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Genesis Chapter 2 "Man Before the Fall" This
Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location
is provided by http://www.theseason.org/ Genesis 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." This chapter begins after the completion of the heavens and the earth, when it is fit for habitation. The "hosts" are the masses of people of every race, created on the sixth day, and their offspring, as each race multiplied "after their kind". "Hosts" in the Hebrew text, is given as "tsaba", which shows a binding unity within each group or race, such as organizing for war. In the Strong's Hebrew dictionary it is # 6635, it comes from the root meaning "to assemble to perform". Each of these souls or people, having been created, now stood ready to pass through this earth age. Each soul having the free will to choose light, or darkness. Genesis 2:2 "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." When God rested on the seventh day, all forms of plant and animal life was in existence, and man was the last in the creative process of God. In ancient writings from the second century A.D., translated from [Sanhedrin viii, 7]; "Why was man created last? That the heretics might not say there was a companion with Him in the work, i.e., that man should not have claim to share with Him." The work was finished on the sixth day, and all activity of God's creative efforts stopped on the seventh day. God rested from all the work involving the universe. Genesis 2:3 "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." All the rejuvenation that took place was finished. Though the so-called "higher critics" say there is a change in authorship from the "P" to the "J" manuscripts, because we are using our commentary from Ezra and Nehemiah's "Massoretic text" manuscripts of Dr C. D. Ginsburg, there should be no conflict in the continuation of thought between the first and second chapters of Genesis. Both chapters come from the same source, and not separate authorships written years apart. Genesis 2:4 "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens," Genesis 2:5 "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground." It is clearly understood that the fish, the fowl, all the wild animals of every kind are created, and living on earth. All races of mankind have also been created, and multiplying also, except the Adamic [white] race. With all this life, God is stating that there still is "no man to till the ground"; to be a farmer. Genesis 2:6 "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." This "mist" is the morning dew that watered the earth. Genesis 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." The word "formed" is used [molded as clay] to describe the making of Adam. When man was formed he became a living creature. In the Hebrew it is "eth-ha-adham", which refers to the particular person "Adam", (not a generic form for man). The "Ha-Adham" [Adam] is the man that Christ will come forth through. Matthew 1:1-17, and Luke 3:23-38 both give us our documentation that this is true and did come to pass. Paul states in I Corinthians 15:21-23 that sin came into the world by the first Adam, but by the second Adam [Christ} all shall be made alive. Christ is the first fruits [to come out of the grave to everlasting life], and then "they that are Christ's at His coming". There was death by the first Adam, and salvation by Christ Himself. Genesis 2:8 "(And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed." In this "Eden" which God had formed, He put "eth-ha adham" [not any man, but "the Adam"]. This is the man "Adam" formed from clay in Genesis 2:7, and not the "male and female" of the races of the sixth day creation of Genesis 1:27-28. Eden is a special place that God made, following the seventh day of rest, for a special man called Adam. God first created the wilderness, then the creatures, followed by male and female of all races; and then He rested. This Adam is of the eighth day creation, when God formed Adam, and we will see that when Cain went to the wilderness, he married into the sixth day creation's offspring. Genesis 2:9 "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." This "Garden of Eden" is a special place other then the fields and plant life of the six days of creation. It may have been a special planting, and when sin entered into the garden of Eden, the plant life as well as Adam were lost. There are two trees mentioned here in the midst of the garden. They were the "Tree of Life", which is Christ, and the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", which is Satan. The "Tree of Life" was taken away from man when he was cast from the garden, and that "Tree of Life" is Christ in His saving role. In Revelation 22:2-4 we see when He shall be given back to man, in that eternal city. The 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is addressed in Ezekiel 31, this is where it identifies this tree in Eden as Satan. Are we talking about trees or men? The trees are symbols used for men. Genesis 2:10 "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." Genesis 2:11 "The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;" "Pison" is a river west of the Euphrates, called "Pallukat", in the region of Nabonidos, or the Pallakopas Canal". The river Pallukat [or Pison] encircled the northern borders of the great Sandy desert, which stretched westward to the Mountain chain of Midian and the Siani. "Havilah" then is the region of the sand, as recorded in Genesis 25:18. "Shur" would be the border on the east end of "Havilah". Genesis 2:12 "And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone." Genesis 2:13 "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." "Gihon" is a river east of the Tigris. The supplier to the river is the modern "Kerkhah", and in ancient times, "Khoases"; rising in the Mountains of Kassi. "Kas" has long been confused in the Hebrew with "Cush". It is not in the land of Cush, or Ethiopia of Aftica, but the acadian "Kas". Genesis 2:14 "And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates." The "Hiddekel" is the accadian name for the "Tigrus" river, which was called "Idiqla", and means "encircling". The Assyria of this verse is not the country of Assyria that overthrew the old "House of Israel, but comes from the Hebrew name "Hashshur" [Asshur], a primative city destroyed centuries prior to Abraham's time." The river "Euphrates" gets its name from the Greeks, during the reign of Alexander the Great, in the fourth century before Christ. It's original name was "Ufratu", from the old Persians. This is why most people fix the original garden of Eden in Iraq. Genesis 2:15 "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.)" Notice that God didn"t take just any of His creation's, but "Ha-Adham", the man Adam, to take care of the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:16 "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:" God supplied all the trees for the enjoyment and nourishment of Adam. There were no limits placed on Adam, except for one. Genesis 2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Verse seventeen is an extension to verse sixteen, and sets the only conditional limit to what Adam could do. The" tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is Satan, and he represents that evil tree today, just as he did in the garden of Eden. Tradition has so distorted this verse that most Christians today believe it was an actual tree spoken of, and in fact they will even tell you it was an apple tree. They do this in ignorance because they have not studied God's Word. The "trees" are symbols for people, and the Bible has identified them. The three trees talked about in verses sixteen and seventeen are the "Knowledge" [Satan], which was man's ruin; The "cross" in which I Peter 2:24 sets the way for man's redemption; and "The Tree of Life" which is Christ, and offers man's regeneration. "In the day that thou eatest" gives us the key to understand man's physical span of life. For Peter gives us the key to this understanding in II Peter 3:8; "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." No man has ever exceeded the thousand year period, not even "Methuselah" who lived "nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died." [Genesis 5:27] This is the verse that Satan misquotes to Eve, and when questioned by God, and Eve likewise misquotes it back to God. [Genesis 3:3] God told Adam that the day he touches Satan, "thou shalt surely die". And later, after the fact, Eve is repeating it back to God; "God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Just a little half truth. However Satan takes it one step beyond in verse four; "And the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die:" Then Eve believed Satan's lie. We will get deeper into this in the next chapter. Genesis 2:18 "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." "That the man" refers to a particular man; Adam (eth-ha-adham). This sets Adam apart from the other races created on the sixth day creation. The term "help meet" in the Hebrew text, should be translated "as his counterpart". Genesis 2:19 "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." These creatures that God created and brought to Adam, are what we would call domestic animals, or farm animals. God does things in a natural way, and the nature and reason for Adam's [Ha-adham's] existence was to till the soil [farming], so we see the need for these animals existed. So let's review the order of the creation physical life on earth to this point: First came the trees, grass, and plant life; followed by the fish and the fowl [birds] on the fourth day. Second in the order God, created the beasts of the field, or the wild animals on the fifth day. Third in the order of creation came male and female, all the races except for Adam {eth-Ha-Adham}, and this was done on the sixth day. Fourth in the order of God's creation was the time on the seventh day for rest. Fifth in the order of God's creation, on the eighth day [or a time beyond] God formed Adam, [eth-Ha-adham] to till the soil. The last order of the creation to this point is the creation of all domestic animals, for the use by Adam, and his naming of them. Genesis 2:20 "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." So though the races had their male and female counterparts, God has given only the domestic animals, and no wife to Adam.. Remember, God's order for His creation was "kind after kind". In the term; "..there was not found an help meet for him", indicates that God never intended for the mixing of the races. This is why "there was not found" a wife for Adam. There is no documentation which spells out the method of God's creation for the other races, and whatever is said is pure speculation; However, all the races are God's children, and God loves all his children. Genesis 2:21 "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;" Adam was made in the image of God, and the angels, however, Adam is about to have surgery to change something." Does this mean that man is one rib short? Of course not. The word "rib" in the Hebrew text is "Tsela", and Strong's Dictionary numbers it # 6763, from the prime root, # 6760; "to curve". What that surgery was, has as many answers as there is people guessing. However, we know that Eve was formed from Adam by the use of surgery. Genesis 2:22 "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man." We know the man in this verse is Adam, because verse twenty two is part of verse twenty one. God set this woman apart from all other women living then, that were formed through the sixth day creation. It will be through this woman that the Christ child would come [be born], and from her daughters. The documentation connecting Eve [this woman] and the Christ child is given in Luke 3:23-38. The only way your soul will obtain eternal life is through that Christ child, and through His shed blood on the cross, and our repentance and acceptance of Him . Genesis 2:23 "And Adam 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." There were no women in the world that was [the first earth age], for all souls were the same in the first earth age. The same angelic body form that the angels have in this earth age, is the form that our souls had in the first earth age. There were no females, for all souls of that age are referred to as "sons", or in the masculine sense, by God. My personal opinion is that God took the stronger souls and put them in the female bodies, because the can take a lot more pain then men, through childbirth. Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." When a man and woman replenishes the earth, they both become one flesh through their offspring. Spiritually they are one flesh anyway, for "what God has brought together, let no man put asunder". The greatest gift that God gave to man, was a woman to be his helpmate. Genesis 2:25 "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Why were they not ashamed? They had not met the snake yet. They had not partaken of the person known as "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil", and the world knows him as Satan. To continue into Genesis and get the full understanding of what happened in the garden of Eden, you have to go into the Hebrew Text. That understanding has had a bearing on all mankind, and even effects prophecy in these final days. It requires a concordance which is numbered to the Hebrew dictionary. This will allow you to take the Hebrew words, and concepts back to the prime root meaning. Strong's Exhaustive concordance with Hebrew and Greek dictionary is probably the best study tool on the market today. The Companion Bible, which follows the King James 1611 edition, combined with the Massorah text, compiled by Dr. C. D. Ginsburg from the ancient Massorah manuscripts, is by far the most superior and accurate of all versions on the market today. The Companion Bible is not a New Translation, and it is not an amended translation; it is not even a commentary. By using the original text, it is giving you exactly what the words of the original text mean, the Bible itself becomes the interpreter of God's Word, and His Will. It is by the use of the Companion Bible, by Kregel publications that we will continue our studies into these Scriptures.
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