Genesis chapter 2
The theological explanation of the beginning of the universe concludes. The man and the woman are in Eden.
THE CREATION, CONCLUDED
VERSE 1. The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.
VERSE 2. On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
Hebrews 4:4. For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works;”
VERSE 3. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
he rested. Resting is a good thing!
THE MAN AND THE WOMAN IN EDEN
VERSE 4. This is the history of 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.
LORD. When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name.
VERSE 5. No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
VERSE 6. but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.
a mist went up from the earth. A mist was welling up. It was watering the ground everywhere, even though people weren’t there to work the ground.
That’s how God’s blessings work! God is already at work, watering and preparing, so that when we are ready, the blessings can take place.
VERSE 7. 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 soul.
formed. The Hebrew word for “formed” is יָצַר (“yatsar”). It means to mold like clay.
breathed. The Hebrew word is נְשָׁמָה (“neshamah”). It means breath, breathes, spirit.
The Holy Spirit is given to us through the breath of God. Read more »
life. The Hebrew word is חָי (“chay”). It means living, fresh, strong, life.
The ‘breath of life’ is not only the rushing of air into the lungs and back out again. We can also interpret it to mean faith.
Psalm 103:14. For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.
VERSE 8. The LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Eden. Eden is the name of a region in southern Mesopotamia. It is near the head of the Persian gulf, near where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join.
VERSE 9. Out of the ground the LORD God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, 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.
This hearkens to the conclusion of the biblical narrative, where the tree of life appears again:
Revelation 22:2. in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
VERSE 10. A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers.
VERSE 11. The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
VERSE 12. and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.
Bdellium. That is, aromatic resin.
VERSE 13. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
VERSE 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.
Hiddekel. That is, the Tigris River.
VERSE 15. The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
VERSE 16. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
freely eat of every tree. In the beginning, when we humans walked in the Garden of Eden, what did the LORD God command us to eat? The Bible’s answer may surprise you. Read more »
VERSE 17. but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
VERSE 18. The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
not good for the man to be alone. It isn’t good for most of us to be alone. Most of us are at our best in a love-relationship.
We need a suitable partner, a spouse. A hunger for this is part of the way God has designed most of us.
However, some people are clearly gifted for singleness. That is a gift from God.
comparable to. That is, suitable for, or appropriate for.
VERSE 19. Out of the ground the LORD 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 became its name.
VERSE 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 comparable to him.
VERSE 21. The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
VERSE 22. The LORD God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
VERSE 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.”
bone of my bones. They have radical equality.
VERSE 24. Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
Therefore a man will leave. Everything else becomes secondary: parents, children, career and belongings.
will join with his wife. They enter into a life of relational intimacy. Their life becomes as one: spiritually, recreationally and financially. They cling to each other.
Clinging is not the same as dominating. A husband may never dominate his wife.
they will be one flesh. They will share sexual intimacy.
Their sexual life is mutually fulfilling. Both are sexually fulfilled. It’s not just one of them that’s fulfilled. Otherwise, they are not yet one flesh; it’s merely one-sided
VERSE 25. The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
they were not ashamed. For the spouses, the God-given sexual partners, there is no shame. They celebrate who they are, both in their strengths and in their weaknesses. They accept each other as-is.
GENESIS
CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.