29: Psalm 135:6-7, and others. This present cycle centers around the solar evaporation of ocean waters, transportation to the continents in the atmospheric circulation, condensation and precipitation in the form of rain and snow, and transportation back to the oceans via rivers. In the original world, however, there was no rainfall on the earth. As originally created, the earth's daily water supply came primarily from local evaporation and condensation. There was also... ...a system of spring-fed rivers. [Ref. Gen 2:10-14]
The change in temperature between daytime and nighttime apparently was adequate to energize daily evaporation from each local body of water and its condensation as dew and fog in the surrounding area each night. This arrangement was implemented on the second and third days of the creation week, prior to the formation of the plants on the latter part of the third day.
The inhibition of true rainfall was probably, as discussed in the previous chapter, accomplished by the great... ...canopy, 'the waters above the firmament.' Maintaining an approximately uniform temperature worldwide, no great air mass movements were possible under the canopy, and the necessary conditions for rainfall unsatisfied.
A few commentators have suggested that the 'mist' was actually a river. However the word means 'mist,' or 'fog,' and is always so used."
****** (GEN 2:5-6) END OF EXCERPT FROM STUDY OF GENESIS CHAPTER ONE RELATIVE TO GEN 2:5-6 ******
(Gen 2:7 YLT) "And Jehovah God [forms, Heb. "yatsar"] the man - [from] dust from the ground, and [breaths] into his nostrils breath of [lives, plural - Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives in one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit], and the man [becomes] a living creature." =
Thereafter, Genesis chapter two moves the focus upon the latter part of the sixth day of creation when Jehovah ElOhîm, the LORD God, formed the man, Adam from the dust of the ground and upon God's breathing into his nostrils the breath of lives, (plural), whereupon the man Adam became a unique living creature with both a physical and spiritual life.
1) [Compare Gen 1:26-31 with Gen 2:7]:
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' (Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Gen 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.' (Gen 1:29 NKJV) And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. (Gen 1:30 NKJV) Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;' and it was so. (Gen 1:31 NKJV) Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day." =
At some point within day number six of creation, God made man in his image, both male and female, and gave them dominion over all living things and all the earth. He commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. He provided them and all the animals with multiple kinds of vegetation for food; i.e., neither man nor animals were to eat animals for food.
****** (GEN 1:26-27) EXCERPT FROM GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ******
[Gen 1:26-27 - THE CREATION OF MAN]:
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' (Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created [Heb. bArA] man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." =
[Morris, ibid]
"The world was now fully prepared for its human inhabitants, who would be given dominion over it. God did not need five billion years to prepare for man, as theistic evolutionists seem to think. In fact, He did not even need the six days that He took! The reasons for taking six days apparently were, first, to stress the orderly and logical relationships between the different components of the creation and, second, to provide a divine pattern for man's six-day work week. A regular day of rest and special fellowship with God would be essential for man's good, and God's example would be the best pattern and incentive for man to keep such a day.
Actually the formation of the land animals must have taken only a small portion of the sixth day. The second chapter of Genesis describes in fuller detail the rest of the events of the sixth day, events which are only briefly outlined here in the first chapter.
"LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE"
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our Likeness...' " = "God" = "elOhîm" = PLURAL
"said" = singular verb in the Hebrew
"Us" = PLURAL
"make" = singular verb in the Hebrew
"our" = PLURAL
"in our image according to our likeness" =
"our image" = The construction here of plural subject followed by a singular verb indicates one God with more than one Personality, i.e., the Trinity.
In order to avoid attributing God with more than one Personality, objectors to the Trinity state that the phrase, "in our image" in Gen 1:26 refers to God and the angels who are deciding together to create man in their image. This would then infer that angels have the image of God on a equal basis with the Almighty eternal God and thus contributed in creation, ("Let us make"), with Him as Creators. However, the image that the passage is referring to is a unique one to God and God alone as implied by the word "our." If "us" is to include angels then a plural verb form of "make" instead of singular would have been inspired by God to be used. God's image is an eternal image which angels and man are made into only in a finite way. If equality were meant instead of similarity, then the verse should have been worded 'Let us make man equal with us' and not "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our Likeness...' "
MAN - IN THE SENSE OF MANKIND - MALE AND FEMALE - IS CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE
"in our image" = "image" = "selem" = image is used in a special sense here since God, being infinite and Spirit, is not limited to a finite human form. Therefore, a human being created in the image of God means that each individual human being possesses in a finite way certain qualities which God possesses such as a consciousness of God Himself, the ability to love, worship, think and perform creatively like no other living creature on the earth.
"make" = 'asa' = [TWOT vol. 2, op. cit., p. 701, states]:
"The significant interchange between the words bara 'create' [Gen 1:1] and 'asa' [Gen 1:26] is of great interest. The word 'bara,' (Gen 1:27), carries the thought of the initiation of the object involved [from nothing] - evidently relative to the soul and spirit of each individual human - man and woman. It always connotes what only God can do and frequently emphasizes the absolute newness of the object created. The word 'asa' is much broader in scope, connoting primarily the fashioning of the object [from existing material] with little concern for special nuances.
The use of "bara" = created out of nothing, in the opening statement of the account of creation in Genesis chapter one seems to carry the implication that the physical phenomena came into existence at that time and had no previous existence in the form in which they were created by divine fiat. The use of "asa" may simply connote the act of fashioning the objects [which had already been created out of nothing]."
Later in the book of Genesis, in chapter two, we have the creation of the woman. God used the side of Adam which He took from Adam to make the woman. The word 'made' in Gen 2:22, ('made He a woman'), is the Hebrew word transliterated as 'banah', (Strongs #1129). It means to build or to construct from existing materials as opposed to the Hebrew word, 'bara' which means to create out of nothing, (Gen 1:1). The physical bodies of the man and the woman were made out of something that already existed. Adam's body was made, (Hebrew: 'yatsar' = 'formed', Gen 2:7), from the earth material which God previously had created - had previously 'bara' = created out of nothing by His spoken word. So God did not 'bara' - create out of nothing - the body of Adam; rather, He formed it out of the 'dust of the earth'.
But what He did create out of nothing was man's (and woman's) soul and spirit implying that man's spirit and soul are not inheritances from descendants. For in Gen 1:27 it states, "So God created [Heb. verb, "bArA" = created out of nothing] man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them;" and in Gen 2:7 it states,
(Gen 2:7 YLT) "And Jehovah God [forms, Heb. "yatsar"] the man - [from] dust from the ground, and [breaths] into his nostrils breath of [lives, plural - Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives in one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit], and the man [becomes] a living creature."
So God formed a body from the elements and compounds already made - described as "dust of the ground" - and then breathed into the body man's essence - his soul and spirit - which were created out of nothing. Hence man (man and woman) alone of the creatures God created on earth has two lives: a physical / mortal life and a spiritual / immortal life which lives on after physical death. This was an act of creation of never before existing entities - the unique soul and spirit of man in the image of God.
[TWOT vol. 2, op. cit., p. 768, states]:
"Man was made in God's image ("selem") and likeness ("demut") which is then explained as his having dominion over God's creation as vice-regent..."
(Ps 8:5 NKJV) "For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
(Ps 8:6 NKJV) You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
(Ps 8:7 NKJV) All sheep and oxen - Even the beasts of the field,
(Ps 8:8 NKJV) The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas."
[TWOT, ibid, cont]:
"Psalm 8:5-8...[just quoted ...is similar citing man's God-given glory, honor and rule. God's image obviously does not consist in man's body which was formed from earthly matter, but in his spiritual, intellectual, moral likeness to God from Whom his animating breath came."
[TWOT, op. cit., p. 191-192]:
"demut. Likeness....in v. 27 [of Gen 1], the actual act of creation, only selem is used, not demut. The two words are so intertwined that nothing is lost in the meaning by the omission of demut...
...The word 'likeness' rather than diminishing the word 'image' actually amplifies it and specifies its meaning. Man is not just an image but a likeness-image. He is not simply representative but representational. Man is the visible, corporeal representative of the invisible, bodiless God. demut guarantees that man is an adequate and faithful representative of God on earth..."
[Walter Martin commented on this verse in his book 'Kingdom of the Cults", (Bethany House, Minneapolis, 1985, p. 54), which defends the Bible against accusations that Scripture teaches polytheism, (= belief in more than one God)]:
"Now it is obvious that God would not [have to] create man or any created being in His image if He were [already] talking to them, so He must have been addressing someone else. [It could not be angels because they are not reported anywhere in Scripture as having anything to do with creation nor do they have such a creative capacity nor any such equality with God - relative to creative powers. So]...Who but His Son and the Holy Spirit, Who are equal in substance could He address in such familiar terms...[as "Let Us create man in Our image after Our likeness"]. Since there is no other God but Jehovah (Isa 43:10,11 [45:5]), not even a lesser mighty god can exist, then there must be a unity in plurality and substance in the Godhead, otherwise Gen 1:26 doesn't make any sense."
(Pro 30:4 NKJV) "Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son's name, If you know?"
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., p. 73-75]:
"On this sixth day, [a divine] council took place, and the...[eternal]...plan took place...
...The highest, most complex of all creatures was to be made by God and then was to be given dominion over all the rest - all the animals of the sea, air, and land. Man's body would be formed in the same way as the bodies of the animals had been formed (Genesis 1:24; 2:7). Similarly, man would have the 'breath of life' like animals (Genesis 2:7; 7:22), and even have the 'living soul' like animals (Genesis 1:24; 2:7). Thus, though man's structure, both physical and mental, would be far more complex than that of the animals, it would be of the same basic essence; therefore God proposed to 'make [Hebrew 'asah'] man in Our image.'
And yet man was to be more than simply a very complex and highly organized animal. There was to be something in man which was not only quantitatively greater, but qualitatively distinctive, something not possessed in any degree by the animals.
Man was to be in the image and likeness of God Himself! Therefore, [in v. 27 it says that] he was also 'created' ('bara') in God's image. in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. He was both made and created in the image of God..
...There can be little doubt that the 'image of God' in which man was created must entail those aspects of human nature which are not shared by animals - attributes such as a moral consciousness, the ability to think abstractly, an understanding of beauty and emotion, and, above all, the capacity for worshiping and loving God. This eternal and divine dimension of man's being must be the essence of what is involved in the likeness of God. And since none of this was a part of the animal 'nephesh,' the 'soul,' it required a new creation."
[Dr. Robert A Morey, Death and the Afterlife, Bethany House, Minneapolis, Mn, 1984, p. 46]:
The word 'life' occurs for the first time in Genesis 1:20 (Hebrew "nepes," feminine singular form of "nephesh"). Actually, this is the word also for 'soul,' and is frequently used to refer to both the soul of man and the life of animals."
[In Gen 2:7] "nepes" is used to describe the part of man which transcends the life principle, separates him from animals and likens him unto God.
Man, as God's image-bearer, is a cognitive ego who can say, 'I am,' Thus 'nephesh' was translated to indicate that man possesses mind, emotions, will, heart, ego, self, etc.
It is this transcendent self that is traditionally called 'the soul.'
God is a self-conscious being [Who] as a cognitive ego can say, 'I Am.' Thus God swears by His 'nephesh,' i.e., His soul, or ['self'] in Jer. 51:14 and Amos 6:8. In this sense, God is said to possess a 'mind,' 'will,' 'heart,' 'emotions,' 'self,' etc. (Job 23:13). The 'nephesh,' or soul, of God is His transcendent self which hates sin (Ps 11:5). In no way can God's 'nephesh' be reduced to the principle of physical life, because God does not have a physical body.
When 'nephesh' is used of God, it obviously transcends the mere life principle of animals who do not have self-awareness. In the same way, 'nephesh' is used to describe that part of man which transcends the life principle."
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p. 85]:
"However, this does not exhaust the meaning [of man being in the likeness of God]. We must also deal with the fact that man was 'made' in God's image as well. That component of man which was 'made' was his body and soul. In some sense, therefore, even man's body is in God's image in a way not true of animals.
God in His omnipresence is not corporeal, however, but is Spirit (John 4:24); so how could man's body be made in God's image?
We can only say that, although God Himself may have no physical body, He designed and formed man's body to enable it to function physically in ways in which He Himself could function even without a body. God can see (Genesis 16:13), hear (Psalm 94:9), smell (Genesis 8:21), touch (Genesis 32:32), and speak (II Peter 1:18), whether or not He has actual physical eyes, ears, nose, hands, and mouth. Furthermore, whenever He has designed to appear visibly to men, He has done so in the form of a human body (Genesis 18:1,2); and the same is true of angels (Acts 1:10). There is something about the human body, therefore, which is uniquely appropriate to God's manifestation of Himself, and (since God knows all His works from the beginning of the world - Acts 15:18), He must have designed man's body with this in mind. Accordingly, He designed it, not like the animals, but with an erect posture, with an upward gazing countenance, capable of articulate, symbolic speech...
...The Hebrew word rendered "man" in the NKJV is transliterated "AdAm." It is related to "earth," (Hebrew 'adamah'), since man's body was formed from the elements of the earth (Genesis 2:7). Hence "AdAm" signifies from out of the earth. It may be noted that man was to have dominion not only over all animals but also over the earth (verse 26) from which he had been formed.
Finally, it is made clear that 'man' is also a generic term, including both male and female. Both man and woman were 'created' (the details of their physical formation being given in Genesis 2) in God's image, and thus both possess equally an eternal spirit capable of personal fellowship with their Creator."
(Gen 5:2 NKJV) "He ["elOhîm" = God] created them ["bArA" in the sense of their souls and spirits being created out of nothing - male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind [lit., "AdAm"] in the day they were created."
(Gen 2:23 HOLMAN) "And the man said: "This one, [this time], is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman,' [for she was taken from man]."
****** END OF (GEN 1:26-27) EXCERPT FROM GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ******
****** (GEN 1:28-31) EXCERPT FROM GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ******
(v. 28) "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'
(v. 29) Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
(v. 30) And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food.' And it was so.
(v. 31) And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." =
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p.75-78]:
"Having created man and woman, God pronounced a blessing on them and then gave them their basic instructions and commission. Whether He had created more than one pair of each of the animal kinds is not stated, although the seeming inference ... might be that many pairs of each kind were made. In any case, only one man and one woman were made, a fact made clear in Genesis 2, when the details of the formation of Adam and the woman are described.
The first command given to this first man and woman was to 'be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.' The King James translation used the term 'replenish,' but this does not suggest the idea of 'refilling,' either the Old English term itself or the Hebrew word from which it is translated. The Hebrew word is 'male', and means simply 'fill', 'fulfill,' or 'be filled.' Of the more than three hundred times it is used, it is translated (in KJV) by 'replenish' only seven times; and even these could as well have been rendered 'fill.' It is certainly erroneous to use this one verse as a proof text for the gap theory, as many have done.
Man has not yet filled the earth, in accordance with God's command; nevertheless, many people today are unduly alarmed over the so-called population explosion, urging government controls of various sorts to slow down population growth. We can be sure that God's command (repeated, incidentally, after the Flood) was made in full knowledge of the earth's ability to support a large population (note Genesis 9:1), and it has never been rescinded. Even at the present level of man's technological knowledge, the earth could support a much larger population than it now holds. Obviously, it could not continue to grow indefinitely, without limit, but God no doubt has made adequate provision for such an eventuality.
For one thing, the Scriptures promise that Christ will return before man has completely destroyed his world - a prospect which, humanly speaking, seems more of an imminent danger than overpopulation. Further, there is quite a bit of evidence in the studies of animal populations that, when a given group increases in numbers to the optimum number for its own ecological niche, the population stabilizes - not because of a struggle-for-existence conflict, but by virtue of built-in psychological or physiological mechanisms which somehow slow down the reproductive activity of the population. It is possible that God would do the same with the human population.
Another possibility is that, had man not failed his probation in Eden, he would have eventually been allowed to colonize other planets as his population grew. Such ideas are speculation only, since human populations have not yet reached the optimum level even for our present decaying planet.
In addition to the command for procreation (and Genesis 2 makes it plain that this was to be within the framework of monogamous marriage), God instructed man to 'subdue' the earth, and to 'have dominion over...every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' These are military terms - first conquer, and then rule. In context, however, there is no actual conflict suggested, since everything God had made was pronounced 'good.' The 'cultural mandate,' as some have called it, is clearly a very expressive figure of speech for, first, intense study of the earth (with all of its intricate processes and complex systems) and, then, utilization of this knowledge for the benefit of the earth's inhabitants, both animal and human. Here is the primeval commission to man authorizing both science and technology as man's basic enterprises relative to the earth. 'Science' is man's disciplined study and understanding of the phenomena of his world. 'Technology' is the implementation of this knowledge in the effective ordering and development of the earth and its resources, for the greater good of all earth's inhabitants (including such fields of human service as engineering, agriculture, medicine, and a host of other practical technologies). This two fold commission to subdue and have dominion, to conquer and rule, embraces all productive human activities. Science and technology, research and development, theory and application, study and practice, and so forth, are various ways of expressing these two concepts.
This command, therefore, established man as God's steward over the created world and all things therein. 'Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas' (Psalm 8:6-8). However, as the writer of Hebrews says, commenting on this passage: 'But now we see not yet all things put under him' (Hebrews 2:8). The problem is, of course, that man has failed in his stewardship. Instead of using the earth for good, under God, he has denied God and abused his stewardship. This primeval commission has never been abrogated - man is still under its obligations. The scientific and technological enterprises still comprise God's mandate to man relative to the earth and its inhabitants, and man would find himself immeasurably more productive and effective in such pursuits if he would only approach them in the reverent and believing attitude of an honest and good servant of his Maker, (Gen 1:28).
[Morris, op. cit., pp. 75-78]:
"After giving man his commission, God told him of the provision for his most essential need - that of food. Man had work to do, and would need a repeated renewal of energy to continue the work. This was to be provided through the marvelous digestive system and internal energy conversion apparatus designed by God as a part of man's body (as well as those of the animals). This energy supply was to be perpetually available through the fruits and herbs of the biosphere established by God on the third day of creation. The supply could not be exhausted, since these plants were designed to replicate themselves via the bearing and yielding of seed. Furthermore, as man spread out and filled the earth, his food would be available everywhere, 'upon the face of all the earth.' There were (primevally) no deserts or other uninhabitable regions.
The animals, too, were to obtain their food from 'every green herb,' a term evidently meaning all green plants, including grasses. They also had a work to do, under man's direction, even though at this late date (after millennia of fearing and dreading man in a cursed world - note Genesis 9:2) it may be difficult or impossible to determine exactly the original nature or intended functions of the different kinds of animals.
It is clear from this passage that, in the original creation, it was not intended that either man or animals should eat animal food. As far as man was concerned, this was changed at the time of the Flood (Genesis 9:3), as will be discussed later. Whether some of the antediluvians ventured to do this against God's command, we are not told, although it is a possibility (Jabal introduced cattle raising, Genesis 4:20).
As far as carnivorous animals are concerned, their desire for meat must also have been a later development, either at the time of the Curse or after the Flood. Even today, of course, such animals can and will (if they have to) live on a vegetarian diet. Whether such structures as fangs and claws were part of their original equipment, or were recessive features which only became dominant due to selection processes later, or were mutational features following the Curse, or exactly what, must await further research. The same uncertainty must prevail at this point as to how the present 'balance-of-nature' arrangements developed in various environments, whereby predators keep in check the large numbers of lower animals that would otherwise take over. It is at least possible that the primeval 'balances' in every environment, including the fecundity of each kind, were quite different than at present, so that predation [act of preying for food] was neither needed nor desired. The Scriptures do predict that, in the world of the future, after Christ has returned and restored the earth in part to its primeval perfection, there will be once again no predation or struggle between animals or between animals and man (note Isaiah 11:6-9; Hosea 2:18, etc.).
[Dr. Baugh, 'Panorama of Creation', Creation Publication Services, Ft. Worth, Tx, 1992, pp. 56-61]:
On day number six, the final animal life was created, and in order to keep the vegetation in balance, such huge plant eating creatures were required. After the Flood, the decline in the size and abundance of plant life would not have supported the dinosaurs for very long. Even elephants today in Africa are threatened by the lack of needed vegetation to support them. Reduced partial pressure in the atmosphere played an even greater role in the demise of the dinosaur.
In the world before the Flood, the light would be at its lowest pink hue at high noon because of the angle of the light passing through the firmament. But, just as important, envision the firmament - this double bubble of crystalline water - and the effect it would have upon the atmospheric pressure. The atmosphere would be pressurized to a greater degree than we now have. Researchers, like Dr. Henry Voss, at the University of Illinois, have been able to approximate the atomic weight of such a canopy. This crystalline canopy would put a cap on the atmosphere. Atmospheric pressure today at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch. Before the Flood, the air pressure would have been about two times what it is today....
...The ratio of oxygen in the atmosphere would have been about thirty percent, compared to twenty-one percent today. Some researchers have concluded that due to the pre-Flood atmospheric conditions which had greater amounts of oxygen, man could have run up to two hundred miles without suffering fatigue. It has been discovered in hyperbaric medical chamber experiments that under these circumstances, an open wound would heal overnight. It is therefore understandable how man could have lived to be several hundred years old, even after the fall, in this pre-Flood world. Heavier air pressure and more oxygen in the atmosphere were conducive to longer life.
Another factor in the pre-Flood environment which was in man's favor was less radiation from the sun. The canopy above the earth acted as a filter to trap most of the short-wave radiation. It is the short-wave radiation that is causing man many problems today....
...before the Flood, almost all of the harmful radiation would have been filtered out by the water canopy.
Today, because of harmful short-wave radiation man suffers genetic damage, cancer, and other health damage factors that shorten the lifespan. Also, there are certain microbes and disease germs that could not live in the pre-Flood atmosphere; but they can live in an oxygen-depleted atmosphere. In addition, there was a mist each morning that aided the oxygenation of the entire water table. More oxygen in the water would account for great whales, great sharks, and the chambered nautilus marine life forms that were gargantuan [in]...size. The fossil record bears evidence that such creatures existed; but, without more oxygen in the waters today, they could not live in contemporary oceans, seas, or rivers. The theory of evolution does not provide an answer as to how such enormous marine monsters lived, but the creation model does provide an answer...
...An additional beneficial characteristic would be the extra oxygen in the atmosphere, and with the great assimilation of oxygen in the air, man was possibly twenty percent larger than he is today. Adam and Noah were probably about seven feet tall, and there were others who were even taller.
In the sixth chapter of Genesis, we read that there were giants on the earth before the Flood.
"There were giants in the earth in those days..."
"giants" = "nephilim" ]
At Glen Rose, Texas, we have excavated some of the footprints of those giants. Their footprints were preserved as they walked over the muddy sediment in the early phases of the Noahic Flood.
The environmental context before the Flood would exercise the full genetic viability for all life forms...
[Full genetic viability = the full capacity of a species to produce an enormous variety of characteristics within its own species - without changing into another species]
...For example, today the dragonfly - which is a superior helicopter - has a wingspan not exceeding six inches. But in the fossil record, dragonflies have been found with wingspans of up to thirty-six inches. There has to be an explanation as to how at some point in time dragonflies grew to such gigantic dimensions. It would certainly require a greater concentration of oxygen. Conditions that would support such monstrous life forms, even in the insect world, scientifically dictate that there had to be such a canopy above the earth. In order to provide that much oxygen would have to approach the level of toxicity, unless the atmospheric pressure was greater. Again, such an atmospheric condition can only be explained in terms of a firmament. Therefore, we have to follow the Biblical record of creation specifically or the environmental chain breaks into unconnected parts.
The greater atmospheric pressure, with approximately thirty percent oxygen, would have created optimal conditions. Thus, dragonflies could have grown to a size supporting a thirty-six inch wingspan.
Consider another illustration. In West Texas, there has been found a fossilized pterodactyl, a flying reptile, with a wingspan of fifty-two feet. There is no way this flying dinosaur (as it has been called) could have flown with the current atmospheric pressure. It would have been utterly impossible. But, with an atmospheric pressure of approximately thirty-two pounds per square inch, this flying pterodactyl would have had a field day. Scientific investigation mandates a time in the past when life forms required greater atmospheric pressure and filtration of the ultraviolet radiation, such as the Biblical record very clearly presents. In all the annals of investigative research, only the Biblical record gives the required mechanism to make this possible. Just a canopy [of] water vapor would not satisfy a complete and needed explanation. Water vapor collapses into vortices, eddies, and spiral circles of energy; but, with a world energized by a firmament of compressed hydrogen held in place by a layer of crystalline water which would keep the temperature at a consistent level, the necessary requirements would be the result.
NASA had discovered in the examination of superconductive materials that when held near a magnet, the lines of force generated in the free flow of electromagnetic energy hold the materials in place, either above it or below it. In other words, researchers have not been able to find a mechanism for holding up a water canopy unless that water canopy has exactly what the Biblical record clearly describes: a superconductive solid metallic base. Hydrogen would be such a base under these circumstances, and with a free flow of electrons, it would support itself above the dipole magnet of the earth. All the laws of physics known in current research show that this would simply support itself above the earth, and it would be held there until warmer temperatures would moderate its enclosure...
...A superconductive canopy of compressed hydrogen in near-metallic form was encased above and below in crystalline water.
[And the stars were magnified through this canopy as if they were set in it like jewels]:
[Dr. Baugh cont.]:
"The stars were shining at a distance, a startling characteristic of the pre-Flood world. In Genesis 1:14-18, the stellar heavens are described....
(Gen 1:14 NKJV) "Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
(Gen 1:15 NKJV) and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
(Gen 1:16 NKJV) Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
(Gen 1:17 NKJV) God set them [= "nathan"] in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
(Gen 1:18 NKJV) and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:19 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the fourth day."
[Dr. Baugh, cont.]
"...The stars are in color, and the Biblical record states that God set the stars in the firmament. The ancients described the firmament as a vault above the earth, and the stars were placed in this vault.
[These ancient myths speak of stars in a vault-like sky which appear much closer than they appear now. This supports the concept of the preflood model with a crystalline water-metallic hydrogen composite canopy]
The Biblical record states very clearly that God 'set' the stars in the firmament much as a jeweler would enhance a diamond by placing it on a background of black velvet. The word 'set' [Gen 1:17 above] is taken from the Hebrew word 'nathan'; it means 'to add and yield.' In other words, the stars are not physically placed in the firmament, because they are great distances away. But, as light from the stars penetrates the firmament, there is a very strong magnetic field in the middle; it is superconductive without any resistance to the flow of electrons. On each side is an electromagnetic field charged to a lesser degree in the crystalline water formation. What is then presented in a pressurized form on each side is a photomultiplier. Each photon of light which strikes the configuration is multiplied by ten because of the interaction in the atoms. On the earth side of the canopy, the stars were seen with ten times the photons that the light brought to the outer surface of the canopy. Before the Flood, the stars were seen by man as being about three times brighter than they are seen today. In other words, in the firmament, God set the stars, or added and yielded their dimensions in full color.
NASA has found that when a red filter is used in space, the stars appear in beautiful color. This is exciting because God put the stellar bodies in space for signs, for days, for months, and for years. We understand that by observing the rotation of the earth in relation to the movement of the sun and the moon, and other heavenly bodies, we can tell times. But now we can perceive that with the enhancement of the light, those before the Flood could, by the configuration of the stars, tell time at any moment. They would not need a Rolex watch; they would have something far better.
Before the Flood, Earth's inhabitants never saw total darkness. Research has indicated that the temperature would have been about seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Imagine superior man with a perfect environment, perfect food with complete nutrients, no harmful radiation from space, and disease microbes held in check. The pre-Flood world was, in our understanding today, paradise."
In the book of Job is revealed further information about God's awesome plan of orchestrated creation.
(v. 4) " 'Where were you [God is asking Job] when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell Me, if you understand.
(v. 5) Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
(v. 6) On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone -
(v. 7) while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?' "
"while the morning stars sang together" =
[Dr. Carl E. Baugh, op. cit., p.65-67]:
"According to the observation of radioastrophysicists, stars, by radio wave context, are 'singing' to us....
...Stars throughout the universe are emitting radio wave energy. Some entire galaxies are emitting almost nothing but radio wave energy. NASA discovered to their amazement that not only are these stars emitting radio wave energy, but that there is music on those radio waves of energy.... not only is music emitted, but the music being emitted is in a major key. The music being emitted from these stars is harmonious. NASA compared the music being emitted from these star sources to the instruments of an orchestral creation. It seems that everywhere we look, creation is orchestrated. Recently, with some special plasma ionized research units, NASA found that Neptune and some of the other planets in our solar system emit a signal which sounds like whistling, as if it were whistling a tune...
First of all, there was a firmament of water above the earth in crystalline form. Crystals take on very special characteristics. When energized with a current of electromagnetic energy, crystals amplify long radio waves. Each morning before the Flood, as the earth turned toward the sun, when the angle was just right, the energized radio waves reaching the earth through the universe were amplified by the crystalline firmament canopy. Each morning before the Flood the radio wave signals from these stars, or 'music,' could be heard on Earth.
Light energy does something to the human body and to all life forms, even if it cannot be seen. In the early hours of the morning, as the fiber optic nature of this crystalline canopy above the earth was transferring light from the sunny side of the globe, it would have very gently enhanced that light. If an individual were asleep, and could not see the light, as the light were enhanced that individual would begin to stir, for the light would be received in the biologic mechanism of his body. Light would gently induce the individual awake.
The crystalline water in the firmament canopy before the Flood would filter out the harmful shortwave radiation. The canopy would permit the long waves of energy to go right through it. In fact, the long waves of energy would not only be able to pass through the canopy, but would be enhanced, or amplified by it. While the individual sleeping before the Flood was gently induced awake by the light, about dawn he would also have been greeted by the amplified sound of the radio wave energy being emitted by the stars.
NASA had found that there are bursts of energy from these sources, but there would also be sustains, crescendos, diminishes, and terminations. There would be new music every day.
In the orchestral creation model as described in part in Job 38, God said there were foundations to the earth, and that there were elements in perfect balance. Inside the earth there existed the radioisotopes in perfect balance with moderators, such as iridium, strontium, rubidium, radioisotopic lead, and uranium in perfect balance with maganese, water, sulphur, magnesium, and other elemental moderators. Under those circumstances, inside the earth there would have existed a perfectly controlled nuclear reaction. Not only would there have been a nuclear reactor, but with the elements placed in perfect balance, there would have been what physicists now call a breeder reactor. You would have ended up with as many elements as you started with, as long as there was a constant energy input into the system. The constant energy input was generated throughout the celestial heavens, and received into the crystalline firmament canopy; and the primary electromagnetic field of the canopy transferred this energy supply would have been continuously restructured and replaced. Under those circumstances, with the radioisotopes inside the earth in a long-term decay rate, there would have existed a perfectly balanced nuclear reactor inside the earth.
You would need such a perfectly balanced reactor in the orchestral model. It is primarily the shortwave energy which heats up the atmosphere around us every day. However, that shortwave energy would have been filtered out by the firmament canopy before the Flood. The heating of the environment did not come from above; instead, there would have been a gentle thermal blanket within the earth, probably surrounded by a layer of asphalt inside the earth called the 'swaddlingband' [lit., baby clothing strips] in Job 38:9....
(v. 4) "Where were you [Job] when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
(v. 5) Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
(v. 6) On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone -
(v. 7) while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
(v. 8) Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
(v. 9) when I made a cloud its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band..."
This would moderate and sustain the temperature which would then be radiated to the earth's surface. Possibly it would be returned to the surface of the earth through water fountains and recycling reservoirs. This energy would be returned to the earth so that at night the energy transferred into the earth would cause the environment to be slightly cooler. During the daytime, because of this perfectly balanced thermonuclear reaction inside the earth, it would have heated up slightly, to approximately seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit.
With Job 38 as a context, and with all of the natural elements in perfect balance, let us emphasize the element that is the most common worldwide. This element is silicon, or sand. Inside the earth, there would have existed a perfectly balanced nuclear reactor designed with radioisotopes and moderators. Above that rested a solid crust of granite around the earth; then above that, there would have existed a layer of sand or silicon. Above this silicon layer would have been the vegetation. This would also give a slightly warmer ambient temperature context for the root systems. Amazingly, botanists have found that when plants are grown hydroponically, they grow to be superior plants. When a plant is grown under pink light, it is superior. When the roots are slightly warmed, the plant grows and produces in a superior fashion. When the amount of carbon dioxide is slightly increased, the plant grows better still.
A Japanese physicist, Dr. Kei Mori, took only two of these gradient elements (he filtered the ultraviolet rays and increased the carbon dioxide) and exposed plant life to these conditions. In two years, under his supervision, a tomato plant grew to be sixteen feet tall with nine hundred and three tomatoes on it. The tomato plant has continued to grow to this day. Our last report shows that it is over five years old, over twenty feet tall, and has produced over four thousand tomatoes. All Dr. Mori did was filter out the ultraviolet rays and allow the plant to take in more carbon dioxide.
The United States Department of Agriculture simply added some carbon dioxide to cotton plants, and they found that it resulted in a thirty to fifty percent increase in growth rate. Before the Flood, however, the following conditions existed that would have helped plants to grow better:
1) There existed increased atmospheric pressure.
2) Carbon dioxide was increased to an efficient degree.
3) Hydroponic growing conditions existed, in which plant roots penetrated into the water table in the sand, thus the nutrients were better supplied.
4) There was a variation of flow within the water table.
5) There was a slightly warmer temperature gradient in the root systems and the water table.
6) There was efficient use of pink light.
7) There was an elimination of ultraviolet radiation."
[Dr. Carl E. Baugh continues, op cit, p.72]:
"...the description of the restored earth found in Isaiah 35 shows that the forests will again sing.
Around an individual before the Flood in this canopy context, the radio waves from the stars were enhanced by this canopy in the morning hours. The crystalline structure of the sand would pick up and amplify these radio waves. Finally, there are qualities in the cellular structures of plants which would cause the reeds to vibrate, so the forest began to sing. Anyone who knew his Creator could not help but respond.....
...Only now have we been able to put together this orchestral creation model, balancing out all of these elements in an articulated form. The Biblical records explain reality far better than the evolutionary concept does."
****** END OF (GEN 1:28-31) EXCERPT FROM GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ******
1 cont.) [Compare Gen 1:26-31 with Gen 2:7, (cont.)]:
(Gen 2:7 YLT) "And Jehovah God [forms, Heb. "yatsar"] the man - [from] dust from the ground, and [breathes] into his nostrils breath of [lives, plural - Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives in one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit], and the man [becomes] a living creature." =
The account in Gen 2:7-9 moves from day 3 of Creation before shrubs and plants had grown, skipping past days 4 and 5, and the first part of day 6 - the creation of animal life - to day 6 and the details about yehwâ elOhîm's - the LORD God's - having formed (Hebrew, "yatsar") the man Adam from the dust of the ground. The Hebrew word, "AdAm" is used later to refer to humankind, but was initially the name of the first man. The repeated emphasis on "Jehovah God," [Heb., "yehwâ 'elOhîm"] rendered "the LORD God," (Gen 2:4-5, 7-9, 15-16, 18-19, 21-22), signifies the change of the context from "elOhîm," rendered God, implying the Sovereign Creator, to refer to God by another name, "yehwâ elOhîm," the sacred, holy and personal God, "yehwâ," Who is also called the Sovereign Creator God, "elOhîm."
The work of yehwâ elOhîm, the LORD God, in creating human life on the sixth day of Creation, (cf. Gen 1:26-28), was one of forming the man [Hebrew, "AdAm"] from the dust of the ground like a potter shaping an earthen vessel from clay.
This produced a lifeless shell without capacity for anything. There are several names in the Bible for this shell: Second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 and 4 refer to it as a tent. Second Corinthians 5:6 refers to this shell as a home. First Thessalonians 4:4...[refers] ...to the human body as a vessel. Then this verse tells us that God Himself breathed into this earth body that He had formed - into this shell - and He breathed into it the breath of lives... ...notice that the Hebrew is plural... ...because there were two kinds of lives that were breathed into man. First of all there was soul life... ...which constitutes his mentality, his emotions and his will for relating to people. There was also breathed into man a spirit life which gave him a human spirit and capacity for fellowship with God. The earth shell at that moment became a living being... ...it had full capacity for fellowship with God. Now since the sin of Adam in Eden, all are born spiritually dead and they must be made alive spiritually to God by the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation when faith is placed in Christ as Savior. [Eph 1:13-14 + Ro 8:10] So again, for our spiritual contact with God, as for Adam, there had to be an inbreathing of God, for us there has to be an inbreathing of the Holy Spirit for us to come alive spiritually.
...Does God create then a new life with each baby. The answer is yes...
(v. 4) "The Spirit ["ruach"] of God has made me,
And the breath ["nishma"] of the Almighty gives me life."
[So the Spirit of God created Job, (cp. Gen 1:27), and the breath of God quickens him to life, (cp. Gen 2:7)]
God creates a new life with each baby. For Job said that he came into life, into being a living being as a result of an act of God, not a step of evolution.
(Eccl 12:5 NKJV) "...For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.
(Eccl 12:6 NKJV) Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.
(Eccl 12:7 NKJV) Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it."
The child is given the breath of lives - the spirit and the soul at the point of conception. Albeit, after the Fall, all men are physically born with a dead (inactive) spirit, (i.e., one which is separated from communion with God). Ref. Eph 2:1; Ro 8:5-11.
Notice that there are two aspects of man in view: the physical which is currently mortal, (after the Fall of Adam and Eve), and will physically die; and the spiritual which is eternal.
(Isa 42:5 NKJV) "Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, [plant and animal life] Who gives breath ["nishma"] to the people on it, And spirit ["ruach"] to those who walk on it."
(Zech 12:1 NKJV) "The burden of the word of the LORD against Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him..."
"Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of our spirits ["pneuma"], and live?"
All of these verses say that God creates human life. And He does this not by some automatic life implanting mechanism evolving one human life into another. He breathes in a soul and spirit into each individual human being such that each is in His image in his unique way.
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p. 85]:
"God used the 'dust of the ground' to make man's body, a remarkable phrase conveying the thought that the smallest particles of which the earth was composed (in modern terminology, the basic chemical elements: nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, etc.) were also to be the basic physical elements of the human body. 'The first man is of the earth, earthy' (1 Corinthians 15:47). This fact is not at all obvious to superficial examination (rocks seem to all appearances to be composed of totally different substances than human flesh), but it has nevertheless been verified by modern science."
And after forming the man "AdAm," from the dust of the ground, God breathed the breath of lives [Hebrew, "hayyîm", lit., lives, plural] into "AdAm's" nostrils, to become a living being: Two lives existing together in one being - the one, a physical life with a soul, from the Hebrew "hayyâ," lit., animal = a live being with a soul peculiar to humans notably with an intelligence superior to animals, and reflecting the image of God, (cf. Gen 1:26-27); and the second, a unique spiritual life capable of serving and fellowshipping with God. This implies that the first human being created would have a unique relationship with God because "AdAm" was created in the image of God, (Gen 1:26-27), and was intended to have fellowship with God. Nothing else in God's creation received the breath of lives from God.
Notice that the man "AdAm" was the first of human kind - uniquely formed with a human body and human spirit. There were neither pre-Adamite humans, nor human beings who evolved from other beings, nor humans who evolved from other kind(s) of beings implied in this Creation account.
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p. 85]:
"Then God 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives. [plural]' This statement may seem at first to be 'anthropomorphic,' picturing God as puffing up His cheeks and blowing air into the inert figure He had just molded. Such a notion is quite inadequate, however. Man's body had been completely formed, equipped with nostrils, lungs, and the entire breathing apparatus, as well as bones and organs and other appurtenances, but was lifeless. It must be energized. The breathing mechanism must be activated, the heart must start to pump and circulate the blood, and all the metabolic functions must begin their operations. But life can come only from life, and the living God is the only self-existent Being, so it must ultimately come from Him. Especially to stress the unique relationship of human life to the divine life, this Scripture verse tells us that God directly imparted life and breath to man... There is an incidental refutation of the assumption of human evolution in this verse, which tells us that man became a living soul when God gave him the breath of lives. However, if he had arrived at this stage by a long process of animal evolution, he already was a living soul! As 1 Corinthians 15:45 says;: 'The first man Adam was made a living soul..." Not only did man receive his soul directly from God rather than from an animal ancestry, but Adam was the first man. There was no 'pre-Adamite man,' as some have suggested."
All of these verses indicate that God creates every individual human life, (albeit with certain characteristics from descendants). And He does this not by some automatic life implanting mechanism evolving one human life into another. This refutes the assumption of human evolution - for all men are individually created by yehwâ elOhîm, Who gives each one the breath of lives. Men do not inherit their souls from animal ancestry nor from one another, but from yehwâ elOhîm.
Furthermore,
since Scripture refers to individuals being conscious of their state after
having physically died; then the human spirit is immortal - a spirit which
has a soul
.in order for it to be conscious of its
existence.
(Isa 14:3 NKJV) "It shall come to pass in the day the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,
(Isa 14:4 NKJV) that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: 'How the oppressor has ceased, The golden city ceased!
(Isa 14:5 NKJV) The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, The scepter of the rulers;
(Isa 14:6 NKJV) He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He who ruled the nations in anger, Is persecuted and no one hinders.
(Isa 14:7 NKJV) The whole earth is at rest and quiet; They break forth into singing."
Note that the king of Babylon had "ceased" in the sense of being physically alive, (v. 4); yet he was continually persecuted after death, evidently in the afterlife.
(Isa 44:23 NKJV) "Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And glorified Himself in Israel."
The phrase, "lower
parts of the earth," refers to the existence of an afterlife location
within the earth, and those whose spirits and souls have been transferred
to Sheol after they have died, (until the end of the ages),
(Ezek 32:18 NKJV) "Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, And cast them down to the depths of the earth, Her and the daughters of the famous nations, With those who go down to the Pit:
(Ezek 32:19 NKJV) 'Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down, be placed with the uncircumcised.'
(Ezek 32:20 NKJV) They shall fall in the midst of those slain by the sword; She is delivered to the sword, Drawing her and all her multitudes.
(Ezek
32:21 NKJV) The strong among the mighty Shall speak to him out of the
midst of hell [Heb. "sheol" ]
With those who help him: 'They have gone down, They lie with the
uncircumcised, slain by the sword.'
(Ezek 32:22 NKJV) Assyria is there, and all her company, With their graves all around her, All of them slain, fallen by the sword.
(Ezek 32:23 NKJV) Her graves are set in the recesses of the Pit, And her company is all around her grave, All of them slain, fallen by the sword, Who caused terror in the land of the living.
(Ezek 32:24 NKJV) "There is Elam and all her multitude, All around her grave, All of them slain, fallen by the sword, Who have gone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, Who caused their terror in the land of the living; Now they bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit."
(Gen 2:8 YLT) "And Jehovah God [was planting, imperfect mood] a garden in Eden, at the east, and He [was setting, imperfect mood] there the man whom He [had] formed, [perfect mood]; (Gen 2:9 YLT) and Jehovah God [was causing, imperfect mood] to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life [was] in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:10 YLT) And a river is going out from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it is parted, and [has] become four [riverheads]; (Gen 2:11 NKJV) The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. (Gen 2:12 NKJV) And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. (Gen 2:13 NKJV) The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. (Gen 2:14 NKJV) The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen 2:15 YLT) And Jehovah God [takes, imperfect mood] the man, and [causes him, imperfect mood] to settle down and rest in the garden of Eden, to work it and to keep it [the ground, (ref. Gen 2:5)]. (Gen 2:16 NKJV) And the LORD God [commands] the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (Gen 2:17 YLT) and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, [you do] not eat of it, for in the day of [your] eating of it — dying [you do] die.' " =
Chapter two,
beginning with Gen 2:4b: "In the day that the LORD God made earth and
[the heavens]" .
revisits the six days of creation, beginning at the third day at the time
when "all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of
grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet
sprouted," (verse 5). The text in chapter two goes on to indicate
that there was no man yet to work the ground, nor rain; but there was a
mist which came up from the ground - evidently from an underground source.
This corresponds to the time frame of Gen 1:9-10, just before vegetation
appeared on the earth ,
(Gen 2:5-6).
Whereupon the focus of chapter two jumps forward in time past the remainder of day three of creation - past the time when God had the earth bring forth grasses, herbs and trees, (Gen 1:11-13). Note that there is no stipulation or implication in Gen 1:11-13 that God was finished with bringing forth grasses, herbs and trees, as some contend. It would be on day number seven that Jehovah God would rest in the sense of cease His creation work.
(Gen 1:11 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb. that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
(Gen 1:12 NKJV) And the earth brought forth grass, the herb .that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:13 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the third day."
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., 62-64]:
"Not only had rocks and minerals been formed, but so had a blanket of fertile soil - sand, silt, and clay-sized particles in an ideally graded mixture, with abundant chemical nutrients and soil moisture.
Then God spoke again, this time organizing certain of the chemical elements of the earth into tremendously complex systems, each with a marvelous informational program built into its chemical structure which could henceforth specify the reproduction of other units like itself. There is no suggestion that these systems...possessed any form of consciousness; but each did have its 'seed in itself' and so had the ability of reproducing its kind.
Three main orders of plant 'life' are mentioned: grasses, herbs, and trees.... ...The three are intended to cover all types of plants and these are the most obvious comprehensive categories...
...It is significant that these plants were made, not as seeds, but as full-grown plants whose seed was in themselves. They thus had an 'appearance of age.' The concept of creation of apparent age does not, of course, suggest a divine deception, but is a necessary accompaniment of genuine creation. The processes operating in Creation Week were not the processes of the present era, but were processes of 'creating and making,' and are thus not commensurate with present processes at all..
[Furthermore, God did not say 'Let the land produce seeds which will grow into plants', instead He said 'Let the land sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees [already] bearing fruit, with seed in them...']"
For God did .form more vegetation on day six of creation in the Garden of Eden which He created after He had formed the man "AdAm," (Gen 2:7-9; cf. Gen 1:26-31). The key Hebrew verb of Gen 2:9, transliterated, "wayyasmah," which means 'causes to grow' is in the imperfect tense portraying indefinite action. So it is best translated, "was causing to grow," corroborating the conclusion of the sprouting of vegetation on the 6th day of creation after AdAm had been formed - Hebrew perfect tense "yAsAr," (Gen 2:8).
Chapter two also jumps over the fourth and fifth days of creation when God created the heavenly bodies; and then created sea life and birds respectively, (Gen 1:14-23). Yet birds are also created on day six, (Gen 2:19).
So chapter two zooms over days 3, 4, 5 and part of 6 and focuses in upon that part of day six of creation after God had been forming creeping things and animals of the earth, (cf. Gen 1:24-25), focusing in upon the time when Jehovah God forms the man "AdAm" - the time frame of Gen 1:26-31:
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'
(Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Gen 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'
(Gen 1:29 NKJV) And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
(Gen 1:30 NKJV) Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;' and it was so.
(Gen 1:31 NKJV)
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So
the evening and the morning were the sixth day,"
So in Genesis 2:7, the account of Gen 1:26-31 is in view - day number six of creation but with further details to be provided:
(Gen 2:7 YLT) "And Jehovah God [forms, Heb. "yatsar"] the man - [from] dust from the ground, and [breaths] into his nostrils breath of [lives, plural - Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives in one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit], and the man [becomes] a living creature."
The man "AdAm,"
was formed from the dust of the ground giving him a physical body,
whereupon God breaths into his nostrils the breath of lives [plural] to
become a living creature, his body being uniquely animated - his soul
reflecting the image of God through the activity of the physical body. And
the man is provided within with a living human spirit which also reflects
the image of God, enabling the man to have a personal relationship with
God .
Note: after the Fall, humankind would be born with a dead / inactive human
spirit, (ref. 1 Cor 2:14; Eph 2:5). ............(Gen
2:7).
After declaring God's creation of the man "AdAm," in Gen 2:7, chapter two then stipulates in Gen 2:8 that God was planting a garden located in Eden which literally means, "delight." In this verse the Hebrew verb transliterated, "wayyitta" is correctly rendered "planteth," i.e., "plants" in the YLT. Other English versions have "planted," even "had planted," (NIV). But the verb in the Hebrew is in the imperfect mood, conveying indefinite action - not a completed action. Hence, it does not afford an interpretation that uses the pluperfect tense, "had formed," as some contend, in order to resolve an imagined conflict between Genesis chapters one and two. Taken as written, Gen 2:7-9 indicates that some vegetation, animals and birds were created at the Garden in Eden after the man was created, (Gen 2:19-20). But none of this contradicts anything in Genesis. For neither Gen 1:11-13, nor Gen 1:20-25, nor any verse in Genesis chapter one stipulates or implies that God was finished with bringing forth grasses, herbs and trees, (day 3); or birds, (day 5); or animals, (day 6); until the seventh day when He rested, (Gen 2:1-4a). Since day number seven is not in view in Gen 2:4b-25; and since the woman had not yet been created yet until Gen 2:21-25; then there is no contradiction between Genesis chapters one and two on this matter.
4) [Compare Gen 2:8-9 Hebrew interlinear]:
"wayyitta' .......................yehwâ ..'elOhîm gan .....be'Eden .miggedem wayyAsem ...
"and He [was planting] Yahweh God ......garden in Eden .of the east .and He [was putting]
[imperfect mood]........................................................................................[imperfect mood]
.............
sAm 'et-hA'AdAm ...'aser .....yAsAr
there the humankind .which .He [had] formed
..................................................[perfect mood]
wayyasmah ....................yehwâ ...elOhîm
and He caused to grow Yahweh God
[imperfect mood]
min-ho'adAmâ ...kAl-'Es ....nehmAd .lemar'eh wetôb .......lema'akAl we'Es
from the ground every tree pleasing ..for sight ,and good ..for food ....and the tree of
hahayyîm .betôk ...................haggAn ......we'Es .................hadda'at ..............tôb
the life ......in the middle of .the garden ..and the tree of .the knowledge of good
wArA"
and evil."
So Jehovah God [was planting, imperfect mood] a garden in Eden, at the east, and He [was setting, imperfect mood] there the man whom He [had] formed, [perfect mood]; and Jehovah God [was causing, imperfect mood] to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life [was] in the midst - in the middle - of the garden, as was the tree of knowledge of good and evil also in the middle of the garden. It was evidently like all of what Jehovah God created: perfect - the garden being created especially for the rest and safety of the man He had formed and placed there. For the garden was self-sustaining evidently with a mist coming up from the ground to water it and the fruit providing food which had life giving / enhancing properties - even eternal life, (cf. Gen 2:5-6).
(Gen 3:22 NKJV) '''Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" '''
According to Gen 2:15, God placed man in the Garden to settle down and rest and be safe. It evidently did not require man to do extensive cultivation in order to make the trees produce fruit, (cf. Gen 2:15).
So the vegetation of the garden of Eden was specifically formed by the LORD God, after He had created the man, "AdAm," (Gen 2:8-9).
Gen 2:10-14 go on to describe the river going out from Eden to water the garden in Eden, which the passage stipulated, divided into four [riverheads]. The river which flowed through the Garden of Eden evidently received its source of water from underground in Eden as evidenced by the mist of water vapor which emanated from the ground, (cf. Gen 2:6). The Hebrew word "rAsîm" rendered "riverheads," in Gen 2:10 refers to the four riverheads in the sense of the main sources of the waters from the river which ran through the Garden of Eden - namely the Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates Rivers - into what ever regions and tributaries they flowed.
The first riverhead, "Pishon," skirted the whole land of "Havilah," where it is stipulated by author Moses there was gold, bdellium and onyx. There was provided no further information in Scripture about the land of Havilah which would locate the land.
Satellite imaging reveals a dry riverbed called "Fossil River," which runs from the western mountains of Saudi Arabia towards Kuwait. This fossil riverbed evidently had its ancient origins in the mountains bordering the eastern side of the present day Red Sea, south of Israel. And just on the western side of the Red Sea those mountains are mirrored by another range of mountains. The Red Sea is actually a tectonic spreading zone - part of a Great Rift Fault System running from Turkey in the north, down the Dead Sea, through the Red Sea, and southward deep into Africa. This great split of a mountain range dried up the source waters of that "Fossil River" that traversed Arabia just south of Israel. Some contend that this "Fossil River" was once the ancient Pishon River, one head river of the river that ran through the Garden of Eden - long since having dried up by the cataclysmic events of the past such as those of the worldwide flood which caused the Great Rift Fault system which is observable today along the Red Sea. But the so-called Kuwait River, now a dried fossil river bed, does not follow the Great Rift Fault - the common denominator of the other three Rivers. The path that best fits the route of the ancient River Pishon is for it to have flowed down to what today is the Gulf of Aden south of the present day Yeman on the southern tip of Arabia. For Yeman has both gold and onyx and is on the eastward trending fault branch from the Afar Triangle:
The Gulf of Aden would have been a natural riverbed in the days prior to Noah's flood when sea levels were lower than today.
The sole mention of the Gihon River in Scripture includes the stipulation that its flow "goes around the whole land of Cush," in the sense of twisting and turning or taking a round about course throughout the land. The Hebrew word transliterated "kûs," in the TWOT #969 refers to the region immediately south and east of Egypt, including modern Nubia, the Sudan, and the Ethiopia of classical writers (not modern Abyssinia)]. The Gihon River evidently flowed down to what is now the Red Sea basin southward, splitting with the Pishon River and going southwestward into Africa at the Afar Triangle which certainly fits the description of the Gihon River in Gen 2:13.
On the other hand, the Euphrates River is mentioned in many places in Scripture. It is generally the same riverhead of the ancient river Euphrates of the Garden of Eden, albeit altered through the course of the years, which included the catastrophic earthquake, volcanic and flooding events of the Noahic worldwide Flood.
Both the Euphrates and the Tigris (ancient Hiddekel) Rivers originate today in Turkey; but in the days of the Garden of Eden, they terminated close to the Great Rift Fault Zone line in the north. The northernmost part of the Rift, today called the Dead Sea Transform or Rift, which forms the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon separating the Lebanon Mountains and Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Further south it is known as the Hula Valley separating the Galilee mountains and the Golan Heights. The River Jordan begins here and flows southward through Lake Hula into the Sea of Galilee in Israel. It then continues south through the Jordan Rift Valley into the Dead Sea on the Israeli-Jordanian border. From the Dead Sea southwards, the Rift is occupied by the Wadi Arabah, then the Gulf of Aqaba, and then the Red Sea. Off the southern tip of Sinai in the Red Sea, the Dead Sea Transform meets the Red Sea Rift which runs the length of the Red Sea. The Red Sea Rift comes ashore to meet the East African Rift and the Aden Ridge in the Afar Depression of East Africa. The Junction, or Triangle of these three rifts is called the Afar Triple Junction. The Rift then splits southeast into the Gulf of Aden and southwest through the continent of Africa as far as Zimbabwe.
Scripture refers to the Hiddekel River in the Book of Daniel, indicating the region it was located in:
(Dan 10:1 YLT) "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a thing is revealed to Daniel, whose name is called Belteshazzar, and the thing is true, and the warfare is great: and he hath understood the thing, and hath understanding about the appearance.
(Dan 10:2 YLT) 'In those days, I, Daniel, have been mourning three weeks of days;
(Dan 10:3 YLT) desirable bread I have not eaten, and flesh and wine hath not come in unto my mouth, and I have not anointed myself at all, till the completion of three weeks of days.
(Dan 10:4 YLT) And in the twenty and fourth day of the first month, I have been by the side of the great river, that is Hiddekel:
(Dan 10:5 YLT) and I lift up mine eyes, and look, and lo, a certain one clothed in linen, and his loins girt with pure gold of Uphaz,
(Dan 10:6 YLT) and his body as a beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet as the aspect of bright brass, and the voice of his words as the voice of a multitude.
(Dan 10:7 YLT) And I have seen - I, Daniel, by myself - the appearance: and the men who have been with me have not seen the appearance, but a great trembling hath fallen on them, and they flee to be hidden;
(Dan 10:8 YLT) and I have been left by myself, and I see this great appearance, and there hath been no power left in me, and my honour hath been turned in me to corruption, yea, I have not retained power.
(Dan 10:9 YLT) And I hear the voice of his words, and when I hear the voice of his words, then I have been in a trance on my face, and my face is to the earth...' "
The time frame of this passage in Daniel was approximately two years after King Cyrus officially ended the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. Daniel had remained in Babylon due most likely to his advanced age and to his high postion in the government of Babylon.
For three weeks, Daniel had fasted in mourning on behalf of Israel in order to humble himself before God so that he would receive an understanding of his previous vision which portrayed the continued suffering of Israel, despite her return to her homeland. In verse 4 of Daniel chapter 10 - on the 24th day of Nisan, (just 10 days after the Passover - one day in April), while Daniel stood beside the Hiddekel River, he received his last vision. The Hebrew word transliterated, hiddeqel" and rendered "Hiddekel," in the YLT in Gen 10:4, was the precise word in the Hebrew text to describe the river that Daniel declared he was beside. It was understood to have come to be known as the Tigris - as reflected in some translations, (NASB, HCSB). The implication relative to the name "Hiddekel" River was that it was located somewhere in the area of ancient Bablyon, i.e., present day Iraq.
Note that Gen 2:14 stipulated that the ancient River Hiddekel "goes toward the east of Assyria." The Hiddekel River evidently came to be known as the Tigris River which flowed southeastward through what the Prophet Daniel came to know as the Babylonian Empire. Earthquake, volcanic and worldwide flood water activities most likely altered the course of the Hiddekel / Tigris River to its present course. The Tigris today originates in a mountain range in northern Turkey; but in ancient times it evidently originated in northern Lebanon where the Great Rift across the north of Lebanon had split the mountain ranges there as well as those down through what is now the Red Sea into the Arabian Sea.
The location of the Garden of Eden is stipulated in Scripture as in ancient Lebanon, which sheds some light on the river system which flowed through it:
(Ez 31:1 NKJV) '''Now it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
(Ez 31:2 NKJV) "Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: 'Whom are you like in your greatness?
(Ez 31:3 NKJV) Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, With fine branches that shaded the forest, And of high stature; And its top was among the thick boughs.
(Ez 31:4 NKJV) The waters made it grow; Underground waters gave it height, With their rivers running around the place where it was planted, And sent out rivulets to all the trees of the field.
(Ez 31:5 NKJV) 'Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field; Its boughs were multiplied, And its branches became long because of the abundance of water, As it sent them out.
(Ez 31:6 NKJV) All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young; And in its shadow all great nations made their home.
(Ez 31:7 NKJV) 'Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches, Because its roots reached to abundant waters.
(Ez 31:8 NKJV) The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; The fir trees were not like its boughs, And the chestnut trees were not like its branches; No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.
(Ez 31:9 NKJV) I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, So that all the trees of Eden envied it, That were in the garden of God.' " '''
The prophet Ezekiel was given a message from the LORD to say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt - a message of further judgment due to her continued arrogance - even after her fall in 587 B.C. The message was an allogory which portrayed the once greatest of all nations, Assyria, who had been destroyed by Babylon in 612 B.C., as a greatest of all trees, a cedar tree in Lebanon, in the Garden of Eden - the Garden of God. So the sources of the water for the four head rivers was somewhere near Lebanon.
The four riverheads comprise a complex river system which emerge from a common point of origin - from high ground in or near Lebanon and present day Israel - which flows both north and south, with each north and south extension splitting into two separate streams, for a total of four rivers - four separate river heads. The present day headwaters of the Tigris (Hiddekel) and Euphrates rivers were not the main source headwaters of the river running through the Garden of Eden in ancient times; cataclysmic geological events had evidently shifted their sources from ancient Lebanon. All four riverheads can be traced through the Great Rift Fault system which runs down through the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea going south of Israel through what is now the Red Sea and deep into Africa. The topography indicates that in ancient times - before the cataclysmic events that caused the Great Rift Fault system, waters once flowed out of this area and would have naturally flowed northward into the Euphrates Fault system river basin, intersecting the present-day Tigress river basin; as well as flowing southward down the Jordan River, through the Red Sea fault dividing up into rivers that ran deep into Africa and the Arabian Sea. See blue/yellow line in map below:
Note that the aquatic life of the African lakes and rivers is very similar to the aquatic life found in today's Jordan River system. So the geographical center of these four rivers is neither Turkey nor Kuwait, but somewhere near the general region of present day Israel, Jordan and Lebanon.
Since Scripture indicates that God considers the land of Israel as His Holy Land, then we can consider that the center of the Garden of God was geographically somewhere near or at Jerusalem - the future location of the New Jerusalem - God's holy city - in the new heaven and earth in which will be located the fountain of the water of life and a pure river of the water of life flowing through it with the tree of life on its bank, (Rev 21:1-22:5; cf. Ez 47:1-12). Jerusalem sits just west of the Great Rift Valley. In ancient times it is quite possible that the legendary river of Eden flowed through the location of the future city of Jerusalem - God's Holy City - from a massive artesian aquifer, which was disrupted by the cataclysmic events of the Noahic Flood, (Gen 2:10-14).
(Gen 2:8 YLT) "And Jehovah God [was planting, imperfect mood] a garden in Eden, at the east, and He [was setting, imperfect mood] there the man whom He [had] formed, [perfect mood]; (Gen 2:9 YLT) and Jehovah God [was causing, imperfect mood] to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life [was] in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:10 YLT) And a river is going out from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it is parted, and [has] become four [riverheads]; (Gen 2:11 NKJV) The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. (Gen 2:12 NKJV) And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. (Gen 2:13 NKJV) The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. (Gen 2:14 NKJV) The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen 2:15 YLT) And Jehovah God [takes, imperfect mood] the man, and [causes him, imperfect mood] to settle down and rest in the garden of Eden, to work it and to keep it [the ground, (ref. Gen 2:5)]. (Gen 2:16 NKJV) And the LORD God [commands] the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (Gen 2:17 YLT) and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, [you do] not eat of it, for in the day of [your] eating of it - dying [you do] die.' " =
Gen 2:15 covers what verse 8 had previously stipulated - that Jehovah God put the man in the Garden of Eden; and it provides new and inciteful detail as well. Verse 15 declares that "Jehovah God [takes, imperfect mood] the man He had formed [perfect mood, v. 8] and [causes him, imperfect mood] to settle down and rest [imperfect mood] in the Garden of Eden. The Hebrew phrase transliterated "wayyannihEh began-'Eden" and rendered "and causes him to settle down and rest in the Garden of Eden" in the YLT, implies that Jehovah God had a special purpose for Adam for whom He created the Garden in Eden - where Adam could have personal fellowship with God:
(Gen 3:8 YLT) "And they hear the sound of Jehovah God walking up and down in the garden at the breeze of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the face of Jehovah God in the midst of the trees of the garden."
The Hebrew
phrase transliterated "le'obedâ ûlasomerâ" in
Gen 2:15 is rendered "to tend it and keep it," in the NKJV. The
rendering is virtually the same in every notable version - always
referring to maintaining and keeping, in the sense of working in and
taking charge of the ground of the Garden, (ref. Gen 2:5);
i.e., maintaining and taking dominion over the Garden in Eden, (cf. Gen
1:26). Since the Hebraic pronomial suffix "â" rendered "it"
at the end of the Hebrew infinitives in 2:15, "le'obedâ"
and "ûlasomerâ," rendered "to tend it" and
"to keep it," respectively in all the notable English-Hebrew
interlinear bibles is feminine; and since the word rendered "garden,"
in 2:15 is most likely masculine.;
then the suffixes of the two infinitives evidently refer back to the
feminine Hebrew word transliterated "adAmâ," rendered "ground"
in Gen 2:5, implying in the context of 2:15, the ground of the Garden of
Eden, i.e., taking dominion over the whole of the Garden of Eden.
(Gen 2:4b NKJV) "In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
(Gen 2:5 NKJV) before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground."
The Hebrew word rendered "to till [i.e., "to work"]" in the phrase rendered "to till the ground" in Gen 2:5 is the same infinitive verb ["la'abOd" = to work] as it is in Gen 2:15, ["le'obedâ" = to work], which the latter has a feminine suffix which agrees in gender with the feminine word "adAmâ" rendered "ground" in 2:5.
**** Note that the word "gan" appears 41 times in Scripture, and according to the CBL Interlinear and many other interlinears, it is masculine 40 of those times with Gen 2:15 a possible exception. But the three previous times in Genesis chapter 2, "gan," is masculine - before the 4th time in 2:15, (re. vv. 2, 8, 9). Eleven times it is masculine in Genesis - each time referring to the Garden of Eden: 2:8, 9, 10, 3:1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 23, 24; 13:10. And many times "gan" appears throughout Scripture referring to the Garden of Eden and other gardens as well. Hence it is likely that the "gan" of Gen 2:15 is masculine.
Consider that the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible which came during the 2nd century B.C., as opposed to the Masoretic Hebrew text revisons which appeared around the 10th century A.D. This earlier, Greek text of the Old Testament corroborates that the context is of the man tending and taking dominion of the Garden, as opposed to worshipping and obeying God, as some contend.
10) [Compare Gen 2:15 Septuagint - Interlinear with translation]:
"Kai elaBen .kurios o' .Theos ton anthronpon on ......eplausen
...........aorist .....................................................................perfect tense
"And took ....LORD the God..the man..............whom He had formed
kai .etheto.................auton en ...to ..paradeiso [masculine]
.......[aorist] ....................................................
and took [set]............him ...into the Garden of Eden
ergazesthai auton [masc.]...kai ..phulassein
to work ......it [the Garden] and .to keep [it]
11) [Compare with Gen 2:5 Septuagint]:
"And every herb of the field before it was on the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up, for God had not rained on the earth, and there was not a man to cultivate it [Gk. "ergazesthai" same as Gen 2:15. The word "it"refers to "ges," feminine = "earth," i.e., "the ground"]
The Greek verb "ergazesthai" in both verses above is a present infinitive, conveying in the context of Genesis chapter two, of working the earth [Greek, "ges," feminine] in 2:5 and in 2:15 the context is narrowed to working it [Greek "auton,"] referring to "paradeiso," masculine, rendered the Garden of Eden] - which amounts to the same task.
And the Greek verb "phulassein" in Gen 2:15 means to watch over [it] [Greek "auton," referring to "paradeiso," masculine, rendered the Garden of Eden], in the sense of taking dominion over it.
In conclusion: although....
¤¤¤¤ (1) the key purpose of Adam in the Garden of Eden, which garden was created in perfection for the man Adam, was for rest, safety, enjoyment, (cf. Rev 22:1-2); and was to serve, worship and obey the LORD God and to have fellowship with Him there, (cf. Gen 2:8-9; cf. Gen 1:26-28; 2:5, 16-17);
¤¤¤¤ and (2) although in Gen 2:15 in the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament:
the infinitive "ergazesthai," can mean to work righteousness or to do good deeds, i.e., to worship / to serve God, (cf. Acts 10:35; Ro 4:5; Heb 11:33; Jn 3:21; Gal 6:10; Jas 1:20);
and the infinitive "phulassein" can convey to keep / to observe, i.e., to obey God's commands, (cf. Mt 19:20; Mk 10:20; Acts 16:4);
provided the masculine personal pronoun "auton" would then be rendered "Him," and refer to the LORD God.
¤¤¤¤ and (3) although in Gen 2:15 in the Hebrew version of the Old Testament:
the Hebrew verb form of 'Avadh,' le'obedâ in Gen 2:15 has available to it the meaning of 'to serve' or 'to worship God,' (Dt 11:13);
and the Hebrew verb form of "shamar," "ûlasomerâ" in Gen 2:15 has available to it the meaning of 'to obey' the commands of God, (Gen 17:9, 18:19; Exo 20:6; Dt 5:10),
provided the accompanying suffix of both verb forms is masculine - corroborating that Adam was to be a priest of the Most High God, created in the image of God with duties to worship, to serve God and to obey His commands and take dominion over all living things and all the earth:
12) [Compare Gen 1:26-28; 2:5, 16-17]:
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'
(Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Gen 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth....
(Gen 2:5 CBL INTERLINEAR) And all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil].
(Gen 2:16 NKJV) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
(Gen 2:17 NKJV) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.' "
¤¤¤¤ and (4) although the two Hebrew verbs in question, when used in close proximity can signify "to worship" and "to obey" God:
13) [Compare Dt 13:4, (cf. Dt 10:12-13]:
(Dt 13:4 NKJV) "You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep [Heb. "shAmar" = to obey] His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve [Heb. "Avadh," = to serve, worship] Him and hold fast to Him."
¤¤¤¤ and (5) although God's punishment for disobeying Him was also to have man work the ground - but this punishment was to be outside of the Garden, on ground that was now cursed and would require great "toil" - "by the sweat of [his] face," with thorns, and thistles, etc., to deal with in order to produce food for sustenance; as opposed to Adam's work in the perfect Garden of Eden before the Fall, which was enjoyable, far more productive and part of Adam's obedience to God's command to him to take dominion over all living things and over all the earth - which included the Garden of Eden...
Note that it would neither be consistent nor logical if the first infinitive in Gen 2:15 is to be rendered "to work it, [the ground, feminine, (cf. Gen 2:5)], and then the second infinitive, "ûlasomerâ" is to be rendered "to worship it, [the ground, feminine] - for God is masculine, not feminine. Hence the second infinitive in Gen 2:15 is best rendered "to keep it," also referring to the ground of the Garden via Gen 2:5; i.e., take dominion over the Garden of Eden.
Note that the Hebrew phrase "la'abOd 'et-ho'adAmâ" in Gen 2:5 rendered "to till the ground" is the exact same phrase less the pronomial suffix in Gen 3:23 below which is rendered "to till the ground," albeit the ground in the latter verse was cursed and not that of the Garden of Eden.
(Gen 3:17 NKJV) "Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake;.In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
(Gen 3:18 NKJV) Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
(Gen 3:19 NKJV) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.
(Gen 3:22 NKJV) Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" -
(Gen 3:23 NKJV) therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken."
¤¤¤¤ nevertheless it can be concluded that the two infinitive verbs with feminine pronomial suffixes in 2:15 refer back to the phrase "and there was no man to till the ground, [Hebrew "adAmâ," feminine]" in Gen 2:5 in the context of Gen 2:15 which is one of Adam working and watching over the Garden of Eden. This agrees with the grammar and context of the passage. And this is a part of Adam's key purpose of worshipping and obeying the LORD God. For Adam was not placed into the Garden to be idle, but to work it and further to take dominion over all living things and all the earth, to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth, (Gen 1:26-28); (Gen 2:15).
In the next two verses, (Gen 2:16-17), it is stipulated that the LORD God commanded the man "AdAm," saying, "And the LORD God [commands] the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, [you do] not eat of it, for in the day of [your] eating of it - dying [you do] die.' "
This is the first time a command was stipulated in Scripture as given by the LORD God to the man. It further implies that mankind has free will to obey or not to obey. Significantly, it concerned life and death, good and evil. Consider the Hebrew phrase in Gen 2:17b, which conveys this command:
15) [Gen 2:17b Hebrew Interlinear]:
"kî ..........beyôm ............'akolekA ......mimmennû .môt ....tAmût"
"because on the day of .your eating ..from it.........dying .you are dying
.....................................................................................[inf] ....[imperfect]
rendered:
"For .......in the day of ..[your] eating of it - ..........dying ..[you do] die.' " in the YLT.
This
Hebrew phrase, "môt tAmût"
appears in 1 Sam 14:44; 22:16 and 1 Ki 2:37 as well. In all of these
instances, the meaning intended is one of emphatically declaring the death
of an individual, i.e., "you will surely die!" And
because of the two natures of the man who was created in the image of God
- physical and spiritual, this emphatic certainty of death implies two
kinds of death, evidently immediate spiritual death; then eventually,
physical death. For man was breathed into by the LORD God with the breath
of lives, plural; receiving a physical and a spiritual life, (ref. Gen 2:7
). Implied in the LORD God's command to not eat of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, was that Adam was created as a moral being
with the power of free will. Recall that man was created in the image of
God, (cf. Gen 1:26-27); which image was intended to reflect the
righteousness of God, because God is righteous, (Jer 23:5-6). The
placement of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of
the Garden of Eden was evidently a test of the man - an opportunity for
AdAm to choose to obey God. For the Righteous Character of God cannot
permit unrighteousness in His Creation without just punishment and
reconciliation due to the very nature of God. So God's creation of a being
in His image with free will required the test of that being's character to
ensure that His Creation would not violate His Character; and if it did,
just punishment and reconciliation would be required, (Gen 2:17).
Note that the result of the failure of Adam to obey God, caused his explusion from the Garden of Eden:
(Gen 3:22 NKJV) '''Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" '''
It is made evident in view of this expulsion, that man's immortality before the Fall was not that of an inherent human quality, but a gift from God in the access to the tree of life given to him, (cf. 1 Tim 6:16).
(1 Tim 6:13 NKJV) "I urge you in the sight of God Who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus Who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
(1 Tim 6:14 NKJV) that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing,
(1 Tim 6:15 NKJV) which He will manifest in His own time, He Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
(1 Tim 6:16 NKJV) Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, Whom no man has seen or can see, to Whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."
(Gen 2:18 YLT) "And Jehovah God saith, 'It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make [imperfect] to him an helper - as his counterpart.' [lit., corresponding to him]. (Gen 2:19 YLT) And Jehovah God [forms] from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and [brings them] in unto the man, to see what he [calls] it; and whatever the man [calls] a living creature, that is its name. (Gen 2:20 YLT) And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man [has] not been found an helper - as his counterpart. (Gen 2:21 NKJV) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (Gen 2:22 YLT) And Jehovah God [builds] up the rib which He [has] taken out of the man into a woman, and [brings] her in unto the man; (Gen 2:23 HOLMAN) And the man said: "This one, [this time], is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman,' [for she was taken from man,] (Gen 2:24 YLT) Therefore [does] a man leave his father and his mother, and [has] cleaved unto his wife, and they have become one flesh. (Gen 2:25 YLT) And they are both of them naked, the man and his wife, and they are not ashamed of themselves." =
In verse 18, the LORD God said, in the sense of to Himself - as rendered in the YLT, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make [imperfect] to him an helper - as his counterpart."
Note the
plurality of "Yahweh ElOhîm" with the singular verb "He
said" signifying a unity of the Godhead, but a plurality of
Personalities, corroborating the doctrine of the Triune God
.
The Hebrew word "kenegdô" rendered "counterpart," [lit., "corresponding to him"] in the YLT signifies a counterpart, not a subservient helper to Adam, as some contend. And note that Jehovah God declared "It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make to him an helper - as his counterpart." So here in Jehovah God's creation is something that is not yet good in the sense of not yet complete; as He is in the process of completing Adam with a helper - a counterpart - one who will be Adam's counterpart in the image of God; and with whom Adam was to be fruitful and multiply; and together they were to fill the earth and subdue it; and together they were to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth, (cf. Gen 1:27-28); and through the seed of the woman would come the Savior of mankind, (ref. Gen 3:15). In view of this, there is no implication in Scripture that the woman's role would be inferior, such as limited to child bearing, or as a subservient helpmate, as some contend.
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p. 95]:
"At the end of the six days of creation, God saw that everything He had made was 'very good' (Genesis 1:31). The last act of creation, however, was that of woman; hence, prior to this final work, the creation was yet incomplete. Man, especially, was incomplete without woman; and this was not good (this does not mean it was evil, but only that it was unfinished and therefore imperfect). God Himself, therefore, said: 'It is not good that the man should be alone.'
All the animals had been made both male and female (Genesis 6:19) and had been instructed to bring forth after their kinds and to multiply on the earth (Genesis 1:22, 24). Man alone, of all God's creatures, had no such companion.
Therefore, God set about to make 'an help meet for man' (literally, 'a helper like man'). As He had personally formed man's body, so He would set about personally to form woman's body."
[Henry Morris, op. cit., pp. 96-98]:
"First, however, God arranged for Adam to become familiar with many of the animals by personal inspection. This was apparently for the two fold purpose of acquainting him with his responsibilities relative to the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:28) and also of emphasizing to him that, though he could exercise rulership over them, he could not have fellowship with them. There was not one among them qualified to be a helper suitable for his own needs. He was yet incomplete without such a helper, but this would require another act of creation on God's part."
Gen 2:19 does call attention to the fact that God is the one Who was forming the animals and that their bodies were being formed out of the 'ground,' even as Adam's body had been formed from the dust of the ground. However, though the physical elements were the same in the bodies of both man and beast, there was still no real fellowship possible between them, as Adam would soon learn when he examined them. For Adam had been created 'in the image of God' and would require a being of like nature to himself.
Many people quibble at Gen 2:19, professing to find a contradiction between this account of the formation of the animals and the account in the first chapter of Genesis. According to the latter, the birds were made on the fifth day and the land animals on the sixth day, all prior to Adam's creation. The second chapter, however, seems to say that these animals were only created at this time, after Adam's creation. Some even contend that God was first trying to find a helper for Adam by making a lot of animals and then, when this failed, finally deciding to make woman.
The timeframe of Gen 2:18-19 is during the sixth day of creation when the LORD God made man and woman. Previous to this, the LORD had created birds of the air on the 5th day, and then land animals on the first part of the 6th day, (as well as all the other kinds of living things on other days). But the following verses in Genesis chapter one do not say that the LORD God would be through creating birds and animals:
(Gen 1:20 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.'
(Gen 1:21 NKJV) So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:22 NKJV) And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'
(Gen 1:23 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
(Gen 1:24 NKJV) Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind;' and it was so.
(Gen 1:25 NKJV) And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'
(Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Gen 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'
(Gen 1:29 NKJV) And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
(Gen 1:30 NKJV) Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;' and it was so.
(Gen 1:31 NKJV) Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day," (Gen 2:18).
In view of the fact that Jehovah God had created birds on the fifth day, and animals of the earth, and then the man Adam, on the sixth day according to the account in Genesis chapters one and two, (Gen 1:20-23, (birds); 1:24-25, (animals of the earth); 1:26-31, 2:7, (man); Gen 2:19 declares, "And Jehovah God forms [imperfect mood] from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and [brings them] [imperfect] unto the man, to see [infinitive] what he [calls] [imperfect] it; and whatever the man [calls] a living creature, that is its name.
Gen 2:19 then declares, "And Jehovah God forms [imperfect mood] from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and [brings them] [imperfect] unto the man, to see [infinitive] what he [calls] [imperfect] it; and whatever the man [calls] a living creature, that is its name.
(Gen 2:20) And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man [has] not been found an helper - as his counterpart."
Note that every verb in Gen 2:19 & 20 is in the imperfect mood except for "to see," in v. 19 and "had not been found," in v. 20. All the imperfect verbs convey an indefinite action in the timeframe of day six when the LORD God was creating certain additional livestock, additional beasts of the field and additional birds of the heavens after He had first begun creating them in day 5, (birds); and during the first part of day 6, (the animals of the earth). So the timeframe in view in Gen 2:7-19 is after Jehovah God created man on day 6, (cf. Gen 1:26-31). So the imperfect verbs in Gen 2:19-20 cannot convey a pluperfect tense, such has "And Jehovah God had formed from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens," as some contend; for this is neither correct grammar nor contextual. Rather God created the additional creatures on day six in the moments before He presented each to Adam to give each a name - as the imperfect mood conveys.
So God was forming specific specimens of additional animals and birds: "every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens," (ref. Gen 2:19), to present them before Adam to name while he was in the Garden of Eden: "And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field," (ref. Gen 2:20). This was done so that Adam would determine by this that he did not have a helper as his counterpart - a creature that was literally "one corresponding to him," in the sense of being his equal - and in another sense, one with which he could "be fruitful and multiply," as the animals and birds each had one corresponding to them, (ref. Gen 2:18).
The
creation of these additional animals and birds does not contradict the
account in chapter one because chapter two has day number six in view
which is before God had ceased creating and rested from this activity.
Furthermore, there is nothing in the Genesis one account that indicates
that God was through creating animals and birds until day seven, (ref. Gen
2:1-4a .)
So Jehovah God brings each of the just formed birds and animals "unto the man, to see what he calls it; and whatever the man calls a living creature, that is its name." And as Adam "calls names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field," [that Jehovah God formed and brought before Adam], it becomes evident to Adam that he has not found a helper - one who is his counterpart. This implies that Adam was looking for his counterpart amongst all the animals and birds that Jehovah God was forming for Adam to name. It also implies that Adam had an incredible mentality to observe and name so quickly so many animals and birds. Adam's naming of the animals was also an indicator that he was taking dominion over them.
As one after another of the animals passed before him (no doubt in pairs, male and female) Adam could not help but be impressed with his own uniqueness - not only in intelligence and spirituality, but also in 'aloneness.' Each animal had its mate, 'but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.'
There was clearly no kinship in any manner between man and the animals. None was like him; none could provide fellowship or companionship for him. It is abundantly clear and certain that he had not recently evolved from them! If the latter were true, and his body were still essentially an ape's body (or the body of whatever 'hominid' form may have been his immediate progenitor), it seems strange that he could have found nothing in common with either parents or siblings. On this point, as on many others, the notion of human evolution confronts and contradicts the plain statements of Scripture.
In all the animal kingdom, there could not be found a 'helper like him.' He alone, of all creatures, was really alone. And that was not good! Before God could declare His creation 'finished' and 'very good,' this all-important deficiency must be eliminated. God would provide such a helper and companion for Adam, one 'like' him, and yet different, perfectly complementing him and completing God's work, (Gen 2:18-20).
The next verse, (Gen 2:21), stipulates that Jehovah God was causing a deep sleep to fall on Adam; and as he was sleeping, Jehovah God was taking one away from his side one of his ribs, whereupon He was closing up the flesh in its place. It is significant that Adam was put to sleep and God alone participated in the forming of the woman - from a part of the side of Adam corroborating that the woman was to be a counterpart and not a subservient helpmate, (Gen 2:21).
Gen 2:22 is rendered in the YLT, "And Jehovah God builds up the rib which He has taken out of the man into a woman, and [brings] her in unto the man."
The word 'builds up' in the phrase "And Jehovah God [builds] up the rib which He [has] taken out of the man into a woman," in Gen 2:22, is the Hebrew word transliterated as 'banah', (Strongs #1129). It means to build or to construct from existing materials as opposed to the Hebrew word, 'bara' which means to create out of nothing, (Gen 1:1, 27). So the physical bodies of the man and the woman were made out of something that already existed. Adam's body was made, (Hebrew: 'yatsar' = 'formed', Gen 2:7), from the earth material which God previously had created - had previously 'bara' = created out of nothing by His spoken word. So God did not 'bara' - create out of nothing - the body of Adam; rather, He formed him out of the 'dust of the earth.' But what He did create out of nothing was man's soul and spirit - in the sense of man's and woman's soul and spirit, (cf. Gen 1:27), implying that mankind's spirit and soul are not inheritances from descendants.
Gen 2:7 stipulates that God breathed into the man the breath of lives, (Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives in one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit. Hence man (men and women) alone of the creatures God created on earth has two lives: a physical/mortal life and a spiritual/immortal life which lives on after physical death. This was an act of creation of never before existing entities - the unique soul and spirit of a man and a woman in the image of God.
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., pp. 98-99]:
"The account of the creation and formation of Eve is the despair of theistic evolutionists. Even if one can bring himself to believe that man evolved from an apelike ancestor and that this is what Scripture means when it says Adam was formed from the dust of the ground, there seems to be no way at all in which the account of Eve's unique mode of origin can be interpreted in an evolutionary context.
To make matters worse for the evolutionist, the New Testament explicitly confirms the historicity of this record. 'For Adam was first formed, then Eve' (1 Timothy 2:13). 'For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man' (1 Corinthians 11:8). All other men have been born of woman, but the first woman was made from man...
The way in which God made the first woman is certainly not what one would naturally expect. It would seem rather that He would form her body in the same way He did Adam's - directly out of the earth itself. But instead He 'built' her out of the body of Adam! Adam's life would become her life.
God must have had a good reason for 'building up' the woman in this peculiar way. From the New Testament we infer that there were certain great spiritual truths which were being pictured in this symbolic action, as well as the more immediately meaningful truth that Adam and the woman were truly 'one flesh' and should thus serve their Creator together in unity and singleness of heart."
[Henry Morris op. cit., pp. 99-101]:
"Having completed His presentation of the animals to Adam, God quite probably explained to Adam what He was about to do (Adam seemed later to have understood clearly how God had formed Eve)."
(Gen 2:23 NKJV) "And Adam said: 'This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, [Hebrew = "isshâ"]. Because she [lit., "this one"] was taken out of Man [Heb. "ish."]."
[Compare Genesis 5:2 which indicates that God calls both Adam and the woman by the name "Adam" indicating that they are both of the same kind]:
"He [God] created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man ["Adham" = "Man" = "Adam"] in the day when they were created."
"When God brought the woman to Adam, the man exclaimed:
"This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, [Hebrew = "isshâ"]. Because she was taken out of Man [Heb. "ish."], (Gen 2:23 NKJV).
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p.101]:
"God put Adam into a 'deep sleep' and, while Adam slept, performed a marvelous surgical operation. Since this sleep was not necessary to prevent pain (as yet, there was no knowledge of pain or suffering in the world), there must have been some profound spiritual picture in the action..."
Although the Hebrew word transliterated "tsifilA" appears 40 times in the Old Testament, in most of which it is translated "side;" nevertheless, it is best translated "rib" in Gen 2:21 and 22 because of the phrase in verse 21 rendered "And He [God] took one [from] his ribs," in the NKJV; as opposed to "And He [God] took one [from] his sides," as some contend. From this rendering, one cannot conclude therefore that all men would have one less rib than all women, or that Adam did not heal but remained without one rib.
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p.101]:
In what sense did the LORD God take one of Adam's ribs? A 'rib' would include both flesh and bone, as well as blood, released from the opened side. Adam could later say, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh."
Physiologically, it is significant that both bone and flesh, in the human body, are sustained by blood and the marvelous blood-pumping and circulatory network designed by God. The blood carries the necessary oxygen and other chemicals from the air and the food taken in by man to maintain all the substance and functions of the body. In fact, the very 'life of the flesh [literally 'soul' of the flesh] is in the blood' (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:11)...
...From the 'life' of Adam (the blood sustaining his bones and his flesh) God made Eve, his bride. In like manner, we who constitute the 'bride of Christ' (2 Corinthians 11:2) have received life by His blood (John 6:54-56). Thereby we become 'members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones' (Ephesians 5:30).
The woman was thus made from Adam's rib, to work alongside him in carrying out the divine commission to 'fill the earth' and to 'subdue' it. She not only had the same 'flesh' (that is, body) and 'life' (that is, soul) as did Adam, but she also had an eternal spirit, as he did; but the spirit (or, better, the 'image of God') was directly from God, not mediated through Adam as was her physical life. This we know from Genesis 1:27: 'So God created man in His own image...male and female created He him.' The 'image of "God,' directly created by God, was given to both man and woman. As 'joined unto the LORD,' however, even in this dimension of life, they would become 'one spirit' (1 Corinthians 6:17)," (Gen 2:22).
And the man immediately recognized his counter part and declared, "This one, [this time], is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman,' [Heb. "isshah" = out of man] for she was taken from man," Adam's response indicates that the woman was one in substance with the man.
Author Moses then makes an astounding declaration, establishing God's institution of marriage: "Therefore [does] a man leave his father and his mother, and [has] cleaved unto his wife, and they have become one flesh," i.e., marriage involves one male and one female becoming one flesh - in the sense of God's viewpoint, (Gen 2:24).
Finally, Gen
2:25 declares, "And they are both of them naked, the man and his
wife, and they are not ashamed of themselves." This implies that
there was no mandate for them to wear clothing, and nothing sinful about
being naked before God and one another was implied. On the other hand, the
phrase rendered, "And they are not ashamed of themselves,"
implies the possibility that they might be ashamed as will occur after the
Fall, (Gen 3:1-7). Note that the Hebrew word transliterated "arûmmîm"
in Gen 2:25 rendered "naked," in the YLT signifies being naked
in the sense of complete nudity with no association of judgment but rather
one of innocence. On the other hand, the Hebrew word transliterated "êrummim"
in Gen 3:7 signifies "naked," in the sense of including an
acknowledgment of being under God's judgment for being sinful. And thus is
concluded the account of day number six in creation - after which God
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made; and He
blessed that seventh day and sanctified it, (cf. Gen 1:26-31
;
2:1-4a ).
III) THE GENESIS ACCOUNT OF CREATION REFERRING TO CHAPTERS ONE AND TWO IS NOT MYTHOLOGICAL
After all the critics' points of contention are done away with one by one, there still remains one major contention of the critics:
They say that the creation 'story' in the Bible was derived from mythological sources. As a matter of fact most of the world maintains that the Genesis creation account is mythological - symbolic or otherwise. They support this conclusion by pointing to the prior existence of actual myths which have the same or similar elements of content as the Genesis account of creation. However, this is false logic. An historical account is not proved to be a myth just because an actual myth has similar elements of content and/or predates it. There are all kinds of false stories which predate true accounts.
This would be similar to a scenario in which an officer of the law takes a statement about the occurrence of a crime. This story then proves by examination of the evidence to have some false elements in it. It is therefore wrongly concluded that a statement which is taken LATER about the same crime is false only on the basis that the account of this second story was received later, (i.e., an accurate written account of an actual historical event does not have to be the earliest written account of that event). It is also wrong to conclude that the second story is false because it contains similar or identical elements to the first. Police files and journals of investigative crime reporting are filled with this type of scenario proving that the details of each story must be thoroughly checked out in order that the truth of each story be correctly determined.
There is not a single element in the creation account in Scripture (the Bible) which is disproved on the basis of proper analysis. False presuppositions must be disallowed such as the ones already mentioned (similar elements & predating) and such as Mr. Doane's own words in the introduction to his book "BIBLE MYTHS":
"Many able writers have shown our so-called Sacred Scriptures to be unhistorical, and have pronounced them largely legendary,..."
"'How these narratives ...unhistorical as they have been shown to be, came into existence, it is not our business to explain...'"
"The work naturally begins with the Eden myth...showing ...universality, origin and meaning."
Universality, however, is not proof that a particular account is mythological; nor can origin be established on the basis that other accounts predate and contain similar elements, (an accurate written account of an actual historical event does not have to be the earliest written account of that event); and the meaning cannot be determined by assuming that the account is a myth and then proceeding to piece together one's own scenario based on mythologies which are similar and older.
B) PROPER APPROACH TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT
1) RULE #1: IN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT INTERPRETATION:
LET THE WORDS SAY WHAT THEY MEAN (WHICH MEANS PROPER TRANSLATION). THEN CHECK OUT WHETHER OR NOT THE INTERPRETATION IS TRUTH ON THE BASIS OF AVAILABLE EVIDENCE & TESTIMONY
The real crux of the matter however is not the proper interpretation of facts vs fiction, but it is one of the human will. For example,
Mr. Doane continues to make prejudicial statements in his introduction as follows:
"Before showing the origin and meaning of the myth......"
"..because I would not and could not allow myself to surrender ... what I hold to be the truth.."
Notice that author Doane has predetermined what the truth of creation cannot be and before examining what God says in His Word, Mr. Doane states, 'I would not and could not allow myself to surrender...what I hold to be the truth...' This shows lack of open-mindedness and an unwillingness to have his own belief system questioned. Mr. Doane goes on to say, 'But little beyond the arrangement of this work is claimed as original'
The statements made by Mr. Doane in his book show a decided mentality to accept the work of those writers he personally selected who maintain that the Bible is a book of myths without referring to other studies which properly analyze Scripture as it is: namely 66 ancient manuscripts written in one of several ancient languages by 40 authors over a period of hundreds of years to a readership of antiquity. There is no indication that the author recognizes that translations are not always precise in relaying the true meaning of Scripture because they are translations.... another presumption which leads to false conclusions. The author does not make a legitimate effort to properly analyze the particular Scriptural passages himself to verify that the presuppposition of mythology is true. The author also repeatedly assumes true many false and improper interpretations of Scripture and he utilizes pagan myths about Scripture such as the birth of Christ on December 25 , (Where is this date to be found in the Bible???). He is in these cases not critiquing actual accounts in Scripture but false accounts of Scripture as if they were Scripture! Therefore the author's approach eliminates the possibility of showing that the accounts are true.
Josh McDowell states, ('Answers to Tough Questions', pp. 176, 190):
"The critical school contends that the beginnings of the human race reach much further back than any written recollections we might possess. There was such a time span between the events and the recording of them that it is not feasible to expect the information to be trustworthy.
They contend that there is not any sufficient reason to suppose that the Hebrews had more trustworthy information concerning the life and condition of the first humans than other nations of the ancient world.
In their point of view, the Hebrew writers offer a picture of primitive times derived from the folklore of other nations. Therefore, it is hardly credible to press for historical details since we are not dealing with recorded history..."
[The astounding record of the preservation of every jot and tittle of the Hebrew Old Testament books down through the ages refutes the critics' assumption that there is no accurate record of the creation of the heavens and the earth. The critics also insist that Moses needed to rely on the accounts of previous men to glean the information he wrote down about creation. As a matter of fact, no man was there to report how the heavens were created. It is therefore evident that Moses' source of information was God - for who else was there? In the final analysis, the proof is that the creation account in the Bible lines up with reality and is without contradiction and is affirmed by TRUE science at every turn]
[McDowell, cont., p. 190]:
...the final major contention of the critical school [is] that the creation accounts were derived from mythological sources...
[However, McDowell goes on to say]
...'The [Genesis account] is unique for its dignified monotheism and non-mythological nature.'... 'The common assumption that the Hebrew account is simply a purged and simplified version of the Babylonian legend...is fallacious on methodological grounds.... ...the rule is that simple accounts or traditions may give rise (by accretion and embellishment) to elaborate legends, but not vice versa.
'In the Ancient Orient, legends were not simplified or turned into pseudo-history (historicized) as has been assumed for early Genesis.'..
..it was commonly assumed that the original material underlying Genesis 1 as a whole was the Babylonian Creation Epic known as Enuma Elish..
..'The aims of Genesis 1 and 2 and of the so-called 'Babylonian Creation' (Enuma Elish) are quite distinct. Genesis aims to portray the sole God as sovereign creator, whereas the primary purpose of Enuma Elish is to exalt the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon...[i.e., polytheism]
'The contrast between the monotheism and simplicity of the Hebrew account and the polytheism and elaboration of the Mesopotamian epic is obvious to any reader.'... ...logic shows it to be more likely that myth was born or developed from Genesis than the other way around."
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., p. 103]:
"We may note in passing that the Lord Jesus Christ based His own teaching on marriage on this primeval account in Genesis (Matthew 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12). He obviously regarded it as historical, not allegorical. Furthermore, He quoted in the same context from both of the first two chapters of Genesis. 'Have ye not read,' He said, 'that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female [quoting Genesis 1:27], And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" [quoting Genesis 2:23, 24]. It seems as though the Lord Jesus was not aware of the results of modern critical analysis, which has assured us that these two chapters 'contradict' each other! Those modern theologians (and there are many such today, even in certain 'evangelical' circles) who regard these accounts as contradictory, and who regard Adam and the woman as merely allegorical, are thus in rebellion against these inspired testimonies of the apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus. This is no light matter."
1) (Gen 2:1-3) GENESIS 2:1-3 (AS WELL AS GEN 2:4a EXAMINED BELOW
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense]. (Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made. (Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make]." =
Gen 2:1-3 and Gen 2:4a are the conclusion of Genesis chapter one. Note that verse numbers are not part of the original text, but a later addition beginning in the 13th century for convenience sake; and they have not always been correctly configured - as is the case in Genesis chapters one and two.
Genesis 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense]," stipulates the completion of elOhîm's work delineated in Genesis chapter one of the creation of the heavens, the earth and the "host of them" - the last phrase referring to heavenly bodies, especially the stars (e.g., Deut. 4:19).
Genesis 2:2, "and
God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and
[rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made,"
refers to elOhîm having completed His work of creating the heavens,
the earth and all the heavenly bodies "by the seventh day," in
the sense that His work was finished through the sixth day and He rested,
i.e., ceased His creative work on the seventh day. Hence there were
created no other universes, nor more parts of the one universe, as some
contend. On the other hand, this is not to say that God ceased working.
For the contexts that follow throughout Scripture indicate that God gave
Himself to a new work of upholding His Creation, (cf. Col 1:17), and
carrying out His plan of redemption through His Son, (cf. Jn 5:17). So God
[elOhîm] rested on the seventh day from His creative work - a day
which it is implied is of the same duration as each of the previous six
days. For no distinction is specifically made that the seventh day is any
different with respect to duration than the six previous 24 hour days of
creation work .
Later, God commanded His people Israel to set this day apart and dedicate
it to worshipping Him - which limits that day to a 24 hour day, like the
six days of creation, (cf. Ex 20:11), (Gen 2:2).
In verse 3, "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make]," God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it in the sense of setting it apart from the six days of Creation to commemorate the completion / cessation of His creative work. Four times throughout Gen 2:1-3 it is noted, hence emphasized, that God finished / completed / rested from His creative work. Hence this commemoration was to bring attention to God's perfect Creation and to its Perfect Creator, (Gen 2:3).
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense].
(Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made.
(Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make].
(Gen 2:4a HOLMAN) "[These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, ... in the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]." =
[Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 'TWOT,' vol 1, op. cit., p. 380, states]:
"Toledoths. Generations, birth... ...derivative of yalad 'to bring forth'...
...As used in the OT, toledoths refers to what is produced or brought into being by someone, or follows therefrom..."
The first phrase of verse 4, (Gen 2:4a), "[These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created," refers back to and concludes Genesis chapter one. It does not refer, as some contend, to what follows - such as a contradictory account of the six days of creation. Note that the language in chapter two does not stipulate that it starts at the beginning of all creation; nor does it portray a rigid chronological sequence as in Genesis chapter one. Nor does chapter two refer to generations of humankind; because:
(1) The phrase "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth..." includes the word "heavens," which does not procreate humans.
(2) No generations coming from man appear in Genesis until well into chapter 4 - far from the specific context of chapters 1 & 2 to which this word might refer.
Keep in mind that non-living things can be correctly described using the word "generations" = "toledoths" as well as living things. For example, 'a fourth generation Ford Thunderbird.' When the word "generations" = "toledoths" does refer to generations of mankind, there are names of specific men linked to it, not so in Genesis chapter two - the only Progenitor stipulated there is "elOhîm" = "God."
Therefore Gen 2:4a, "toledoths" refers back to what was produced or brought into being by God - namely the heavens and the earth in the 6 days of creation, (Gen 1:1-2:4a).
(Gen 2:1 NKJV) "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, [are] finished, [imperfect tense]. (Gen 2:2 YLT) and God [completed] by the seventh day His work which He [had] made, and [rested on] the seventh day from all His work which He [had] made. (Gen 2:3 NASB) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made [lit., to make]. (Gen 2:4a HOLMAN) [These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created."
[ENDING STATEMENTS OF GENESIS CHAPTER ONE ARE ABOVE]
[BEGINNING STATEMENTS OF GENESIS CHAPTER TWO ARE BELOW]:
(Gen 2:4b HOLMAN) "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens], (Gen 2:5 CBL INTERLINEAR) And all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet sprouted because the LORD God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground [lit., soil]. (Gen 2:6 NKJV) but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." =
The second phrase of verse 4, (Gen 2:4b), "In the day that the LORD God made earth and [the heavens]" in the Holman Standard Version is the beginning phrase of Genesis chapter 2. It refers not to just one 24 hour day, but to a period of time: the "day" of the six days of Creation delineated in Genesis chapter one. It must be read as the beginning phrase of Genesis chapter two.
(Gen 2:4a HOLMAN) "[These are] the [accounts] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, (Gen 2:4b HOLMAN) "In the day that the LORD God [Heb., "yehwâ elOhîm"] made earth and [the heavens]." =
God is referred to in Genesis 1:1-2:4a, i.e., throughout chapter one, as "elOhîm" rendered "God;" and as "elOhîm yehwâ" rendered "LORD God" or "Jehovah God" from Genesis 2:4b on throughout Genesis chapter two. Its presence in Gen 2:4b signifies and corroborates the beginning of chapter two at that point.
This compound name for God, "elOhîm yehwâ" combines the most sacred, holy and personal name for God "yehwâ" with "elOhîm," the Absolutely Sovereign Creator God Who was involved in every minute detail of His creation - a creation which He had in chapter one repeatedly stated as "good" and "very good," (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). It is clear that author Moses, (cf. Mt 19:7-8; Jn 7:19), changed from a focus upon the Sovereign God Who created the heavens and the earth in a panoramic and distant view in chapter one to a close up of His relationship with that creation - especially Adam - in chapter two. The evidence of this includes close up details of what God had created during the six days of Creation. It is a legitimate and a common literary practice for an author to utilize terms and names which reflect a different point of view to a previous context he has written. For example, a man might address a woman by her formal name at first and then, after a while, begin to call her by a nickname indicating that a friendship has been established. This may then evolve into a close, intimate husband and wife relationship wherein endearments are used to address one another. When Moses was inspired by God to write the Hebrew word "elOhîm" throughout chapter one, this established that there was one Sovereign, Almighty, Creator God; Who, all by Himself, created the heavens and the earth. Then, when the focus was to be narrowed to provide more detail, especially on man himself, God inspired Moses to use the compound name for God, "yehwâ elOhîm" which conveys an Almighty, Sovereign, Creator God "elOhîm," Who as "yehwâ," is involved in every detail of His universe in a close personal relationship with it - especially man. Later on, when the account begins to settle in on man himself, (chapter 4), Moses was inspired by God to use the term "yehwâ" alone in order to emphasize God's holiness as well as His personal involvement with mankind.
[Henry Morris states, op. cit., p. 83)]:
"In this section, [chapter two] the most distinctive vocabulary difference is the use of the divine name LORD God ("yehwâ elOhîm") instead of God ("elOhîm") [chapter one]. In Genesis 4, however, LORD ("yehwâ") is used almost exclusively (the name God occurs in 4:25). The different names for God were used in order to portray the absolute sovereignty of God in creating the heavens and the earth, (chapter one: "elOhîm"), the ongoing detail that a personal yehwâ yet almighty God was involved with in His creation, (chapter two: "yehwâ elOhîm"), and the personal involvement that yehwâ maintained in an ongoing manner with His creation, especially man, (chapter 4 on: "yehwâ")."
(Gen 2:8 YLT) "And Jehovah God [was planting, imperfect mood] a garden in Eden, at the east, and He [was setting, imperfect mood] there the man whom He [had] formed, [perfect mood]; (Gen 2:9 YLT) and Jehovah God [was causing, imperfect mood] to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life [was] in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." =
Chapter two,
beginning with Gen 2:4b: "In the day that the LORD God made earth and
[the heavens]" .
revisits the six days of creation, beginning at the third day at the time
when "all the shrubs of the field they were not yet [in the sense of
grown] on the earth, and all the plants of the field were not yet
sprouted," (verse 5). The text in chapter two goes on to indicate
that there was no man yet to work the ground, nor rain; but there was a
mist which came up from the ground - evidently from an underground source.
This corresponds to the time frame of Gen 1:9-10, just before vegetation
appeared on the earth ,
(Gen 2:5-6).
Whereupon the focus of chapter two jumps forward in time past the remainder of day three of creation - past the time when God had the earth bring forth grasses, herbs and trees, (Gen 1:11-13). Note that there is no stipulation or implication in Gen 1:11-13 that God was finished with bringing forth grasses, herbs and trees, as some contend. It would be on day number seven that Jehovah God would rest in the sense of cease His creation work.
(Gen 1:11 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb. that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
(Gen 1:12 NKJV) And the earth brought forth grass, the herb .that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:13 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the third day."
For God did form more vegetation on day six of creation in the Garden of Eden which He created after He had formed the man "AdAm," (Gen 2:7-9; cf. Gen 1:26-31). The key Hebrew verb of Gen 2:9, transliterated, "wayyasmah," which means 'causes to grow' is in the imperfect tense portraying indefinite action. So it is best translated, "was causing to grow," corroborating the conclusion of the sprouting of vegetation on the 6th day of creation after AdAm had been formed - Hebrew perfect tense "yAsAr," (Gen 2:8).
Chapter two also jumps over the fourth and fifth days of creation when God created the heavenly bodies; and then created sea life and birds respectively, (Gen 1:14-23). Yet birds are also created on day six, (Gen 2:19).
So chapter two zooms over days 3, 4, 5 and part of 6 and focuses in upon that part of day six of creation after God had been forming creeping things and animals of the earth, (cf. Gen 1:24-25), focusing in upon the time when Jehovah God forms the man "AdAm" - the time frame of Gen 1:26-31:
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'
(Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Gen 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'
(Gen 1:29 NKJV) And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
(Gen 1:30 NKJV) Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;' and it was so.
(Gen 1:31 NKJV)
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So
the evening and the morning were the sixth day,"
So in Genesis 2:7, the account of Gen 1:26-31 is in view - day number six of creation but with further details to be provided:
(Gen 2:7 YLT) "And Jehovah God [forms, Heb. "yatsar"] the man - [from] dust from the ground, and [breaths] into his nostrils breath of [lives, plural - Hebrew "hayyîm," masculine, plural: two lives in one living being existing together: man's soul and his human spirit], and the man [becomes] a living creature."
The man "AdAm,"
was formed from the dust of the ground giving him a physical body,
whereupon God breaths into his nostrils the breath of lives [plural] to
become a living creature, his body being uniquely animated - his soul
reflecting the image of God through the activity of the physical body. And
the man is provided within with a living human spirit which also reflects
the image of God, enabling the man to have a personal relationship with
God .
Note: after the Fall, humankind would be born with a dead / inactive human
spirit, (ref. 1 Cor 2:14; Eph 2:5). ............(Gen
2:7).
After declaring God's creation of the man "AdAm," in Gen 2:7, chapter two then stipulates in Gen 2:8 that God was planting a garden located in Eden which literally means, "delight." In this verse the Hebrew verb transliterated, "wayyitta" is correctly rendered "planteth," i.e., "plants" in the YLT. Other English versions have "planted," even "had planted," (NIV). But the verb in the Hebrew is in the imperfect mood, conveying indefinite action - not a completed action. Hence, it does not afford an interpretation that uses the pluperfect tense, "had formed," as some contend, in order to resolve an imagined conflict between Genesis chapters one and two. Taken as written, Gen 2:7-9 indicates that some vegetation, animals and birds were created at the Garden in Eden after the man was created, (Gen 2:19-20). But none of this contradicts anything in Genesis. For neither Gen 1:11-13, nor Gen 1:20-25, nor any verse in Genesis chapter one stipulates or implies that God was finished with bringing forth grasses, herbs and trees, (day 3); or birds, (day 5); or animals, (day 6); until the seventh day when He rested, (Gen 2:1-4a). Since day number seven is not in view in Gen 2:4b-25; and since the woman had not yet been created yet until Gen 2:21-25; then there is no contradiction between Genesis chapters one and two on this matter.
d) [Compare Gen 2:8-9 Hebrew interlinear]:
"wayyitta' .......................yehwâ ..'elOhîm gan .....be'Eden .miggedem wayyAsem ...
"and He [was planting] Yahweh God ......garden in Eden .of the east .and He [was putting]
[imperfect mood]........................................................................................[imperfect mood]
.............
sAm 'et-hA'AdAm ...'aser .....yAsAr
there the humankind .which .He [had] formed
..................................................[perfect mood]
wayyasmah ....................yehwâ ...elOhîm
and He caused to grow Yahweh God
[imperfect mood]
min-ho'adAmâ ...kAl-'Es ....nehmAd .lemar'eh wetôb .......lema'akAl we'Es
from the ground every tree pleasing ..for sight ,and good ..for food ....and the tree of
hahayyîm .betôk ...................haggAn ......we'Es .................hadda'at ..............tôb
the life ......in the middle of .the garden ..and the tree of .the knowledge of good
wArA"
and evil."
So Jehovah God [was planting, imperfect mood] a garden in Eden, at the east, and He [was setting, imperfect mood] there the man whom He [had] formed, [perfect mood]; and Jehovah God [was causing, imperfect mood] to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life [was] in the midst - in the middle - of the garden, as was the tree of knowledge of good and evil also in the middle of the garden. It was evidently like all of what Jehovah God created: perfect - the garden being created especially for the rest and safety of the man He had formed and placed there. For the garden was self-sustaining evidently with a mist coming up from the ground to water it and the fruit providing food which had life giving / enhancing properties - even eternal life, (cf. Gen 2:5-6).
(Gen 3:22 NKJV) '''Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" '''
According to Gen 2:15, God placed man in the Garden to settle down to settle down and rest and be safe. It evidently did not require man to do extensive cultivation in order to make the trees produce fruit, (cf. Gen 2:15).
So the vegetation of the garden of Eden was specifically formed by the LORD God, after He had created the man, "AdAm," (Gen 2:8-9).
(Gen 2:18 YLT) "And Jehovah God saith, 'It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make [imperfect] to him an helper - as his counterpart.' [lit., corresponding to him]. (Gen 2:19 YLT) And Jehovah God [forms] from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and [brings them] in unto the man, to see what he [calls] it; and whatever the man [calls] a living creature, that is its name. (Gen 2:20 YLT) And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man [has] not been found an helper - as his counterpart. (Gen 2:21 NKJV) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (Gen 2:22 YLT) And Jehovah God [builds] up the rib which He [has] taken out of the man into a woman, and [brings] her in unto the man; (Gen 2:23 HOLMAN) And the man said: "This one, [this time], is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman,' [for she was taken from man.]" =
In verse 18, the LORD God said, in the sense of to Himself - as rendered in the YLT, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make [imperfect] to him an helper - as his counterpart."
Note the
plurality of "Yahweh ElOhîm" with the singular verb "He
said" signifying a unity of the Godhead, but a plurality of
Personalities, corroborating the doctrine of the Triune God
.
The Hebrew word "kenegdô" rendered "counterpart," [lit., "corresponding to him"] in the YLT signifies a counterpart, not a subservient helper to Adam, as some contend. And note that Jehovah God declared "It is not good for the man to be alone, I do make to him an helper - as his counterpart." So here in Jehovah God's creation is something that is not yet good in the sense of not yet complete; and He is in the process of completing Adam with a helper - a counterpart - one who will be Adam's counterpart in the image of God; and with whom Adam was to be fruitful and multiply, and together they were to fill the earth and subdue it; and together they were to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth, (cf. Gen 1:27-28). And through the seed of the woman would come the Savior of mankind, (ref. Gen 3:15). In view of this, there is no implication in Scripture that the woman's role would be inferior such as limited to child bearing, or as a subservient helpmate, as some contend.
[Henry Morris, op. cit., p. 95]:
"At the end of the six days of creation, God saw that everything He had made was 'very good' (Genesis 1:31). The last act of creation, however, was that of woman; hence, prior to this final work, the creation was yet incomplete. Man, especially, was incomplete without woman; and this was not good (this does not mean it was evil, but only that it was unfinished and therefore imperfect). God Himself, therefore, said: 'It is not good that the man should be alone.'
All the animals had been made both male and female (Genesis 6:19) and had been instructed to bring forth after their kinds and to multiply on the earth (Genesis 1:22, 24). Man alone, of all God's creatures, had no such companion.
Therefore, God set about to make 'an help meet for man' (literally, 'a helper like man'). As He had personally formed man's body, so He would set about personally to form woman's body."
[Henry Morris, op. cit., pp. 96-98]:
"First, however, God arranged for Adam to become familiar with many of the animals by personal inspection. This was apparently for the two fold purpose of acquainting him with his responsibilities relative to the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:28) and also of emphasizing to him that, though he could exercise rulership over them, he could not have fellowship with them. There was not one among them qualified to be a helper suitable for his own needs. He was yet incomplete without such a helper, but this would require another act of creation on God's part."
Gen 2:19 does call attention to the fact that God is the one Who was forming the animals and that their bodies were being formed out of the 'ground,' even as Adam's body had been formed from the dust of the ground. However, though the physical elements were the same in the bodies of both man and beast, there was still no real fellowship possible between them, as Adam would soon learn when he examined them. For Adam had been created 'in the image of God' and would require a being of like nature to himself.
Many people quibble at Gen 2:19, professing to find a contradiction between this account of the formation of the animals and the account in the first chapter of Genesis. According to the latter, the birds were made on the fifth day and the land animals on the sixth day, all prior to Adam's creation. The second chapter, however, seems to say that these animals were only created at this time, after Adam's creation. Some even contend that God was first trying to find a helper for Adam by making a lot of animals and then, when this failed, finally deciding to make woman.
The timeframe of Gen 2:18-19 is during the sixth day of creation when the LORD God made man and woman. Previous to this, the LORD had created birds of the air on the 5th day, and then land animals on the first part of the 6th day, (as well as all the other kinds of living things on other days). But the following verses do not say that the LORD God would be through creating birds and animals:
(Gen 1:20 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.'
(Gen 1:21 NKJV) So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:22 NKJV) And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'
(Gen 1:23 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
(Gen 1:24 NKJV) Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind;' and it was so.
(Gen 1:25 NKJV) And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Gen 1:26 NKJV) Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'
(Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Gen 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'
(Gen 1:29 NKJV) And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
(Gen 1:30 NKJV) Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;' and it was so.
(Gen 1:31 NKJV) Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day,"
In view of the fact that Jehovah God had created birds on the fifth day, and animals of the earth, and then the man Adam, on the sixth day according to the account in Genesis chapters one and two, (Gen 1:20-23, (birds); 1:24-25, (animals of the earth); 1:26-31, 2:7, (man); Gen 2:19 declares, "And Jehovah God forms [imperfect mood] from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and [brings them] [imperfect] unto the man, to see [infinitive] what he [calls] [imperfect] it; and whatever the man [calls] a living creature, that is its name.
(Gen 2:20) And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man [has] not been found an helper - as his counterpart."
Note that every verb in Gen 2:19 & 20 is in the imperfect mood except for "to see," in v. 19 and "had not been found," in v. 20. All the imperfect verbs convey an indefinite action in the timeframe of day six when the LORD God was creating certain additional livestock, additional beasts of the field and additional birds of the heavens after He had first begun creating them in day 5, (birds); and during the first part of day 6, (the animals of the earth). So the timeframe in view in Gen 2:7-19 is after Jehovah God created man on day 6, (cf. Gen 1:26-31). So the imperfect verbs in Gen 2:19-20 cannot convey a pluperfect tense, such has "And Jehovah God had formed from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens," as some contend; for this is neither grammatical nor contextual. Rather God created the additional creatures on day six in the moments before He presented each to Adam to give each a name - as the imperfect mood conveys.
So God was forming specific specimens of additional animals and birds: "every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens," (ref. Gen 2:19), to present them before Adam to name while he was in the Garden of Eden: "And the man [calls] names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field," (ref. Gen 2:20). This was done so that Adam would determine by this that he did not have a helper as his counterpart - a creature that was literally "one corresponding to him," in the sense of being his equal - and in another sense, one with which he could "be fruitful and multiply," as the animals and birds each had one corresponding to them, (ref. Gen 2:18).
The
creation of these additional animals and birds does not contradict the
account in chapter one because chapter two has day number six in view
which is before God had ceased creating and rested from this activity.
Furthermore, there is nothing in the Genesis one account that indicates
that God was through creating animals and birds until day seven, (ref. Gen
2:1-4a .)
So Jehovah God brings each of the just formed birds and animals "unto the man, to see what he calls it; and whatever the man calls a living creature, that is its name." And as Adam "calls names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field," [that Jehovah God formed and brought before Adam], it becomes evident to Adam that he has not found a helper - one who is his counterpart. This implies that Adam was looking for his counterpart amongst all the animals and birds that Jehovah God was forming for Adam to name. It also implies that Adam had an incredible mentality to observe and name so quickly so many animals and birds." Adam's naming of the animals was also an indicator that he was taking dominion over them, (Gen 2:18-20).
The next verse, (Gen 2:21), stipulates that Jehovah God was causing a deep sleep to fall on Adam; and as he was sleeping, Jehovah God was taking away from his side one of his ribs, whereupon He was closing up the flesh in its place. It is significant that Adam was put to sleep and God alone participated in the forming of the woman - from a part of the side of Adam corroborating the woman to be a counterpart and not to be a subservient helpmate, (Gen 2:21).
Gen 2:22 is rendered in the YLT, "And Jehovah God builds up the rib which He has taken out of the man into a woman, and [brings] her in unto the man," (Gen 2:22).
And the man immediately recognized his counter part and declared "This one, [this time], is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman,' [for she was taken from man,]" Adam's response indicates that the woman was one in substance with him. Furthermore, there is no implication that she was to be a subservient helper, as some contend, (Gen 2:23).
Critics of God's Word advance their criticism of the Bible by making the grand assumption, with no substantive evidence, that there were a number of writer(s) / compilers of the book of Genesis who did not intend to make sense with what they "arrived at" despite contradictions which the critics allege are evident. So the critics' claim that the writer(s) / compilers circulated their work without any effort to reconcile anything. The critics maintain that this permitted what the critics view as irreconcilable contradictions, especially throughout Genesis chapters one and two. And these alleged irreconcilable contradictions could then be used to openly refute God's Word without any viable defense whatsoever.
However, this
alleged problem with the Bible's reliability is resolved with an honest,
obective reading of Genesis chapters one and two - strictly in accordance
with the normative rules of language, context and logic
..For
an honest reading of God's Word reveals a wholly reliable, consistent
meaning that completely upholds itself as reliable - without
contradiction, error, or lose ends. And all the while an honest reading of
God's Word completely refutes what the critics have continually claimed
against the Bible, such as what they assert Genesis chapters one and two
convey that is contradictory. So the problem lies not with the words of
God's Word but with how the critics or anyone interprets those words.
The context of Genesis chapter one is panoramic, and broad. The context of Genesis chapter two is a close up view of a person in a particular timeframe which was presented in Genesis chapter one - namely the sixth day of Creation and the man Whom Jehovah God created, Adam. And this view includes minutia detail, such as the names and locations of four river tributaries; a specific garden which God planted and then placed into it the man he had formed; the fact that Adam needed a mate, the naming of specific animals and birds. The critics incorrectly assume that both chapters attempt to present the same events but use different styles to do this.
The critics' claim that the style of chapter one is "stereotyped, measured, and precise" with "recurring formulae" such as the repetitive use of the verb 'to create,' is correct. This is because the subject matter and perspective of chapter one IS more stereotyped, measured and precise with recurring formulae such as the repetitive use of the verb 'to create'. And since chapter two's subject matter and focus is more diversified and picturesque, a more "diversified, picturesque" style "without recurring formulae" would be the most appropriate style for Moses to use. Another writer would not be needed to write chapter two because of the different style. God just simply inspired Moses to utilize the appropriate style to correspond to changes in the context. Most accomplished writers do this today when the context dictates it. Refer to a local newspaper, a favorite novel, even a history book. On the other hand, many of the other claims of the critics, such as
1) Chapter two is notably fresher, more spontaneous and primitive as compared to chapter one are imaginary. Only in one's imagination could a claim be substantiated that chapter one is not spontaneous or fresh or primitive. What could be more spontaneous, primitive and fresh than chapter one of Genesis 1 which begins,
(Gen 1:1 NKJV) "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
(Gen 1:2 NKJV) The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
(Gen 1:3 NKJV) Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light... etc."
The style differences have no weight as an argument and simply reflect changes in subject matter.
2) Critics claim that anthropomorphic references to God described as exemplifying human behaviorisms in Genesis 2 Who 'fashions,' 'breathes,' 'plants,' 'takes,' 'sets,' 'brings,' 'closes up,' 'builds,' 'walks' contradicts the God of Genesis chapter one.
But the critics have quite a superficial argument. Man in his finite mind cannot express ideas about God in anything but through anthropomorphisms. Furthermore, chapter one of Genesis [also] expresses God in such equally anthropomorphic terms as, 'called,' 'saw,' 'blessed,' 'deliberated' (verse 26 'let us make'), God 'worked' for six days then He 'rested.' "
3) Chapter two's lack of a reference to man being created in the image of God, contradicts chapter one. But the critics assume beforehand that chapters one and two are two separate accounts of the overall creation process which someone attempted to 'hook' together. They ignore the simplest and most obvious interpretation that chapter two is just a continuation of chapter one by the same author, providing more detail in a narrower and more focused area of what chapter one has already presented - from a panoramic to a close up and detailed account. The narrower and close focus often demands a change in verb tenses and person, and more details; but without having to replicate details covered. A change of authors is not needed to be made to do this.
If this is the case, (and it is), then chapter two, being a continuation of what was already stated in chapter one, does not need to repeat what was just stated in chapter one relative to such things like man being created in the 'image of God'.
It was only those animals in closest proximity and most likely as theoretical candidates for companionship to man that were actually brought to him. These included the birds of the air, the cattle (verse 20 - probably the domesticable animals), and the beasts of the field, which were evidently the smaller wild animals that would live near human habitations. Those not included were the fish of the sea, the creeping things, and the beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:24), which presumably were those wild animals living at considerable distance from man and his cultivated fields.
It is not likely that all these animals actually lived in the garden of Eden, though they may have had access to it. Therefore, God must have directed them to come to Adam in some unknown fashion, so that both master and animal might learn to know each other. We have no way of knowing exactly how many kinds' of animals appeared before Adam, but it was clearly not such a large number as to be incapable of examination within a few hours at most. It is not unreasonable to suggest that Adam could note and name about ten kinds each minute, so that in, say five hours, about three thousand kinds could be identified. Clearly, this number seems more than adequate to meet the needs of the case.
As the animals passed in review, Adam gave each a quick appraisal and an appropriate name. What language he used, and on what basis he selected names for them, there seems no way of knowing. The fact that he named them, however, indicates (as we would expect, in view of his recent creation in human perfection by the omniscient God) that he was a man of high intelligence and quick discernment. There seems to have been no need for second thoughts and later changes in those names. 'Whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.'