Tag: Genesis 2

What is Death?

Posted on by jovial_cynic

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)

Perhaps the man wondered, “what is death?” And shortly after, God causes him to fall into a slumber. A sleep so unnatural that the man must have wondered, “what’s happening? Is this death?”

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.
Genesis 2:21 (NIV)

And after death, there is a new life. Eve’s name means… life.

Plants or Humans First?

Posted on by jovial_cynic
I mentioned before that Genesis 2:4 tells me that the order isn’t the point, so I’m comfortable with the order of Genesis 1 (plants before man) not being consistent with Genesis 2:5, where the plants do not seem to exist when God creates man. However, there is another approach.

when no shrub of the field was yet on earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted, because God יהוה had not sent rain upon the earth and there were no human beings to till the soil, but a flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth — God יהוה formed the Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.
Genesis 2:5-7 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)

The key is in the word “טֶרֶם” (terem). Some bibles translate it as “before,” but the Rabbis say that this word gives us a tension of “almost, but not quite,” like the way one waits for the green signs of life to break through the surface of the ground. There, but not yet.

טרם יהיה בארץ WAS NOT YET IN THE EARTH — Wherever טרם occurs in the Scriptures it means “not yet” and does not mean “before.” It cannot be made into a verbal form, saying הטרים as one says הקדים (verbal form of קדם) and this passage proves that this is the meaning and not “before” as well as another (Exodus 9:30), כי טרם תראון “that ye do not yet fear the Lord.” Therefore you must explain this verse also thus: “No plant of the field was yet in the earth” at the time when the creation of the world was completed on the sixth day before man was created, and וכל עשב השדה טרם יצמח means “and every herb of the field had not yet grown.”
Rashi on Genesis 2:5:1

In this reading, God “brings forth” plants in Genesis 1, which points to seeds breaking open below the surface, waiting until someone can till the ground in Genesis 2, or perhaps as early as day 6 of creation in Genesis 1. This view is perhaps helpful for anyone who needs reconciliation between the timelines of the two chapters. It seems to work.

Suitable Helper

Posted on by jovial_cynic
God created Eve from Adam, and we’re in the habit of imagining ourselves as Adam; we think God made someone specifically for us and from us.

But maybe Adam isn’t us. Perhaps he represents God in the story, and it’s a story of God making something specifically for Himself.

We are the suitable helper.

It feels like an echo of Genesis 1 when God created humanity. Perhaps Genesis 2 tells us how He felt about us in the words of Adam when he sees the woman.

Sleep and Death

Posted on by jovial_cynic
When we read that God made Adam sleep in Genesis 2:21, the Rabbis tell us that sleep is a microcosm of death. It points to an end.

Perhaps Adam’s waking revelation of another life made from him tells us that in waking from death, we will be joined with another. Complete.

And perhaps the waking tells us another thing: If Adam is like God, his own sleep/death tells us that God will die and rise to be united with his bride, too.

Gold

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Jesus said that it’s harder for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom.It would make sense, then, that the first mention of gold in Genesis describes it outside the garden, out where the rivers are separated.

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Genesis 2:10-11 (NIV)

“But Josh, there’s gold in the New Heaven and new Earth. It’s in the Revelation!”

Yes. I know. And Jesus said “with God, all things are possible” in the same story. And gold will likely have a different meaning in a world where there is no scarcity. Just like in Eden.

First Words

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Humanity’s first words in the Bible are a poem of adoration about another human, and God isn’t mad about it. In fact, God set this up to be good; it solves the “not good” problem of being alone.

Love your neighbor. That’s what solves the “not good” problem.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
Genesis 2:23 (NIV)

East

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Genesis 2:8 gives us our first cardinal direction to give us a sense of orientation. The garden is eastward, or on the east end of Eden.”East” will be a repeated theme throughout the text. Everything seems to move east.

The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
Genesis 2:8 (NASB)

This Hebrew word “qedem” seems to carry an “origins” connotation with “East.” It seems to connect direction with time. East is the past.

qedem: East, ancient times, antiquity, front, before

“East” also feels very connected to “In the Beginning…”

Also, I wonder if this is related to the Hebrew language being written right to left. From “East” to “West.”

Generations

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis is full of genealogies.

5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 10:32, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, etc, etc. SO MANY!

They appear linked to blessings. It shows the blessed ones receiving blessings: their offspring.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:1 (NASB)

These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9 (NASB)

Now these are the records of the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Genesis 10:1 (NASB)

But the FIRST time this word “generations” (tôlḏôṯ) is used, it’s in an odd place, used in an odd way. It doesn’t appear to describe a blessed people at all.

It’s here, in Genesis 2:

[a] This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.
Genesis 2:4 (NASB)

The footnote for [a] says: “Literally: These are the generations”

It’s a “genealogy of the heavens and the earth.”

In the same way the blessing of a generation show the blessed (the parent) and the blessings (the children), perhaps we humans are meant to be a blessing to the heavens and earth God created.