Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does Genesis Chapter 2 mean?

Genesis 2 begins by describing the end of God’s week of creation. Chapter 1 described what God had created day by day, for six days. The first verses of chapter 2 explain the seventh day, in which God rested from His work.

The remainder of chapter 2 focuses more details on the creation of the first man, the garden God placed him in, and the work God gave him to do. Before man was created, there were no cultivated crops, and the land was watered by streams or mists rising up from the ground.

In this passage, God creates man, forming him out of the dust of the ground and breathing the “breath of life” into him. Man becomes a living being. God places man into His newly planted garden in the region of Eden, a garden with abundant fruit-bearing trees. Two trees in the middle of the garden stand out. They have names: The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

For all of the debates over which aspects of Genesis are meant to be literal, and which are meant to be symbolic, the Garden of Eden is not so difficult to interpret. The writer of Genesis clearly intends it to be understood as a real place in the real world. This portion of Scripture describes the river that runs out of it and divides into four separate rivers. Those rivers run through places that would have been especially familiar to Genesis’ first readers. They include the Tigris and Euphrates, rivers that still flow through the lands of Mesopotamia.

God places the man in the garden with specific work to do, such as maintaining the garden and naming the animals. God also issues a single, specific negative command: never eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or you will die.

This passage is also the first time when God recognizes that some aspect of His creation is not good. It’s not good for the man to be alone. There are no living things which complement Adam as the animals of the same kind correspond to each other. So God takes a rib from Adam and makes a helper and companion for him. Eve becomes Adam’s wife. This is a fascinating action by God, one that is rich in symbolism. God obviously could have created Eve from dust, as He did Adam, but chose instead to form her out of Adam’s own body.

For this reason, the closing verses tell us, men are to separate from their parents and stick to their wives, becoming one flesh with them.

Adam and Eve’s relationship was unique in all of history. When they met, no sin yet existed in the world or between them. They remained unashamed of anything, including their own nakedness. In their innocence, they had nothing to hide from God or from each other. In that way, they truly existed in paradise, one beyond just the plants and animals of a garden. Unfortunately, in chapter three, this ideal situation will be lost as a result of their choice to sin against God.

Chapter Context
Genesis 2 concludes the description of God’s week of creation and then zooms in on the creation of man, his work, his perfect environment, and the creation of woman as his helper and wife. It is our last glimpse of the world before it is ravaged by human sin and death with the disobedience of Adam and Eve in chapter 3. Where chapter 1 gave a full overview of creation, this chapter focuses more on a few specific events. These are crucial to understanding the fall of man.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

The first verse of Genesis 2 begins with the term “thus,” or, “so.” This reflects back to the content of the prior passage, so this verse summarizes all of chapter 1. It is a statement of conclusion: God completed His work of creation. The heavens and the earth and every aspect of God’s great creation was finished.

Chapter and verse divisions were not part of the original Bible text; these words are meant to be read in a natural flow from those at the end of chapter 1. In Genesis 1:31, God declared all He had made as “very good.” He accomplished exactly what He set out to do, and He was satisfied with the results. In this moment, nothing existed in creation which was bad, or corrupt, or out of sync with the plan and purpose of God. The heavens and earth were vast, teeming with life, and they were exactly as God intended them to be.

What will change this ideal state is human sin, as described in chapter 3.

Context Summary
Genesis 2:1–3 describes the seventh day of God’s creation week, in which God rested from His work. Of all the days of the week, God declares the seventh day both blessed and holy, pointing forward to the time when God would command the Israelites to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The symbolism and importance of this resting by God will become a major theme of the rest of Scripture.

Verse 2. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

As the previous verse made clear, God completed His work of creation on the sixth day. The week was not over, however. The seventh day mattered to God and became the most important of all of the days of the week. Having completed His work, God rested. This is the point where the pattern of chapter 1 is halted. On each of the six creation days, God did specific work and saw that it was good. On the seventh day, He did no work.

What does it mean for God to rest? What does it mean to “rest” from working, for one with the power to create worlds out of nothing with just His command? It’s hard to know, but the passage is clear that it was significant to God. Whether for practical, symbolic, or other purposes, we are meant to see this as a meaningful choice on the part of the Creator. This day of rest will become known as the Sabbath, a central point of God’s Law and essential to Israel’s worship of Him. But even now, before sin enters into the world, before the Law exists, this day of rest is already meaningful to the Creator.

Verse 3. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

The previous verse described God accomplishing His work of creation in six days. After this, on the seventh day, God rested from work. Here, in verse 3, God does two things: He blesses the seventh day, and He makes it holy.

What does it mean to bless a day? In chapter 1, God’s blessing was tied to the fertility of His creation, to reproduction and populating the earth. This blessing of the seventh day is less clear. In the future, under the Law, God would bless Israel for observing the seventh day rest. He would demonstrate His ability to provide for His people even when they sat out a day of work each week.

God also makes the seventh day holy or “set apart” from the other six days. Even before sin entered into the world, God intended from the very beginning for the seventh day to be a special day dedicated to rest. It’s the pattern He set for the world beginning in this verse.

Verse 4. These are the generationsof the heavens and the earth when they were created,in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Chapter 1 described God’s process of creation in six separate days. The first few verses of chapter 2 complete that sequence with a seventh day, where God takes a deliberate rest from His work. Having concluded the account of the creation week, Genesis now turns back to provide more detail about the creation of human beings, where they lived, and God’s instructions to them.

This verse serves as an introduction to the story of Adam and Eve and those who would follow. It is written in the poetic structure of a “chiasm.” This is a word-pyramid in which phrases parallel each other on the way “up” and “down.” Another way to think of this is as a mirror, centered on some specific point. The idea-pattern in a chiasm is structured as A-B-C-B-A, but can include many more points around the central theme. This form of writing is common throughout Genesis.

So this verse begins with “This is the account [‘these are the generations’] of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” And then it reverses direction: “‘When the Lord made the earth and the heavens.’ “

This pattern can be found in Genesis in single verses, in multi-verse sections, and even over the course of multiple chapters.

Context Summary
Genesis 2:4–9 begins to describe additional details about the creation of human beings, starting with the creation of the first man. Man is ”formed” out of existing matter—the dust or debris of the earth—into which God breathes life. God plants the garden in Eden, and places the newly-created man there. Among the many trees in the garden are two of special significance: the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Verse 5. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up — for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,

Setting the stage for the arrival of man, two things are missing at this point in the creation story: rain and someone to work the ground. This verse describes a world in which no shrubs or small plants of the field had yet sprung up. The Hebrew word for the plants God created during the prior days, as in Genesis 1:11, is de’se, which is a very general term. Here, in verse 5, the terms used are siah and ē’seb, which are more specific. This passage, then, is describing the lack of cultivated crops grown for humans to eat.

God caused all kinds of plants to grow on the land on the third day of creation, and we will see in verse 8 that God will plant trees in Eden with fruit good for food. This verse is pointing forward to man’s future work and purpose on the earth, to plant crops and work the ground, to bring order to the earth by tending what God had made.

Verse 6. and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground —

The previous verse described the earth as lacking cultivated crops. At that point, there was no one to work the ground and no rain. This verse tells us how the garden got its water with no rain: mists or streams came up from the ground. The impression is of underground streams, the so-called “fresh water ocean,” which would saturate the land, perhaps on a cyclical basis. This fits the description of upcoming verses of the rivers that water the Garden of Eden and the region around it. It also fits with the farming practices of the Mesopotamian region that relied on cyclical flooding to sustain crops.

As we saw in chapter 1, God had prepared a world in which humans could grow and gather food before He even made man. Likewise, He had made a world in which humans were needed to care for all He had made and help to bring order to it.

Verse 7. then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

This is the moment when all human life begins. Genesis 1 describes the creation of the entire universe. As part of that story, men and women are also formed (Genesis 1:27). Genesis chapter 2 narrows focus on the creation of the first man, giving additional details, and helping us to see that humanity is special among all the rest of creation.

In Genesis 1:1, God’s creation is described using the term bā’rā, which implies “creation” in the sense of “coming into being,” or of “something from nothing.” But here, in Genesis 2:7, the creation of the first human being uses the Hebrew word for “formed:” yi’ser. This describes the actions of an artist, a sculptor, or a potter. This term is specific in that it always refers to work done on some existing substance. In this case, God is forming human life from the ground itself. That Hebrew word is ā’pār, which refers to dirt, powder, debris, or ash.

Following the storyline of this verse, after being “formed,” man was merely a lump of well-formed dirt. It’s what God did next that made us alive: He breathed into the man’s nose the breath of life. Literally, God breathed life into the lump, transforming it into a living being, or “creature,” or “soul.”

All of life originated with God, but human life began with the personal breath of God. Without God, we simply would not live. The name Adam is directly from the Hebrew ā’dām, which literally means “man.” This name reflects the dust from which we were formed: the Hebrew word for ground is adamah.

All of this, as one can imagine, adds fuel to the debate over exactly how God went about bringing human life onto the earth. Regardless of the specific process involved, this verse clearly states that God Himself formed man out of the dust of the ground. God personally designed the size, shape, and detail of the first man. God was intentional, fashioning exactly what He set out to make. According to the book of Genesis, the form of that first man was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Verse 8. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

After forming the first human being, God planted a garden in a region called Eden. English translations of this verse all include some concept of “east” in describing the location of this garden. The original Hebrew says gan b ē’den mi qe’dem, which most literally means “a garden towards the east, in Eden.” It should be pointed out that “Eden,” literally speaking, is the territory where the garden is located, not the actual garden itself. From the geography given in the following verses, it seems logical to conclude that Eden was in the region of Mesopotamia. By implication, Genesis’ original audience would have been to the west of that area.

The first chapter of Genesis shows God as a provider. In each of the first three days, He fashions an environment suitable for a later creation. On days four, five, and six of the creation week, God places a new creation into each of those prepared places. Here, we see God making provisions for man, planting a garden of trees, and placing the man there. This garden would be man’s first home.

Verse 9. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The previous verse described God planting a garden, somewhere to the east of the land occupied by Genesis’ original readers. This region—not merely the garden itself—is referred to as “Eden.” Here, that garden is described as a place where God caused to “spring up” a variety of beautiful trees bearing good fruit. According to this description, there were many different types of fruit-bearing trees in this location.

Two specific trees are mentioned by name as standing in the middle of the garden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We will soon learn that God had designed these two trees with special properties. Those who ate from the Tree of Life would live forever (Genesis 3:22). The function of this tree seems to be that immortality comes from continually eating from it. God did not prohibit Adam and Eve from eating its fruit at first, and they were not rendered permanently immortal by it.

On the other hand, those who ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would leave behind their blissful state of innocence. In later verses, God will forbid Adam from eating from this tree. The “knowledge” here is not necessarily intellectual, but that of experience. The fruit of this tree would not, in and of itself, impart information. However, it would cause mankind to experience both good and evil in ways not intended by God. Eating from this tree would make man aware of the existence of evil—which is opposition to God—by participating in it.

In verse 17, we will hear God instruct the man never to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In chapter 3, we will see the man break that command with disastrous results.

Verse 10. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

The next five verses are a parenthesis: a separate section of the text. From a narrative standpoint, this passage could be set off to the side without disrupting the flow of the story. These words explain the geography of the Garden of Eden, and give more information on where it was located. The main story will resume in verse 15.

According to verse 10, a mighty river watered Eden’s garden. As mentioned before, “Eden” includes more than just the garden; it seems to be a geographical region. After leaving the area of Eden itself, this river split into four separate streams. These are listed in verses 11 through 14 as the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The description of those four rivers will help to locate the region of Eden—though not the specific location of the garden—in the known world of the time.

The Tigiris and Euphrates rivers are known today, in the geographical area most likely to have been near Eden. The other two rivers, however, may or may not exist today. Given that this is pre-flood geography, there is no way to say for sure if these rivers are exactly the same as the waterways currently called by those names.

Context Summary
Genesis 2:10–14 is a side-note in the chapter’s description of the creation of man. The details given here would have helped the original readers of Genesis understand the location of the Garden of Eden. The reason for this description is not given. In later verses, the Bible will make it clear that God does not intend for man to return to Eden (Genesis 3:24). However, the garden might have been destroyed in the flood, at which point there would be no harm in knowing where it used to be.

Verse 11. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Verses 10 through 14 describe the territories around Eden, by commenting on the great river which flowed out of the region and divided into four smaller rivers. These details correspond to rivers or lands we know in the modern world, helping us understand where the region of Eden was without knowing the specific location of the garden.

The first of the four rivers described is Pishon. The word Pishon means “to leap” and may have come from a physical description of the river itself. The river might have been turbulent, crooked, or steep and filled with waterfalls and eddies. Pishon is described as flowing around the land of Havilah. Scholars suggest Havilah may be Arabia, an area known for gold. If that’s right, Pishon would be an Arabian river or one associated with the Persian Gulf.

Unlike two of the other rivers identified in this passage, Tigris and Euphrates, we don’t have an explicit connection between this “leaping” river and a known waterway in the modern world.

Verse 12. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.

This passage helps us to understand where the region of Eden was without knowing the specific location of the garden. Verses 10 through 14 describe the four smaller rivers which came from a larger river flowing out of the territory of Eden. These rivers correspond to rivers and lands we know in the modern world.

The previous verse described the first of those four rivers. The river Pishon was said to flow around the land of Havilah, “where there is gold.” Some scholars understand Havilah to be Arabia, an area known in the ancient world as a great source of gold. The name means “to leap,” which might imply a steep, turbulent, or dangerous river.

This verse describes the quality of that gold as good or possibly pure. Also found in the region were onyx stone, which would later be important to Israel, in decorating the temple and tabernacle. This land is said to have been rich in bdellium, a translucent substance—though due to ancient flexibility in describing gems and minerals, this particular mention might be of some completely different stone.

In any case, the region being described is one rich in specific resources. And, as such, it is clearly meant to be understood as a literal location.

Verse 13. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

Verses 10 through 14 describe the great river that flowed out of the region of Eden, dividing into four smaller rivers. These rivers correspond to rivers and lands we know in the modern world, helping us to understand where the region of Eden was. It does not, however, give us enough information to know the exact location of the garden. The first river mentioned was named Pishon, and its territory is said to have been rich in gold, onyx, and bdellium.

The second river described is the Gihon river, one that flowed around the land of Cush. As used in the Bible, the region of “Cush” usually refers to the land of Ethiopia, which is quite some distance from the other territories mentioned in this passage. Scholars suggest this may be a different area known in ancient times as Cush, perhaps in the mountains of Mesopotamia.

As with the Pishon, we cannot make a strong link between this river and one known in the modern world. As this description is of a pre-flood world, there is a possibility that the river was destroyed and no longer exists. It is also possible that what this passage calls the Pishon and Gihon might be tributaries of the larger Euphrates river.

Verse 14. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

This passage, starting in verse 10, describes a river which splits into four smaller waterways after leaving Eden. These rivers show connections to rivers and lands we know in the modern world, but for the most part cannot be explicitly identified. These details would have been useful for the original readers of Genesis, in knowing where Eden was located, but without knowing exactly where the garden had been.

Scholars do not universally agree on the locations of the previous two rivers mentioned, Pishon and Gihon, but the Tigris and Euphrates are well known rivers in the region to this day. In fact, these waterways are strongly connected with the ancient region known as Mesopotamia.

The Tigris flows east of the ancient Assyrian capital of Ashur. The Euphrates river is to the west of the Tigris. These rivers flow from the region of modern-day Turkey, through modern-day Iraq, and join into a single path before emptying into the Persian Gulf.

Verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

One of the most important lessons which jumps out from this verse is that immediately after he was created, the first man had a God-given purpose. God placed him into the paradise of the garden of Eden with a job to do. God had created a world which included work needing to be done; He created man with a mission to do that work. Logically, God didn’t need to structure the world in this way. He could have created a world that was fully self-sustaining. He could have made human beings to simply live in luxury and enjoy all of God’s creation without ever having to contribute anything.

That, however, was not God’s design. Even before sin entered the world, human beings were meant to work, to help to accomplish God’s purpose. That is built into us. Chapter 3 will reveal that sin changed the nature of our work and our response to it, but work itself is not a curse. It is part of our purpose as God’s creatures.

This first man’s work was relatively simple and straightforward: to maintain the garden of Eden. This purpose will be lost when he sins, later in this story. For those restored to fellowship with God through faith in Christ, that sense of purposeful work begins to be restored, as well. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Context Summary
Genesis 2:15–25 returns to provide details about the sixth-day creation of human beings. After being crafted out of the substance of earth, man is placed in a garden by God. He is then given responsibility to care for the plants and trees there. God’s first and only prohibition to the man is not to eat from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in the middle of the garden, on promise of death. Man is also charged with naming the animals, an act reflecting his God-given authority. God recognizes that it is not good for man to be alone and makes woman to be his helper, companion, and wife, establishing the pattern of God’s design for human marriage.

Verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

Verses 16 and 17 form a complete thought which needs to be read and understood as one statement to be fully understood. This is God’s first negative command to human beings, telling the man what he must not do. This uses the Hebrew root word tsavah, the first time this concept is used in the Bible.

Even so, the command starts with what the man can do, which is practically anything else. Man is given the freedom to eat from every tree in the garden of Eden—except for one, single prohibition. This statement echoes God’s words recorded in Genesis 1:29: that all types of seed-bearing plants and fruits from trees were provided for food.

God provides. That’s who He is; that’s built into His nature and identity. We as His people are provided for even when we don’t clearly see how our needs will be met. We are provided for even when our God declares some seemingly good things off-limits to us, as He does with the man in the next verse. The fact that mankind disobeys the one, single, simple command we are given summarizes the Bible’s view of sin and salvation.

Verse 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.”

The previous verse contains the first use in the Bible of the Hebrew root word for “command:” tsavah. Even so, that command to man began with a statement of permission. The man could eat freely from every tree in the garden. God had graciously provided all of that for him. God is not placing man inside a tiny fence of rules: He’s locking evil inside a small box. God is allowing the man complete freedom in this new environment…with one exception.

Here, God provides a boundary for the man’s freedom. The command turns to the negative, the restriction: man must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If he does, he will die. This simple prohibition underscores the Bible’s basic view of sin and salvation. Mankind will not fall into sin because he fails to keep some impossibly long list of rules. Nor will humanity fail because the restrictions are too demanding. Given near-complete freedom, and one single restriction, humanity will still choose to sin and fall.

Knowing the outcome of the story as we do, this feels like a precarious moment. We are tempted to question God’s judgment. Why place that tree in the garden in full view of the man? Why allow even the possibility for disobedience right from the start of this brand new relationship with a brand new person? Of course, we are not qualified to answer why in any great detail. However, the fact that God does this tells us some essential things about His character and the way in which He intends to be in relationship with human beings.

From the very beginning, God wanted a relationship based on His provision, our trust, and demonstrating that trust through obedience. God’s proposition to the first man is fundamentally identical to what He will say to Moses’ first readers many years later: Obey, and I will give life and blessing. Disobey, and you will lose both (Deuteronomy 30:15–20.)

Verse 18. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

For the first time in the Bible, we hear God describe something as “not good.” Until this point, God has seen everything He has made as good or very good, including the first man. All of the created world was perfect in form, function, and potential until this point. Now something wasn’t right.

What’s especially interesting about this statement is that, at this point, God is wholly responsible for the state of the world. This is not after the fall of man, but before it. Why, then, is something God created being called “not good?” And by God Himself, no less? In short, only God can be perfect. So, anything which is not God cannot be completely perfect. And, we have already seen God choose to create through a process of creation and modification (Genesis 1:9–12). It is not only logically possible, but inevitable, that part of God’s creation will be less than perfect, in the sense that God is “perfect.”

What, exactly, is the problem which God intends to correct? The man was alone. God didn’t design human beings to live in solitude. Specifically, marriage between man and woman was part of His plan for humanity from the very beginning, even before sin entered into the world. God declares that He will make a helper that is fit, or suitable, or “corresponds to” the man. In other words, He will make another person like the man: another human built with the purpose of being the man’s helper and companion.

Some see the description of the first woman as the helper of the first man as demeaning. Some assume this means she is lesser in position or purpose. However, God often describes Himself with the same root word used here for helper: ‘ezer (Psalm 33:20; Psalm 70:5; Psalm 115:9). In any case, the woman will be provided to the man for his good. She is part of God’s provision to him, as he will be to her. God’s intention and design is for the man and woman to live and work and walk with Him together.

The following verses will also show that God intends humanity to see each other—not animals—as their true companions and equals. God will create animals for Adam to name, and point out that none of them are a suitable match for him.

Verse 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

This verse reveals another aspect of man’s purpose in the world God had made. The man was tasked with using his God-given authority and creativity in order to name the animals. The picture painted is powerful, empowering, and sweet, in a way. We see God forming the wild animals and birds, bringing them into existence, and then, eventually, bringing them to the man to discover what the man would call them.

God seems to be taking pleasure watching the man accomplish this task. It appears that God is not directing the naming of the animals in any way; He is truly leaving it to the man to use his own creativity, judgment, and process to come up with these names. And then God allows those names to stand as the animals’ true names. It is truly a privilege and honor which God bestows on this man, by allowing him to participate in the work of building and maintaining this new creation.

More than that, the act of naming something is meaningful in the book of Genesis. This act often implies rule over and responsibility for that thing. God has already instructed man to subdue the earth and rule over all of the creatures (Genesis 1:28). Having the man name the animals is another way of giving him responsibility to rule, subdue, and care for the animals.

This passage is also important in the context of verse 18, where God stated His intent to make a helper for the man. By bringing all the animals in person, God can emphasize the fact that none of them are suitable partners. The man will be able to see, first-hand that no other created being is his equal. Only other people, male and female, are meant to be joined as “one flesh” (Genesis 2:23) and share that level of connection.

Verse 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

In the previous verse, God brought the animals to the man in order for him to name them. Whatever the man called them, God allowed that to stand as their name. This is a sign of great honor, since naming something in biblical times was a sign of ownership and authority. God also seems to be taking pleasure in watching man use the intellect and creativity which makes him unique in creation (Genesis 1:26-27). The man gives names to all the livestock, birds, and wild animals.

And then, in this verse, the Bible calls the man by his name for the first time: Adam. Up until now, this unique creature has been referred to as hā’ ā’dām, literally meaning “the man.” This name reflects the dust from which we were formed: the Hebrew word for “ground” is adamah. Here, however, the first human being is simply referred to as ā’dām, literally “Man,” now taking on the nature of a personal name.

The story-sense of verses 19 and 20 is that, as Adam was naming the animals and birds, he was looking for one that might serve as his helper and companion. It becomes clear that none of the animals are suitable (Genesis 2:20). Adam needed someone who would “correspond” to him (Genesis 2:18). The fact that no animal suits this purpose is an important aspect of Scripture: humanity is truly distinctive, and meant for a truly unique relationship with other people.

Verse 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

In verse 18, God declared that He would make a helper for the man, since it was not good for the man to be alone. Then in the following two verses, Adam goes through the process of naming all of the animals God had created. In doing so, he finds out first-hand that none of them can serve as a suitable helper for him.

Even as God creates, He often does so with the intent of modifying that creation later on (Genesis 1:9–12). So now God goes to work, taking action to complete his intended design of the human race. He causes a deep sleep to fall on Adam: the first anesthesia before surgery. While Adam is asleep, God removes one of Adam’s ribs and closes up the place with flesh. It’s amazing to think of the God who had formed Adam out of dust now performing surgery on the man’s body of flesh, blood, and bone.

It’s important to remember several things about this action. This surgery was not to remove an imperfection from Adam’s body, but to add something essential and beautiful to Adam’s existence. It also speaks powerfully of the symbolic connection between man and woman. God could have created woman out of earth, as he did with man, but chose not to. The exchange of wedding rings, circumcision, communion, and other rituals are real-world actions with symbolic importance. In the same way, God’s creation of woman from the rib of Adam meant to be seen as both literal and figurative.

Verse 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

The previous verse described God’s removal of Adam’s rib. Now God uses that rib to build a woman. Of course, the ultimate reasons why God chose to work in this way are a mystery to us. To this point, the only description of God’s creative process has been of forming man and animals out of the earth, the dust of the ground. He could have formed this woman in the same way, but chose not to. Most likely, this was in order to emphasize the nature of the relationship between men and women.

God’s creation of Adam used the Hebrew word yi’ser, which represents taking some existing substance and molding it into shape. In the case of woman, however, the Hebrew root word is banah, meaning “to build.” God “built up” the woman from the foundation of Adam’s rib. That word is similar in meaning, but carries some sense of “adding” what was not there before.

As Adam will say in the next verse, this origin connects man and woman at a fundamental level. They were literally made of the same stuff. They corresponded to each other. At the same time, this choice of Hebrew words says something important about the differences between men and women. Man was “formed” from existing material, but woman was “built up” from the foundation of man’s rib. In other words, God added something in making the woman which was not included in that rib. While man and woman are intimately linked, and literally made for each other, they are also created as unique and separate genders. Male and female are not interchangeable or replaceable: they are exceptional.

When she is complete, God brings the woman to Adam. The God who provides has now given Adam the greatest of all possible earthly gifts: a helper, a companion, a wife. God is the giver of all good things (James 1:17), and Adam’s response in the next verse will show us that he was overwhelmed by the goodness of this blessing.

Verse 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh;she shall be called Woman,because she was taken out of Man.”

God recognized earlier that it was not good for Adam to be alone (Genesis 2:18), so He made a helper for Adam from his own rib. Symbolically, this not only represents the intimate closeness of men and women, but also their distinction from each other. God “built up” the woman from Adam’s rib, instead of “forming” her as He had done in shaping dust into Adam. Men and women, in literal terms, each bring unique and necessary characteristics to the human family.

Adam’s response to this good gift is delivered in the form an ecstatic poem. Adam was given the opportunity to name all of God’s other animals (Genesis 2:19), and found that none of them were a good match for him (Genesis 2:20). Now, “at last,” he finds a creature perfectly suited for him.

Future Israelites and others would use the phrase “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” to describe close family relationships. For Adam, it was also literally true. This “woman,” as he would call her, was unlike any of the animals Adam had seen in God’s creation. None of them were like him. She was of his very bones and flesh.

The woman, whom we will later come to know as Eve (Genesis 3:20), was like Adam in another important way. She would share his unique human relationship with God as one made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Unlike any of the animals, Adam and Eve and the humans to follow would have the capacity to know God, truth, beauty, and reason. Together and separately, their existence would be defined by their relationship with the Creator.

God designed man and woman to be together instead of being alone. As the following verses make clear, the idea of this marriage connection was established before sin entered into the world. It was God’s plan for humanity all along.

Verse 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The story of Adam and Eve pauses to make an aside to all who read it: we should follow the pattern of marriage as revealed in the rest of God’s Word. Men must leave—or “forsake”—both of their parents and hold fast to—or “stick to”—their wives. They must become one flesh together. This is unmistakable, because of the way God designed this relationship between the two of them. Because we know that marriage is from God. Because it is not good for mankind to be alone. Because God saw that need and provided the woman to Adam as helper, companion, and wife. Because she was taken out of man and built from his own rib.

This verse implies significant ideas about how cultures should function. In the ancient world, one of the highest values was allegiance and honor to one’s parents. The Bible makes clear, though, that a man’s duty is to forsake his parents in the sense that he transfers his loyalty from them to his wife. Providing, living with, and caring for her must take priority in his life over doing the same for his parents.

Second, a man must stick to his wife in a willful and lasting way. The idea of a covenant or contract is implied. The husband’s commitment must be iron clad.

Finally, the two will become one flesh. This speaks of their exclusive sexual bond, but also speaks of their family relationship. As one flesh, the husband and wife will become family to each other, with all of the legal and relationship rights and privileges that come with being so closely connected.

Verse 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

With the end of Genesis 2, we see the high point of human innocence in God’s newly created world. Adam and Eve existed without any experience of evil, jealousy, deception, or insecurity. They were literally made for each other as husband and wife. All they needed had been fully provided by God. They had no need of clothing or any other restraints. They had no idea of what it meant to be ashamed of anything—the fact that they were naked was irrelevant in their sinless condition. Their lack of shame was not due to ignorance: it was due to innocence.

As chapter 3 will make clear, the shame we feel over being naked is tied to an awareness of one’s own sinfulness and rebellion. We cover our nakedness out of a desire to hide our “true selves” from others, and because we fear what others will think about us. We cannot change the nature of this fallen world, so humans should rightfully be clothed. Adam and Eve had no such sin, and they lived in freedom from any impulse to hide any part of themselves from God or each other.

Tragically, all of that is about to change.

End of Chapter 2.

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