Genesis 2:1-3
Thus, on the sixth day, God created, in the first part the land animals, in the second part of the sixth day He created humans, and by the seventh day, everything was completed. On the seventh day, God ceased from His work, as written in the original. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. The seventh day is a remembrance of creation. Someone might say what does it matter when the seventh day is, however, we will see that the question of that seventh day is posed in God’s commandment, and that this question of the seventh day, that is, the remembrance of creation, will be greatly contested. Today, a very small number of people on earth observe this day, and those who do not observe it insist on introducing some other weekly holiday. This issue of creation in six days is very important because on the seventh day, God said it is a “sign” between man and God, as we will later see through the biblical text. Also, with this verse, the first account of creation ends, the general account, which describes how our world was created, how the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars were created, how the first organisms on earth were created, plants, animals, and finally, man. The original Bible was not divided into chapters and verses.
Genesis 2:2-4
This is the description of the creation of the earth and the heavens (the two heavens), and this is the only credible historical account of how our planet came to be and how the universe we see, including the sun, moon, and stars, came into being. Based on biblical chronology, we will see that all of this was created around 6000 years ago. Also, it should be said that this verse begins the second account of creation, which focuses on the creation of man and what happens in relation to man. The first account uses the name Elohim for God, and now, in the continuation, not only the name Elohim is used but Yahweh Elohim, in our Bible translation it says the Lord God, which means: “Yahweh is God.” As we said, there are many false gods, that is, demons, in this world whom people worship, but here it says Yahweh Elohim, and it precisely states which God created man, who is that God who creates.
Genesis 2:5-6
In the Bible, there are so-called “parallelisms,” where certain events are repeated twice in two reports found even within the same chapter. At that time, rain had not yet fallen on the earth, but the land was watered by steam that rose from the ground so that this type of moisture could supply the plants that would grow there. There were special conditions on the earth—evidently, the climate was moderate. There were no seasons, as we will see later in the biblical text. There was no rain, no snow; it was a moderate climate across all meridians.
Genesis 2:7-9
Here, it is explained in more detail how God created man. In the original Hebrew, it says that God formed man from the dust of the ground. How did He form him? He formed him according to a plan. That plan is recorded in every one of our cells in the DNA molecule, meaning in our genes. Every one of our cells, except for a few rare ones like blood cells, has a plan—the DNA molecule—which contains the blueprint for how God formed us.
God shaped man based on that plan, from the dust of the ground—that is our body. When we look at the structure of our body, more than 99% of it consists of only four chemical elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Less than 1% consists of all other chemical elements. So, in a physical sense, man truly is dust from the ground.
Then, into that shaped body, which was lifeless, made from dead earth, God breathed the “breath of life,” and man became a living soul. The combination of the body and the breath of life creates a living soul. Man has a soul in the sense that he has life. The joining of the spirit and the body results in a living soul or a living being.
When a person dies, the body and the breath of life separate, and the soul ceases to exist—the person is no longer alive. The body goes to a physical grave, which in Hebrew is called “kever,” while the breath of life returns to God and is, so to speak, stored in a spiritual grave, which in Hebrew is called “Sheol.”
This spiritual component that goes to God, who gave it, contains our memories, our emotions, and everything that makes up our spiritual identity—our character. Then, one day, when God recreates people, as we will see from the biblical text, God has promised to recreate all people. He will return the breath of life to every person.
As for the body, it is merely dust from the ground—God can create a body anywhere on earth, as there is plenty of material available. But what is crucial is that breath of life. Just as you can assemble any computer, but what truly matters for the computer is the information—the software, the program—that you have stored on your external hard drive. If your computer breaks or malfunctions, you can get an identical one and install the software stored on your external hard drive into it.
God planted a garden in Eden; it was a place on planet Earth, and there was a garden that God planted for people to live in—an ideal environment for life.
It is said that in that garden, God planted the “tree of life” and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” In addition to these trees, which had good fruits for consumption and sight, God also created the “tree of life” and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
We will see later that this “tree of life” represents a special tree whose fruit, when consumed, allows a person to live forever. Those who care about life will be able to eat the fruit from the “tree of life” and live eternally.
This “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” is a single tree, as we will soon see, that God gave as a kind of test of obedience to people—to determine whether they truly want to be on God’s side or not.
Genesis 2:10-14
Here, the appearance of the Garden of Eden is described, the environment in which God created man to live. The names of some rivers are mentioned, as well as gold, precious stones, etc.
Genesis 2:15-17
So, God created the environment, said that people could consume the fruits from the trees, and also gave them plants that bear seeds. But in the Garden of Eden, He placed a tree called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” We do not know what fruit was on that tree—many say it was an apple, but it certainly was not an apple, because if it were, it would be written in the Bible. The “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was a kind of test. Man had everything—he could enjoy and develop, but he could also rebel against God. As we will see later from the biblical text, though it is not immediately apparent at the beginning, before our world was created, other worlds were created, and heavenly beings were created on other worlds. Among some of these heavenly beings, a rebellion arose—they rebelled against God.
The leader of that rebellion was an angel who, in Hebrew, is called Heilel, which translates to “the one who speaks great words.” In many translations, the term Lucifer is used, which means “light bearer.” We will see later that in Hebrew, he is also called Satan, which means “God’s adversary.”
God created beings in the universe and gave them certain duties and functions. And as God created new worlds, these beings that had been created earlier—the angels—participated with God in the education of these new creatures, just as older brothers and sisters teach younger ones.
Many people ask why God created this world and what people will do for all eternity. Throughout eternity, people will be able to explore the wonders of God’s creation, travel through the universe, explore beautiful locations, and enjoy them.
So, when God created people on planet Earth, a rebellion had already taken place in the universe. That angel Heilel, or as he would later be called Satan, won over a large number of angels to his side against God. The biblical text later states that one-third of the heavenly beings followed this rebel.
God said that man must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and in this way, man had the choice to take the side of the rebellion that existed in the universe—to stand on Satan’s side. In other words, this means that if we eat from that tree, if we rebel against God, we will die because we will simply be cutting off the branch we are sitting on—we will detach ourselves from the source of life, that is, the Creator.
Genesis 2:18-22
The scribe of the Bible, most likely Moses, writes what he saw. There are various interpretations of this text. The scribe says: “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper to complement him.” Later, the text says: “So the man gave names to all his cattle and to all the creatures that fly in the heavens and to all the wild animals of the field, but for the man, no helper was found who would complement him.” We will later see when God establishes His kingdom on the planet Earth, that God’s intention was to form a state and for God to be the king in that state, and for people to live according to God’s law. However, people asked to have a king like the surrounding pagan nations, for their king to be a man and not God, and God granted them this desire. Then, God appointed a king for them. Throughout history, God has fulfilled people’s desires. He told them what was good for them, but when people wanted something else, God advised them that it wasn’t good. But when they insisted and were persistent, God allowed them to go that way, to hit their heads against a wall, and through their personal negative experiences, they would come to their senses, listen to God, and stand on God’s side. So today as well, God allows people to choose what is bad. God advises them what is good through conscience, through the Bible, through reasonable people. Anyone interested can inform themselves, but if people insist on doing bad things, God will allow it. However, there will be certain consequences when a person does something bad, and that pain and suffering people will experience will be a pedagogical mechanism to bring people back to God.
Certain Bible interpreters comment on this text we just read that when the first man, Adam, was naming the animals, he saw that all the animals were in pairs. However, he did not have a partner, and some Bible commentators, we present this as one option, conclude from this text that Adam wanted to identify himself with the animals, he also wanted to have a partner. The first man, who would later be named Adam, could socialize with other heavenly beings. He could socialize with other creatures created in God’s image, but animals were not created in God’s image. The first man could talk to God, but he wanted to be like an animal, to have a partner. Some theologians interpret it this way, and God fulfilled his desire, and from his rib, He made a woman. Now, this raises other theological questions. How was the first man created? Jesus in the Gospels says that one day, when the earth is renewed, people will be like angels; they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like angels. So, the question arises, was the first man created as an angel? Logically, it would seem that he was. The next question that arises is, what gender are angels? Are there male and female angels? In the Bible, there is no report on whether angels are male or female, but we can see that when the name for an angel is used, it is in the masculine form. In the creation account, it says that when God created man, it says, “He created man and woman.” Again, some theologians, we leave this as an option for thought, we do not claim that it is so, they say that God initially created man as an angel who had both sexes within him. In nature, there are organisms called ‘parthenogenetic organisms,’ such as the crab, where the crab gives birth to a crab, the crab does not have a male and female sex. So, God initially created humans as angels who, as the biblical text says, ‘male and female.’ Later, God separates, when man wants to identify with animals, to have a pair, God fulfills his wish and from his rib, whether it was a rib or some other organ is not so important, God creates him a helper – a woman, because he asked for it, and then he has a pair. This is perhaps the first surgical intervention on our planet. Biologically speaking, this is possible, God took the genetic material that was in the first man Adam and based on it created a woman, meaning, nothing scientifically, biologically possible for the Creator to do this because He had mechanisms that He established earlier. Later, it will turn out that this was a bad option because this woman will lead him to rebel against God. This is a theological interpretation given by some theologians, so we also have this in mind as an option. What is important, and that is that God created man, that He gave him a wonderful environment in which he can live, and that He placed one tree, ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,’ from which it was forbidden to consume its fruit.
Genesis 2:23-24
From this text, we can see as if the man could hardly wait to receive his mate. In the Hebrew text, the word for man is “ish,” and for woman, it is “isha.” So, if he is a “man,” the more accurate translation would be “woman.” It can also be said woman, but it is more accurate to say man and woman. The text says: “And they will become one flesh.” The original says: “And they will become one meat (tissue).” It is obvious that the man (male) is not complete. A spiritually and physically healthy man is complete when he has, above all, a spiritually and physically healthy woman. From verse 24, we see that the man, throughout his life, will desire to cling to the woman. He wanted to have a mate now, but he will constantly want that mate to be his part, to be with him, one, as it says, “they will become one flesh, one meat, one tissue, one organism,” and that is the ideal that God probably had in the beginning, that man should be one being.
Genesis 2:25
This twenty-fifth verse of the second chapter is connected to the first verse of the third chapter. The text says: “They were both naked, the man and his wife, but they were not ashamed,” and then the next verse says: “The serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals of the field that the Lord God had made.” In the translation, something is not visible, which is very interesting, and that is a wordplay that exists in the Hebrew text and points to something very important for better understanding of this creation report. When we read the Hebrew original, we see many things that are not visible in the translations. In Hebrew, for “naked,” the word “arom” is used, and for “cunning,” the word “arum” is used. It’s as if the words naked and cunning are connected; they have the same root and similar meaning. This word “arum” or “cunning” is translated in other parts of the Bible as “wise.” To repeat, the one who recorded the Bible, the author is God, but the one who writes it, meaning Moses, writes what he saw, what God showed him. Obviously, Moses had a vision. Moses was not alive when the world was created, but based on what we see through the biblical text and how God addresses people, it is most likely that God gave Moses a vision and showed him what happened in the beginning, and Moses wrote it down. Moses says that the serpent was wise, different, intelligent. Why did Moses write this down? Well, he later saw that this serpent could speak. Of course, Moses probably didn’t know the full background of the whole story at that moment; he just objectively wrote down what he saw. It’s like when a reporter at a sports competition writes down what he saw. Whether that competition has a background, maybe it’s fixed, etc., that’s a separate topic. In any case, Moses wrote down what was shown to him. The words ‘naked’ and ‘wise’ seem to be connected. Those who are naked are wise; those who are naked are smart. How is it that those who are naked are wise and intelligent? When people rebelled against God, they saw that they were naked. Based on the biblical text, we can see that people in the beginning were dressed in light, their skin shone. They were naked in the sense that they didn’t have clothes, but their nakedness wasn’t visible because they were dressed in light. We can conclude this from several passages in the Bible. ‘Skin’ and ‘light’, in Hebrew, in the language of the Bible, are pronounced ‘or.’ Skin associates with light; we know that today there are organisms that glow, like fireflies, some fish, and some jellyfish, because they have a gene for secreting an enzyme called ‘luciferase,’ which emits light.
Clearly, based on the biblical text, humans were like angels in the beginning. Angels were described throughout the Bible as luminous beings, beings that shine. How do they shine? They shine because they have certain mechanisms to shine that God established for them. Later, when people rebelled against God, that light would disappear, and they would see that they were naked. Then, they would receive garments of skin, because their skin was no longer functional to shine and cover their nakedness. God gives them garments of skin, and this skin will cover their nakedness. They receive new skin because their skin is no longer functioning, as it no longer shines. How is it that the one who is wise and intelligent is naked? Well, the one who is wise and intelligent clings to God, listens to God’s commandments, and doesn’t lose the light. Since Jesus said that people will be like angels, most likely one day we won’t have clothing but will be dressed in light. There will be no need for boutiques, shopping malls, to buy branded clothing. Today, people boast about their clothes, meaning their rebellion against God, because clothing was introduced only when people rebelled, as we will see later.
From the book: Bible Commentaries, Part I – Torah (Teaching)
Publisher: Center for Natural Science Studies (CPS)
www.creation6days.com
(we are working on the book’s translation)