Genesis 2: 4b 9, 15 25 The Second Creation Story

Target year level: Prep, Year One, Year Two

Scripture text

World behind the text

The Book of Genesis is the first book of a compilation of five books (the Pentateuch) that probably took final form around the time of the Babylonian Exile. The exile was the deportation of the Jewish people to Babylon from around 586 to 538 BCE after the Babylonians captured Jerusalem. The theological concerns reflected in these stories are of this particular people living in exile. These people are in exile and are looking for ways to preserve or refashion their traditions. (Lessons from the Book of Genesis, Dianne Bergant)

Biblical scholarship has convincingly identified four ancient traditions (or ‘authors’) who shaped the text of the first five books of the bible.The ‘author’ of this second creation story is sometimes called the Yahwist (J), because they used the name ‘YHWH’ for God. This is often seen in biblical texts translated into English as LORD.

World of the text

This second creation story in Genesis (2:4b-9, 15-25) “seeks to explain the relationship of human beings to God, to the created world and to each other”. This second creation story is especially etiologicalin its intent. This means that the narrative is written to explain why the world is as it is. It answers fundamental human questions about the meaning of human lives and the origins of sin and suffering.

The YHWH God (LORD God) is shown as being ‘down to earth’ and intimately involved with the people. He is not afraid of getting his hands dirty! He creates man from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7) and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. YHWH God plants a garden, and puts the man in the garden to look after it. Both the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil are placed at the centre of the garden but YHWH God asks the man not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (vv. 15-17)

YHWH God is concerned that the man might be lonely. He gives the man the responsibility of naming the animals and en-fleshes a woman from his rib so that he will have a partner. (vv. 18-25)

The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil are a figurative device for the ways humans are different from God. The man was not prohibited from eating from the tree of life but was warned that the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil would cause death. (vv. 16-17)

World in front of the text

Some fundamentalist Christians use the creation stories to argue against modern scientific theories of evolution. This idea is contrary to Catholic teaching which sees modern scientific knowledge as enriching our admiration of the Creator (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 110 and 283) As early as the 4^th Century, St Augustine taught that the whole purpose of the scriptures was to explain God’s plan for the world and its salvation, not to supply theories of natural science.

This creation story is used in the Lectionary as a scripture reading for the First Sunday of Lent (Year A) and for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B).

The ‘history’ and ‘geography’ of the creation stories are figurative rather than actual; they are not intended to be scientific, historic or geographical explanations of our origins. The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the truths expressed through this story about creation – “its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation.” (ccc 289)