Re: Gen. 2:5

Larry Martin (martin@npcts.edu)
Mon, 18 Mar 1996 12:51:00 -0600

>I am teaching a college class next week and I have a specific question
>regarding
>Genesis 2:4-7:
>
> "In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when no
>plant
>of the field had yet sprung up -- ... (7) then the LORD God formed man ...
>(RSV)
>
> This passage clearly seems to imply that there was a short time between
>the
>creation of the plants on day 3, and the creation of man on day 6, because the
>plants had not yet had time to sprout. Is that reasonable?
>
> OR perhaps it could be construed that man was made potentially from the
>ground before the plants even evolved. Could that fit?
>
> OR it may mean something else. But the connection of Gen. 1 and Gen. 2
>narratives are linked by this passage. It's talking about "when". So it
>seems
>to suggest some kind of natural history, rather than an ahistorical framework.
>Any comments?
>

Meredith Kline's article addresses this passage: "Because It Had Not
Rained," The Westminster Theological Journal 20 (1958): 146-157.

Note: the phrase "in the day" (Hebrew: "yom", singular) is the best
Biblical evidence I know of that "day" does not _have_ to always be 24
hours. Since the Bible just finished talking about 6 "days", it now talks
about "day"? Obviously, there is more flexibility in the term.

A warning: don't place too much emphasis on the "when", that's a "waw"
conjunctive in the Hebrew which can mean almost anything from "and" to
"but" to "when" to "errr... uhhh..., oh yeah, that's what I was talking
about...".

There are several reasons for questioning the unity of Genesis 1 with
2:4ff. I would say the burden of proof is even upon those who claim the
passages are "saying the same thing about the same events." My conclusion
is that the two passages had different intentions and meanings to the
original readers and neither had anything to do with answering modern
questions about sequence or chronology. I highly recommend Conrad Hyers'
"The Meaning of Creation" to enlighten you concerning the meaning of the
passages for the original readers. Though I don't agree with the whole of
the book, his best cases are presented for Gen. 1 and 2ff.

May God bless you in trying to prepare for that class. It's not something
I'd want to do with only a week's preparation!
That doesn't mean I wouldn't do it, of course... ;-)

-Larry Martin, PhD, Associate Professor of Physics
martin@npcts.edu http://www.npcts.edu/~martin/
(312) 244-5668 fax (312) 244-4952 home: (312) 478-0679
North Park College, box 30, 3225 W. Foster Ave., Chicago, IL 60625