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The Origin of Man

Genesis chapters 1 and 2

The Creation of the Universe (1:1)

In a short verse we have a description of the creation of the universe: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” In Exodus 20:11 we get information about how long it took: "In six days the LORD made the heaven and the Earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day", so it was only some six millennia ago, and the narrative that follows gives details of the creation of our world.

Confused by the supposed evidence that evolutionists give to support their theories, many scholars believe that the "beginning" mentioned in the first two verses may have been billions or trillions of years ago: God is an eternal being, something our mind does not have the capacity to understand. But creationist scientists maintain that the biblical statement is not only possible, but also probable – for example, see

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n2/six-literal-days

Planet Earth (1:2 to 10)

The narrative now focuses on the planet we live in, part of the created universe. For the satisfaction of those who argue for a more ancient "beginning", it does not say how old the Earth was when the narrative continues in verse 2.

There is ample evidence, from fossils, of the existence of animals and plants that were destroyed in a cataclysm long ago. Some commentators argue that they might belong to a time prior to the “creation week” and the Earth was then left "without form and void" as the text says. The land had been submerged and the sea - even today - was totally dark. But there is convincing evidence that the fossils were the result of the immense cataclysm of the flood sixteen centuries later, in Noah’s time, which struck all the Earth.

No explanation is given for “the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters”, before the beginning of the week of great creative and reconstructive acts described immediately after, preparing planet Earth for human habitation, which was clearly the main object of Creation. The “waters” on the surface of Earth probably consisted of a layer of vapour over a layer of liquid.

During the first two days, the surface of the Earth was prepared: on the first day light was introduced and as it was separated from darkness, it formed day and night (it is a symbol of the effect of the Gospel on our hearts – 2 Corinthians 4:6); on the second day a “firmament” (atmosphere) was created between the two layers of water, which expanded and separated them, raising dense clouds into the sky, which God called Heaven, and where the birds fly (verse20).

Vegetation (1:11-13)

On the third day the seas were separated from dry land. God made the dry land produce vegetation, such as grass and herbs yielding seed according to their kind, and the fruit tree to yield fruit containing seed. From the order given in the narrative it is clear that all vegetation was created mature and ready to spread its seed, which would be necessary to support the animals which would be created during the fifth and sixth days.

The sun, the moon and the stars (1:14-19)

On the fourth day God made the sun, the moon and the stars “in the firmament of the heavens”. Note that the “firmament” placed between the waters, or atmosphere was called a “heaven” by God, but what we call “Space”, or “Universe” is here the “firmament of the heavens”. The distinction is not always immediately clear from Scripture, but will be understood from the context. God’s seat is also in “Heaven” (Deuteronomy 26:15), but this was not part of the creation in Genesis. See the article The Heavens.

Here it literally means that the universe was created in one day, from scratch or by an extremely rapid expansion from near the Earth ... The latter would explain the fact that extremely distant stars can be seen now from Earth despite the time its present light would take to get here. Recently some astronomers have concluded that the centre of the universe is “close” to Earth.

Fish, birds, insects, etc. (1:20-25)

On the fifth day God created living animals that live in water, like cetaceans, fish, molluscs and water reptiles, as well as flying animals like birds, bats, insects, etc., according to their kind. The phrase “according to their kind” appears repeatedly, and this is the law of reproduction of   animals. There can be significant variations within the “kinds”, in time and space, but they can always be distinguished as belonging to their kind, and are only able to reproduce within their kind – not to be confused with “species” of which there can be many within a kind.  

Human beings (1:26-29)

On the sixth day God completed His creation on Earth: He first created from earth all domestic and wild living creatures according their kind. Then He created man in His own image, according to His likeness, to have dominion over all live creatures and over all the earth. Man was formed from the dust of the Earth, and woman was made by transformation of a rib taken from man (chapter 2).

Man resembles God in certain ways: just as God is a Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), so man is a tripartite being (spirit, soul, and body). Like God, man has intellect, a moral nature, the power to communicate with others, and an emotional nature that transcends instinct. There is no thought of physical likeness here. In contrast to animals, man is a worshipper, an articulate communicator, and a creator.

God blessed man and woman and gave them the following instructions:

• To be fruitful, the human being is productive both physically and intellectually and must use his natural resources.

• To multiply and fill the Earth: human beings have the ability to reproduce, and thus were instructed to fill the Earth.

• To have dominion over the earth, using their intelligence to dominate every living thing that moves on Earth.

• To feed on vegetables, herbs, cereals and fruit from trees, like all living things.

Everything was very good (1:30-2:3)

No carnivores were created (verse 30), and the preparation, placement of plants and animals and finally man on this planet, were all made in six days of twenty four hours each, according to the biblical account.

On the seventh day God no longer touched the Earth – He "rested" - because he had completed what He planned to do, and declared that it was all very good. So God blessed the seventh day of the week, and sanctified it. This does not mean that God rested for ever … He works even today (John 5:17).

 

THE CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN (2:4-25)

After the previous brief report on the creation of the universe, the formation and preparation of the planet Earth, and the creation of animals and humans, we now have more details focused on human beings, as is the rest of the book.

Returning to the beginning, the first two days, we read in verse 5 that “before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown”, because “the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground” evidencing the interdependence of vegetation, which spring from the ground, with rain and man’s activity. Later on we see the dependence of man and animals on vegetables which, in their turn, obtain their food from the soil after the action of water. So it is until today, in spite of the appearance of carnivores among men and animals, and even of some plants.

It is also implied that on the second day, when God “made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (chapter 1:7), God placed a huge layer of water in the atmosphere in the form of vapour, which remained there until the flood in Noah’s time. The fog that we read about here would be caused by evaporation and condensation inside the "greenhouse" thus formed. In Noah’s time much of it condensed and fell as torrential rain, and the layer became much thinner. Today we know that with this there was a thinning of the shield formed by the clouds against cosmic rays which fall on earth, causing a fateful effect over animals and plants, including the span of life of humans which was considerably reduced.

God formed man of dust from the earth - our body is made of water, minerals and metals. But it was the breath of God that gave it life: science can teach us how to make cells similar to those that make up the human body from minerals, but only God can give them life.

According to the description of the rivers, the Garden of Eden (which means pleasure, or plain) could be located in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in a fertile place with temperate climates. The exact location of this site is no longer known, the observations of verses 11-14 clearly identify the areas at the time the book of Genesis was written, i.e. the time of Moses; rivers Pison and Gihon subsequently disappeared.

Two trees stood out in the centre of the garden: the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Many have speculated about the nature of these trees, but it is more prudent to confine ourselves to what the Bible teaches; the leaves of the tree of life, as they are revealed in Revelation (22:2), were medicinal, curative, and its fruit gave eternal life (Genesis 3:22). To eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, however, would result in immediate death. This does not necessarily mean that the fruit itself was poisonous or had some supernatural power, but it was the act of disobedience in eating the fruit that would bring death. From what happened later we also know that physical death didn´t occur immediately, but fellowship between man and his Creator was instantly broken, which is spiritual death (separation).

When God placed the first man in the garden, woman had not yet been created. According to Chapter 1, both man and woman were created on the sixth day, so all that is reported in Chapter 2 happened on that same day. Man (literal translation of the original Adam) was placed in the garden in order to cultivate and protect it; he could eat of every tree in the garden (which included the tree of life) with the sole exception of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God also made man see and name every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and as it was not good for him to be alone, as he had no helper, God gave him a suitable one by means of the first surgical operation we know of! Adam was made to sleep heavily (anaesthesia), one of his ribs (made of bones which grow again) was extracted and this was turned into the first woman (geneticists today are at the beginning of the technique of cloning: God used it thousands of years ago and modified the product to be different from the original in some respects).

When presented to the woman, Adam realised that she was made from his own substance, and called her by a word that translates “woman”. In Hebrew, the word is ishshah, reflecting the fact that she comes from man, for it begins with ish, another word for “man”; ishshah is also derived from a root meaning to be soft, fragile. Therefore, “frail man”...

This report simply shows that:

• Man was created before woman

• The contract over the Garden of Eden was made between God and man, because woman did not yet exist.

• The woman is made of the substance of man, transformed so she is able to be his helper.

Verse 24 is an explanation (by the writer, Moses) of marriage, as a consequence of what has been reported: man is connected to his parents since birth, and is brought up and nurtured by them, but when he marries he leaves his parents and is connected to his wife by even stronger bonds, because they become one unit.

At this point in our report, man and woman were innocent, not yet knowing how to distinguish good from evil. This is the situation of young children who do not feel ashamed when they are naked: they have nothing to hide; all their actions are transparent and done in broad daylight.

 

R David Jones

 

 

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."
7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens."
21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis chapter 1 (above)

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.
13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.
14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."
19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
23 And Adam 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 a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis chapter 2