Passage Viewer - Bible Claret

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7

Chapter 2

Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man whom he had created.

The Lord God made every kind of tree grow from the ground that is pleasing to the eye and good for food, including the tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided to form four main streams.

The first river is Pishon, which flows around the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

 The gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stones are found there.

The second river is Gihon; it flows around all the land of Cush.

The third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and maintain it.

Then the Lord God commanded man, saying:

“You may eat of every tree in the garden,

but the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will not eat, for on the day you eat of it, you will die.”

The Lord God said: “It is not good for man to be alone; I will give him a helper who will be like him.”

Then the Lord God formed from the earth all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air and brought them to man to see what he would call them; and whatever man called every living creature, that was its name.

So man assigned names to all the cattle, the birds of the air, and every beast of the field. However, he did not find a helper comparable to himself among them.

Then the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he fell asleep. He took one of his ribs and filled the space with flesh.

The rib that the Lord God had taken from man, he fashioned into a woman and brought her to the man.

The man then said:

“Now this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken from man.”

That is why man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and with her becomes one flesh.

Both the man and his wife were naked, yet they felt no shame.

Commentaries

2:4 - 2:25

Paradise.

This new account, also known as the “creation account,” has distinct characteristics compared to the previous one. It is not a hymn. God does not give commands for things to appear. Like a potter, he shapes man from clay and breathes the breath of life into him. He places him in the Garden of Eden and warns him about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He creates all living things from clay to accompany him, and upon finding no suitable helper, puts him to sleep, and from his rib “forms” a creature: woman.
Long ago, this story was retold by the Israelites, primarily to explore the origins of humanity and the distinctions between humans and other creatures.
According to this account, humans share three common characteristics with animals:
1. Both have been formed using “soil clay” (7.19).
2. Both receive from God the “breath of life” (cf. 7:15,22).
3. Both are “living beings” (7.19).
But God makes man in his image and likeness (1:26), and this begins to take shape from the moment God breathes his breath into the nostrils of Adam, who has just been fashioned from “adamah”—clay from the ground—from which the animals were also made. Man’s actions should therefore differ from those of the animals, as he is not only driven by his instincts but also, and above all, by the Spirit of God within him. Thus, a human being is not human solely because they have a body; what is specific occurs when the Spirit of God inhabits them, and they live moved by him. In other words, humanity arises in man and woman when their materiality—their “adamancy”—is animated by the Spirit of God.
From this interpretation, we can draw valuable conclusions about living out our faith and achieving personal growth. This passage invites us to be aware of our natural “adamancy” (our instincts), but also to recognize that within each of us is the presence of the Spirit of God, who moves and waits for us to allow him to humanize us.