Genesis 1 & 2 Part III

With all the fun and rhyme of late, I have neglected my topic of Genesis that I promised many weeks ago. As I carefully read Genesis 1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-25, it seems that different people penned them. While I assume that the original, divinely inspired, human author of these ideas was Moses, it seems that they were handed down through at least two literary lineages and some things were changed. We can only look at the remaining messages. There is no way to tell which, if either, is scientifically accurate. It seems that the Holy Spirit was not at all interested to inspire a work on zoology, botany, geology, or astronomy, rather a work on the relationship between God and humanity, and between humans. There is too much to consider for one blog article. Therefore, I will divide Genesis 2:4-25 by topics that I find interesting.

Humanity was placed in a paradise that was entirely in tune with God. Throughout Genesis 1, we read repeatedly “God saw that it was good.” It is perhaps startling when we get to 2:18. Suddenly, God sees something that is NOT good!! Man should not be alone. What follows is a passage that may seem humorous to us today. God said that He would make a helper suitable for Adam. Therefore, directly He begins to make the beasts and the fowl, and brings them to Adam. Adam names them, and among all these animals, a helper was not found suitable (meet) for him. Adam had been formed from the dust of the ground. Ground in ancient Hebrew is transliterated adamah, so even Adam’s name suggests his origin. This ground is the origin of the beasts and fowl as well. It is woman alone that is created from flesh, in particular, Adam’s flesh (2:22) and Adam called her “bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.” Women may take pride that they were named ishshah, meaning woman, wife, or female; while man was named adam for adamah, or dirt. So, gentlemen, when a lady refers to you as dirt, there is an element of spiritual truth behind it, but even dirt is a glorious creation of God.

We speak of God as our Father. This is how Jesus and the apostles addressed Him. It is an important tradition that should not change; however, we should remember that God is Spirit and has no need for genitalia or sex. God saw the lone male as “not good.” God is many things, but He is good. He is not a lone male despite centuries of artistic representation.