Here we go with the beginning of the second Creation story. Both Creation stories are believed to have come from ancient oral traditions, stories passed down from generation to generation. (“Grandpa, tell me again how everything was made?”) This Genesis 2 version is likely older by several centuries from the Genesis 1 Creation story. Numerous scholars trace it to an oral tradition as far back as the 10th century B.C.E.1
Beginning with Genesis 2:4, we see “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the LORD God2 made the earth and the heavens.” (Definitely see the footnote for this.)
The story goes on, Genesis 2:5, “No bush of the field was yet in the land, no herb of the field…” etc. has appeared. “The LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) had not caused it to rain and there was not man (a-dam - Earth Creature) to work the ground (ha-adamah).” (Missing is all the celestial stuff, like sun, moon, and stars, there’s no mention of a firmament, and we’ll find we’re going in the reverse order from the Genesis 1 story, in which humans were created last.)
Then in Genesis 2:6 “a mist3 (from ed, meaning “fog, mist, vapor”) came up from the earth (here the Hebrew word is ha-aretz,4 meaning “the land” rather than “dirt or ground” as in ha-adamah) and the mist watered “the whole face of ha-adamah” and Yahweh Elohim formed ha-adam from the dust of ha-adamah and breathed into the nostrils the breath (nishmat,5 from nasham, meaning “to pant”) of life, and ha-adam became a nephesh, a living (hay-yay, from the root chay,6 meaning alive or living) being.
Here are those verses from the New Revised Standard Version:7
Gen. 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6 but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.
So how come the newer version appears first? Hmmm….curious.
When you see LORD in all caps, that means “Yahweh” is the word used in the Hebrew text. So Genesis 2:4 says “Yahweh Elohim,” written as LORD God. More on “Yahweh” later. It’s kind of a big deal and kind of key to my theology.
This might be the most intriguing part of the story for me. A mist, fog, or vapor rises up. No mention of God doing it. Where’d the mist come from? And what’s the significance of it? (I think of mist or fog as obscuring. When it happens in the North Carolina High Country, we drive with our hearts in our throats.)
BIG OLE SIDEBAR: One version translates the text as “…a mist used to rise up…” In Hebrew, verb tense and case are partially indicated by the diacritical marks and vowels that were added to the text, but those weren’t added until the 6th century A.D. and the painstaking work of doing it wasn’t completed until the 10th century A.D. Thus, we have to consider accuracy of transmission in the oral tradition through the generations but also accuracy of transmission in going from oral tradition to written, and from written to the addition of diacritical marks.
One method of tracing the story of how the current accepted texts came to be is called “form criticism,” and it’s fascinating detective work. Hermann Gunkel (writing in the 1920s and 1930s) is considered the founder of this branch of Biblical criticism. Gerhard von Rad carried Gunkel’s work forward along with Martin Noth writing in the mid-1900s.
If you really wanna nerd out, read more about the Dead Sea Scrolls, maybe the most significant find ever for Biblical scholarship. They contain two incomplete papyrus fragments of Genesis that date to roughly around the 3rd century B.C.E.
Haaretz is also the name of Israel’s long-running (since 1918) newspaper.
I expected to see ruah here, like the breath, Spirit, wind from Genesis 1:2. Interesting difference that form criticism might note.
“Chay” is where the Jewish toast, “L’chaim - To Life” comes from.
“The New Revised Standard Version was translated by the Division of Christian Education (now Bible Translation and Utilization) of the National Council of Churches. The group included scholars representing Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christian groups as well as Jewish representation in the group responsible for the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. The mandate given the committee was summarized in a dictum: “As literal as possible, as free as necessary.”
We’ll talk more about different versions of the Bible at another time. Different versions serve different purposes, and it’s helpful, I think, to know more about them.
Next post here: Eden.
I find a bit of comfort in the lack of details. There are times when the Genesis 1 account seems too clear, prescriptive, and orderly. In this account, I can almost hear an grizzled old storyteller being asked for more details and replying, "The whole of it is beyond explanation."
It’s interesting to me that God breathed life into the nostrils of man. Traditional Polynesian greeting includes rubbing noses and sharing breaths - you breathe in the others “mana” or essence.