In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when 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, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground--then the LORD God formed man1 from the dust of the ground2, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life3; and the man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.4
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.5 And the LORD God 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 eat6, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.7"
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner."8 So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs9 and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken." Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife10, and they become one flesh11. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed12.
[1] This just doesn't fit with chapter one's account. I don't see any reason to assume it's supposed to. The author of Genesis put both stories in there without feeling any need to address the contradictions. These are stories that explain why we are here and are the way that we are - the contradiction of details in the setting is unimportant because those details aren't the message, they're the means by which the message is transmitted.
[2] Made from dust - crazy. Makes me think of Kansas. My study Bible tells me that the Hebrew "adam" for man is similar to the "adamah" for dust. At first I thought that this indicated the author might be making a word play that decreased the significance of equating human origins with dust. This isn't necessarily true, but then I realized that it could be even a step deeper - what if this helps to explain why "dust" and "man" are almost the same word in Hebrew?
[3] God's breath is in us.
[4] Is there significance to these river descriptions, or are they just aspects of the setting?
[5] Humans work from the beginning, but work was good. "Till it and keep it" (which my study Bible tells me is written literally as "serve it") provides a good addition to the "subdue" and "dominion" statements in the first creation account. We do have authority over the Earth, but we use that authority in service to the Earth, not in desecration of it and self-serving abuse.
[6] If they aren't to eat of the tree, why is it in the garden? Is it there specifically to test them? Or is it an automatic aspect of living on this Earth? Perhaps, if we are to live on this Earth, then "knowledge of good and evil" was going to have to be available to us, and it was going to be tempting.
[7] So why didn't they die when they ate it? Is it that eating the fruit is the cause of their eventual death and "in the day" has a broader meaning? Or is there a deeper meaning to "you shall die" that goes beyond physical death?
[8] Reading this right now, it feels like something more than the setup of the marriage relationship - men and women need each other corporately, not just in exclusive relationships.
[9] What is the significance of taking a rib? I guess it is about the most substantial thing (bone and marrow and meat and all) that you could take out of someone without them clearly missing it. Then again, my study bible says that the translation of this word is uncertain and that we don't actually know what is being taken out here.
[10] Okay, so this moral is clearly the marriage relationship. And perhaps that is what the author was referring to the whole time. But I don't think that means that God (and us) can't mean something more than that here.
[11] Naked=unhidden=open to the world. How much further do we have to go as people before we are truly open to the world and not ashamed?
Take-home: A second creation account to impart additional lessons. God made God to till and keep, or serve, the earth. He made man and woman to live in partnership with each other, and their creation is intimately tied together. And when humankind was created, they were created naked and unashamed.
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