As they contemplated, they concluded that their God must be One who “in the beginning created the heavens and earth.” Further, theirs was a God who was personal and involved in their lives in intimate ways. It is clear that the Israelites knew other creation stories—all cultures have them. But unlike other gods, the Israelite God was active, knowable, available, and disclosing. They knew this God and could ask for things and understanding. Their God dispensed and withheld blessings, punished them when they were wrong, forgave them when they sinned, and absolved them when they repented. Their God was gracious, slow to anger, and nurturing. Their God was wrathful, mighty in battle, strong and invincible. Their God was omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Their God spoke the world into being and created human beings in the same manner (Gen. 1:26–31).
Genesis 1:1–2:3 is the creation story shaped by the P (Priestly) tradition. On the sixth day, God created humankind—male and female—in the divine image. After creating humankind, God gave the commandments: be fruitful and multiply; have dominion over the earth and its inhabitants. Male and female are created as equal partners, and neither is to have dominion over the other. In this creation story, the humans are not given proper names and both are created from the stuff of the earth. Both male and female are created to live and work in partnership. They have the capacity for creativity, collaboration, and compassion. Further, they have the capacity to think, make decisions, take action, and live with consequences. In other words, they are created in the “image and likeness” of the divine Creator.
Two words used in Genesis 1:27 are crucial in understanding God’s creative act:
So God created humankind in [God’s] image,
in the image of God [God] created them;
male and female [God] created them.
The Hebrew selem (image) and demut (likeness) are used together to convey the total and complete similarity to the divine. In every way, mentally, physically, and spiritually, the male and female are like God. They are to be what God would be if God were human, exhibiting a remarkable capacity to be and to do.
It is clear that God is the Creator even though humans have the gift of creativity. God is in charge:
God saw everything that [God] had made, and indeed, it was very good. (Gen. 1:31a)
God blesses the humans and provides for their every need. The P tradition uses the generic elohim as the designation for God. The tradition places emphasis on the orderliness of creation, the creative power of God’s words and actions, the goodness of all creation, and the equality of male and female at the very beginning of creation.
The narrative then makes a rather abrupt shift at Genesis 2:4. Another creation begins here. We are signaled that a different tradition is shaping this story. Scholars widely agree that Genesis 2:4–25 is shaped by the J (Yahwist) tradition; part of the consensus is based on the designation of God as “Yahweh Elohim,” which is translated in our Bibles as “LORD God” (compare Gen. 1:1 with Gen. 2:4b).* In this beginning, the earth is a lifeless sphere, although there is a stream that rises from it. Further, there is no one to till the earth even if there were vegetation. Seeming to take a practical tact, God creates “adam,” or earth-creature, from the dirt.
The earth-creature is called the generic adam to indicate its origins from the dust or ground. The earth-creature is lifeless until God gives mouth-to-mouth and breathes life into it. The “breath of life” is not simply an infusion of oxygen; it is the very essence of the divine. The breath of God is what makes the earth-creature human. Without God’s breath, the earth-creature is no more than an animal, living by instinct. But God’s breath creates a being capable of reason and creativity.
God then creates a bountiful garden containing the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam is placed in the garden, and its job is to till and to keep the garden. Both God and adam are farmers and gardeners. Adam is to care for the garden and to bring forth its full potential and growth. As a caveat, God gives adam a specific command:
And YHWH Elohim commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 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 die.”
(Gen. 2:16–17)
There is no conversation between God and the earth-creature. The command is clear, and we can only assume that adam’s silence is its consent to follow the command. At the very beginning of this creation story, adam is faced with choices: to eat or not; to live or to die. God has created a world where humans can exercise choice and where death is a possibility. Some scholars hold that death in this text is something more than mere physical death. Here, death symbolizes alienation and separation from God on a spiritual level. Death means a disintegration of adam’s relationship both with God and with the earth from which adam is created.
In the paradise God has created there are limits and choices. If adam obeys the command not to eat, it maintains a right relationship with God and all of creation. In this case, adam has no worries and life will move smoothly as intended. However, if adam chooses to eat, the consequences will prove fatal—only death is a suitable consequence for overstepping these boundaries. To eat would represent adam’s declaration of independence from the Creator. Such independence implies separation. Adam risks a return to lifelessness if it chooses to violate the trust between it and its Creator. The choice to eat or not is clearly adam’s. God does not do anything except present the options.
God takes inventory of the divine handiwork and discovers its incompleteness. Recognizing the enormity of the gardening task, God decides not to leave adam companionless (Gen. 2:18). God goes back to the dirt and out of it forms every animal and bird. Adam names each, and what imagination both God and adam exhibit—aardvark, zebra, rhinoceros, dodo bird, eagle, nightingale, elephant, giraffe, ant, firefly, hippopotamus, gnat, frog, hummingbird, lion, canary. God shows a leaning toward serious diversity and difference! God makes it so and declares it good.
Despite the multitude of living creatures, a suitable partner for adam is not yet created. God tries again but uses a different strategy this time:
So YHWH Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that YHWH Elohim had taken from the man was made into a woman and was brought to the man. (Gen. 2:21–22)
God presents this new and different creature. God creates woman, and adam is not aware of God’s creative work until it is completed. She is created from adam’s rib and therein lies an issue. Some commentators equate the mode of her creation as a sign of her status with adam. That is, since she is created from adam, she must be inferior and subordinate. These two short verses have set the tone for the treatment of women for as long as we can remember. Woman, created from adam’s rib, is destined to be inferior and subordinate to man, the theory goes. There is no indication in the text, however, that her status is one of subordination. God creates her, just as God creates adam. She is the only creature not created directly from the dirt; but adam’s essential nature is dirt and indirectly the woman’s nature is also dirt. Their ultimate origin is rooted in the dust. God creates them both and does not indicate a ranking. Both are the result of God’s creative act. Day is not better than night; cows are not better than