At first glance, it would appear that the verses of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 are vague. They do not appear to come out and tell us specifically whether God created one man and one woman, or an abundance of men and women. But is it really vague, or are we not looking at it in its proper context? It uses the term “man” in the generic sense, which can be taken as singular or plural, as can “male and female” be used in the singular or the plural context. What Genesis does say about man is that man was made in the image of God. By examining what God says about himself in his opening statements of the scripture, and by observing his previous creations, we have a clue as to what God was doing at the time of creation.
From the statement in Gen. 1:26, “Let ‘us’ make man ….”, we find that God is a plurality. He was not talking about himself, but he speaks to his Son (John 1:1 ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God), and the Spirit. (Gen. 1:1 ‘and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters’).
We also know that he lavishly and richly supplied the earth with foliage and water and beasts of every imaginable kind to inhabit. These he made in copious number. He makes man in his image, both male and female, and he says to them “Be fruitful and multiply and REPLENISH the earth.”
Man was instructed to REFILL the earth; to supply it anew. If God had created just one man and just one woman, his command to them would have been to FILL UP the earth, not REFILL the earth. God further tells them, “have dominion over everything that moves upon the earth.” What sway, control, or authority might a single man and a single woman have over the abundance of animals created in the prior verses of Genesis? Their lives would be in constant danger of predator animals. However, there is strength in numbers. Several male and female of the species of man could reasonably carry out these commands.
It must be noted here that there is no mention in the first chapter of Genesis of special instructions being given to the newly created males and females, such as not eating from a specific tree. No boundaries are set. In fact, God says they are to replenish the earth and to have dominion over it: All the animals, ALL the trees, ALL the earth! Gen. 1:29 “Behold, I have given you EVERY herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of ALL the earth … to you it shall be for food.”
God had made the entire, spherical earth. God looked over his creation, all that he had made, and called it good and he rested. God finished his creation in six days and in Chapter 2, when everything has been placed in motion, he says some very unusual things. First, he says in Gen. 2:4 “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.” Generations indicates more than one generation. Generation, singular, is defined in the dictionary as the term of years accepted as the average period between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring. Conveniently, God gives us a glimpse into what he might have meant in using the term in the plural. This clue comes from II Pet. 3:8 where he says, “But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day.” One must speculate how long man was upon the face of the earth until God says the following: Gen. 2:5 “And there was not a man to till the ground.” Science has proven that the earth existed many thousands of years before Adam and Eve were in existence. God has simply stated what anthropologists have discovered: That there was a time when man did not cultivate the earth. In an Introduction to Anthropology, it states, “Most anthropologists and historians believe that the earliest domestication of food sources, and hence the first steps toward population growth and complex social organization, occurred in the Near East in the region of the Tigress-Euphrates rivers.” (3) Cultivation of the earth is mentioned here because that was the job assigned to Adam. Further on in an Introducation to Anthropology it says, “The characteristics of the pre-agricultural Natufian settlements of the Near East have been analyzed in detail ….”(4) In Gen. 2:5, God states it more succinctly, “and there was not a man to till the ground.”
Two things are instantly clear from this statement. First, God has to have created no one in Genesis 1, or he has made a mistake in Genesis 2 with his statement that no man was found to till the ground. Actually, neither of the two is incorrect. It appears that what God has done is this: He has completed the making of man (the hunter); both male and female. He has given them clear instructions and has rested from his work. And in Chapter 2 He creates a special man for a specific purpose.
The next detail to notice is where He places the Adam of Genesis 2 when He creates him. The Bible says that God placed him in Eden, and the rivers bordering that land are Pishon, which encompassed the whole land of Havilah; the Gihon, which encompassed the whole land of Cush; the Giddekel, or Tigress, which went in from Assyria, and the Euphrates.
In Genesis 1, God tells his created male and female species to subdue the earth. He also tells them he is giving them every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of ALL the earth. In Genesis 2, Jehovah God plants “a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” God sets this man, named Adam, in the middle of a garden, and gives him boundaries, as well as orders to dress and keep the garden. Further, he instructs this Adam NOT to eat of a certain tree. This is in total conflict with the instructions he has previously given to the male and female creation of Genesis 1.
It appears that God has created in Genesis 1 a panoply of men and women; some brown in color, some yellow, some red and some white; some with blond hair, some with black, some with red; some with round, almond-shaped eyes, some sloe-eyed; some hairless, others not. And God beholds the generations of his handiwork and rests on the seventh day. He then decides to place on earth a special man for a specific purpose: a land-owner, a tiller of the ground – someone who will do what heretofore has not been done. So he creates a new race of people, different from those he has already created. God creates Adam, the Jew, a tiller of the ground to bring civilization to the world and a deeper knowledge of God so that man might acknowledge God in all that he does.
God brings before this man, Adam, all that he has created so Adam can name them. God introduces Adam to all that He has made: the skies and seas, the trees and fields and flowers and animals, and – oh yes, of course, God introduces Adam to the population of the world that Adam will be dealing with and living around.
Gen. 2:20 says, “But for man there was not found a help meet for him:” The most inconceivable aspect of this statement of scripture is the absurdity of thinking that God ever wanted Adam to take what the Bible refers to as a “help meet” from the animals. Lev. 18:23 makes this absolutely clear because it states, “Thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto: it is confusion.” 1 Cor. 14:33 says, “For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.”
The theory of evolution may sound plausible initially, but consider that the apes, from which man is supposed to have evolved, are exactly that, apes, i.e. beasts. Did the female of the species evolve as rapidly as the male, and were they both human when they mated, or half human, half ape, or ape and human? If God’s law is supreme, then we have immense confusion with evolution. Not only does the theory of evolution not make sense, neither does it make sense that God would expect Adam to choose a help meet from the animal kingdom.
God brings before Adam every creature he has created for Adam to name. This naming of God’s creation is not an exercise in futility, however. By allowing Adam this privilege, God establishes Adam’s position as being superior to everything and everybody else. It sets the stage for the statement that a help meet could not be found for Adam.
First, notice that Adam was given a special area: Eden, and he was given special instructions for that area. He was to dress and keep the garden, and he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was given an area in which the “gold of that land was good”, and God gave Adam his choice of all that he had created, both to name, and from which to obtain a help meet. Apparently Adam considered himself very special because he refused all the women that God had made. So God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and from his rib, God made a woman of the same race as Adam. Suddenly, Adam has something to shout about! She was bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, and she was to be called Woman because she had been taken out of Man. Not only is she bone of his bone, but she shared the same interests as he did, namely cultivating rather than hunting, and they settle into the geographic area designated by God for Adam. Adam was not given the freedom to roam the earth, or have dominion over it.
Out of Eden, the river formed four heads. The first was the Pishon, which encompassed the land of Havilah where there was gold. “AND THE GOLD OF THAT LAND WAS GOOD.”
One must consider the positioning of this statement from Gen. 2:12. At the time of Adam’s creation, God says that the gold of the area Adam has been given to inhabit is good. Assuming Adam and Eve are the only people on earth, what could this gold possibly be good for? However, if there are, in fact, other humans as indicated by Genesis 1, then this statement makes perfect, logical sense. As I doubt Eve was mercenary, (or that she expected equal pay for equal work) then God’s statement must, of necessity, apply to the other aspect of God’s creation.
Let’s take a closer look at the Adam God has created in Genesis 2. He did not create a superior race, but he did create a different race, and Adam was a different race and a special person within that race. This man, and eventually this race, was to prove to the rest of mankind that God is real. This man, Adam, is special from the standpoint that he has the protection and blessings of God. God has created the Jew. And what would Adam, the Jew, need with gold? Could it be he would buy and sell and get gain? Perhaps he was to harvest his garden. Perhaps he traded this harvest for livestock and cattle, or instruments of brass.
The abundant blessing and riches with which God would bless Adam would cause even the hardest of hearts to admit their need of God. Mankind could be provoked through jealousy to turn to this God to receive all the same blessings that Adam had received. God describes using this same reasoning on the Jew when the Gentile is accepted by God for salvation. (Rom 10:19)
It is at this point that mankind begins to flourish and prosper. Perhaps that is why scientists find so little pertaining to man before this period, and they find so much after this period. It also can be speculated that God’s saving hand of grace saved mankind from possible extinction, considering the minimal amount of archaeological findings science has been able to produce in regard to man before agriculture was introduced into man’s world.
The garden of Eden has always been pictured and described by church goers as a place of perfection. But was it? The Bible says that in Eden, Adam and Eve were both naked and were not ashamed. But was this nakedness in the sense of wearing no clothing, or was this nakedness in the sense of a truly pure, innocent, and open heart toward God?
Isaiah 51:3 tells us that in Eden there was joy and gladness, and thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Ezek. 28 likens the position of the king of Tyre to that of being in the Garden of Eden. In that chapter, it says that the king “was in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold…and I set thee, so that thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee.” From this we have an indication that Adam was very richly supplied, and that he was made perfect “in all his ways”.
Rich, lavish dress has always been a show of affluence and prosperity. Consider the royal crowns of Europe and Asia, and you have a good idea of how important dress is. From the ego Adam appears to have had just in the choosing of a mate, it does not seem to be in the least bit unreasonable to conclude that he would have been extravagantly dressed to proclaim his excellence in the world, nor does it appear that this is unacceptable from God’s point of view, seeing as God has placed all this at Adam’s disposal. Notice along with gold, all the jewels available to Adam in that area. And Adam was “perfect in all his ways” until unrighteousness was found in him.
In Genesis 2:16, Adam is told by God, “Do not eat of the fruit of this tree” (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) “for in the day you eat of the fruit of this tree, you shall surely die.” Churches have frequently used this statement to indicate that man was to live forever. (Forever is indicative of living 1,000 years.) This belief is probably because the oldest of the patriarchs, Methuselah, lived 969 years. Since he died before he reached 1,000 years of age, then Adam was destined to live 1,000 years i.e. forever.
Some churches teach that this means spiritual death rather than physical death seeing as how Adam did not physically die when he disobeyed God’s command. Churches claim that Adam would have lived forever if he had not sinned. Oddly enough, the Bible does not indicate that man was ever to live forever when he was initially placed on earth.
The Bible refers to “perfect in all his ways” in Isaiah, but nowhere does the Bible allude to Adam’s living forever, or that Adam himself was a perfect individual. Even Jesus was not made handsome or physically beautiful, but he was “perfect in all his ways” and he became perfect through the things that he suffered. Heb. 5: 8-9
Adam was made in like perfection, but he fell sadly short of his purpose. It has been argued whether man was intended to live forever, and in particular, Adam. From a biblical standpoint, several passages clearly specify this is not true. The first of these is in Genesis 1:28, where God commands man to go forth and multiply and replenish the earth. Unless physical death occurred, there would be no reason for replenishment. In Genesis 3, when Adam has eaten of the forbidden fruit, he does not physically die, but suffers a spiritual death or separation that interferes with his relationship with God. He dies to the abundant blessings and protection God has supplied to him to that point, and God brings home quite clearly proof that Adam was not intended to live forever. Gen. 3:22 says, “And now, lest he (Adam) put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever ….” God banishes Adam from the garden and sets a guardian over the tree of life. Lastly, Heb. 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto men once to die….” From the scripture it unmistakably points out that man was not intended to live forever. Rather, each man has been allotted a certain amount of time by God in which to live.
The Bible does not say that money is the root of all evil. Rather, it says the LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil. If one assumes that Adam could not have bartered and traded without sin; that is a wrong assumption. It appears that rather than a love of money being Adam’s downfall, his arrogance and pride were his undoing.
Adam lived in an environment where sin was not imputed, as did all men at that time, assuming God had indeed made other men and women. This statement is based on the reading of Rom. 2:14 concerning the Gentile, “For when the Gentiles that have no law, do by nature the things of the law, these, (the Gentiles) not having the law, are the law unto themselves….” The giving of the Law to Moses is the first time that sin is actually outlined and structured. However, it is apparent from the actions of the patriarchs that God had given them instructions he had not given the Gentiles, yet God includes the Gentile as liable for sin based upon his own standards as they align with the laws of God.
Theologians would have us believe that God created an utopian environment for Adam. Although the Bible makes it sound somewhat auspicious, one must consider that it only appears that Adam had everything handed to him. Actually, there were conditions under which he had to live. One of those was that he remain perfect in all his ways before God, i.e. his obedience to God.
It further appears that there was a dual reason for Adam’s banishment from the garden. Not only had he disobeyed God, but now he also had access to the tree of life, and if he chose to eat of it, he would then live forever. So God banishes him from the garden, and makes him to live in a different relationship among those of his own kind. Adam now must live in a world that has been cursed because of his disobedience, and he is separated from the commonwealth of God.
Not only is Adam under this curse, but the entire earth and all mankind are under the same curse because of Adam’s transgression. Gen. 3:17 says, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” Rom. 8:22 says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” All the earth was placed under a curse because of Adam. Rom 5:12 ff says, “Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed onto all men, for that all sinned: for until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, EVEN OVER THEM THAT HAD NOT SINNED AFTER THE LIKENESS OF ADAM’S TRANSGRESSION, who is a figure of him that was to come.”
Who were they that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression? The Bible says that death passed even to them. The earth was cursed because of Adam, and all mankind was separated from God because of Adam. Surely the stage was set for hostility and warfare among the peoples of the earth and the Jew. God must now intervene in the growth of the Jewish nation till the coming of Christ so that God might restore that which Adam had lost.
It cannot be viewed too lightly that God is talking about humans who lived on the earth at the time of Adam’s transgression. To this point, none of Adam and Eve’s children have been born. Certainly no mention of children appears in the text. Had they not sinned, it is doubtful if Cain and Abel would have had the problems that ensued, and spiritual life and influence would have remained in tact, as would the condition of sin not being imputed as sin. God saw no necessity for the law until after the transgressions of men, namely his own nation of people. The law was given to show how severe sin is and to make men aware of their sin.
