The Office: Real Life At Work

Ryrie

• (4) “when” is literally translated “in the day.” “The creation week is not specified as a single day by this phrase; rather, without the article 'the,' it means 'at the time.'”
• (4) “Lord” or YHWH is “the most significant name for God in the OT. It has a twofold meaning: the active, self-existent One (since the word is connected with the verb meaning 'to be,' Ex 3:14); and Israel's Redeemer (Ex 6:6). The name occurs 6,823 times in the OT and is especially associated with God's holiness (Lev 11:44-45), His hatred of sin (Gen 6:3-7), and His gracious provision of redemption (Isa 53:1, 5, 6, 10).”
• (5) “The kind of plants referred to here are those requiring cultivation, which (though green plants appeared the third day, 1:11-12) did not grow until after there was a man to take care of them.”
• (6) The streams mentioned here were “probably caused by daily evaporation and condensation, which occurred because of the change in temperature between daytime and nighttime.” “Apparently God suspended a vast body of water in vapor form over the earth, making a canopy that caused conditions on the earth to resemble those inside a greenhouse. This may account for the longevity of human life (Gen 5) and for the tremendous amount of water involved in the worldwide flood (Gen 6-9).”
• (7) “Man's body was formed from small particles of the earth (the Hebrew words for man and earth are similar), but his life came from the breath of God.”
• (7) “a living being” = “a living person. The phrase is also used of animals (1:21, 24). Man is distinguished from animals by being created in the image of God.”
• (8) The garden was “apparently somewhere in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), since two of the four rivers in its vicinity are the well-known Tigris and and Euphrates.”
• (8) “Eden means 'delight.'”
• (9) the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were two actual trees to which God gave special significance.”
• (11) We don't really know where Pishon and Havilah were.
• (12) aromatic resin is “a precious gum resin.”
• (12) onyx is “a nontransparent variety of agate.”
• (15-20) “God told Adam to do four things: (1) work or cultivate the garden; (2) take care of or keep it, i.e., guard its sanctity; (3) eat its fruit, except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but apparently including the fruit of the tree of life; (4) name the animals.”
• (18) “suitable helper” = “his counterpart”
• (20) “The act of naming this and other parts of the creation was, in the Semitic world, an evidence of lordship.”

Henry

• “in the first chapter, he was called Elohim—a God of power; but now Jehovah Elohim—a God of power and perfection, a finishing God. As we find him known by his name Jehovah when he appeared to perform what he had promised (Exod. vi. 3), so now we have him known by that name, when he had perfected what he had begun.”
• “Jehovah is that great and incommunicable name of God which denotes his having his being of himself, and his giving being to all things; fitly therefore is he called by that name now that heaven and earth are finished.”
• “The earth did not bring forth its fruits of itself, by any innate virtue of its own but purely by the almighty power of God, which formed every plant and every herb before it grew in the earth.”
• “Rain also is the gift of God; it came not till the Lord God caused it to rain. If rain be wanted, it is God that withholds it; if rain come plentifully in its season, it is God that sends it; if it come in a distinguishing way, it is God that causeth it to rain upon one city and not upon another, Amos iv. 7.”
• “Though God, ordinarily, works by means, yet he is not tied to them, but when he pleases he can do his own work without them.”
• “Some way or other God will take care to water the plants that are of his 14 own planting.”
• “He was made of the dust of the ground, a very unlikely thing to make a man of; but the same infinite power that made the world of nothing made man, its master-piece, of next to nothing.”
• “He was not made of gold-dust, powder of pearl, or diamond dust, but common dust, dust of the ground. Hence he is said to be of the earth, choikos—dusty,”
• “Of the other creatures it is said that they were created and made; but of man that he was formed, which denotes a gradual process in the work with great accuracy and exactness. To express the creation of this new thing, he takes a new word, a word (some think) borrowed from the potter's forming his vessel upon the wheel; for we are the clay, and God the potter, Isa. Lxiv. 8.”
• “What little reason have men to be proud of stately and magnificent buildings, when it was the happiness of man in innocency that he needed none!”

Reflecting God

• (4) “The Hebrew word for 'account' occurs ten times in Genesis – at the beginning of each main section.”
• (4) “The phrase 'the account of the heavens and the earth' introduces the next section, where the blight of sin and rebellion brought a threefold curse that darkens the story of Adam and Eve in God's good and beautiful garden: (1) on the serpent (3:14); (2) on the ground, because of Adam (3:17); and (3) on Cain (4:11). 1:1-2:3 is a general account of creation, while 2:4-4:26 focuses on the beginning of human history.”
• (4) “Lord” (Hebrew YHWH, 'Yahweh') is the personal and covenant name of God, emphasizing his role as Israel's Redeemer and covenant Lord, while “God” (Hebrew Elohim) is a general term. Both names occur thousands of times in the OT, and often, as here, they appear together – clearly indicating that they refer to the same one and only God.”
• (4) “In this section God is portrayed in much more personal terms than in 1:1-2:3.”
• (7) “The Hebrew for ['formed'] commonly referred to the work of a potter, who fashions vessels from clay. 'Make' (1:26), 'create' (1:27), and 'form' are used to describe God's creation of both humans and animals.”
• (7) “Humans and animals alike have the breath of life in them.”
• (7) “The Hebrew phrase here translated 'living being' is translated 'living creatures' in 1:20,24. The words of 2:7 therefore imply that people, at least physically, have affinity with the animals. The great difference is that humans are made 'in the image of God' (1:27) and have an absolutely unique relation both to God as his servant and to the other creatures as their divinely appointed steward.”
• (8) The garden was east “from the author's standpoint. The garden was perhaps near where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, in what is today southern Iraq.”
• (8) The name Eden is synonymous with “paradise” and related to either “a Hebrew word meaning 'bliss' or 'delight' or a Mesopotamian word meaning 'a plain.' Perhaps the author subtly suggests both.”
• (9) The tree of life signifies and gives “fullness of life, without death, in fellowship with God.”
• (9) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies and gives “knowledge of good and evil, which can mean moral knowledge and ethical discernment or divine wisdom.”
• (9) “Adam and Eve possessed both life and knowledge as they came from God. Their access to the fruit of the tree of life showed that God's will and intention for them was life. In eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve sought a creaturely source of discernment and knowledge in order to be morally independent of God.”
• (11) We don't know where Pishon or Havilah were, but Havilah is mentioned again in 10:29. Probably, though, it is not the same as Havilah, Egypt, mentioned in 10:7.
• (13) We don't know where Gihon was. “The Hebrew word may be a common noun meaning 'spurter.' Both the Pishon and the Gihon may have been streams in Lower Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf.”
• (14) Asshur was the capital of ancient Assyria.
• (14) The Euphrates is often called 'the River' because of its size and importance in the region.
• (15) “work … take care” could also be “serve … protect.” “Adam, representing humankind, is now given the mission to care for the earth responsibly under God's sovereignty.”
• (16) “The bounty of creation is God's gracious gift.”
• (17) We have in God's directive here “the first prohibition. God's grace not only grants, but also limits, freedom. To attain all knowledge belongs properly only to God and to whom he grants it (Pr 25:2-3).”
• (17) “The penalty for disobedience of God is loss of the gift of life.”
• (18) “For the first time in creation something is 'not good.' Without female companionship and a partner in reproduction, the man could not fully realize his humanity.”
• (18) “'Helper' does not imply subordination; indeed, it is often used of God himself.”
• (18) “suitable for” = “corresponding to”
• (19) Naming the animals was Adam's “first act of dominion over and care-taking of the creatures around him.”