The Creation of Humanity
The Creation of Humanity
Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay
The Families of Genesis
These are the descendants of the earth and the sky.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The story of Genesis revolves around families, particularly one special family line. The seven days of creation serve as an introduction. The rest of the book contains eleven more sections focusing on the origins of Israel, as well as several other nations.1 The first family introduced is the human family.
The Hebrew word toledoth (“descendants”) marks the beginning of these sections.2 Ten of them each tell the story of one man’s descendants, who they were and what happened to them. In this context, this first one seems out of place, even nonsensical. Who are the descendants of the earth and the sky?
The content of the section answers the question. The story of the descendants of the earth and the sky begins with God creating the first man and the first woman. It continues to tell how the first humans fell into sin (chapter 3) and then passed on a heritage of sin to their children (chapter 4). As the first chapter of Genesis describes the creation of the earth and the sky, the second chapter proceeds to describe the birth of the universe’s metaphorical “descendants”—humanity.3
Chapter 1 focuses on humanity’s spiritual nature as the image of God. Chapter 2 focuses on humanity’s physical nature as children born of the physical universe.
Yahweh God
These are the descendants of the earth and the sky when they were created, when Yahweh God made the earth and the sky.
Image by Johannes Plenio from Unsplash
Just as Genesis 2 provides more details about the nature of humanity, it also further clarifies the nature of God. Chapter 1 introduces the Creator simply as ʾelohim (“God”) a generic, universal term for any deity. This matches the universal focus of the chapter. But in chapters 2 and 3, the Creator is called Yahweh God. Yahweh is a proper name referring specifically to the covenant God of Israel.
The name Yahweh God rarely occurs outside of Genesis 2–3, which makes its usage here all the more noteworthy. The combination of the generic “God” with the specific “Yahweh” serves as a bridge between chapter 1 and the rest of the narrative. It further defines the God of creation as Yahweh, the God of Israel. The universality of chapter 1 shifts into the intimacy of chapter 2.
The God who appeared to Israel at Mt. Sinai and spoke to them out of the storm is the God who created the entire universe.4 He is the God who breathed life into humanity and walked with them in the garden. He is the one humanity betrayed.
Before the Fall
No desert shrub existed yet, and no crops were growing, because Yahweh God had not sent rain on the earth and no human existed to cultivate the ground. Instead, streams would overflow from the earth and water all the ground.
Image by Jorge Illich-Gejo from Unsplash
All of Genesis 2:4–24 took place on the sixth day of creation. This section recounts the creation of humanity in intimate detail and lays the groundwork for the shocking betrayal of chapter 3.
Genesis 2:5 describes the world as day six began by listing what did not yet exist: desert shrubs, crops, rain, and humans. This verse does not claim that no plants of any kind existed on the sixth day.5 On the contrary, the earth was full of self-propagating, wild vegetation, watered by streams regularly overflowing their banks.6 Such a lush environment left no room for arid regions where only desert shrubs grow. Nor was there any need for cultivating crops, because food was plentiful.
This paradise would be tragically short-lived. The wording of verse 5 foreshadows the consequences of the fall.7 God would soon create humanity, and their rebellion would bring a curse upon the ground.8 The fertile ground would turn barren, producing painful weeds. Hard-won crops would become humanity’s primary food source, forcing them to cultivate the ground that once freely produced all they needed.9 And one day things would get so bad God would send rain. And rain. And more rain. Nearly wiping humanity out.10
The Breath of Life
Yahweh God formed a human out of dust from the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils. So the human became a living creature.
Image by Daniele Levis Pelusi from Unsplash
Genesis 2 describes the creation of the first humans in much more intimate terms than the brief summary in chapter 1. To create man, Yahweh God, the master potter, took dust from the ground and lovingly formed it into the shape of a human body. He leaned down over the lifeless form. Yahweh exhaled. The man inhaled. This transfer of breath conferred life to the dust. Thus, humanity was born.
This one verse beautifully illustrates the dual nature of humanity. We are dust taken from the ground, our physical bodies inexorably linked to the earth. But we are dust imbued with the life-giving breath of God. Hebrew thought did not distinguish between breath and spirit. God’s breath represents our spiritual nature as God’s image, empowered to rule the earth on his behalf.
The Garden
Then Yahweh God planted a garden on the east side of Eden, and there he put the human he had formed. Yahweh God made all the trees that are beautiful and delicious grow there. In the midst of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of judgment.
A river flowing from Eden would water the garden and from there divide to become the headwaters of four rivers. The first is named the Pishon. It winds through all the land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold there is pure, and there are also pearls and onyx stones. The second river is named the Gihon. It winds through all the land of Cush. The third river is named the Tigris. It flows east of Ashur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Having given life to the man, Yahweh God welcomed his son by showering him with gifts. As his first gift, Yahweh made him a special home, a delightful garden full of beautiful trees producing delectable fruit. An unnamed river flowed out of the land of Eden to water the entire area before splitting into four rivers, described using place names contemporary to the time of Moses. Even the lands outside the garden were well watered and full of natural resources.
In the midst of this idyllic setting, God planted the tree of life and the tree of judgment. The mention of these two special trees once again foreshadows impending disaster. The trees represent a choice clearly laid out before humanity: to obey and live or to disobey and die. God placed the whole earth and everything in it under humanity’s rule. But to continue to enjoy that privilege, the man had to accept God’s own rule over him.
Humanity’s Purpose
Yahweh God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to serve and to guard.
Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay
God created the garden and placed his son in it for a purpose. But Hebrew grammar does not allow the traditional understanding that the man was to take care of the garden.11 On the contrary, the garden was there to take care of him. Before humanity sinned, they had no need to work the ground because God had already provided everything they needed.12 So what was the man to serve and guard if not the garden?
The Hebrew verbs ʿavad (“to work, serve”) and shamar (“to keep, guard”) serve as important key terms throughout the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. They frequently refer to the duties of the priests and Levites, who were charged with serving God by guarding his sacred objects and his commandments and decrees.13 The first man was a king-priest, not a gardener.
As Aaron and his descendants served as intermediaries between God and the rest of Israel, Adam and his descendants were meant to serve as intermediaries between God and the rest of creation. God created humanity as his representatives to rule over the earth and ensure the accomplishment of his will, not to take care of a garden. Rather, the garden served as a place where he could meet with and provide for his chosen representatives. Like the later tabernacle and temple, it served as a central location where God could meet with and provide for his chosen representatives. From there, God’s rule would extend throughout the earth.
The Forbidden Tree
He commanded the human, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden. But you may not eat from the tree of judgment! Because when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
Image by Irina Iriser from Unsplash
When God placed the man in the garden, he allowed him to freely enjoy the fruit growing there. Only one tree was forbidden to him: the tree of judgment. This mysterious tree would serve as the test of humanity’s loyalty to their Creator. Would they willingly allow him to decide what was best for them or would they try to take their future into their own hands?
The temptation set before humanity was to “know good and evil,” a phrase that occurs only two other times in Scripture. In Deuteronomy 1:39, after the exodus generation disqualified themselves from inheriting the promised land, God promised to give it to their children, who did not yet know good and evil. Because they could not choose their own course of action, God would not hold them responsible for their parents’ rebellion. In 2 Samuel 19:35, eighty-year-old Barzillai refused to accompany David to Jerusalem because he no longer knew good from evil. He did not want to burden the king with his care.
Children and the elderly lack the authority to make decisions regarding their own welfare and instead depend on others to care for them. God wants his children to depend on him in the same way. He gave humanity everything except the right to control their own destiny, to judge right and wrong for themselves.
God alone is fully self-sufficient, and he alone has the right to decide what is good and what is evil. As long as his children continued to trust him with their welfare, they would live because God would take care of them. But if they tried to claim independence by doing the one thing God forbade them from doing, they would lose his protection and inevitably die.
All by Himself
Then Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the human to be by himself. I will make him a counterpart to help him.”
Image by Tonya Christner from Creation Swap
Having warned the man about the consequences of seeking independence, God once again surveyed his creation to determine if his son had everything he needed. Until now, God had judged everything he created to be good, but the creation of man introduced a problem. As he watched his son explore his new home alone, God made a shocking pronouncement. It was not good.
God judged the man’s situation with no input from the man himself. God didn’t ask him if he liked being alone, nor did the man complain. God knew what he needed before he did, and God alone knew the perfect solution: he would make man a partner.
The Hebrew phrase ʿezer kenegdo appears nowhere else in Scripture. Most occurrences of ʿezer (“helper”) refer to God, while others emphasize the futility of appealing to human beings for help.14 The Bible consistently portrays God as the only legitimate source of help. Except in Genesis 2.
The unique word kenegdo (literally “like before him”) means that the man’s helper would not be a carbon copy of himself. Instead, God would make his counterpart, a companion who would complement and complete him. This counterpart would enable him to fulfill his divine call to fill the earth and subdue it.
Naming the Animals
So Yahweh God formed all the animals and birds out of the ground. He brought them to the human to find out what he would call each one. Whatever the human called each living creature would be its name. So the human named all the livestock, the birds, and the wild animals. But he did not find a counterpart to help him.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
God’s solution to man’s solitude began with another gift. He had formed man out of the ground, and now he formed land animals and birds out of the ground. This does not describe the original creation of animals. God created trees on the third day, birds on the fifth day, and land animals earlier on the sixth day. But God planted more trees to create the garden and created more animals to inhabit it, all as a gift for his son.
God brought the animals and birds to the man and assigned him the task of naming them. Like their neighbors, the Israelites considered naming to be an act of authority.15 Parents named their children, God named his chosen servants,16 and kings named their vassals.17 Naming the animals was the man’s first official act as ruler of the earth. Because he acted in accordance with God’s will, God affirmed his decision on what to name each kind of animal.
Having completed his task, the man realized none of the animals filled his need for a counterpart. He found himself surrounded by animals, over which he had authority, and even God, who had authority over him. Yet he was still alone. He had no one beside him. God certainly already knew no animal would suffice as man’s partner. Now the man knew that too.
Woman
So Yahweh God caused the human to fall into a deep sleep. While the human slept, Yahweh God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh around where it had been. Yahweh God constructed a woman out of the rib he took from the human, and he brought her to him. Then the human said, “At last! This one is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. She will be called ‘woman’ because she was taken from man.”
Image by Hugo Jones from Unsplash
God made man and the animals out of the earth, but dust would not suffice for his final creative act. God put the man into a deep sleep and performed the world’s first surgery to remove one of his ribs from his side. He built up the rib and the surrounding flesh into a woman. Making man’s perfect counterpart required part of man himself.
The man’s inability to find a partner among the animals must have frustrated him, but it also taught him to appreciate his true partner. As soon as he saw the woman, he burst into joyous song. Here, at last, was his equal! The Hebrew phrase “my bone and my flesh” means the same thing as “my own flesh and blood” in English.18 But here the idiom takes on a literal meaning. The woman was truly his own bone and his own flesh. She was a part of him and he a part of her.
Because his partner was taken from his own body, the man decided to call her ʾishah (“woman”), a wordplay on ʾish (“man”). Although he “called” her woman, he did not name her as he named the animals. Instead, she shared his name, ʾadam (“human”), the name God gave them both.19 The designation “woman” highlighted her primary role as the companion of man. Prefall humanity lived in unity, coequal partners ruling the earth together.
The Institution of Marriage
Because of this, a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife so they become one.
Image by Sarah Cates from Creation Swap
The account of the creation of the first man and woman concludes with a reflection on its practical implications. As God created woman by separating her from man, so marriage reunites the two.
Woman is man’s missing piece, so he naturally leaves his parents to unite with her. This doesn’t mean he must leave his home to go live with his wife’s family. Regardless of where they live, he must leave his parents’ household to start a new family with his wife.20 After marriage, his deepest loyalty should shift from his parents to his wife. The original unity of the first couple should serve as a model for any marriage.
- This gives Genesis a total of twelve sections. The number of the tribes of Israel, twelve is an important number throughout Scripture.
- Hamilton, Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17, 4–5, 150–151.
- See Metaphor.
- Exodus 19:9–19.
- Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Genesis 2:5.
- Genesis 1:9–13; see The Third Day of Creation.
- Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 73–74; see Foreshadowing.
- Genesis 3:17–18.
- Genesis 3:23.
- Genesis 7:1–24.
- This interpretation requires a feminine pronoun (“it, her”) to refer back to a masculine noun (“garden”). Cassuto, Commentary on Genesis, 1:122; see also Ross, “Genesis,” 46; Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 79.
- Genesis 3:17–19; see The Man’s Punishment.
- Ross, “Genesis,” 46.
- See Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:7; Psalm 33:20; Isaiah 30:5; Ezekiel 12:14.
- Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Genesis 3:20.
- Genesis 5:2; 17:5, 15, 19; 35:10; 2 Samuel 12:25; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:21.
- Genesis 41:45; 2 Kings 23:34; 24:17; Daniel 1:7.
- Genesis 29:14; Judges 9:2; 2 Samuel 5:1; 19:12–13; 1 Chronicles 11:1.
- Genesis 1:27; 5:2; see also The Sixth Day; The Father of Humanity.
- Barnwell and Kuhn, Notes on Genesis 1:1–11:26, Gen. 2:24; Reyburn and Fry, Handbook on Genesis, 75.