Genesis 2
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Cool that's that done then.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
...and some things which he didn't make.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
I'm not certain how this also sanctifies the fourteenth day, the twenty-first day and so forth but lets go with that.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
...but not the waters or the vegetation.
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
I'm guessing we are now going back to add extra detail to Genesis 1 since if this were chronological man is already made so let us go back. The plants grew without rain or men to tend them. Let's see how.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
So the whole face of the ground was watered by a mist that came forth from the ground? Was the water that formed the mist already in the ground? If so surely the plants could have extracted it from there. By what mechanism did this mist issue forth?
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
This is interesting because not only does this LORD God have a respiratory system but the implication is that the dust that was fashioned into a man was transformed into a living soul and not given one. would that mean that the body and soul are the same thing?
8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Eastward of what? Eastward of the story-teller? where is the story-teller? That aside, there is now a living soul formed of dust in the garden that the LORD God planted.
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Now the garden has trees, and one special tree that has the knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
Rivers do this so I'm cool with that.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
OK
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
good good. I'm not certain why this is important, maybe The Bible will tell me later
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
Is the Bible telling us where Eden is at this point?
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
I suppose it is.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Man: Gods gardener.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Nice.
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
OK, Don't eat the fruit from this tree. On the very day you do you will surely die. I don't want to skip ahead here and spoil it for you but this may be an empty promise.
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Nice thought.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Eh? I'm fairly certain that Genesis 1 says that man was created last, I mean it was only a page ago, I surely can't have forgotten. The fowl were definitely called forth from the seas a whole day before the rest of the animals. Does The Bible really contradict itself within its first two pages? I guess so.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
That must have taken ages. There are literally tens of thousands of different types of beetles alone, let alone the rest! After all that, Adam is still unable to find a help meet? Lets be honest, did the LORD really expect Adam to find a wife among the cattle or the fowl of the air or the beasts of the field?.. I'm guessing he really did. What a weirdo!
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
At least he was unconscious.
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
at this point it would be worth mentioning that if Adam had taken a fancy to a sheep or a horse or any of the other animals, God wouldn't have bothered to make woman. This doesn't seem to be very planned. God didn't cause Adam to make the choice he did.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Right you are then.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
His what? He has a father and a mother? or are we talking about subsequent men? if so all that is suggested is that man should take a wife out of himself. Since Adam has no Father or Mother I'm not certain where the idea that subsequent men should leave theirs comes from, in fact at this point in the story is there even a mechanism for fathers or mothers to exist?
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
No reason they should be.
So Genesis 2 seems to be a microcosmic retelling of day six in Genesis 1 with the exception that after the plants were called forth from the land (and tended to by mist) in this version Man comes next and then the animals but in Genesis 1 it's the other way round.
We have learned that:-
- In the absence of rain, the earth will produce a mist to keep plants healthy. It must have stopped doing this some time ago, we have deserts now.
- God thought fit to offer Adam all manner of beast for a wife before it struck him that he might want a creature of his own kind to fulfil 'those' functions.
>> And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
ReplyDelete>Rivers do this so I'm cool with that.
Hang on a second. Rivers don't "part". They converge, sure, but they don't randomly split into four separate streams. You would need a suspiciously well placed mountain right in the middle of the river to do that.
They mostly converge but they often split in lowlands as the approach the delta, especially if the low ground is hilly. Usually they reconverge further down stream.
ReplyDelete