Knowing The Word in Genesis 2:4, The Creation of Man and Woman

4 These are the generations [is the first of 10 titles to major sections of Genesis; is the heading to the narratives in chapters 2-4 about the primeval history of mankind in three stories of Adam and his sons: the garden of Eden (2:5-3:24); the murder of Abel (4:1-16), and Cain’s family (4:17-26), which introduce the concept of sin and discloses the world being engulfed in an avalanche of violence that leads to the flood of chapter 6] of the heavens and the earth when they were created [implies the characters in Gen 2 & 3 are as real as the patriarchs], in the day that the Lord God [this particular divine title occurs only once (Ex 9:30) in the Pentateuch outside Gen 2-3] made the earth and the heavens. [Notice the intentional inversion of words. “These are the generations” describe what is generated by the heavens and the earth—namely Adam and Eve and their progeny—not the process by which they themselves are generated. This verse makes an excellent title for what follows. It is not a postscript for what preceded it. Instead it gives the background for the decisive events of chapter 3.]

The garden story falls into two halves: 1) (2:2-25) the creation of man and his wife and 2) (3:1-14) the temptation and fall from the garden. Chapter 2 further subdivides into 1) the creation of man and the garden (vv 5-17); and 2) the creation of woman (vv 18-25). Chapter 3 has five sections. The narrative falls into seven chiastic scenes:

1 2:5-17 Narrative God is the sole actor: man is present but passive

2 2:18-25 Narrative God is the main actor, man has a minor role, and the woman and animal are passive

3 3:1-5 Dialogue Snake and woman

4 3:6-8 Narrative Man and woman

5 3:9-13 Dialogue God, man, and woman

6 3:14-21 Narrative God is the main actor, man has a minor role, and the woman and snake are passive

7 3:22-25 Narrative God is the sole actor: man is passive

Scene 1 matches scene 7, scene 2 matches scene 6, scene 3 matches scene 5, and scene 4 constitutes the centerpiece of the narrative when the couple eat of the forbidden fruit. In scene 1 man is made from “the dust of the ground” and placed in the garden. In scene 7 he is driven out of the garden to work the ground [the dust] from which he was created, with the implication he will return back to the dust from which he was made. In both scenes 2 and 6 God the creator is supreme. Man comes next: his superiority to the animals is indicated by giving them names. Similarly, man’s authority over woman is implied in his twofold naming her “woman” (2:25) and “Eve” (3:20), yet as the perfect match for man she is superior to the animals. Both scenes end with statements about the woman’s role as wife and mother (2:24; 3:20) and about clothing (2:25; 3:21). Scenes 3 and 5 are essentially dialogues about eating the fruit of the tree and its consequences. Both take place inside the garden, though not at its center. The woman talks of the tree “in the middle of the garden” implying they are some distance from it. Scene 4 stands apart from the rest of the narrative. Here the human actors are alone. Neither God nor the serpent is mentioned. The hierarchy of authority established in scene 2 and reaffirmed in scene 5 is overturned. God-man-woman-animal in scene 2 becomes snake-woman-man-God in scene 4. The order of creation is totally inverted. The whole narrative is a masterpiece of palistrophic writing, the mirror-image style, whereby the first scene matches the last, the second the penultimate, and so on.