Genesis Chapter 2

From The Open Bible Project

2:1 The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their vast array.

• (a) That is, the innumerable abundance of creatures in heaven and earth.

2:2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

• (b) For he had now finished his creation, but his providence still watches over his creatures and governs them.

• The note, above, highlights an important point. God didn't just bring everything into being and then walk away from it, content that His job was done. He continues to administer this realm and planet and sustain the created beings on it - even to the present day - as He has always done from the very beginning. His "providence" caring for the creation most likely amounts to His assignment of active maintenance roles to the angels. - JM

2:3 God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.

• (c) Appointed it to be kept holy, that man might in it consider the excellency of his works and God’s goodness toward him.

• Certain sects attempt to legislate the sabbatical observation of Saturday as being integral to Christian faith and practice and the true worship of the God of the Bible on the basis of this text, and others. In reality, the New Covenant freed God's People from rigid practices pertaining to sabbatical observation (Col. 2:16). - JM

2:4 This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.

2:5 No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,

• (d) God only opens the heavens and shuts them, he sends drought and rain according to his good pleasure.

2:6 but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.

2:7 Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

(e) He shows what man’s body was created from, to the intent that man should not glory in the excellency of his own nature.

• God's unique creative involvement with man's very essence and origination here prompts man to glory in God's assignment of superior worth/value to him in the very means of his creation. There is no indication that the animals were brought into being by the same means. - JM

2:8 Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

• (f) This was the name of a place, as some think in Mesopotamia, most pleasant and abundant in all things.

2:9 Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

• (g) Who was a sign of the life received from God.
• (h) That is, of miserable experience, which came by disobeying God.

• It is intriguing that the capacity to discern between good and evil was not initially existent within the spiritual and intellectual fabric of man's innermost being. Man's conscience lacked the capacity to differentiate between the two and thus was dormant within him (or, perhaps, completely absent). Did the fruit of this tree simply activate his conscience, or did it mystically, supernaturally, impart a conscience to him? Certainly, his full sense of "right" and "wrong" seems to have been lacking prior to partaking of the fruit. - JM

2:10 A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.

2:11 The name of the first is Pishon: this is the one which flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

• (i) Havilah is a country adjoining Persia to the east, and inclining towards the west.

2:12 and the gold of that land is good. There is aromatic resin and the onyx stone.

• Moses appears to have some technical understanding of the various grades and qualities of gold ore. One wonders how his Egyptian education factored into this assessment of the land of Havilah's mineral wealth and natural resources. Evidently, the ancients placed special value on aromatic resin, the onyx stone and high grade gold. Whether the Creator guided them in their understanding of the valuable properties of these things or not, certainly He brought them into being for a purpose. - JM

2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.

2:14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel: this is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

2:15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

• (k) God would not have man idle, though as yet there was no need to labour.

• Such labour as God required of man at this time was evidently more recreational and leisurely, providing him with a specific purpose and creative opportunities, rather than a form of drudgery and slavery. This servitude to the Creator was glorious and fulfilling. - JM

2:16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

• (l) So that man might know there was a sovereign Lord, to whom he owed obedience.

2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”

• (m) By death he means the separation of man from God, who is our life and chief happiness: and also that our disobedience is the cause of it.

• Certainly, the contextual clarification of the outcome of disobedience to God's command prompts an understanding of it in relational terms, between God and man. Man clearly did not drop dead, physically, when he eventually DID violate this command. - JM

2:18 Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

• The initial "goodness" of God's creation did not equate to an eternally complete, perfect system, evidently. A mate for the man was lacking, and God took steps to improve upon His creation in this way. - JM

2:19 Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

• (n) By moving them to come and submit themselves to Adam.

• Note that the clear implication of the language in this text is that God had no clear, specific foreknowledge of man's identification of the various creatures in terms of the various names he would assign to them. This is the first indication of limits where God's knowledge is concerned. The parameters of divine knowledge evidently do not include the "future" here. - JM

2:20 The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.

• There is clearly an experimental element at work in this process. In the process of being introduced to the various animals, God discovered that none were suitable as a mate for man. This is a point of discovery in a scientific sense. The term "found" unquestionably implies active research on God's part. - JM

2:21 Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

2:22 He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.

• (o) Signifying that mankind was perfect, when the woman was created, who before was like an imperfect building.

2:23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”

2:24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

• (p) So marriage requires a greater duty of us toward our wives, than otherwise we are bound to show to our parents.

2:25 They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• (q) For before sin entered, all things were honest and comely.

• Again, "shame" is a product of an active (and debased) conscience, and a deeper (yet corrupted) level of self-awareness than these original people displayed at this point in time. Seemingly, the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil somehow unlocked an element resident within their psyches but inactive prior to their partaking of it. - JM

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