Creation According to Puppets...
The Creation of Adam
“The second creation story begins with an observation about the uncultivated condition of the earth (v. 5). This serves as the reason for God’s decision to make the man.”
In the story God forms a man out of the ground.
The word “adam” can refer to a specific man as well as to mankind in general.
Here, “adam” refers to humanity in general, but also to the specific first man.
The word “adamah” is also used in this text. It is the word for “dirt” or “ground.”
When God forms man out of the dust of the ground, He “breathes” life into the man’s nostrils.
The Garden of Eden
God takes the man he has created from the dirt and places him in the Garden of Eden.
God then causes the ground to make trees grow out of it, including two special trees located in the very center of the garden – The Tree of Life, and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The River of Life
Verses 10-14 give a description of the rivers of the Garden of Eden.
The picture given here is that this garden is the center or source of life for the whole world.
In the New Testament, a similar illustration is given in the end of the book of Revelation. At the end of the Bible, just like in the beginning, there is seen a tree of life standing with life-giving water flowing out to the whole world.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
This tree is to be understood as a symbol of some turning point in the history of humanity.
What is the “knowledge”?
Sentience?
Humanity’s moral values and judgment?
Omniscient knowledge?
Sexual awakening?
The tree symbolizes the choice that is given to every person who has ever lived – the choice to choose good or evil.
The Tree of Life
Genesis does not say that God created humanity immortal as some have interpreted it to say, but rather that humanity was given the possibility of becoming immortal.
Sin did not cause immortal people to become mortal. Sin caused mortal people to lose access to ability to become immortal.
The dust in this story is a symbol of mortality. God has made his creation - plants, animals, people - from the dust, mortal; but he also provides a way for his creation to become immortal, as seen in the symbol of the Tree of Life.
"Immortal humans have no need of a tree of life."
In other biblical texts, the tree of life is associated with:
Wisdom
Righteousness
Hope
Healing of relationships
Eternal reward for one’s faithfulness.
The Creation of Woman
God decides that it is not good for the man to be alone and that he must be given a helper suitable for him.
The man names the animals.
The animals are not suitable helpers for the man.
God takes a rib out of the man and creates a woman out of it.
When the man wakes up and sees the woman, he begins singing:
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
The text goes on to poetically explain:
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
"Wait a minute. Doesn't the biblical author know that Israel was a patrilocal society? Why is he speaking of the groom doing the leaving?
The message of the biblical writer is one of critique. Everyone knew that the relational burden of forming a new household fell upon the woman in Israel's society. Everyone knew that it was she who was uprooted and isolated by the process. Yet the earliest and most foundational word we have regarding marriage states that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. They shall become one flesh.
This is an intentional reversal on the part of the biblical author. He is intending to communicate something like this: 'Young man, although you have all the benefits and comforts in this system, from this day onward you shall live your life as though you too have left. She is now bone of your bones and flesh of your flesh. Your most significant kinship alliance, as of today, is her.'"
Men and women were created for the benefit of each other.
Men and women also were first created with childlike innocence, as indicated in the passage: "The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame."
The Turning Point
The story then says that the man and the woman both ate from the tree after seeing that the fruit was “pleasing to the eye” and “desirable for gaining wisdom.”
After this, the man and woman are changed and they become ashamed of their nakedness. They put fig leaves around their waists and go hide in the woods.
This event symbolizes a turning point in the history of humanity. Humans have now become capable of distinguishing between good and evil.
Being like God vs. becoming God
Genesis 1 says that humans were already “like” God.
Humans already understood “knowledge of goodness.”
They existed in perfect relationship with God.
In “the Fall of Mankind” we see humanity’s desire to not just be like God in His perfect goodness, but to become God Himself.
Humans desire to decide for themselves what is “good” and what is “evil” rather than listen to God.
Hide and Seek
In the story, the man and the woman hear the sound of God walking around in the garden.
God calls out to them, “Where are you?”
Throughout history, God has always been calling out to us, and we have always been hiding from him.
The man and woman eventually show themselves and confess their new fear of God because they have declared war on Him.
The Blame-Game
The man and the woman refuse to take responsibility for their actions, blaming each other, the serpent, and God Himself.
The Curses
God then pronounces curses upon all three individuals in poetic style, first to the snake, then the woman, then the man.
He tells the serpent that because of what he has done he will from then on crawl on his belly and eat dust forever.
He tells the woman that her husband will now rule over her and that she will also have terrible pain in childbirth.
He tells the man that he will always find his work on earth to be extremely frustrating and that there will be thorns and thistles in his life until he eventually dies. – “for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”
Protoevangelium
Means “The Gospel in advance.”
God predicts that the descendants of the serpent and the descendants of the woman will always be at war with each other.
“He will crush your head, and you will strike his heal.”
In Jewish tradition, the serpent came to represent the evil forces at work against the people of God.
Throughout the Old Testament, serpent-imagery is used to describe the enemies of God’s people who are eventually crushed by “the descendant of Eve.”
Notable examples:
David and Goliath
Jael and General Sisera
Abimelech and the woman with the millstone
Christians interpret Gen. 3:15 to mean that one day Christ would once and for all crush the head of the devil.
Banishment and death
At the end of Genesis 3, God banishes humanity from living in the Garden of Eden.
Humanity can no longer exist in a perfect relationship with God because humanity has ceased to be perfect.
Physical and spiritual death
No more access to “The Tree of Life.”
Access will one day be restored through Christ.
Other Creation Stories of the Bible
If we are to take every poetic word of the Genesis creation accounts in their purely literal form, then we must do the same for the many other creation stories in the Bible that are also poetic in nature.
For example, what would compel us to read literally the place in Genesis where God creates the woman from the man's rib, while at the same time dismissing the creation account in Job which says that God used a measuring line (a ruler) when he made the earth? Both accounts are equally poetic.
There are many creation stories in the Bible, and they are no less important than the ones found in Genesis. Examples...
Psalm 74:12-17
But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.
he brings salvation on the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
you established the sun and moon.
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.
you made both summer and winter.
Isaiah 51:9-16
Awake, awake, arm of the Lord,
clothe yourself with strength!
Awake, as in days gone by,
as in generations of old.
Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces,
who pierced that monster through?
Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made a road in the depths of the sea
so that the redeemed might cross over?
the waters of the great deep,
who made a road in the depths of the sea
so that the redeemed might cross over?
Those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
“I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
human beings who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker,
who stretches out the heavens
and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction?
For where is the wrath of the oppressor?
Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
human beings who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker,
who stretches out the heavens
and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction?
For where is the wrath of the oppressor?
The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;
they will not die in their dungeon,
nor will they lack bread.
they will not die in their dungeon,
nor will they lack bread.
For I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar —
the Lord Almighty is his name.
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar —
the Lord Almighty is his name.
I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you with the shadow of my hand —
I who set the heavens in place,
who laid the foundations of the earth,
and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people. ’”
and covered you with the shadow of my hand —
I who set the heavens in place,
who laid the foundations of the earth,
and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people. ’”
Isaiah 40: 12-15, 21-22, 25-26
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Job 38: 4-21
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone — while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?
“Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
“What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!
Proverbs 3:19-20
By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
by understanding he set the heavens in place;
by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
and the clouds let drop the dew.
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Sources
Walton, Dr. John. The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. IVP Academic, 2009.
Dr. Ray Vander Laan. “Focus
Institute Lecture Series: The Blood Path.” (lecture presented at Focus on the
Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 2009).
Richter, Sandra. The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. IVP Academic, 2008.
Richter, Sandra. The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. IVP Academic, 2008.
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