First, we shared the creation of Adam. We saw that Adam’s creation used creation out of nothing (H1254) and was formed (H3335) from dust. Since dust already existed at that time, it was also a making (H6213). Adam’s creation was very different from other living creatures. He had the breath of life from God breathed into his nostrils. We also discussed why the breath of life includes spirit and soul. Second, we only discussed the physical location of the Garden of Eden. We left the discussion of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of Garden, as well as God’s command, until Eve was tempted, because it would be clearer then. Finally, we discussed why Eve was not made from a rib, mentioned that Adam was very powerful before Eve was made, and saw how Eve was made. There are many reasons why a couple must become one, and Eve’s making has become the most important reason why a couple must become one. The fact that a couple must become one clearly states that men and women are equally important, but have different roles to play.
1. The creation of Adam and the breath of life including spirit and soul
“This is the account of the heavens (H8064) and the earth when they were created (H1254), in the day that the LORD God made
(H6213) earth and heaven (H8064). Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man (H120) to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the LORD God formed (H3335) man (H120) of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (H5397) of life (H2416); and man became a living being(H5315, soul).”(Genesis 2:4-7)
It starts with the creation out of nothing (H1254). Each planet has its own sky, so it is the heavens. We have already shared this point, so I won’t say more. Then it refers to the fact that the present world is made by the made heaven (H8064) and earth (H6213). So no matter how vast the sky is when we look at it from Earth, there is only one sky, so it is used in the singular. At that time, there were already plants and vegetables, because on the third day, ” Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, …”(Genesis 1:11). But before they began to grow, there was only mist, no rain, and no one tilling the ground.
Then it says that man (H120) was formed (H3335) from dust, and then the breath of life was breathed into his nostrils, and he became a living soul. This is different from other creatures, all of which were made or created by ‘God said,’ but only man (H120) had the breath of life from God, and he became a living soul (H5315). Because the Hebrew pronunciation of man (H120) is Adam, so Adam is used as his name.
So man (Adam) was created out of nothing, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”(Genesis 1:27) Here it is also said that Adam was formed (H3335) from dust (H3335). Let’s look at the meaning of made (H6213) again. From this verse, “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make (H6213) him a helper suitable for him.””(Genesis 2:18) We know that ‘made’ means that Eve came from the existing Adam. Therefore, the word ‘made (H6213)’ refers to making from something that already exists, because Adam was formed from the dust that already existed at that time. Therefore, although the Bible does not explicitly say that Adam was also made, looking at the meaning of the word made, we know that Adam was also made. So in the Book of Isaiah it says, “Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created (H1254) for My glory, Whom I have formed (H3335), even whom I have made (H6213).”(Isaiah 43:7) All three words are used here. We know that man has a spirit, because “Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.””(Genesis 6:3) So when a person dies, “then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit (H7307) will return to God who gave it.”(Ecclesiastes 12:7)
Of course, without the breath of life from God, Adam would not have life. Some people will ask what the breath of life is? The breath of life is composed of two original words. This composition only appears twice. The other place that talks about breath of life is the verse, “of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath (H5397) of the spirit of life (H2416), died.”(Genesis 7:22) So there must be a spirit in the breath of life, but it does not say there is a soul here. Let’s look at this point.
First, we know that last time we talked about “1145 God created man in His image and likeness and Sabbath – Genesis(1)26-(2)3” that there is a Soul in the likeness of the Triune God, and the scripture says, “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.”(Genesis 5:1) Since man was made from the Spirit and Soul of the pre-existing Triune God, the breath of life must also include the soul. It is not like some people think that the soul is produced by the interaction between the spirit and the dust. Of course, some people may say that God has absolute sovereignty and can create souls in this way! However, the Bible uses the word made, which means that the soul already exists and cannot be created by interaction. So where does the soul go after a person dies? At least some will go to the place as said in the Book of Revelation, “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained.”(Revelation 6:9)
2. Geographical location of the Garden of Eden
“The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man (H120) whom He had formed (H3335). Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing 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. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel (H2313); it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Phrat (H6578). Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate (H5647) it and keep (H8104) it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day (H3117) that you eat from it you will surely die.””(Genesis 2:8-17)
We see that God has given the Garden of Eden to man to cultivate (H5647) and keep (H8104), so the man only has two things to do, which we will talk about in Chapter 3 where the man (Adam) and his wife Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden late on the sixth day of their creation, so they could only cultivate outside the garden as the scripture says, “Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.” Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.”(Genesis 4:1-2) At that time they were already driven out the Garden of Eden, so Cain was a tiller outside the Garden. The man obviously did not take good care of the Garden, because he allowed the ancient serpent to take advantage of the opportunity to successfully tempt Eve, and finally he himself disobeyed God, causing sin to enter the world through him (see Romans 5:12).
Regarding this verse, “Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing 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.”(Genesis 2:9) We will leave this discussion until we discuss Eve’s temptation, because it will be clearer then. Regarding the verse on God’s command, we will leave it for the same reason and share it together at that time.
Now let’s briefly discuss the geographical location of the Garden of Eden mentioned in Genesis 2:10-14. Here, it is the most detailed description. Most English versions translate the Hiddekel River as the Tigris River and the Perath River as the Euphrates River. Only a few exceptions are the same as the original Union Version translation, such as the Young’s Text Translation (YLT), which is translated according to the original text. We probably can’t find a place that completely matches the description when we look at the map, so some people say that the landform changed after the flood, which is absolutely possible. The most suitable place at present is probably near the current Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In fact, even if we find it, it won’t matter. We must know that “…at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”(Genesis 3:24)
3. The reason why Eve was not made from the rib and the couple became one
“Then the LORD God said, “It is not (H3808) good (H2896) for the man to be alone; I will make (H6213) him a helper suitable (H5828) for him.” Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one (H259) of his ribs (H6763) and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned (H1129) into a woman (H802) the rib (H6763) which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman (H802), Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one (H259) flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”(Genesis 2:18-25)
First, we see that the translation of the Strong’s Concordance has the word “not”, but omitted H3808. The other original version has this word, which is correct, because if everything is good, why did God make Eve? Therefore, I know that the version I use omitted the word H3808, which is wrong.
From these verses, we can see that Adam was very powerful before Eve was made, because “God created man in His own image, …”(Genesis 1:27). This can be seen from his ability to name various living creatures. Because the Bible can have just mentioned this fact in a simple sentence, but it uses such long verses to describe this fact to the extent that we cannot ignore this point. We will explain later why we emphasize that these things happened before Eve was made.
We noticed that when God made Eve, he first made Adam fall asleep, and then closed the flesh, so some people say that Jehovah performed the first operation. Because of this, Adam did not know how Eve was made, but he was very clear about the result, because “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.””(Genesis 2:23)
The word “fashioned (H1129)” is used to make Eve. The typical verse of this word is in this verse, “Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built (H1129) a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.” (Genesis 4:17) So its meaning is very clear. Eve was indeed taken out of Adam and was fashioned or built (H1129) by something called H6763. We cannot be sure what it is, but it is definitely not a rib, which is a wrong translation.
Why do we say this? Because this word H6763 appears 41 times, only these two places translate it as rib, other related scriptures are not translated in this way, basically they all mean side. For example, this typical scripture, “You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side (H6763) of it and two rings on the other side of it.”(Exodus 25:12) So I would agree with what some people say that this is when the Hebrew original text was translated into Latin, and the Latin Septuagint did not reflect the meaning of the Hebrew original text.
We noticed that when God made Eve, he first made Adam fall asleep, so Adam did not know how Eve was made, but he was very clear about the result, because “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.””(Genesis 2:23) It clearly shows that it is not a rib, so he also said flesh of my flesh. If it was just a rib, there would be no need to say more about flesh of my flesh! Let’s look at the fact that men and women are symmetrical outside. However, since God has absolute sovereignty, He could have created Adam with an extra rib first, and then taken out that rib to make woman. But seeing that the Scripture also mentions flesh of my flesh, we know that He would not do this. People who have the same question as me before can answer the question by this way.
Although we don’t know what is taken out, we can be sure of one thing. The Scripture says, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one (H259) flesh.”(Genesis 2:24) and “…then He took one (H259) of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.”(Genesis 2:21) The same word H259 is used for one rib and one flesh. That is to say, the husband and wife must hold together to be equivalent to Adam before Eve was made. After Adam and Eve sinned, even if the husband and wife became one flesh after the sin, no one has this ability like Adam had before. No matter what, under normal circumstances, the couple must become one in order to fulfill God’s blessing, “…Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, …”(Genesis 1:28) This is why we emphasized that naming event happened before Eve was made.
Let’s look at the word spouse (H5828), because we can see the role of the spouse from the meaning of this word. This word H5828 appears 21 times. The following is a typical verse that explains its meaning. “Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help (H5828) and our shield.”(Psalm 33:20) This means that the role of the spouse is a helper, but she must be there for the two to become one. Therefore, the importance of women is the same as that of men, but their roles are different. There is also a certain order in creation. Therefore, when Jesus became flesh, Paul said, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”(1 Corinthians 11:3) It also says, “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.”(Ephesians 5:23) And it adds, “Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”(Ephesians 5:33) So Paul would say, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”(Ephesians 5:25) Although husbands may not encounter the time to give up their physical lives in their lifetime, they must have this determination.
Finally, we saw that their eyes were not opened at that time, and they focused on God. They did not know that they were naked at all, so how could they be ashamed?
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
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