Well how was your week? I hope it was filled with lots of reading in Genesis 1 and plenty of prayer and reflection as to the points I made last time. I’m sure you put forth a lot of effort. Good for you!
We are going to continue our study of Genesis by expanding into the second chapter. Pull out your Bibles and turn to Genesis 2, or look it up online. Take a few minutes to actually read the English translation and ponder that for a moment.
Have you read the whole chapter? Good!
Now, I want you to use last week’s directions for looking up the Interlinear version, which lists the Hebrew text and gives a literal translation into English. Feel free to check the Bible Studies 3 page as a refresher, if you need to. Keep in mind it can be bookmarked for easy access. It is a valuable tool to have handy.
When you have the Interlinear version up, notice how we see our old friend “elohim” again. Remember that “elohim” means “gods,” although some people like to translate it as “God.”
Did you know there are scholars who say that there was a mystery “E writer,” where “E” stands for “elohim,” and they say that this person (we’ll call him “E”) went around writing copies of Genesis (and other books too, I suppose) writing “elohim” rather than “el.” Well, a person like that would have to be a complete fool wouldn’t he? Stupid E.
Those same scholars like to pretend that Genesis 2:1-4 is actually part of Genesis 1, because E forgot to put those verses in Genesis 1. There’s that stupid E again. Ha ha ha ha!
On the Interlinear page, can you see where Genesis 2:2 makes the statement, “And ended elohim on that day seventh work that creates,” where the Hebrew words “melakah asher asah” mean “work that makes” or “creates,” since that was the work for the six days prior? Take your time and see how that is the truth being stated in verse two.
This is where it is good to see the elohim as gods whose work was done. After six days there was no longer any need for the elohim (or gods) to do any more Creation for God. God was their Creator and thus their boss. Can you see how I know that? It is written in the text. Look and see if you can see it for yourself.
Take your time.
See it! Good.
In verse four, where “Yahweh elohim” is written, “Yahweh” means “God” (with a big-G) and that says God is the God of gods. That means God said, “After six God “days” everything is done, so you guys (elohim - gods) rest.”
Verse four says (in the NIV), “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” When the scholars want to say “E” forgot to put that in Genesis 1, they read that verse as a summation of seven days of Creation, when there were only six. The summation only says that the six days of Creation were done by the God of gods, with God’s gods doing everything in Genesis 1. On the seventh day no work was done by the “elohim.”
Do you see what the root Hebrew word is for “rest”? They translate it as “he rested” or “and he rested,” but ignore the pronoun-conjunction additions. Click on the Hebrew word above “rest” and see what it is. Can you see that?
Good. The root Hebrew word for “rest” is “shabath.” That sounds a lot like Sabbath, doesn’t it? I wonder if that is where that word comes from. I bet Sabbath means “Day of rest.” What do you think?
Now that you see the root Hebrew word for “rest,” notice how it fully means “to cease, desist, rest.” That is the Strong’s definition. I want you to think about the statement now saying the “elohim” desisted or ceased on the seventh day. Think hard now.
Can you see how all the gods ceased to have anything to do with the world God told them to make? Can you see that as why we only believe in One God, so we make up things like an “E writer” to explain God things in simpleton terms, when in reality there were plenty of gods who did the work; but when the work was done, God said, “That’s it. No more work for you guys.”? Can you see that?
I hope that you can. Good.
Here is a tough one for you guys. Are you ready? Okay, here goes.
When you realize the six “days” in Genesis 1 took a real long time, maybe hundreds of billions of years, such that “days” are not based on what we small human beings think a ‘day” is, when do you think the seventh day ended?
Think about that. I’ll ask for answers later.
The assignment now is to copy “Yah·weh” (from wherever you see it in the Interlinear text) and use the “Find” feature from the upper right hand toolbar (the three dots in a line) and paste “Yah·weh” in the box (without my quote marks). Once you do that you will see that Genesis 2 has eleven uses of “Yahweh.”
Do you remember how many times Yahweh was found in Genesis 1? Remember we found “elohim” (the Hebrew spelling) 32 times. There were zero times “Yah-weh” was written there. Can you see how Genesis 2 using “Yahweh” eleven times is an important signal?
Good. Now, copy and paste “’ĕ·lō·hîm” into the “Find” box. You will see how there are fourteen times it is used in Genesis 2. With all fourteen highlighted, take a look and notice how eleven of those times it is combined with “Yahweh,” as “Yah-weh ’ĕ·lō·hîm.” The three times it is alone are found in verses 2 and 3, when they were “ceased, desisted, and put to rest.”
Isn’t that good information to have when looking at Genesis 2? I think it is.
Now, let’s talk about the Creations of Adam and wife. Did you see that there is no name given that says God made “Eve”? Now, that would be another “E writer,” wouldn’t it? Ha ha ha ha!
Look at verse 6 in the NIV translation of Genesis 2. Notice where the translation says, “and there was no one to work the ground.” If you look at the Interlinear translation it says (literally), “and man was not there to work the ground.” Can you see that?
Why is that an important statement? Can you see why it is important?
In Genesis 1, on “day six,” we read in verses 26 to 29 (NIV):
(26) Then God [elohim] said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
(27) So God [elohim] created mankind in his own image, in the image of God [elohim] he created them; male and female he created them.
(28) God [elohim] blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
(29) Then God [elohim] said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
Remember that this translation has turned “elohim” into “God,” rather than state the truth that says “Then the gods said …” That makes this paint a different picture, don’t you think?
In the Interlinear of Genesis 1, the Hebrew word “’ā·ḏām” is written, which the NIV has generalized as “mankind” in verse 26. In verse 27 the Hebrew word written is “hā·’ā·ḏām,” which is from the same root word: “adam.”
This means “man” or “mankind” was created on the sixth day of Creation, with those “days” being God [Yahweh] time, not human time. When we read in verse 29 about fruit trees and seed, “man” was given those to eat from. That was different from Genesis 2, where we read “and man was not there to work the ground.” Can you see how freely eating nuts and berries is different from cultivating trees and shrubs, for the purpose of eating?
Ponder that idea for a minute.
Can you see that the “adam” Created on day six was not prepared to grow food purposefully, but “adam” not being there to cultivate the ground means a new man (Adam) is going to be made by “Yahweh elohim“?
Good!
Look at all those elohim surrounding Yahweh!
Now read the NIV English translation of verse 7. It says, “Then the Lord God [Yahweh elohim] formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Can you see the difference from “So elohim created man in elohim’s [“the gods’] own image” and “Yahweh elohim formed man from the dust of the ground”?
Can you see that one man (Adam) was made by God, possibly with the assistance of angels (elohim), and this says: a.) the earth already had a form of animal men and animal women that had been fruitful and multiplied and had dominion over plants and animals as food but b.) God [Yahweh] was making a special man to tend a garden?
Think about that for a minute.
The scholars like to mislead Christians into thinking Genesis 2:1-3 is really supposed to be E’s writing about seven days of Creation, so when some other writer [they call the one who wrote Yahweh the “J writer,” because Germans pronounce a “Y” like we pronounce a “J”), or maybe a dual writers system of “E-J” that decided to change to “Yahweh elohim.” That hypothesis [or lie] means they can pretend most of Genesis 2 is like a Quentin Tarantino flashback to day six, when the elohim (which they call “God”) created man and woman.
Don’t believe the lies. The truth is what was written, as everything was written by the “G writer,” meaning prophets inspired divinely to write by the Mind of God. If you don’t believe that, then you are a scholar, not a Christian of faith.
Now, since this lesson is going long, I will end it here with one last recommendation.
Read again Genesis 2:3, which the NIV translates as saying, “Then God [“the gods,” from elohim] blessed the seventh day and made it holy.”
See if you can grasp that the seventh day [God “days”] was “blessed” [“barack“] and made “holy” [“qadash“] was when the God (Yahweh) of gods (elohim) made a special man, who would become the first “blessed and made holy man.”
Think about that.
Now, earlier I said I would ask again about when do you think the seventh day [God “days”] ended, considering the possibility that the first “six days” took hundreds of billions of years. Now I ask, “Would the “seventh day” be any different, as far as how long it would last?”
Since there is no reference about an “eighth day,” does that mean today, the day you are reading this, is still the “seventh day” stated in Genesis 2?
Think about that over the coming week and ponder also the man and woman part of Genesis 2. I will address that the next time. Remember to keep those ‘cards and letters coming’! Until the next time!
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