1That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. 2By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had done. 3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested from all the work he had done in his creation. 4 ① These are the successive steps in the creation of the heavens and the earth.
First Part: the origin of humanity
The story of Eden
5On the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens,there was not yet on the earth any shrub of the fields, nor had any plant yet sprung up, for Yahweh God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the earth, 6but a mist went up from the earth and watered the surface of the earth.
7Then Yahweh God formed Man, dust drawn from the clay, and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and Man became alive with breath. 8God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he placed Man whom he had created. 9Yahweh God caused to grow from the ground every kind of tree that is pleasing to see and good to eat, also the tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
10A river flowed from Eden to water the garden and from there it divided to form four main streams. 11The name of the first river is Pishon. It is the one that flows around all the country of Havilah where there is gold, 12and the gold of that country is good; bidellium and onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flows around all the land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Tigris. It is the one that flows to the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15Yahweh God took Man and placed him in the garden of Eden to till it and take care of it. 16Then Yahweh God gave an order to Man saying, “You may eat of every tree in the garden, 17but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will not eat, for on the day you eat of it, you will die.”
18Yahweh God said, “It is not good for Man to be alone; I will give him a helper who will be like him.” 19Then Yahweh God formed from the earth all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air and brought them to Man to see what he would call them; and whatever Man called every living creature, that was its name.
20So Man gave names to all the cattle, the birds of the air and to every beast of the field. But he did not find among them a helper like himself. 21Then Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to come over Man and he fell asleep. He took one of his ribs and filled its place with flesh. 22The rib which Yahweh God had taken from Man he formed into a woman and brought her to the man. 23The man then said, “Now this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken from man.” 24That is why man leaves his father and mother and is attached to his wife, and with her becomes one flesh. 25Both the man and his wife were naked and were not ashamed.
- Gen 2,4 Following the creation of the universe that takes up the first chapter of Genesis, the Bible presents a much older account: Man and Woman in the garden of Eden. For us it is like a dream of lost happiness, but this is not the way its author intended it. In those days people did not ask: Where are we going? They thought only in terms of the past: in the beginning, God or the gods had established all things as they ought to be and then everything worked well. Therefore this story of the first couple was like a mirror in which people rediscovered existing human beings, their choices and their future. Consequently, we should not think of a first man Tarzan-like Adam whose sin brought all its trials to humanity. Some of the Fathers of the Church, like Saint Irenaeus, had a better perspective when they considered that human history was directed by the pedagogy of God whose sole ambition was to foster the growth of Adam, namely, humankind, and to bring it to maturity (Eph 4:13). Yahweh, the Holy God, is pictured as the owner of a marvelous garden (Eden means delights) where he likes to take a walk after the heat of the day (3:8). We need not imagine a huge stage: all we have here are two trees, Man and his companion. Animals pass by to be subject to Adam (that is the meaning of naming them in 2:20). But no matter how small the Eden of the human couple is, what takes place there will, in the end, determine the lot of the entire earth. Thus, at the beginning, the small fountain of Eden is seen as feeding the great rivers of the world, especially the Euphrates and the Gihon which are thousands of kilometers apart. Should we speak of Adam or of Man? In Hebrew Adam means any human being. When the word is used as a proper name without the article (as for example in 5:1; 5:3), we say Adam. Here, however, the Bible says the Adam, that is Man, the human one. In this regard, let us recall the words of Origen, the great biblicist who, living in the 3rd century, wrote: As to Adam and his sin, only those who know that in Hebrew Adam means man, will really understand the profound meaning of this story. In those passages presented as the story of Adam, Moses gives his teaching about human nature. Notice how Yahweh, the good craftsman and artist that he is, works the clay with his own hands, looking at the one who is still unable to know him and preparing him to receive from his blowing both breath and life. About breath of life, or the human soul, see paragraph 83 in the index: Biblical Teaching. Humankind in harmony with the created universe: in Eden, Adam is like in an oasis in the middle of the desert. And with the human couple united, all of nature is in order. Adam is placed in the garden to cultivate it: humanity will be built up at the same time as it takes possession of the world. It will have to toil for many centuries in order to develop, to know itself and to know what it can do. God withdrew, but humans live through the grace of God whose breath constantly awakens them so that they will not fall asleep or fall back to where they came from. Should the Spirit abandon the human race, within a few minutes, or generations, Adam would return to dust: Adam, that is, you and me; as well as families, and societies. We may proclaim the death of God, but in fact, men and women without God are the ones who die with all their works. What is the meaning of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Good and evil mean this: what is good and useful and what is not. So this tree is the tree of wisdom, of the art of living and of being happy. God opens up a road of wisdom before humankind, but human beings are free. Will they refuse to travel that road, not to be the ones who know and decide authoritatively what will be good for them? It is not good for Man to be alone (2:18). God, who does not know solitude, created both sexes, not as a necessary means to communicate life, but so that the two might be united in love, the gift of self and shared happiness. He did not find among them a helper like himself (2:20). The parade of animals prepares us to discover the unique value of Woman: she is his companion and not his servant. Adam fell asleep (2:21) so that God might work out a transmutation in him: he would become one in two persons; and this will be a new birth for each one of them. She shall be called woman. In Hebrew the words man and woman begin with the same syllable, a symbol of their profound kinship. On this subject, see Mt 2:15; Lk 8:1; 1 Cor 7:4; 7:10; Eph 5:31. That is why man leaves his father and mother. Jewish custom required a woman to leave her family in order to enter in her husband's clan. Yet, people recalled that in ancient times, it was the opposite: the husband was the one who entered into the woman's clan. In fact, both are running the risk of separating themselves from the family milieu in order to establish a new social unity. They become one flesh: in Hebrew it means that they form one single being. This union of the couple is part of their mission. It is not a provisional agreement to enjoy each other, but the union of a family in which God's work is accomplished. Therefore the family will be fruitful and the two will give back to the large human family the treasure of humanity which they received from it. We cannot reread this phrase without recalling the way it will be taken up in the Gospel (Mt 19:15). Jesus' words on marriage are among his least understood words. Yet the will of God was clear in this ancient text: the years of common life, the efforts to listen to each other, to understand and make decisions together, the capacity to forgive and persevere in fidelity, the shared risk in giving birth and educating a family: those are the means which, little by little, transform the man and the woman, enabling them to gain maturity and a sense of their responsibility. And it is precisely that which God wishes to find in them at the end of their life when he will be all for all. They were naked and were not ashamed. In Hebraic culture, nakedness leaves us defenseless. Thus here, we should understand that the man and the woman accept each other as they are without taking advantage of their respective weaknesses. THE BIBLE AND EVOLUTION We already know that this account does not, in any way, claim to describe the emergence of the human race and so, it cannot be in conflict with science. If we ask today: What was the pre-history of the human race? How is the race connected to other forms of animal life? These are questions that people did not ask and the Word of God provides no answer on the subject. God lets us look for ourselves and this in fact is what scientists do. Some people are shocked that humankind should be drawn from mud; yet in the literature of the ancient East, all the gods created living beings from mud. The author of this narrative followed the folklore of his time and drawing on old legends, gave them a new meaning. Other people are so impressed by materialistic theories - already quite outdated - and their use of evolution, that we have to say something about it here. When Christians think they see opposition between faith and the vision of a world in evolution, it usually comes from the fact that they are confusing three very different questions: 1. Is there an evolution of the entire universe and in particular of living beings? Can we say that all the present or extinct species are part of a same family and come one from the other? Today all who have studied the facts reply affirmatively. 2. What are the causes of such an evolution? The causes of some small evolutions are known, but so far it has been absolutely impossible to explain the most important evolution. From that is deduced the answer to the third question. 3. Are the theories of evolution opposed to faith? These theories are not science but philosophy or imagination, even if they have been formulated by eminent scientists. A believer or a materialist would have full liberty to support an opposing point of view. One final observation. What is amazing for us is that everyone receives from God the spirit which makes a person in the image of God. It is not so important that we owe our body to human parents while the first humans inherited theirs from animal ancestors. God is the one who gives the impulse and orientation to the whole evolution of living beings so that Man would appear in the end, the human one who, in fact, is first in God's plan. A PROPHETIC MESSAGE As we mentioned in the first chapter, in these ancient texts the New Testament will discover all that will become clear in Christ. If Adam re-presents the whole human race, one in its origin and also in its destiny, then Christ is the authentic Adam. From the beginning of creation God has blessed this race where each one has his/her own unique characteristics and yet is inseparable from the whole (Eph 1:1). Our first human ancestor deserves a charitable remembrance, but it is another who counts, who is Man, he who gives us the Spirit (1 Cor 15:45-49). As for the human couple, they are presented as the authentic image of a God who is eternal communion. By creating the couple, God allows us to understand something of the mystery of Christ who presents himself to all of humanity as the Bridegroom (Mk 2:19). From the side of Adam asleep, Eve was born; from the side of Christ, dead on the cross, blood and water flowed (Jn 19:34) which means the birth of a church cleansed through the water of baptism and the blood of Christ (Eph 5:26, 31).
