5.1 Jehovah Makes Humans

5.1 Jehovah Makes Humans

Blog by Peter Snyders with the support of Unison Music and Literature

Genesis Chapter 2

1. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2. And 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.

3. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

4. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.

5. And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth: and there was not a man to till the ground;

6. but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7. And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8. And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads.

11. The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12. and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush.

14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15. And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17. but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.

19. And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20. And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him.

21. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof:

22. and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Some questions about the text above:

Genesis 2:1-3       God rested on the seventh day. He made our whole solar system and many other planets, stars, galaxies and even other universes, why did He have to rest? Is this because the writer was trying to find a reason for why they, the Israelites, were resting on the 7th day? What if God was not a human? Please regard to make one tiny earth, It had to be very much bigger than a superhuman being.

Please note that the first three verses of Chapter Two belong to Chapter One. If you do not believe look at Chapter One in the previous blog post. Notice that God is used in Genesis 1 – 2.3 but Jehovah God or Jehovah is used from Genesis 2:4 onwards. Why is that?

The text said that Jehovah had made the heavens and the earth but there was nothing growing and no human to till the arid ground. So ‘a mist went up’ and caused the whole earth to be rained. Can a mist do that? Did He not create the rain or the rain cycle? The plants and trees came up out of what? Did He not create them like He made Adam from the dust of the ground?

After Jehovah made the first human, He breathed into Adam’s nostrils the ‘breath of life’ and the first human became a living soul. What about all the other creatures, cells, insects, marine creatures, birds, reptiles and all the rest? Did He also breathe into each of them because they, too, have life; they are also living souls.

Jehovah then ‘planted a garden’ east of Eden. Does this mean that He made a garden like we humans do, not created the garden?

He also put the human He had ‘made’ into the garden. Where is Eden? The writer gives us six clues: the names of the four rivers that flowed out of Eden after they split from the source, or met together before they ended up into which sea? He also mentions the lands of Cush and Havilah. Google these six clues and don’t forget to determine where they split or meet.

Jehovah then places in the midst [the middle central part or point] of the garden two spiritual [having no material body or form] trees. They are called the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If humans eat of the tree of life they would not die. If they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would know what is good and what is evil. The second tree is therefore a tree of knowing.

This must mean that the human, Adam, was going to die just like all the matter on and in the earth and they would not have knowledge, they would not know what is good and what is evil unless they ate of the tree. Did Jehovah meant that they should keep on being born and die forever? Not eating of the spiritual trees, does it mean the Jehovah wanted them to remain ignorant? If so, why?

Why did Jehovah place these incorporeal [having no material body or form] trees in the middle of the garden if he did not want the humans to eat of them? Surely this is reverse psychology when we cause somebody to do something that s/he should not do. Being in the middle of the garden, the humans are bound to come across the trees. Why not keep the spiritual [nonphysical] trees safely away from the humans somewhere up in heaven? If the trees were metaphysical [a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses] how could the humans ‘see’ them?

Jehovah tells the first human that if he eats the fruit of the tree of knowledge he would surely die? Is this the truth? How else, other than with true knowledge [truth] can humans grow and become spiritual and immortal? Or are there other connotations to the word ‘die’?

Jehovah sees that the sole human is lonely. The first question is: Isn’t ‘God’ supposed to be omniscient? [having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight: possessed of universal or complete knowledge.] Shouldn’t He have known beforehand that the solitary human was going to need someone to occupy his attention? Then, against science and the former God, El or Elohim, Jehovah, J, makes all the other creatures.

To keep the first human active, He tells him to name very creature. How could he, if he has not any knowledge? Please try to name something unknown to you. Test this yourself.

After the company of all the creatures, Jehovah sees that the first human’s needs were not fulfilled. Shouldn’t He have had to know this if he had infinite insight as God has? So He takes a rib out of the man and made a woman out of it.

Why didn’t he make her also out of the dust? Why doesn’t the woman have one rib more than the man? Or why isn’t there obviously one rib in the man that hasn’t got a partner?

We will not go there where father and mother are named. The man and the woman did not begin their lives as children. They did not come out of a womb. They do not know about parents. Remember, also, that they had no knowledge.

The last verse said that they were both naked and were not ashamed. In other words, they were like small children. They will walkabout naked and have no problem with it. This reminds us about Matthew 19:14: But Jesus said, “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven.”

Were there two different writers, the one using El or Elohim, the plural, in

Genesis 1 – 2:1-3 and the second one using Jehovah in Genesis 2:4 onwards. This has been debated intensively by biblical scholars who call the writers of El or Elohim, E, and those who used Jehovah, J. Do you see any difference in style and other things between the two Creation stories?

Remember if you do not ask, seek and knock, your house is built on sand.