Overview of Chapter
This starts by closing off the first creation myth and immediately starts another one. For some reason, every Christian I have talked to doesn’t realize this. The second creation myth involves a far more convoluted idea on how women came to be. Why didn’t god just create both male and female like in chapter 1? Why was this chapter even included in genesis when it’s directly contradictory to chapter 1?
Additional Thoughts
Why there is a second creation mythos immediately after the first finishes is unclear to me. While the first account has man created pretty much like anything else, this one goes out of it’s way to ensure that special treatment is given. Why? I assume because the author viewed humans as inherently special and different from other animals. This is reinforced by the author having man created before “Every beast of the field” and being told by god to name everything.
Additionally, if we’re to ascribe omnipotence and omniscience to god here, then why has god created man alone only to realize after the fact that he should have created a female counterpart for man as well? Shouldn’t a god that is omniscient know the outcome of everything that is going to happen before the action is taken? Shouldn’t a god that is omniscient know immediately what kind of “helper” man needs rather than faffing about and creating every other animal on the planet for man to have a trial run with? While many other questions could be raised, this is another indication that shows how god was not always ascribed the omni- traits that Christians assign to god today.
Due to rule number 3 that I’m holding the bible to (that the bible is wonderfully consistent throughout), I must point out that we’re only 2 chapters in on the first book and already have a bunch of inconsistencies. To name two, we have Light/dark being separated twice in chapter 1 and two creation stories with conflicting series of events. Was man made and then the beasts of the earth, or the beasts first and man second?
The Scientific/logic/sequence mistakes in this chapter
- Closes the first creation myth and starts a second (Genesis 2:3-4)
- Order of creation for second myth contradicts the first
- Some plants can use mist for water, most cannot. (Genesis 2:5-6)
- Only 2 humans created, not many like in chapter 1 (Genesis 2:7)
- Trees aren’t considered plants in this account (Genesis 2:9)
- Trees don’t confer knowledge[Citation NOT needed] (Genesis 2:9)
- An omnipotent god should know placing the tree here and saying “don’t eat it” isn’t going to work (Genesis 2:16-17)
- Why would Adam or Eve have a concept of mother, father, husband, or wife? (Genesis 2:24)
- There is nothing wrong with nudity no matter what this (and later chapters) claim (Genesis 2:25)
Chapter 2: A second account of creation
AKA: God Does Stuff Again
- Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
- And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
- And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
- These are 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,
- And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
- But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
- 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 soul.
- And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- And out of the ground made the Lord 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 knowledge of good and evil.
- And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
- The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
- And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
- And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
- And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
- And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
- And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
- 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.
- And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
- And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
- And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
- And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
- And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
- 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.
- Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
- And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
- Everything is completed? This chapter soon contradicts itself by redoing it.
- Alternative text for the verse: God ran out of steam after a week of work and decided it was time for a nap.
- Nap day is special. This account is similar to the Sumerian Enuma Elish, the oldest known creation myth and reworked to emphasize one powerful being.
- This starts a recap of the creation tale. Remember, chapter 1 said heaven/earth -> light -> darkness -> day/night -> firmament -> dry land -> plants -> “lights in the firmament” -> sea/air creatures -> land creatures -> man
- Plants are made, herbs specifically called out. Without rain, how would these survive? Were these ALL plants that live near a large body of water? Was the ocean not salty at this point?
- Some plants can use fog/mist as a water source, but others can’t. Where did any that can’t come from if everything was misty for a long time? Plants that use fog as a water source usually have specialized method to collect it and drop it to the ground. Why don’t we see more of these today?
- Man created from dust. Humans are a wizard’s clay golem in this account. I fail to see how that makes humanity special in any way.
- So now a special garden is made. When was this made exactly? Day 3? 4? 5? 6? Do days even matter now?
- So… Trees aren’t plants now? I thought all plants were already made? Also… what exactly is this tree of good or evil? Can I have one? I’d like to grow know-fruit and sell it to some idiots I know.
- 1 river splits off into 4. Why is this even here? It’s not important.
- 1 river called Pison. Why is this even here? It’s not important
- Why is this verse even in here? Wasn’t this a tale of creation?
- 1 river called Gihon. There is a LOT of debate as to where this river is/was
- 1 river called Hiddekel, one called Euphrates. Why are these even mentioned?
- Man is in the garden. BTW: Adam literally means Man. So any references to Adam are actually “man” or “the man”.
- Eat anything in the garden!
- Oh wait, don’t touch that super special knowledge tree. It has murder fruit growing on it.
- God decides that man shouldn’t be alone. Is this admission that he’s already made a mistake?
- So he promptly makes “every beast of the field”. Bestiality much? Apparently this Adam guy was quite the categorizer, because he names everything. Not sure what else he might have done with the animals too since they were made for him.
- Names names names, but Adam doesn’t like any of these beasts. Guess god didn’t know what he wanted off the bat? What happened to “all knowing”?
- He rufies Adam, grabs a bone from his body, and sealed the flesh up. Nothing about fixing the bone? How is Adam not in pain after this?
- Men are clay golems while women are flesh golems. It’s in the bible kids, the wizard is real!
- I assume that the original language has a word for “from man”. English does not
- Men and woman are meant for each other! Also, why would these 2 have any concept of father/mother?
- Why does this matter? There are literally places for people to go to in order to get naked nowadays, and the only reason they’re forced to go there is because society, not the people themselves, are ashamed.
Additional notes on chapter 2
This chapter implies that humans have always practiced agriculture. This is false. Humans started as hunter-gatherers and moved to agriculture around 9500BCE
For information on the Enuma Elish, check out the following links
https://www.ancient.eu/article/225/enuma-elish—the-babylonian-epic-of-creation—fu/