Genesis 2 - Introduction

Genesis 2:4 b Genesis 3:24 (J). The Story of Paradise: I. The Creation of Man (Genesis 2:4-25). II. The Fall of Man (Genesis 3:1-24)

I. The Creation of Man (Genesis 2:4-25).

4b 7. The Creation of Man.

8 9. The Garden in Eden.

10 14. Its geographical situation.

15 17. The Trees of Life and of the Knowledge of good and evil.

18 20. The Creation of the Animals.

21 25. The Creation of Woman.

In this passage the compiler has had before him another account of the Creation. The earliest part dealing with the formation of the earth, the heavens, and the seas, he has omitted. The account in the previous chapter was evidently deemed to be sufficient. The description, however, of the origin of man and woman and of the animals is quite different from that given in ch. 1. The narrative goes into greater details; and events are described in a different order. It cannot escape the reader's notice that, whereas in ch. 1 all the living creatures are created before man and woman, in ch. 2 man is first created (Genesis 2:6), the animals are created afterwards as companions to him (Genesis 2:18), and that woman, last of all, is created out of his rib to be his wife (Genesis 2:21). The picture, therefore, presented in this chapter comes from a different source from that in ch. 1; and the fact is shewn not only by the variety in the treatment of the subject matter, but also by the unmistakable variety in the style and vocabulary. Some of the more noteworthy instances will be commented upon.