There will hopefully be many more on Genesis 2
You are likely aware that the first two chapters of The Bible talk about the beginnings of the universe and of mankind. Some people get confused, seeing two different creation stories, and not seeing the same things projected in each. My goal in this and future blogs is to show you where I have been led in Genesis 2. We will occasionally refer back to Genesis 1 as a backdrop, but the focus is chapter 2.
I start with a curious verse from Isaiah and let you know that I think it has everything to do with Genesis 1 and 2. And we will go from there. (Oh, and this verse has many other implications. Not for this time.)
⦁ Isaiah 45:7 NKJV
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the LORD, do all these things.’
Remember, the prophets are there to help clarify. (((We will not get to light or dark in detail this time, nor עשׂה nor what is made עשׂה. For future “episodes.”)))
Genesis 2 is very, very densely packed. We cannot even make a dent in this one presentation. The goal is simply to introduce it to you here. Please anticipate much more detail will come, and don’t get too frustrated where you see connections, but we haven’t brought them together yet. And if by some chance, this old fogey drops dead before any more blogs, you will have the tools to move forward on your own. Have confidence in what you have been/are being shown.
We will be using the same techniques we’ve been using, with cognate permutations. I have already gone through 18 investigations in Chapter 2, and I’m sure many more will come. We will not try to cover all 18 in this blog. Later, we will get to darkness and light, and many other aspects seen in the chapter. Today’s focus will be on at least one of the primary purposes I see in the chapter, which will be centered on the idea of “formation.” The tie-in to the Isaiah verse is that Chapter 1 is about creating and Chapter 2 is about forming. Chapter 2 is primarily focused on mankind and its formation. It appears that this formation is related to the gift of language, and its being what sets mankind apart from the rest of creation. First, I want to give some background.
We will not use here a word that is sometimes used for language, which is “tongue לשון.” We will use the word for the “universal language,” the language that was confused at Babel and is to be restored, שׂפה. Perhaps our efforts are one step toward a restoration. See this search in NKJV (Olive Tree).
In Genesis 1, God began the “vocabulary list,” calling to light לאור “Day” יום v.1:5, calling to darkness לחשך “Night” לילה v.1:5, calling to firmament לרקיע “Heaven” שמיםv.1:8, and calling to the dry ליבשה “Earth” ארץ. Four things that the LORD could point the man in his experiencing them: light, darkness, the expanse above, and the firmness under his feet. These were given names: they were “called to.” In Genesis 2, mankind is given the opportunity to give names to his surroundings by “calling to it.” Mankind defined his world by way of how his five senses experienced it. And the LORD begins to experience how mankind defines his own world. But together with God’s “leaving” האדם “the man” in the Garden in order to gain experiences with his surroundings, God begins the process of attaching words to the objects around man. See that mankind was given much authority in the “calling,” and we know from he Babel incident, and many others, that mankind does not handle authority well, power “going to its head.”
There are many other objects noted in Chapter 1, which have words attached to them. God can use these as tools for instruction. Important words include grass, herbs, seed, tree, fruit, birds, sea creatures, beasts, cattle, fish, and two creatures in verse 1:27 “the man האדם” of two types, which we are told are male and female. But again, God is trying to teach האדם this “universal language” (which I am calling Hebrew here for several reasons that you will see, but you already know many reasons why, because each letter has a meaning that is based upon things seen around mankind in his creation. Thus it is the explanation of what is experienced).
For now, visualize God the instructor pointing to the tree עץ, an object that האדם can touch, being solid and strong, and showing האדם the connection of a word thatincludes אץ, a cognate permutation of the עץ tree, the word being ארץ, “earth,” whichhas already been established as a vocabulary word, reflecting the dry land, whichwas also solid (as opposed to the sea, not solid). This is very elementary educationof a language, but the language we have been talking about, which is very muchmore intertwined than the language that we use.
Two more background words I want to point out, and then we will look at some investigations. The word for female is נקבה, from the root נקב, the cognate permutations (magnify/diminish action). נקב is a cognate permutation of בין, which we see most often as “understanding.” בין p.25 penetrate to core (no cognates).
The word for male is זכר, root זכר, cognate permutations (advance/retard action). Recall Hebrew roots/verbs are action verbs. Cognate permutations for both of these roots do show up in the “hidden meanings” in Genesis 2.
Very interestingly, זכר p.67 store in memory; remember;; engage in/block movement (E18) is a cognate permutation of the word Isaiah uses for “forming” in Isaiah 45:7, יצר p.108 compress; form;; expand/limit (C22) – (also interesting יצר is in the Variant family from which the word “מצרים Egypt” is formed – Egypt is definitely part of the “formation” of the Hebrew people as the nation of Israel, and they are told to “remember” they were slaves in Egypt numerous times – you see how mankind comes to learn the use of the words and their “grouping” of meanings).
So, to summarize, these words we know as male and female in Genesis 1 relate to memory and understanding, which very much are an important part of the use of the language. How could God really relate to the ones in his image and likeness without a language in which to communicate? Here is the NKJV, or use your favorite translation.
Genesis 2 NKJV
1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Life in God’s Garden
8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Let’s begin with that word for language – שׂפה: (as always, like in lectio divina, read through the more literal translation ignoring highlights first. Then with each different investigation, focus on the highlighted words and meditate on how they fit with the meaning.) Oh, I forgot to put on the screenshot that שבע, which is a cognate permutation, is also the word for “seven.” And it is in day seven (the time of ceasing/resting from his creative work) that we see the “forming,” showing us how to use שׂפה.
Understanding בין and the root for female נקב:
And now זכר/יצר “remember and form”
Now I will give you one more root for reinforcement תבן, for three reasons. It takes us away somewhat from the Isaiah verse, but it is important. First, there is a similar meaning of “forming,” to יצר, serving as a “second witness.” Second, see at the top of the Hebrew screenshot below, the connection to “define essence/character,” which we have spoken about all along about the names of persons, places, and things. Here, you can tell from the context, האדם is doing exactly that, from what he is witnessing in the world around him, naming objects by their essence/character. The third important point is the highlighted note at the bottom of the English screenshot, the reminder that we came up with a cognate permutation meaning for את as on the spectrum of restraining/expressing emotion. There are many את’s in Genesis 2. And as we progress through several blogs on Genesis 2, we will talk a great deal about emotions, and will return to the topic of soul that we introduced previously. (את is that sneaky “untranslated marker of the direct object.”)
Hopefully this has been enough to get you started thinking about a series on Genesis 2. Other things we will talk about is the relationship to Sabbath, the meaning of and importance of the rivers (people tend to skip over them. They are important in this concept of teaching language.) Please remember all flow comes from God, that rain is teaching. At the beginning of this description there is one big river. Then it splits into four “beginnings.” Later we hear about a spring coming up from the earth, and finally about rain. Just keep this in the back of your head.
We spoke much earlier on the website about two things, which are now brought more to light to me now. The first was the discussions about trees as words. The second was a discussion having you imagine writing an instruction book for something complex in an unknown language and having the document necessarily accomplish two separate functions. The first was teaching the user how to use the language. The second was the actual instructions. In Genesis 1 & 2, especially in 2, we begin to see how that works.
Another reason for saying the “universal language” is Hebrew is the cognate permutation connection of אור “light” and עבר “Hebrew.” We will see much more about light and darkness later, but remember the Isaiah 45:7 verse and think forming and light as Chapter 2 and creating and darkness as Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is the explanation of mankind’s bringing light into a darkened world by way of the Hebrew עבר language.עבר p.178 cross over to other side; move to different condition;; expose/conceal (A8). It is in the time of ceasing from creating ברא (another אור/עברcognate permutation – meaning expand/contract activity), that the use of God’s universal language brings the light into the world – to be an ongoing process of “forming.”
Two more comments, after I say a word of thanks, first of all, to our LORD (יהוה) God, Creator and “Former” of all things, who has formed this teaching. And secondly to all those having come before, having brought me to this point of being able to share. Though I have a Doctorate of Hebrew Letters, the Yeshivah that I attended did not teach Hebrew as a part of the curriculum. What I learned was begun by a private tutor, a seminary professor on the side. I do not speak or read Hebrew. That is why you can be reassured I have read no commentaries in Hebrew. My Hebrew is at Kindergarten level. But what I gained from my Yeshivah experience was how to use the many tools that have been made available. That is why I said above that if for some reason this old fogey came to the life point of crossing over to join our Heavenly Father, you could carry on with the tools shared here, and many more available today.
So, a particular thank you to three very important contributors to what you have seen here; R. Samson Raphael Hirsch and R. Matityahu Clark and R. David Fohrman. In addition, to my close mentors, Oswald and Sonia and Marcial who helped bring these tools to me. And, we’ve mentioned Beth before, who “gifted” the AlHaTorah for us to use. And all my teachers and fellow students at the Yeshivah. We learned/learn from one another. And to my Webmaster, thank for keeping the website going. And all the software and books that have come my way, I appreciate all the hard work in bringing them to everyday use. It is a monumental task to undertake the study of God’s Word. We all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.
Next, I want to strongly suggest that you watch a movie that is a very well-done parable of what I have been saying above. The detail in the movie is quite incredible, and relates so much to this, one of many themes in Genesis 2. It will get to some parts we have not yet gotten to, but maybe watching it will help you grasp what I have said here AND understand better some things yet to be said. ((There is one gratuitous curse word. 🙄))
I have to give credit to R. David Fohrman for sharing a trailer of this movie. Like any good Jewish instructor, he did not speak of the connection to Genesis 2, but left it to us to discover. This is the link to the trailer:
In follow-ups I will make some allusions to the movie which hopefully will be both fun and educational. I personally am just a research nerd, and not a storyteller. I admire those who can get a message across in a parable.
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And finally, I received an email today from R. Fohrman’s site, AlephBeta, about a book coming out now, written by one of his former followers:
I have ordered the book and look forward to reading it. Of course, I have no idea if it will touch on any of what we have shared here today, but I anticipate with joy any intertextual connections between Eden and writings of Solomon/Shlomo, the Kohelet קהלת, most gifted of wordsmiths in Hebrew. Curwin will be using intertextual techniques we have shared here, and learned at Yeshiva, and AlephBeta.
Hopefully much more to come. Blessings.
Ⓒ Copyright September 2023. Please cite if copying.