Genesis

THE second chapter of Genesis is the natural sequel of the first, and nowhere is the purpose of the book more clearly seen. After the consideration of creation as a whole our attention is concentrated on man his formation, his relation to God, and his earthly life.

The introductory purpose of chapter 1 is thus evident, and we now proceed to that which is the predominant purpose of the book the record of human life in relation to God and religion. The thought of creation is now no longer dominant. In the first chapter man comes at the end as the crown of creation; here he comes at the commencement as the starting point of human history.

At the same time this chapter is preparatory to the next, for it deals with some of the fundamental facts and experiences of human life which find their expression and development along the lines recorded in later chapters. We are again reminded that Genesis is a book of beginnings, for this chapter is essentially a chapter of geneses, and is best looked at from this point of view, since it deals with some of the primary essentials of human life on earth. It is hardly too much to say that there is a great law connected with the first mention of anything in Scripture which is afterwards treated or recorded in other parts. It will frequently, if not always, be found that the very first words on any subject on which the Holy Spirit is going to treat are the keystone of the whole matter (B. W. Newton. Quoted in The Bible and Spiritual Criticism, by Dr Pierson, p. 41). There are several things mentioned for the first time in this chapter, and they deserve the closest possible attention.

Strictly, this section should be placed in close connection with chapter 1 as the crowning point of the record of the days of creation. As the Sabbath is mentioned here for the first time we are justified in inquiring as to its fundamental purpose and principles.

The Sabbath should first be considered in its primary meaning. In the light of God’s creative work the fundamental and primary idea of the Sabbath is twofold: cessation from work, and satisfaction after work.

The Sabbath should then be noticed as a divine institution. The very familiar term sanctify occurs first here, and we are enabled to see that its root idea is separation or consecration. God separated i.e. set apart the Sabbath to be consecrated to a special purpose.

The Sabbath should be emphasized as of permanent obligation. The institution of the Sabbath is evidently grounded in creation, and is therefore pro-Mosaic, and not at all to be limited to the Jews. It is noteworthy that the fourth Commandment calls attention to the Sabbath as an already existing fact (Remember the Sabbath day, Exo 20:8). There are many indications, both in Genesis and in Babylonian records, that the Sabbath was part of the primeval revelation which received fresh sanction under Moses. Only in this way can the universality of the tradition and the precise wording of the fourth Commandment be explained.

The Sabbath should be carefully understood as to its essential elements. God’s rest after creation is put forth as the reason and model of man’s weekly rest. It involves the special consecration to God of a portion of our time. While it affords physical rest and recreation of energies, it also calls for the worship of God. Nor are we to lay any stress on the day, since no one can now say for certain that any particular day of the week is, literally, the seventh day from the close of creation. It is the institution, not the day, that must be emphasized. Whether we think of the physical, or the mental, or the spiritual results of the observance of the Sabbath Day, we are face to face with one of the fundamental facts of human life. The law of God and the needs of man combine to make the observance of the Sabbath an absolute necessity.

At this point a new section of Genesis commences extending to Gen 4:20 and described as these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth. This phrase, as we have already noticed, is always at the beginning of a section, and has a prospective view, not a retrospective. It is a superscription, not a subscription, and deals with some new unfolding of the record. It suitably describes the section that follows, for it describes the offspring or generations of the heavens and of the earth in the person of man. Man is at once the offspring of earth and heaven. It would be impossible to regard this phrase as suited either to the end of chapter 1 or as introductory to it, since that chapter deals with the heavens and the earth themselves, not with their "generations" or offspring.

It is sometimes urged that this section introduces a new and second account of creation, but this is only true in the sense that we have here a more circumstantial account of what is given in summary form in chapter 1. The differences are not contradictory, but complementary, and are explained by the different standpoint. The second account presupposes the first in several particulars. Thus in Gen 1:27, we have both male and female referred to as created (cf. Gen 5:1-2), which prepares the way for the detailed statement of chapter 2. So also the herb of Gen 3:18 implies Gen 1:29. Chapter 2 says nothing as to the relative priority of man or plants, and only refers to the trees of Eden (Gen 2:8-9). Plants and man are necessarily associated here in connection with husbandry and tillage, and the association is one of thought, not of chronology. Man could hardly have been created before there was a home and provision for him (Green, Unity of the Book of Genesis, in loc.).

The Divine The change in the Divine Name ( "Lord God" instead of "God" ) is also very noteworthy. Elohim is the God of Creation, with special reference to His power and might. Jehovah is the God of Revelation and Redemption, with special reference to human life and the Divine covenant. The combination of the two names ( Lord God, Jehovah Elohim ) shows the association of the God of Revelation with the God of Creation, and the discrimination of the usage of these two Divine Names in the whole section (Gen 2:4; Gen 4:26) is very striking and suggestive. So far from this usage being a proof of different documents, there are, on the contrary, clear indications that they are used with precision and spiritual meaning.

These verses (Gen 2:4-7) tell us of the special preparation made for man’s life, and they describe the appearance of the earth at the time of man’s formation.

The terms descriptive of man’s physical creation need careful attention. The word formed is the Hebrew "Asah," not "Bara," and refers to molding or fashioning out of already existing materials. As these existing materials are described as the dust of the ground, we see at once how true to scientific fact the statement is in man’s point of contact with material creation. If, therefore, we are inclined to hold that so far as man’s bodily structure is concerned he is a product of evolution, having come upwards from below, we may find in the story in Genesis a possible suggestion of this point.

Equally clear and definite is the statement as to man’s spiritual nature- breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Thus, whatever may be true of man’s bodily frame, there was a point of departure from material creation in regard to man’s moral being which is characterized in this verse as a Divine act differentiating man from nature. Once again we are in the region of scientific fact, for, in spite of arguments to the contrary, there is at any rate up to the present no real proof of the evolution of man’s moral and spiritual nature. Personality has never yet been expressed in terms of evolution, and requires a Divine creation to account for it. Three great facts stand outside the realm of evolution as it is now understood human speech, human conscience, and human individuality.

Human life requires a locality, a home for its proper expression and development, and consequently we read of God’s provision for this great necessity. As is well known, the exact locality of man’s first home has been a subject of great discussion, and the result is as uncertain today as ever. Three solutions of the problem practically sum up the known conditions (1) At the head of the Persian Gulf; (2) Armenia; (3) Babylonia. The weightiest authorities seem to favour the last-named locality.

The two elements of man’s home call for our attention the characteristics of beauty ("pleasant to the sight"), and utility ("good for food"). As it was with the first home, so should it ever be, in the possession and proportion of these two requirements. The beautiful without the useful, or the useful without the beautiful, will fail in that which is essential to a true home.

The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil seem to be symbols of spiritual realities. We may set aside the unworthy and unnecessary literalism which thinks of the fruit of these trees as capable of conveying life and knowledge. They are in keeping with the pictorial and symbolical character of the narrative as expressive of great spiritual realities.

From the very first man was intended for work, and the necessity of service is one of the fundamental principles of man’s existence. Moreover, this necessity will be realized in enjoyment under normal conditions, for there is nothing which is so full of genuine satisfaction as the performance of the work which God has given us to do. Work which is not toil and trouble always gives pleasure. In the Garden of Eden "man was to dress it and to keep it." May not this latter phrase give us some hint of already-existing danger? May not defense as well as preservation be included? If so, man was not only to do the work of the gardener in dressing it, he had also to safeguard it, presumably from foes. Again we seem to be in the realm of spiritual realities in this hint of the existence of evil on the earth.

For the first time we are reminded of the possibility of human understanding, human speech, and human language in this communication from God to man. Man had this primeval revelation from God, giving full permission of freedom in the garden with one simple, but significant, limitation. There was one thing, and one only, that he was not to do. Again we notice the underlying spiritual reality involved. The narrative gives in a pictorial form the concrete fact of human responsibility and probation. Man’s life was to be limited by obedience, God’s law being the standard of his life. There is nothing unworthy in the form of the probation. The principle of obedience can be emphasized as easily one way as another. The result of disobedience is stated to be death, and the precise meaning of this term will come before us later. Suffice it to say, as we have it here for the first time in Scripture, the root idea of death seems to be that of separation, not annihilation.

We are here taught in detail what is mentioned briefly in Gen 1:26 man’s original dominion and lordship over nature. In a very true sense God intended man to be the crown of creation, and this naming of the creatures of the earth and sky is the Scripture method of emphasizing a fact which all scientific research during the centuries has gone to confirm more and more. Man was intended to be supreme, the culminating point of God’s creation. Hints of this are found in various parts of Holy Scripture (cf. Psa 8:1-9), and it is not altogether speculative to attempt to imagine the precise forms that this dominion would have taken had sin not come into the world. In any case that lordship will one day be resumed (Isa 11:6; Heb 2:6-10).

We are now to read the detail of that creation of the female already barely mentioned in Gen 1:27. The words of Gen 2:18 express a profound truth which can be proved from various points of view. It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. It is not good whether we consider man’s character and its development, or his need of fellowship, or his position as head of the race. It is curious that from this verse, by an error of reading, the English language has been supplied with the term help meet. The Hebrew phrase is a helper suited for him, or, quite literally, a helper as his counterpart. This is the true idea of woman’s relation to man, his counterpart, his complement, and whenever this is realized in marriage, God’s purpose is being fulfilled.

The narrative continues to be pictorial and picturesque, though we must ever take caro to avoid the idea that it is purely allegorical. The pictures have distinct realities corresponding to them, and are expressive of actual facts. The question of sex is one of the problems still unsolved (and perhaps insoluble) by the science of to-day, and it may perhaps be asked whether science could ever have given a more religiously fitting and helpful account of the physiological facts as they are now known to us.

Matthew Henry quaintly says that woman was taken out of man’s side to suggest her equality with him; not out of his feet to imply inferiority, or out of his head to suggest superiority, but out of his side, implying companionship and equality.

Not only the formation of woman, but the great primary ordinance of marriage, is brought before us in this section, and so the chapter ends with this account of one of the essential facts and factors in human life and history.

Once more let us call attention to the real value of this record both as to its pictorial form and the underlying facts suggested and implied. As the Editor of Lange’s Commentary, referring to these early chapters, says:

We see in this chapter some of the essential elements of human life. They call for earnest thought and definite personal application. They cover almost everything of importance in life and experience, and are a constant reminder of God’s purpose for humanity and for each individual.

When these ideas are realized in personal experience, God’s purpose in creating man and man’s perfect life are being fulfilled.