Genesis 2:4 These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation at the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. 6 But water would come out of the ground and water the entire surface of the land. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. 9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 Gold from that land is pure; bdellium and onyx are also there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris, which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
Now, one may look at this passage and say, "Wait a minute. In chapter 1, he created plants on the 3rd day and man on the 6th, so why in chapter 2 does he say, "No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted" before telling about the creation of man?" I asked that question! I cheated a little and asked my husband about it. He has learned a lot of Hebrew and Biblical theology from his time at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He then goes on to explain the words in Hebrew and how they are different and how the "earth" in chapter one means something slightly different than "land" in chapter 2. Where in Chapter 1 it talks of the world as a whole. The Lord create plants on the whole earth, but here in chapter 2, land refers to a more specific area. No shrubs or bushes had grown in this spot. This spot being Eden. So, according to my husband's interpretation, God made plants on the whole earth, then made man, then Eden, then placed man into Eden. God did not made Eden and think, "I need a man to work it." No, he made man and said, "I need something for the man to do." So, he created Eden for the man to work.
There are those who also look to this passage and wonder exactly where the garden was. We do not know exactly, but since we know where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are, we have a pretty close guess (if they did not change course or diverge much in their paths) of where it may have been.
Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
The first command God gives to Adam.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” 19 So the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.
So man named every animal, but none were good enough for man. So, man went to sleep, lost a rib and woke up with a woman. I hadn't really thought of this before, but the woman was the only creature not created directly from the dust of the earth. Not sure if there is any significance to that or not, just an interesting thought!
Genesis 2:23 And the man said:
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.
As the joke goes, Adam saw Eve and said "Whoa! Man!"
Genesis 2:24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
I think I'll tackle this marriage stuff tomorrow!
I like (narratively speaking) how chapter 2 sort of sets up for the fall. It seems to for shadow what will happen. You know when you look at a child and say "Don't throw that toy," what do they do next but throw the toy! Also, you have a foreshadow of the consequence. Both man and his wife were naked and felt no shame. What was the first thing that happened when Adam and Eve ate the fruit? They realized they were naked and hid!
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