Genesis 2 explained: The First Humans in Eden

The seventh day (vv. 1-3)

These verses close the six-day story of chapter 1, and the Hebrew word for 'rested' means 'stopped', not recovering from tiredness. Setting the seventh day apart as holy became the basis for the Sabbath, Israel's weekly day of rest.

Made from dust and breath (vv. 4-7)

Many scholars see a second creation account beginning here, with its own order of events and God's personal name, shown in English as 'the LORD'; others read it as a closer look at the sixth day. God shapes the human from the ground like a potter and breathes life into him, and in Hebrew 'human' (adam) sounds like 'ground' (adamah).

Garden, trees and rivers (vv. 8-14)

Eden is often linked to a word meaning 'delight', and its two special trees stand for unending life and for knowing good and evil, a phrase whose exact meaning scholars debate. The Tigris (the ASV keeps its Hebrew name, Hiddekel) and Euphrates are real rivers of Mesopotamia, but the Pishon and Gihon cannot be identified, so no one knows where the garden was meant to be.

Work and one limit (vv. 15-17)

The human is given work from the start, to tend and guard the garden, and only one tree is forbidden, with no reason given. The ASV says death comes 'in the day' he eats while the NIV says 'when', and since he does not die that day in chapter 3, readers take it as becoming mortal, losing closeness with God, or both.

Not good to be alone (vv. 18-20)

Being alone is the first thing in the Bible called 'not good', and none of the animals the man names is the partner he needs. Translations word this differently ('suitable helper' in the NIV, 'help meet' in the ASV), but the Hebrew means a helper who matches him, and the same word for helper is used of God himself elsewhere.

Bone of my bones (vv. 21-25)

The Hebrew word translated 'rib' usually means 'side' elsewhere, and the man's cry plays on 'man' (ish) and 'woman' (ishah) to say she shares his very nature. Verse 24, which Jesus later quotes about marriage, pictures a bond closer than ties to parents, and the couple's unashamed nakedness shows a trust that chapter 3 will break.

Key verse: Genesis 2:7

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this chapter is literal history or a story told in images, and on whether the woman being made second and called a helper points to distinct roles for men and women or to a partnership of equals.

Something to think about

The story's first 'not good' is being alone; when have you felt that most sharply, and what eased it, if anything did?