Genesis 2:4-17

The narrative begins with the words In the day, but the construction is uncertain. Perhaps Genesis 2:5 f. is a parenthesis, so that man was formed at the period when earth and heaven (J's phrase for P's the heaven and the earth) were made, before there was any vegetation. The absence of vegetation is due to the absence of rain and of a man to till the ground. In Genesis 2:6, however, we are told of a mist, or as we should probably render, a flood, which irrigated the ground. Genesis 2:6 may be out of place (possibly added with Genesis 2:10), for rain would be unnecessary if irrigation was secured by a periodical overflow as in Egypt or Babylonia. After earth and heaven had been made, Yahweh moulded man (-â dâ m) from the ground (-ד dâ mah) as a potter moulds images from clay, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life so that he became a living being. Then He planted a garden or park far away to the E. of Palestine, in a district known as Eden. It was apparently His own home (Genesis 3:8), but He placed man in it. He then caused such trees to grow in this garden as were pleasant to the eye and good for food, and in particular the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of other species of trees in the garden or of any trees outside, the author says nothing, nor yet of plants or flowers whether in the garden or without, since he selects those features which lead up to the story in the next chapter. Yahweh charged the man with the care of the garden, and permitted him to use all the trees for food, save that He forbade him the tree of knowledge on pain of death. The position of Eden is more definitely fixed by Genesis 2:10 (usually taken to be an insertion). A river rises in Eden, flows through the garden, and on leaving it, branches into four rivers. Hiddekel is the Tigris in front of Assyria, approaching it from Palestine. The fourth river is Euphrates. The writer apparently thought of these as springing from one source. Hence he regarded Eden as situated at their point of divergence, and the source of the other two rivers was the same. But his geography was ancient rather than modern, and no one has combined his statements into a consistent scheme. Havilah is unknown, but perhaps in Arabia. Cush is generally supposed to be Ethiopia. In that case Gihon is probably the Nile, though it may be the Indus, which was supposed to be the upper part of the Nile, in which case Pishon might be the Ganges. Other suggestions may be seen in the commentaries.

Genesis 2:4. the LORD: i.e. Yahweh. On the significance of the name see Exodus 3:13 *, where an explanation of the form Jehovah (mg.) and the reasons for pronouncing the name Yahweh are also given.

Genesis 2:11. compasseth: not necessarily surrounds; the verb may mean to pass along one side of (Numbers 21:4; Judges 11:18).

Genesis 2:12. bdellium: probably a fragrant gum. onyx: either this or beryl (mg.) is the probable meaning.

Genesis 2:17. The original text was presumably the tree in the midst of the garden, for the woman so describes it in Genesis 3:3, and if the tree had been mentioned under its true name, the point of the serpent's revelation would have been rather anticipated and so blunted. When the two trees were brought together, the change was made to avoid confusion.

Genesis 2:18. Up to this point one living creature alone has been formed, and he is a man. But Yahweh realises that loneliness is unwholesome for him, so He decides to give him a companion to share his life and help him in his work. It is to be a help answering to him (mg.), i.e. of his own nature. So, as He had formed man out of the ground, He formed from the same source the animals and the birds, and brought them to the man to see what he called them. The name expresses the nature, hence the naming of the animals showed what impression they made on him. But none of the names indicated any consciousness of fitness for companionship with himself. This experiment then having failed, for all the range of forms that was covered, Yahweh realised that something quite different was needed. To be made of the same clay was not enough, man and his comrade must be of the same flesh and bone, his companion must be literally a part of himself. He cast the man into a trance-sleep, for it was not fitting that he should penetrate Divine secrets or see Yahweh at work, took a rib from his side and built it (mg.) into a woman and brought her to the man as He had brought the animals. This time the experiment proved a complete success. Now at last, the man exclaims, after all my weary search I find my companion, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. This intimacy of relation ship is naturally expressed in a name woman (- isshah) which contains man (-'î sh) as part of itself. And this is why man seeks the woman, forsaking for her the authors of his being; man and woman were originally one flesh, in wedlock they became one flesh again. Finally the author notes the absence of shame in spite of their nakedness, and thus leads up to Yahweh's discovery of their disobedience.