Genesis 2:1-8

I.                 Genesis 2:1-3 – Completion of Creation of the Heavens and the Earth “which are now”

A.    Chapter 2:1 – Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

1.     All creation was complete and set into motion, no further creation

B.    Chapter 2:2 – 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.

1.     From this point on there is “nothing new under the sun”

2.     Ecclesiastes 1:9 - The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun.

C.    Chapter 2:3 – 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.

1.     God finished all His work – No more creating, it is finished

2.     The correct end of Chapter 1

II.               Genesis 2:4-25 – Man Before the Fall

A.    Chapter 2:4 –  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,

1.     Generations – family history

2.     Lord God – יהוה Yĕhovah אלהים 'elohiym - the proper name of the one true God preceding the creator God

a.      First mention of  יהוה Yĕhovah

                                                                                                                i.     YHVH, there are no vowels in the Hebrew language (and no Js or Ws)

                                                                                                              ii.     This is where both Yahweh and Jehovah come from and neither are correct pronunciations of the name Ya-he-vay

3.     “in the day” – figure of speech meaning “when” not saying all creation happened in a singular day.

a.      Synecdoche, a “part” is put for the whole, or the whole for a part.  What the “part” is must be determined by the context in each particular case

b.     In this case the whole = the entire 6 days and the part is a single day

c.      Like our present saying – “back in the day”

B.    Chapter 2:5 – 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.

1.     What is special about not having a man to till the ground, there are a lot of places on earth that man does not till the ground, yet vegetation continues to grow.

2.     Plants and herbs of the cultivated field did not grow because:

·       No rain (water)

·       No man

3.     These two items are resolved in the subsequent verses

C.    Chapter 2:6 – But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

·       Resolves issue 1

D.    Chapter 2:7 – 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.

1.     Resolves issue 2

2.     Zechariah 12:1 – The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

3.     Here it says God forms “the man” only, but in 1:27 “…male and female created He them”

·       Here we have God “forming” the man versus “creating” mankind in chapter 1. Is there a difference?

·       What is the basis for the majority assumption that this is the same account?

4.     Breathed - נפח naphach, (verb) to breathe, blow, sniff at, seethe, give up or lose (life)

5.     Breath - נשמה nĕshamah, (feminine noun) breath, spirit

6.     John 20:22 – And when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

·       Ghost - πνεῦμα pneuma - the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

·       This verse equates the breath of God to the Holy Spirit in that the action the risen Messiah performs (breathing on the disciples) is coupled with the command to receive the “Holy Spirit” one would assume this meant to receive His breath

E.     Chapter 2:8 – (And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.

1.     Here until v. 15 is parenthetical

2.     Who planted the garden? The Lord

a.      Who did Mary Magdaline think Jesus was when she was the first to see him?

-        John 20:15 – “Jesus saith unto her, ‘Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?’  She, supposing Him to be the gardener…”

b.     Jesus is the gardener

3.     Eastward in Eden, eastward of what?

a.      So did God form “the man”, somewhere westward of the garden and He was using the location of “the man” as the reference point?

b.     Why wouldn’t God have just created “the man” in the garden rather than create him then “put” him there?

4.     When was Eden named? Who named Eden?

a.      Moses could not have been referring back from a known location that was named, because after Adam and Eve it was hidden from man; therefore, it had to have been named by God and revealed to Moses.

b.     Eden is referenced in the cuneiform texts as the plain of Babylonia

c.      The garden was in Eden, so Eden was not entirely the garden, most likely geographical location is the North end of the Persian Gulf

d.     Connection of “gardens”

                                                                                                                i.     Eden – Introduction of sin results in death, denial of everlasting life

                                                                                                              ii.     Gethsemane –  Sin and death conquered, re-access to everlasting life