Genesis 2: The Seventh Day, the Garden, and the Man and Woman

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished. (BSB)

Says “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.” (2:1, BSB). The unit is framed by וַיְכֻלּוּ, were completed, and by וַיְכַל in 2:2, and he finished. “The seventh day” stands three times in 2:2–3. God rested (וַיִּשְׁבֹּת, and in 2:3 שָׁבַת), blessed the day and sanctified it (וַיְקַדֵּשׁ). This day has no evening-and-morning line, and the noun Sabbath does not occur. See the Hebrew note.

Says The BSB reads, “And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.” (2:2, BSB). “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.” (2:3, BSB). The Hebrew of 2:2 is and God finished on the seventh day; the BSB’s “by” and its pluperfect are one way of taking that wording. The close of 2:3 is אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת, which God created, to make; the BSB’s “all the work of creation that He had accomplished” is its English.

Uncertain How God finished on the seventh day is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) A pluperfect, as in the BSB: the work was complete before the seventh day began. The wording can be read that way, and it avoids the appearance of work on the day of rest. The objection is that on the seventh day is the natural sense of בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, not by it. (2) The finishing is the ceasing, blessing and sanctifying of that day: completion consists in rest and in setting the day apart. The objection is that “finished the work” sounds like the work itself, not only the rest that follows it. (3) The completion is the seventh day’s own act, set apart from the six days of work. The objection is that 2:1 has already said the heavens and the earth were completed. These are readings of the same verbs. They do not reopen the five views of the creation days.

Says The printed wording at 2:2 is the Masoretic בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, on the seventh day, in both clauses. The Greek has τῇ ἕκτῃ, on the sixth day, in the first clause and “seventh” in the second (Swete, vol. 1, p. 3, n34). The Samaritan agrees with the Greek in that first clause. The variant note sets out the evidence and the reasons for printing the MT. The BSB’s “by the seventh day God had finished” follows the MT number.

The note on the creation days counts this day’s lack of an evening-and-morning line, “an unclosed seventh day,” among the grounds of one view. The five views are not reopened here, and no lean is taken on how the days relate to time.

Says Hebrews 4:4 has “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.” (Heb 4:4, BSB). Its Greek agrees in form with Swete 2:2b, except that Hebrews adds ὁ θεὸς ἐν. It quotes the seventh-day clause, not the finishing clause where the Greek has sixth. Form agreement is not a claim about which text was used. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” (Exod 20:11, BSB). In Exodus 31:17 the Sabbath is “a sign between Me and the Israelites forever,” grounded in the same rest. See the Hebrew cross-references. Early readings of the blessed and sanctified day are gathered in the historical note. No lean is taken here on how 2:3 bears on later Sabbath law.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.2.1-Gen.2.3.the-seventh-day

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made them. Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted, for the Lord God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. (BSB)

Says “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made them.” (2:4, BSB). The verse opens אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth. The BSB’s “This is the account” is one English choice for that formula. It heads later sections of Genesis (5:1; 6:9, and others). The verse is a chiasm: heavens and earth, then earth and heavens. בְּהִבָּרְאָם is the verb of 1:1 in the Niphal infinitive, and בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת, in the day that the Lord God made them, spans the whole making; this does not settle how the days are read. See the note on Genesis 1 and 2:4.

Says From 2:4b the narrative names God יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, “the Lord God,” not “God” alone as in 1:1–2:3. “Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted, for the Lord God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.” (2:5, BSB). The “not yet” clauses concern plants of the field. The Hebrew reason is a perfect, for the Lord God did not cause it to rain; the BSB’s “had yet appeared” and “had not yet sent” are its English tenses. “But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” (2:6, BSB). The noun אֵד is singular; its sense is debated, and the BSB footnotes “Or mist.”

Says “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.” (2:7, BSB). The verb is the potter’s verb, יָצַר. The man is formed עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה, dust from the ground, a sound-play with אָדָם. God breathes נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים into his nostrils, and the man becomes לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, a living being, the phrase also used of the animals in 2:19. The BSB footnotes “Or a living soul.” The breathing into the nostrils is said of the man only. See the Hebrew note.

Uncertain Where 2:4a belongs is treated in the Hebrew note. No lean is taken here.

Uncertain How 2:4b–25 relates to Genesis 1 is set out, with its options, in the Hebrew note on 2:4–6 and in the historical note. No lean is taken here. The note on the creation days cites 2:5 among the grounds of one view; the five views are not reopened.

Says From 2:7 to 2:25 the noun has the article, הָאָדָם, the man, fourteen times. It lacks it at 2:5, “there was no man,” and at 2:20, וּלְאָדָם, which the BSB renders “But for Adam,” with the footnote “Or the man.” The name is plain at Genesis 5:1 and 5:5. The Greek has ἄνθρωπος at 2:7–8, 15 and 18, and Ἀδάμ from 2:16.

Uncertain Whether הָאָדָם is one man, humankind represented in him, or both, and where the personal name begins, is open. The article favors the man; the generic sense of the noun allows a representative reading. No lean is taken here. See the Hebrew note.

Implies A real Adam and a real first sin. Genesis 2–3 and 5:1–5 tell of one man, and the Romans notes read them so: through Adam’s one trespass, sin, death and condemnation came to all humanity. See the notes on Romans 5. That core is kept throughout this chapter.

Uncertain How the narrative tells that history is open, and no lean is taken between the first two readings. (1) Historical narrative of a real first man and woman. (2) History told with literary and figurative features, such as God’s forming with hands, symbolic trees and a speaking serpent. Both affirm the core above. (3) A purely archetypal or non-historical reading, whose grounds are the generic noun and the symbolic features, is presented fairly here; it lies outside that core, since it does not fit the Romans reading. Human origins in science are not argued here.

What the forming from dust and the gift of breath imply is set out in the Hebrew note on 2:7, with its main alternative, and is not repeated here. Whether נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים marks a capacity unique to humans is left open there, and the image is treated in the Genesis 1 note.

Says “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4, BSB). “For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.” (Ps 103:14, BSB). In Ecclesiastes 12:7 “the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.2.4-Gen.2.7.relation-to-genesis-1

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.2.5-Gen.2.25.adam-history-and-genre

Says “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.” (2:8, BSB). A river went out of Eden and “branched into four headwaters” (2:10, BSB). The first is the Pishon, through Havilah, with gold, bdellium and onyx; the second is the Gihon, through Cush; the third is the Tigris, east of Assyria; “And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” (2:14, BSB). “Out of the ground the Lord God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (2:9, BSB). The Lord God took the man and “placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.” (2:15, BSB). The Hebrew is לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ, to work it and to keep it.

Says The command is given to the man before the woman is built. The man may eat freely from every tree of the garden. The warning follows: “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” (2:17, BSB).

Uncertain Where Eden lay is open, and no lean is taken here. Options include the head of the Persian Gulf, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet; the Armenian highlands, where they rise; a theological geography that joins known and unknown rivers; and a landscape later changed. Each fits the two known rivers; none places the other two with certainty. Whether the garden is pictured as a sanctuary is likewise open: grounds include the gold and onyx, the verbs of 2:15 used of Levites in Numbers 3:7–8, and the eastern entrance in 3:24; the objection is that Genesis 2 names no temple or priest, and the shared words are common. See the Hebrew notes. Early views of the location are gathered in the historical note.

Uncertain Comparisons with Mesopotamian clay-formation scenes are gathered in the historical note. No dependence either way is claimed, and the background does not fix 2:7–17. No lean is taken here.

Uncertain What “knowledge of good and evil” means is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) Moral autonomy, deciding good and evil for oneself: it is forbidden, and 3:5 ties it to being like God; the objection is that God himself has this knowledge (3:22). (2) Knowing evil by experience, through disobedience; the objection is again 3:22, since God does not know evil that way. (3) Comprehensive knowledge, good and evil as a merism, as in 2 Samuel 14:17; the objection is that the man is not given all knowledge after eating. (4) Mature discernment that was to be received from God, as in Deuteronomy 1:39 and 1 Kings 3:9; the objection is that the text forbids the tree without saying it would later be given. The tree of life is named with Proverbs 3:18 and, later, Revelation 2:7 and 22:2. See the Hebrew note.

Uncertain What the work of 2:15 is, is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) Tending and guarding the garden: 2:5 and 3:23 use the first verb of the ground. (2) Also a priestly service, if the garden is a sanctuary: the pair recurs in Numbers 3:7–8; the objection is that there the verbs have the tent as their object, and here the object is the garden. (3) A reading to worship and to obey, taking the feminine suffixes as a difficulty for garden; the objection is that the noun can be feminine. See the Hebrew note.

Implies The death threatened in 2:17 is carried out in 3:19 and 5:5, as the Romans notes read it. See the notes on Romans 5. Every reading of “in the day” is presented so that this stands.

Uncertain How “in the day” in 2:17 works is open, and no lean is taken among the following. (1) When, as soon as: בְּיוֹם as a temporal conjunction, as in 2:4 and in 1 Kings 2:37, which uses the same construction; on that day the man becomes liable, and death follows. The objection is that the sentence is not executed that calendar day. (2) Death begins that day as alienation from God (3:8–10, 23–24), with bodily death following. The objection is that the warning names dying, not separation. (3) The sentence is mitigated or deferred in mercy (3:15, 21). The objection is that Genesis 3 does not say so. A thousand-year reading of the “day” is noted as early in the historical note, not offered as a live option. Whether bodily death would have come without the trespass is not settled in Genesis 2 alone; Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:21 are pointed to, not argued here.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.2.8-Gen.2.17.garden-trees-command

Minor variants

The printed text of this chapter is the Masoretic Text throughout. Three places have their own variant notes; the rest are gathered here from the textual note.

Says At 2:2 the printed wording is בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, on the seventh day; the Greek and the Samaritan have sixth in the first clause. At 2:18 the printed wording is אֶעֱשֶׂהּ, I will make, with the Samaritan; the Greek has ποιήσωμεν, let us make. At 2:24 the printed wording has no the two; the Greek has οἱ δύο, and the Samaritan has a plus of its own wording that agrees in sense, not in wording. Each variant note gives its evidence, with medium confidence; no Hebrew is reconstructed.

Says For יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים the Greek has ὁ θεός alone at 2:5, 7, 9, 19 and 21, and Κύριος ὁ θεός elsewhere. It adds ἔτι at 2:9 and 2:19. At 2:3 it has ὧν ἤρξατο ὁ θεὸς ποιῆσαι for which God created, to make. At 2:15 it adds ὃν ἔπλασεν and has no word for Eden. At 2:17 it has plural verbs against the Masoretic singular. At 2:23 ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς renders מֵאִישׁ and loses the sound-play. The Samaritan agrees with the MT at the divine name, 2:3, 2:15 and 2:17, and with the Greek at 2:19 (yet) and 2:23 (from her man).

Uncertain Whether the other Greek differences reflect other Hebrew or the translator’s leveling is open. Inner-Greek variants (Alexandrinus, Cotton Genesis D, and E) are listed in the textual note. Swete numbers English 2:25 as 3:1. No lean is taken here.

Says The Lord God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.” (2:18, BSB). The printed wording is the Masoretic אֶעֱשֶׂהּ, I will make, with the Samaritan. The Greek has ποιήσωμεν, let us make.

Uncertain Whether that plural brings 2:18 into line with 1:26, or reflects other Hebrew, is not settled; no Hebrew is reconstructed. See the variant note.

Says עֵזֶר is most often used of God as Israel’s help (Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalm 33:20; 121:1–2; Hosea 13:9) and does not by itself mark a subordinate. כְּנֶגְדּוֹ, corresponding to him, occurs only here and in 2:20. The BSB’s “a suitable helper” is one English choice. “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” (2:19, BSB). The verb וַיִּצֶר is a narrative wayyiqtol; the BSB does not make it a pluperfect, and whether to read it so belongs to the question of 2:4b–25, which is treated in the historical note. “The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.” (2:20, BSB). The BSB footnotes “Or the man” at “Adam.”

Says “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.” (2:21, BSB). The noun צֵלָע is elsewhere the side of the tabernacle and the side rooms of the temple; the BSB footnotes “Or took part of the man’s side.” “And from the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.” (2:22, BSB). The verb is בָּנָה, built. “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” (2:23, BSB). The kinship formula recurs at Genesis 29:14 and 2 Samuel 5:1. אִשָּׁה and אִישׁ are a sound-play, not an etymology; the Greek loses that play. See the Hebrew note.

Says “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” (2:24, BSB). The verse opens עַל־כֵּן. The verb וְדָבַק is cling, hold fast; the BSB’s “be united to” is one English choice. The Masoretic wording, וְהָיוּ לְבָשָׂר אֶחָד, has no the two; the plural verb already carries the subject. See the variant note. “And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.” (2:25, BSB).

Uncertain What עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ stresses is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) Correspondence and equality: a counterpart fit for him as no animal is. Grounds: the noun used of God; the preposition in front of him; the animals’ failure in 2:20. (2) A distinct, helping role within that likeness. Grounds: the man formed first and the woman made for him, as 1 Corinthians 11:8–9 and 1 Timothy 2:13 argue. Each view’s grounds are the main objection to the other.

Uncertain Whether Genesis 2 by itself sets an order of roles between husband and wife, or presents a partnership in which ordered roles first appear at 3:16, is likewise open, and no lean is taken here. The first reading takes 1 Corinthians 11:8–9 and 1 Timothy 2:13 as grounds; the second takes the help-language and 2:24. Those New Testament texts are reported for what they say about the order of forming; their own interpretation belongs to those books. No application is made to church or home.

Uncertain Who speaks 2:24 is open, and no lean is taken here. (1) The narrator’s comment, introduced by עַל־כֵּן. (2) The man’s words continued. In Matthew 19:4–5 Jesus says that the one who made them said these words, joining Genesis 1:27 and 2:24; Mark 10:6–8 joins them too. Matthew thus presents 2:24 as God’s word whichever human voice speaks in Genesis 2. That is what Matthew reports. How far 2:24 by itself governs later questions is not settled here. The divorce question that occasions Matthew 19 is named as the occasion and is out of scope. Ephesians 5:31–32 applies the verse to Christ and the church; that is what Ephesians says, and is a cross-reference only. Early readings of the one-flesh union are gathered in the historical note.

The sound-link from עֲרוּמִּים, naked, in 2:25 to עָרוּם, crafty, in 3:1 is noted as a pointer to Genesis 3. No view is taken here on its purpose. Swete numbers English 2:25 as 3:1.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.2.18-Gen.2.25.helper-and-marriage

New Testament reading

Says Hebrews 4:4 has “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.” (Heb 4:4, BSB). Its Greek, Καὶ κατέπαυσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ, agrees in form with Swete 2:2b, except that Hebrews adds ὁ θεὸς ἐν. It quotes the seventh-day clause, not the finishing clause where the Greek has sixth. The SBLGNT apparatus has no unit at Hebrews 4:4. Form agreement is not a claim about which text was used. Hebrews 4:3–10 on entering God’s rest is the reading of that book, a cross-reference only.

Says 1 Corinthians 15:45 has “The first man Adam became a living being” (1 Cor 15:45, BSB), and then calls the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The Greek takes up Swete 2:7 εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν, with πρῶτος and Ἀδάμ added. There is no SBLGNT apparatus unit at 15:45. “The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.” (1 Cor 15:47, BSB).

Says Matthew 19:5 agrees in form with Swete 2:24 in the words “the two will become one flesh”. Jesus joins that verse to Genesis 1:27. At Matthew 19:4, SBLGNT has κτίσας; the Robinson–Pierpont text has ποιήσας, the same verb as the Greek of Genesis 1:27. See the note on Matthew 19:4. At 19:5 the Robinson–Pierpont text has Ἕνεκεν and προσκολληθήσεται, both of which match Swete. Mark 10:6–8 joins the same two verses; 1 Corinthians 6:16 has “The two will become one flesh.” “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (Eph 5:31, BSB). “This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.” (Eph 5:32, BSB). Ephesians 5:31 shows the same to / toward the wife alternation as Swete 2:24 (SBLGNT τῇ γυναικί; Westcott and Hort, NA28 and the Robinson–Pierpont text πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα). Westcott and Hort omit the Mark 10:7 clause. See the Greek note.

Says “For man did not come from woman, but woman from man.” (1 Cor 11:8, BSB). “Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” (1 Cor 11:9, BSB). “For Adam was formed first, and then Eve.” (1 Tim 2:13, BSB). These state the order of forming as those texts argue it. The SBLGNT apparatus has no unit at those verses. Paul adds, “For just as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” (1 Cor 11:12, BSB). No lean is taken on how these passages apply.

Says Romans 5:12 and 6:23 bear on 2:17; see the notes on Romans 5. Luke 3:38 names Adam in a genealogy. Revelation 2:7 and 22:2 return to the tree of life.

Uncertain John 20:22 uses ἐνεφύσησεν, the Greek verb of 2:7; whether that is a deliberate echo is not settled. How far 2:24 by itself governs later questions is not settled here. Divorce questions in Matthew 19 remain out of scope.

Genesis 2:25 is the close of this unit and a pointer to what follows. The man and his wife were naked and not ashamed. The next verse calls the serpent crafty, with a sound-link that is treated in Genesis 3.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.2.1-Gen.2.25.new-testament-reading