Old Testament Commentary - Genesis 2

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
CHAPTER 2 Creation completed—God rests on the seventh day—Prior spirit creation explained—Adam and Eve placed in the Garden of Eden—They are forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil—Adam names every living creature—Adam and Eve are married by the Lord.
1 Thus the heavens and the ^aearth were finished^a, and all the ^bhost of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had ^amade; and he ^brested on the seventh day from all his ^cwork which he had made. 3 And God blessed the ^aseventh day, and ^bsanctified it: because that in it he had ^crested from all his work which God ^dcreated and made. The Seventh Day Perhaps lost in all that the Sabbath Day is and means is the consideration of the Creation of God. As is all that God does, the end purpose of the creation is to be found in the bring to past the immortality and eternal life of man. That is, the 'second estate' needs to have a 'realm of existence' within which to function. As stated by Jehovah, "...We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon;... and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever." (Abraham 3:24-26). Thus the creation of God was to the end of bring about the Plan of Redemption—which is the work of bring man unto immortality and eternal life (Moses 1:39).	1^a Thus the heavens and the earth were finished What does this mean? Does it really mean that all of the creation of the universe was created in 7 days? Does it mean that the spiritual planning and the pattern of the design of creation was done in 7 days and the actual physical 'creations' did subsequently follow? This earth, the universe and God dates back far distance into the past eternity of time. There is no inconsistancy between the age of God and the age of the universe. The inconsistancy comes with man's understanding and man's interpretations. Certainly the scriptures are consistent with all truth of existence and any inconsistency to be found is in the understanding of man and man's interpreations of the word of God which includes the editorial translations and compilations of the Bible through the ages by the hands of man. Moses' and Abraham's information in the books of Moses and Abraham are certainly more consistent with facts of creation. Consider the words of the Lord recorded by Moses, '...there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man...And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come, and there is no end to my works..." (Moses 1:35 & 38). This 'pattern' of creation breaths of taking immence amounts of time and portray a 'recycling' of the elements and worlds of the universe. This life 'recycling' does this our own earth atest to. What we do know is that this present or current earth's creation which begins with Adam did have its first 'mortal' beginnings some 6,000 years ago. As to the details of any such prior 'creations' and uses of this earth, its materials and elements, we are not specifically told as it does not apply directly to us and our immediate eternal salvation in the plan of God.	1^a TG Creation ^b Isa. 45:12; D&C 29:36; D&C 38:1; D&C 45:1; Moses 3:1; Abr. 5:1 2^a OR done ^b HEB stopped, ceased; from the verb shavat, the noun shabbat (Engl. Sabbath) means a stopping of cessation; D&C 77:12; Moses 3:2; Abr. 5:2 (1-3); TG Rest ^c TG Industry 3^a TG Sabbath ^b Ex. 20:11; Mosiah 13:19 (16-19); D&C 77:12; Moses 3:3 (1-3); Abr. 5:3 (1-3); TG Sacred ^c Ex. 31:17 ^d OR created through working Our God God the Father of Spirits is Our Father Who art in Heaven. That is the Lord of this creation was so selected from one among us, the spirit children of God the Father of Spirits. The principle here is that only those who do so pertain unto this 'temporal creation' are to minister unto it. God the Father of Spirits, Elohim, is an advanced Celestial being of gloriefied flesh and bone and stands above and beyond this current temporal cration of this earth. Thus He so selected and anointed his Firstborn Son, Jehovah from among his spirit children, to so 'minister' unto this estate as its Father and God of Creation in his stead. Thus we come to understand that the God of the Old Testament is Jehovah, the Firstborn Spirit Son of the Father. By, through and with the power given him by God the Father of Spirits, and under His direction, Jehovah, while yet a Spirit God, so created this heaven and earth, and so created man in the image of his spirit body and also the in the image of God the Father of Spirits, head shoulders, knees and toes; eyes, ears, mouth and nose. The spirit being or rather the physical body being in the image of the spirit which it houses. And thus the God of Israel is Jehovah. The God of the Book of Mormon is Jehovah, and Mary was the mother of God, that the condescension of God was that the God of Abraham and creation did so condescend to come to earth as mortal and take upon himself the sins of the world that the work and glory of God might be fulfilled. This was understood since the time of Adam but has been muddled and obscured by the perception of the Jews and traditional Christianity. And the Doctrine of the Father, the God the Father of Spirits was again purely introduced by Jesus Christ/Jehovah during his mortal ministry as represented in how we are to pray unto 'Our Father Who art in Heaven' and whatsoever we thus ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by be so properly considered by the powers of heaven.
4 ¶ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were ^acreated, in the day [time] that the ^bLORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 And every ^aplant of the field ^bbefore it was in the ^cearth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a ^dman to till the ^eground.		4^a Moses 3:4-5; Abr. 5:4-5 ^b TG Jesus Christ—Jehovah 5^a TG Nature, Earth ^b TG Spirit Creation ^c TG Creation ^d TG Man, Physical Creation of ^e Moses 3:5 Spiritual Creation The scriptures tell us that while the six periods or days of 'creation' had been complete and the Lord had rested, that physically the plants where not yet in the earth itself and it had not yet rained. Thus all things where prepared first 'spiritually' before they where physically placed in the earth. In one sense the 'spiritual creation' is a 'pattern' or 'blueprint' for creation which can be applied physically to world after world after world for the intent of bring about God's work.
6 But there went up a ^amist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the LORD God ^aformed ^bman of the ^cdust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the ^dbreath of life^a; and ^eman became a living ^fsoul.	7^a the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life Here the LORD God who formed man of the dust is Jehovah the Creator of the Heaven and Earth of this second estate, the same is Jesus Christ. And the spirit of man was placed in the body which was formed, which spirit was that eternal being, a spirit child of God the Father of Spirits, who is not the same as Jesus Christ, for Christ, Jehovah was also such a spirit child, one with us from among us, being the Firstborn son in the spirit of that same God the Father of Spirits, Chirst being anointed and appointed of that Father to so minister unto this second estate, thus to be its Creator, Redeemer, God, Judge, and King.
8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in ^aEden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the ^asight, and good for ^bfood; the ^ctree of ^dlife also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of ^eknowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of ^aEden to water the garden; and from thence it was ^bparted, and became into four heads. 11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which ^acompasseth the whole land of ^bHavilah, where there is gold; 12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and ^athe onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that ^acompasseth the whole land of ^bEthiopia. 14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the ^agarden of ^bEden ^cto dress it and to ^dkeep it. 16 And the LORD God ^acommanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest ^bfreely eat: 17 But of the ^atree of the ^bknowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the ^cday that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely ^ddie.
18 ¶ And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be ^aalone; I will make him ^ban help meet for him. 19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto ^aAdam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the ^bname thereof. 20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a ^awoman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and ^aflesh of my flesh: she shall be called ^bWoman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a ^aman leave his ^bfather and his mother^a, and shall ^ccleave unto his ^dwife: and they shall be ^eone flesh. 25 And they were both ^anaked, the man and his wife^a, and were not ^bashamed.	24^a Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother Now, Adam having been created, formed or made from the dust of the earth as pertaining to this temporal or corporal being, of whence would Adam have left his Father and Mother in order to so cleave unto his wife? Now we know that it does apply to Adam, for indeed, even as we also, Adam had a Father and Mother of his spirit in pre-mortality. And from thence he did leave the presence of his Father and Mother, God the Eternal Father of Spirits and what we must therefore conclude to be our Mother in Heaven also. 25^a the man and his wife Who so married Adam and Eve that Eve is called the 'wife' of Adam? God is the obvious answer. And it was an 'eternal marriage' being that is was performed in the Garden of Eden while Adam and Eve were yet immortal beings, though having about them a temporal body of flesh and bone. And thus the law of marriage is so herein explained that a man and a women become 'one flesh', that is selected only unto each other as 'one' and to none other.