Interpretting
Genesis 2:1-7
Thus
the heavens and the earth were completed
in all their vast array. By the seventh day
God had finished the work he had been doing;
so on the seventh day he rested from all
his work. And God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, because on it he rested
from all the work of creating that he had
done. This is the account of the heavens
and the earth when they were created. When
the LORD God made the earth and the heavens--
and no shrub of the field had yet appeared
on the earth and no plant of the field had
yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent
rain on the earth and there was no man to
work the ground, but streams came up from
the earth and watered the whole surface of
the ground-- the LORD God formed the man
from the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and
the man became a living being.
This
passage presents a challenge to the Protestant
evangelical interpreter. It describes the creation
of man. However, the previous chapter had already
described the creation of man. Because we recognise
a chronological order in the early Genesis account,
which the text seems to promote itself (by numbering
the first six days of creation), we are challenged
by the "second" creation story. In
chapter one, man is the ultimate creation. Animals
and plants are created before man, who was created
on the sixth day. In chapter two however, man
is created first, then the plants and animals
are made after man's own creation.
The
Catholic Allegorical system of interpretation
says that these are two different accounts. The
first chapter is a "Yahwist" version (J),
which is older than chapter two, which is the "Elohist" version (E). Liberal
interpreters view the two accounts as two separate
myths which also have come from two sources in
antiquity. Other interpretations view chapter
1 as "scientific", in that it gives the order
of the evolutionary process where "days" correspond
to aeons of time, while the second chapter is
the "religious" account.
The
interpreter's dilemma consists of the following.
If these are two distinct and conflicting accounts
of creation, then the Bible itself is confused
and can not be entirely trustworthy. Should these
two accounts be viewed as having two different,
but divinely inspired and valid, messages? Should
we look for a harmony between these two passages?
Will finding a harmony establish fundamental
weaknesses in an interpretative method?
The
Protestant System of Hermeneutics rejects that
the Bible or its message employs mythology to
communicate God's Word. The same system also
rejects that revelation must comply with known
scientific information in a rational way. Divine
revelation is not subject to true science. We
will thus examine this passage by using the Protestant
System of Hermeneutics.
1.
Inspiration
Because
the Protestant System of Hermeneutics views the
Bible as divinely inspired we regard its accounts
as trustworthy and reliable. Consequently, this
passage under examination should not be written
it off as mythology or as allegory. Because of
the conviction that all of Scripture is God's
breathed (2Timothy 3:16), we must reject that
the account in the first chapter is in contradiction
to the account in the second chapter. Therefore
we must exegete the passage with prayerful care
since we regard it as God's inspired Word to
mankind.
Our
Goal
Making
the passage fit our system of hermeneutics
is not our goal. Our goal is to determine God's
message to us so that we might be spiritually
stronger as a result. In Genesis chapter one,
man's creation is emphasized as being "in the
image of God". In the second chapter man's creation
is described as being sourced in dust. The second
chapter paints the backdrop for the Fall described
in the third chapter. While the first chapter
shows the original glory of man, the second chapter
shows that man was but dust. It is a solemn warning
about man's vulnerability to sin.
We
observe that the first chapter gives the broad
overview of the creation story while chapter
2 deals specifically with the sixth day. Because
the second chapter is laying the foundation to
sin entering the world, it refers to some of
the affects of the Fall as not yet happening.
and
no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the
earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung
up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the
earth and there was no man to work the ground,
(Gen 2:5 NIV) The reference to shrubs and
fields not yet springing up does not refer
to the vegetation already mentioned in the
first chapter, but to the aspect of the Fall's
curse mentioned in Genesis 3:17b-18 ~
"Cursed
is the ground because of you; through painful
toil you will eat of it all the days of your
life. It will produce thorns and thistles for
you, and you will eat the plants of the field. The
case for this interpretation is made stronger
by the context of the verse also including
two other aspects of the Fall's curse: rain
(Genesis 6-8), and the need for man to work
(Gen. 3:19). We therefore see the devotional
message within this passage that man's original
state was perfection, not the result of an
evolutionary "death and struggle". We see that
man was created with the ability to not sin
(Gen. 1), yet also with the ability to sin
(Gen. 2). We are shown what creation was like
before the Fall, and are able to foresee what
a world without sin will be like.
Central
Theme
This
passage also prepares the way for the revelation
of Christ. Adam is a type of Christ-
(Rom
5:14 NIV) Nevertheless, death reigned from
the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even
over those who did not sin by breaking a command,
as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to
come. (1 Cor 15:45 NIV) So it is written: "The
first man Adam became a living being" ; the
last Adam, a life-giving spirit. In the
Genesis 1 and 2 passages, about Adam, we see
both Christ's divinity, and His humanity typified.
The description of Adam as the father of all
mankind, is also typical of Christ as the "father" or
source of life to all mankind.
Progressive
Revelation
The
first two chapters of the Bible are the most "elementary" within
Scripture. All of Scripture progresses passed
these two chapters. We should therefore look
to further revelation about these chapters as
the rest of Scripture unfolds. One of the things
that unfolds even within the rest of Genesis,
is the treatment of chronological events. We
observe that the narrator would often paint a
literary outline of events and then select a
period of time within the same outline to expand
upon it giving the novice reader the impression
that the expansion is in fact in chronological
order to the outline. We see this in the stories
about Joseph which occur from chapter 37 and
on. Thus, we can observe that Genesis chapter
1 is the literary outline while chapter 2 is
an expansion upon an aspect mentioned in chapter
1, and in particular the sixth day.
Scripture
Interprets Scripture
If
one was to argue that these accounts in the first
two chapters of Genesis are actually contradictory,
the rest of Scripture can not be used to support
this argument. The creation of man in Genesis
1:26 is identified in Genesis 2:19 as that of
Adam. The rest of Scripture supports this. Indeed
the redemption story throughout the rest of Scripture
makes no sense at all if these two accounts can
not be reconciled due to an apparent contradiction.
From
the Genesis 1 account we are presented with man
as the crown of God's creation. Animals and vegetation
precede the creation of man thus showing man's
pre-eminence in creation. This is reinforced
by God telling man to take dominion over every
living thing upon the earth ~
(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." The rest of Scripture
reinforces man's position as the crown of
creation.
When
I consider your heavens, the work of your
fingers, the moon and the stars, which you
have set in place, what is man that you are
mindful of him, the son of man that you care
for him? You made him a little lower than
the heavenly beings and crowned him with
glory and honor. You made him ruler over
the works of your hands; you put everything
under his feet: Psalm 8:3-6
The
Genesis 2 account reveals the backdrop for the
Fall of man. It describes the earth before the
curse came upon it. It describes the planting
of the sacramental Garden of Eden. In particular
it focuses on two of the sacramental trees. The
first is the Tree of Life, the other is the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This emphasizes
that God offers, is offering, and will always
offer mankind the power of choice. Mankind can
either choose the Tree of Life, which will be
freely and ultimately available in Heaven (Rev
22:2 [NIV] "down the middle of the great street
of the city. On each side of the river stood
the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves
of the tree are for the healing of the nations.")
Yet mankind was to choose the fruit from the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Today
we see that mankind still carries the stain of
that fruit. There are people who are blatantly
evil, and there are evil people who are blatantly
good. But both are evil and an abomination in
the eyes of God.
It
highlights that man was created from earth-dust,
not angel-dust, nor even God-dust. It emphasizes
man's creation and temporal physical existence
over against God's immortality and immutability.
This is something that the Scriptures reinforces
repeatedly.
(1
Cor 15:47 NKJV) The first man was of the
earth, made of dust; the second Man is the
Lord from heaven.
Without
the breath of God, man is inanimate (Gen. 2:7).
In fact the most important "part" of man is that
breath.
(Job
32:8 NIV) But it is the spirit in a man,
the breath of the Almighty, that gives him
understanding.
(Psa
39:11 NIV) You rebuke and discipline men
for their sin; you consume their wealth like
a moth-- each man is but a breath. Selah
(Isa
57:16 NIV) I will not accuse forever, nor
will I always be angry, for then the spirit
of man would grow faint before me-- the breath
of man that I have created.
Thus
we see that Scripture totally supports the harmonious
account of man's creation. He is the crown of
creation but nothing more than a creation who
needs his Creator. He had the choice to abide
in uninhibited blessing, but chose the curse
of sin through disobedience. We see that man
and woman were created equal (Genesis 1:26) but
that there is an order within that equality (Genesis
2:7, 21-22). The two accounts are harmonised
to paint the backdrop for redemption. Without
them our redemption story is incomplete.
© 2001,
Andrew Corbett
eMail
1The
New American Bible, The New Catholic Translation”,
Catholic Bible Press (Thomas Nelson), 1987:3
2 Ibid
3 Dr.
Spiros Zodhiates, “The Hebrew-Greek Key
Study Bible”, AMG Publishers, Chattanooga,
1984, page 3
