Genesi 2:6 Commento

This chapter is an appendix to the history of the creation, more particularly explaining and enlarging upon that part of the history which relates immediately to man, the favourite of this lower world. We have in it, I. The institution and sanctification of the sabbath, which was made for man, to further his holiness and comfort (Gen 2:1-3). II. A more particular account of man's creation, as the centre and summary of the whole work (Gen 2:1-7). III. A description of the garden of Eden, and the placing of man in it under the obligations of a law and covenant (Gen 2:8-17). IV. The creation of the woman, her marriage to the man, and the institution of the ordinance of marriage (Gen 2:18, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 2 In this chapter are contained a summary of the works of creation on the six days, and God's resting from his works on the seventh day, and the sanctification of that, Gen 2:1 and an account of various things relating to several parts of the creation enlarged on and explained, and of various circumstances omitted in the preceding chapter, which could not so well be taken notice of there; as of a mist arising out of the earth, which watered the herbs and plants before there was any rain to fall upon them, or a man to cultivate them, Gen 2:5 and of the matter and manner of man's formation, Gen 2:7 and of the planting of the garden of Eden, and the trees that were in it, and the rivers that watered it, and sprung from it, and the course they steered, the countries they washed, and what those countries abounded with, Gen 2:8 of man's being put into it to dress it, and keep it, and of the grant he had to eat of the fruit of any of the trees in it, excepting one, which was forbidden under a penalty of death, Gen 2:15 and of all the creatures, beasts and fowls, being brought to him, to give them names, Gen 2:18 and of God's providing an help meet for him, and forming Eve out of one of his ribs, and of their marriage together, and the institution of marriage, Gen 2:21 and the chapter is concluded with observing the present state and circumstances of our first parents before they fell, Gen 2:25.

But there went up a mist from the earth,.... After the waters had been drained off from it, and it was warmed by the body of light and heat created on the first day, which caused a vapour, which went up as a mist, and descended: and watered the whole face of the ground; or earth, and so supplied the place of rain, until that was given: though rather the words may be rendered disjunctively, "or there went up" (g); that is, before a mist went up, when as yet there was none; not so much as a mist to water the earth, and plants and herbs were made to grow; and so Saadiah reads them negatively, "nor did a mist go up"; there were no vapours exhaled to form clouds, and produce rain, and yet the whole earth on the third day was covered with plants and herbs; and this is approved of by Kimchi and Ben Melech. (g) "aut vapor ascendens", Junius & Tremellius.

For it says, "The trees were not in existence and the vegetation had not yet sprouted, seeing that the Lord had not caused rain to fall on the earth. A fountain went up from the earth to irrigate the surface of the earth." [ Gen2:5,2:6 ] Since everything was and is born through the interaction of water and earth, Scripture took care to indicate that trees and vegetation were not created at the same time as the earth, seeing that rain had not yet fallen. But after the great fountain of the great primordial deep had gone up and irrigated the entire surface of the earth, then, once the waters had been gathered together on the third day, the earth gave birth to all sorts of vegetation on the very same day. The waters over which the darkness had been spread on the first day are the same as those which issued from this fountain, covering, in a twinkling of an eye, the entire earth. This is the fountain which was opened up in the days of Noah, covering over all mountains on the earth. Now this fountain did not come up from under the earth, but from the earth, for it explicitly says "the fountain was coming up"--not from beneath the earth, but " from the earth." That these waters in the earth do not precede the earth in time is testified by the fact that the earth carries them in its womb. So "the fountain went up from the earth," as Scripture says, "and it irrigated the surface of the entire earth." [ Gen2:6 ] The earth then produced trees, vegetation and plants. It was not the case that God was unable to generate everything from the earth in any other way, but, because it was His will that the earth should give birth through the agency of water, He provided an initial beginning for this process, corresponding to the way in which it would be carried on until the end. Having spoken about what had been omitted and left untold on the first day, Scripture reverts to the description of Adam's fashioning as follows: "And Adam was not there to work on the earth." [ Gen. 2:5 ] Indeed he was not in existence during all the days prior to the sixth, because it was on the sixth day that he was created. [Gen. 1:26-7, 31]

Understand, O hearer, that although the days of creation were finished and God had blessed the sabbath day, which was sanctified, and he had completed his account, Moses still returned to tell the story of the beginning of creation even after the days of creation had been finished. “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth,” that is, this is the account of the fashioning of heaven and earth on the day when the Lord made heaven and earth, for as yet “no plant of the field was in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up.” Even if these things were not actually created on the first day—for they had been made on the third day—still Moses did not rashly introduce, on the first day, the report of those things that were created on the third day. For Moses said, “No plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.” Because everything that has been born and will be born from the earth will be through the conjunction of water and earth, Moses undertook to show that no plant or vegetation had been created along with the earth, because the rain had not yet come down. But after the great mist rose up from the great abyss and watered the whole face of earth and after the waters had been gathered together on the third day, then the earth brought forth all the vegetation.

The gentle face of the earth, that is, the dignity of the earth, may be correctly viewed as the mother of the Lord, the Virgin Mary, who was watered by the Holy Spirit, who is signified in the Gospel by the term water.

Christ is that spring of which the prophet says, “It irrigates and waters the whole earth.” But Christ irrigates the whole universe, both visible and invisible; with the spring of life he waters the substance of everything that exists. Yet insofar as he is life, he is Christ; insofar as he waters, he is the Holy Spirit; insofar as he is the power of vitality, he is Father and God; but the whole is one God.

For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. For who does not see that these things could not have been said about the first creation of the earth when it was still void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the abyss? Was it necessary to narrate about the rain not descending upon the earth at that time, when neither it could yet receive the rain nor the air could give it, because the places of both were still completely filled with water? Nor could a mist go up from the earth to water it, so long as the whole was covered by the abyss; whence, if I am not mistaken, it remains to be understood that by the name of the day above, when it is said: On the day when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, etc., the time of those first six days is intimated, in which all the creation of the world was formed, where it rightly remembers that God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground, that we may understand how much the first sprouting of the earth differed from the modern. For now the earth spontaneously germinates by the irrigation of rains, and by the industry and cultivation of men many things grow in gardens and orchards and woods; but the first creation of herbs and trees was completed very differently, in which by the new command of the supreme maker, the earth, which appeared dry, was suddenly filled far and wide with various kinds of fruits without rain and without human labor; but a mist, it says, went up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. From this source and its ascent to the earth we will speak, let us first see that the initial sprouting of the earth, which the aforementioned sentence recalls, was made without any watering of the waters, by God's command. The irrigation of this source, however it was, came after the earth was clothed with herbs and trees, which is proved by the very syllables of the Scripture itself, which after it said in the past tense that the Lord God created heaven and earth and every shrub of the field and every herb of the region, it immediately appended with the pluperfect tense: for the Lord God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground, showing that before the creation of shrubs and herbs, God had not sent rain; but what was done afterward, it immediately appended with the imperfect tense saying: for a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground, signifying by the declension of the verb that this was not done once but often, since it did not say "rose" but "would rise"; while it is said that a stream would rise from the earth that would water its entire surface, it is rightfully inquired in what order it would rise; nor is there anything to prevent it from being believed that it thus ascended and returned by turns to water it, as even today the Nile annually ascends to water the plains of Egypt, just as once the Jordan watered the land of Pentapolis, about which Scripture says: "it was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord" (Genesis 13:10), and like Egypt before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; as, according to Saint Augustine, it is said of some wonderful alternation of certain springs that they flood at fixed intervals of years so as to irrigate the entire region, which at other times provides sufficient drinking water from high wells. Why then should it be incredible, as he also says, if the whole earth was then watered from a single head of the abyss, alternating flowing and ebbing? For if, he says, the vastness of the abyss itself, excluding the part called the sea, surrounds the land with evident height and bitter waves in that only part which the land contains in concealed recesses, from where all fountains and waters distribute themselves in various tracts and veins, and burst forth in their respective places, Scripture wished to call it a fountain rather than fountains, due to the unity of nature, and through innumerable paths of caverns and crevices ascending from the earth, and everywhere watering the whole face of the earth with distributed locks, not in a continuous form like the sea or a lake, but as we see waters running through the channels of rivers and the bends of streams, and overflowing to cover nearby areas, who would not accept this unless he is troubled by a contentious spirit? Indeed, it can also be understood that the whole face of the earth was thus watered, just as it is said that a whole garment is colored with a face, even if not continuously but spotted; especially since then at the dawn of the earth many plains were likely to exist where widely bursting streams could be scattered and spread. Therefore, concerning the magnitude or multitude of this fountain, whether it had a single eruption from somewhere, or because of some unity in the hidden depths of the earth from which all waters upon the earth spring forth, it is called one fountain for all great and small fountains, rising from the earth through all its dispersions, and watering the whole face of the earth; or more likely, since it does not say a single fountain but says a fountain was rising from the earth, placing singular for the plural, that we thus understand many fountains throughout the entire earth, watering their own places or regions: just as a soldier is mentioned, and many are understood, just as the locust and the frog are mentioned in the plagues by which the Egyptians were struck, although there was an innumerable number of locusts and frogs, let us not labor further on this. When it was said that God created herbs and shrubs, without yet descending rain, nor man existing to till the ground, consequently, the creation of man is introduced and it is said: The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Here, therefore, the creation of man is described more broadly, who was indeed made on the sixth day; but there his creation was briefly mentioned, which is more fully expounded here, namely that he was made in the substance of body and soul, of which the body was formed from the dust of the ground, while the soul was created from nothing by God's inspiration; and also the woman was formed from his side while he was sleeping. In which statement, the poverty of the carnal sense is to be avoided, lest we perhaps think that God formed the body of man from the dust with corporeal hands, or breathed into the face of the formed with a mouth and lips so that he might live and have the breath of life. For even the Prophet when he says: Your hands have made me and fashioned me (Psalm 119:73), spoke this in a figurative rather than a literal sense, that is, according to the custom by which men are accustomed to work. For God is Spirit, nor is it believed by the uninstructed that His simple substance is composed of the lineaments of corporal members. Therefore, God formed man from the dust. Whom he commanded to be made from the dust by His word. He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living being, creating in him the substance of soul and spirit in which he might live. For it is rightly understood that God breathed into the face of man the breath by which he would live, just as it is understood above: God called the light day, meaning that He made it to be called day by men. Well, indeed, it is said that God breathed into man's face to make him a living being, because surely the spirit infused into him contemplates external things, as it is located in the frontal part of the brain where all the senses are distributed. For even the sense of touch, which is spread throughout the whole body, is also shown to have its way from the same frontal part of the brain, which is led backwards through the top and neck to the spinal cord. Moreover, this agrees with what was said above about man.

The saying that man and animals have a like beginning in generation is true of the body; for all animals alike are made of earth. But it is not true of the soul. For the souls of brutes are produced by some power of the body; whereas the human soul is produced by God. To signify this it is written as to other animals: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul" (Genesis 1:24): while of man it is written (Genesis 2:7) that "He breathed into his face the breath of life." And so in Ecclesiastes 12:7 it is concluded: "(Before) the dust return into its earth from whence it was; and the spirit return to God Who gave it." Again the process of life is alike as to the body, concerning which it is written (Ecclesiastes 3:19): "All things breathe alike," and (Wisdom 2:2), "The breath in our nostrils is smoke." But the process is not alike of the soul; for man is intelligent, whereas animals are not. Hence it is false to say: "Man has nothing more than beasts." Thus death comes to both alike as to the body, by not as to the soul.

The seventh day is consecrated for a sabbath, and the reasons assigned, Gen 2:1-3. A recapitulation of the six days' work of creation, Gen 2:4-7. The garden of Eden planted, Gen 2:8. Its trees, Gen 2:9. Its rivers, and the countries watered by them, Gen 2:10-14. Adam placed in the garden, and the command given not to eat of the tree of knowledge on pain of death, Gen 2:15-17. God purposes to form a companion for the man, Gen 2:18. The different animals brought to Adam that he might assign them their names, Gen 2:19, Gen 2:20. The creation of the woman, Gen 2:21, Gen 2:22. The institution of marriage, Gen 2:23, Gen 2:24. The purity and innocence of our first parents, Gen 2:25.

There went up a mist - This passage appears to have greatly embarrassed many commentators. The plain meaning seems to be this, that the aqueous vapours, ascending from the earth, and becoming condensed in the colder regions of the atmosphere, fell back upon the earth in the form of dews, and by this means an equal portion of moisture was distributed to the roots of plants, etc. As Moses had said, Gen 2:5, that the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, he probably designed to teach us, in Gen 2:6, how rain is produced, viz., by the condensation of the aqueous vapors, which are generally through the heat of the sun and other causes raised to a considerable height in the atmosphere, where, meeting with cold air, the watery particles which were before so small and light that they could float in the air, becoming condensed, i.e., many drops being driven into one, become too heavy to be any longer suspended, and then, through their own gravity, fall down in the form which we term rain.

THE NARRATIVE OF THE SIX DAYS' CREATION CONTINUED. The course of the narrative is improperly broken by the division of the chapter. (Gen 2:1) the heavens--the firmament or atmosphere. host--a multitude, a numerous array, usually connected in Scripture with heaven only, but here with the earth also, meaning all that they contain. were finished--brought to completion. No permanent change has ever since been made in the course of the world, no new species of animals been formed, no law of nature repealed or added to. They could have been finished in a moment as well as in six days, but the work of creation was gradual for the instruction of man, as well, perhaps, as of higher creatures (Job 38:7).

The Sabbath of Creation. - "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." צבא here denotes the totality of the beings that fill the heaven and the earth: in other places (see especially Neh 9:6) it is applied to the host of heaven, i.e., the stars (Deu 4:19; Deu 17:3), and according to a still later representation, to the angels also (Kg1 22:19; Isa 24:21; Neh 9:6; Psa 148:2). These words of Gen 2:1 introduce the completion of the work of creation, and give a greater definiteness to the announcement in Gen 2:2, Gen 2:3, that on the seventh day God ended the work which He had made, by ceasing to create, and blessing the day and sanctifying it. The completion or finishing (כּלּה) of the work of creation on the seventh day (not on the sixth, as the lxx, Sam., and Syr. erroneously render it) can only be understood by regarding the clauses Gen 2:2 and Gen 2:3, which are connected with ויכל by ו consec. as containing the actual completion, i.e., by supposing the completion to consist, negatively in the cessation of the work of creation, and positively in the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day. The cessation itself formed part of the completion of the work (for this meaning of שׁבת vid., Gen 8:22; Job 32:1, etc.). As a human artificer completes his work just when he has brought it up to his ideal and ceases to work upon it, so in an infinitely higher sense, God completed the creation of the world with all its inhabitants by ceasing to produce anything new, and entering into the rest of His all-sufficient eternal Being, from which He had come forth, as it were, at and in the creation of a world distinct from His own essence. Hence ceasing to create is called resting (נוּח) in Exo 20:11, and being refreshed (ינּפשׁ) in Exo 31:17. The rest into which God entered after the creation was complete, had its own reality "in the reality of the work of creation, in contrast with which the preservation of the world, when once created, had the appearance of rest, though really a continuous creation" (Ziegler, p. 27). This rest of the Creator was indeed "the consequence of His self-satisfaction in the now united and harmonious, though manifold whole;" but this self-satisfaction of God in His creation, which we call His pleasure in His work, was also a spiritual power, which streamed forth as a blessing upon the creation itself, bringing it into the blessedness of the rest of God and filling it with His peace. This constitutes the positive element in the completion which God gave to the work of creation, by blessing and sanctifying the seventh day, because on it He found rest from the work which He by making (לעשׂות faciendo: cf. Ewald, 280d) had created. The divine act of blessing was a real communication of powers of salvation, grace, and peace; and sanctifying was not merely declaring holy, but "communicating the attribute of holy," "placing in a living relation to God, the Holy One, raising to a participation in the pure clear light of the holiness of God." On קדושׁ see Exo 19:6. The blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day had regard, no doubt, to the Sabbath, which Israel as the people of God was afterwards to keep; but we are not to suppose that the theocratic Sabbath was instituted here, or that the institution of that Sabbath was transferred to the history of the creation. On the contrary, the Sabbath of the Israelites had a deeper meaning, founded in the nature and development of the created world, not for Israel only, but for all mankind, or rather for the whole creation. As the whole earthly creation is subject to the changes of time and the law of temporal motion and development; so all creatures not only stand in need of definite recurring periods of rest, for the sake of recruiting their strength and gaining new power for further development, but they also look forward to a time when all restlessness shall give place to the blessed rest of the perfect consummation. To this rest the resting of God (ἡ κατάπαυσις) points forward; and to this rest, this divine σαββατισός (Heb 4:9), shall the whole world, especially man, the head of the earthly creation, eventually come. For this God ended His work by blessing and sanctifying the day when the whole creation was complete. In connection with Heb. 4, some of the fathers have called attention to the fact, that the account of the seventh day is not summed up, like the others, with the formula "evening was and morning was;" thus, e.g., Augustine writes at the close of his confessions: dies septimus sine vespera est nec habet occasum, quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam. But true as it is that the Sabbath of God has no evening, and that the σαββατισμός, to which the creature is to attain at the end of his course, will be bounded by no evening, but last for ever; we must not, without further ground, introduce this true and profound idea into the seventh creation-day. We could only be warranted in adopting such an interpretation, and understanding by the concluding day of the work of creation a period of endless duration, on the supposition that the six preceding days were so many periods in the world's history, which embraced the time from the beginning of the creation to the final completion of its development. But as the six creation-days, according to the words of the text, were earthly days of ordinary duration, we must understand the seventh in the same way; and that all the more, because in every passage, in which it is mentioned as the foundation of the theocratic Sabbath, it is regarded as an ordinary day (Exo 20:11; Exo 31:17). We must conclude, therefore, that on the seventh day, on which God rested from His work, the world also, with all its inhabitants, attained to the sacred rest of God; that the κατάπαυσις and σαββατισμός of God were made a rest and sabbatic festival for His creatures, especially for man; and that this day of rest of the new created world, which the forefathers of our race observed in paradise, as long as they continued in a state of innocence and lived in blessed peace with their God and Creator, was the beginning and type of the rest to which the creation, after it had fallen from fellowship with God through the sin of man, received a promise that it should once more be restored through redemption, at its final consummation.