When the first Christian scholar in the
Middle Ages devised our present chapter divisions, he apparently was
at a loss as to where the line should be drawn after the Creation
Story. Most scholars today feel that he made a mistake in this
particular case, although exactly where that chapter division should
have been drawn is not quite clear.
On the one hand, the repeated formula
beginning with “God said, 'let...'; continuing with 'and God saw it
was good'; and concluding with 'There was evening and there was
morning, the...day' concludes at 1:31. But on the other hand, the
Hebrew wording in Genesis 2:4 obviously harks back to that in Genesis
1:1, appearing to form an envelope around all of Genesis 1:1-2:3.
So I would like to look at these
transition verses, Genesis 1:31-2:3 in a little more detail,
beginning with the analysis below in which parallel thoughts are more
clearly shown. Note that God's name in the sections labeled A appear
to be symmetrically spaced apart as do the four counted days in
sections D. However, one can certainly not claim that there is
complete symmetry to the whole section, as one sees throughout the
rest of the Bible, including the New Testament.
Figure 1: The Literary Structure of
Genesis 1:31-2:3
A. God
B. all which he had made
C. beheld it was very good.
D. Evening and morning was the
sixth day
E. and finished heaven and
E. all the host of them finished
(1:31)
A. God
D. on the seventh day.
B. His work which he had made
E. and he rested
D. on the seventh day
B. from all the work which he had made
and (2:1-2)
A. God
C. blessed
D. the seventh day and
C. sanctified it
E. because he rested
B. from all the work
A. God
B. [had created] (2:3)
The “D” Sections
Figure 1 indicates that God “resting”
from his work is equivalent to His “finishing” creation, and
there are indications in various commentators' writings that this is
indeed the intended meaning.
Ellul explains that “the sabbath was
not created because of the six days but the six days were created
with a view to the sabbath. The rest was not one of idleness but of
completeness, when everything was very good.”
“This finishing of God's work
assigned to day seven is not a further creating, for it is paralleled
by God's resting. Both finishing and resting are viewed positively
and characterize the seventh day as a distinct state of triumphant
consummation for the Creator...The sabbath day in particular was
sanctified to be a constant source of blessing to man as the sign of
eternal hope.” (Kline)
Brotzman and Tully note that the
Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls, in contrast to the
standard Hebrew text, clearly “state that God finished creating the
world on the sixth day rather than the seventh.” This was perhaps
to remove any suspicion as to whether God had worked on the Sabbath.
Van Leeuwen asks, “In what sense is
creation in Genesis 1 'finished' (Gen 2:1-3)?...At the end of 2:3,
the cosmos is complete. Yet this complete world does not preclude
development and change within the limits and possibilities
established at creation. It is ready to bring forth the (human)
generations announced in the 'toledoth' of 2:4.”
“It should be noted that the verb
sabat ('to rest') does not carry the modern connotation of
resting because of exhaustion. It means 'to cease', and in reference
to the rest at creation it signifies a celebration of the completion
of the week...De Vaux explains it this way: 'Creation is the first
action in the history of salvation; once it was over, God stopped
work, and he was then able to make a covenant with his creatures.'”
(Ross)
And Carr states, “This day is the
point to which the whole seven-day scheme has led. God does not
command the sabbath, but he does rest (Heb. 'shabat') on the
seventh day and bless it, weaving the seven-day rhythm into
creation.”
“God's
creation moves to a climax not in the making of humanity, but in rest
and celebration (Gen 2:1-3). The days of actual work are called
'good,' but the day of rest and reflection upon the good is called
'holy' (2:3).” (Hamilton)
Kaiser: “All had been completed. Everything had been done. It was
all 'good'; in fact, it was all 'very good' (Gen. 1:31). Every
function, every being, and every blessing necessary to carrying out
life and its joys were now at hand.”
“Genesis
1:31 has God looking at what he had done and finding it 'very
good'...'very good' means sharing in God's one goodness!” (Collins)
The Role of Genesis 2:4
As alluded to above, there is some
doubt as to how this verse functions in the scheme of things, i.e.
whether it best fits with the previous section or with the following
one. There are at least four hypothetical possibilities: (1) it is a
superscription to introduce the rest of the material in Genesis 2;
(2) it acts as a subscription to close out what has preceded; (3) the
first part of the verse closes out the previous material while the
second half introduces what follows; or (4) Verse 2:4a introduces
what follows in Chapter 2 while 2:4b closes out the creation story in
Genesis 1:1-2:3.
Possibility #1
The
first usage of toledot
(“generation(s)”) in Genesis does not actually occur until Gen.
2:4a, where there is the question of whether it signals the beginning
or conclusion of a passage. Since most subsequent occurrences of
this marker appear to begin new sections, the majority of
commentators feel that the word functions in the same manner in this
verse.
For
example, Carr states that 2:4a is “probably not the conclusion of
the Priestly creation story, but a separate superscription
introducing the following material, as elsewhere in Genesis (e.g.,
5:1; 6:9; 10:11).”
“Many
scholars have identified the boundary of the book's opening unit as
extending to 2:4a rather than 2:3, primarily based on vocabulary
typical of the priestly stratum. Yet, the clause 'This is the story
of' (2:4) is used consistently elsewhere in Genesis at the beginning
of new movements in the narrative. As Wenham points out, 2:4 also has
a tightly knit chiastic structure quite distinct from 2:1-3.
Furthermore...elements of 2:1-3 provide a closing to an inclusio [a
set of bookends] opened at 1:1. For these reasons, the unit should be
marked as extending from 1:1 to 2:3...” (G.H. Guthrie)
And
Childs overstates his case drastically when he says that “the first
occurrence of the formula in 2.4: 'these are the generations of the
heavens and the earth...' serves as a superscription to the account
which follows and can, under no
circumstances, either be shifted to a
position preceding 1.1, or be treated as a subscription to 1.1-2.4a.”
Thus, consider the following information:
A
dissenting view was voiced by Wiseman, who cited Babylonian cuneiform
evidence that toledot
might have a retrospective function as a colophon instead. One
literary observation possibly supporting such
a use, at least in Gen. 2:4b, is
that the chiastic pair “heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1) ---------earth
and heaven (Gen. 2:4b)” may be intended to serve as an inclusio for
the first major section of the book. However, there are alternative
explanations for this phenomenon and a more elaborate inclusio exists
between Gen. 1:1 and 2:1-3.
Turner also brings up
caveats. Besides agreeing with Wiseman regarding the function of
toledot at Gen. 2:4a, he points out, “Additional uses of the
formula or equivalent occur, which summarize (Gen. 10:32) or
reiterate (Gen. 25:13; 36:9) a toledot already introduced, but
these do not have a structuring
function.” This last assertion needs a little clarification
considering that Gen. 36:9 can be seen, along with 36:1 to mark the
beginning of two A units in the genealogy section Gen. 36:1-43, and
this is a definite structuring function, though not in the same
manner as most of the other toledot introductions.
A. The descendants of Esau
(36:1-5)
B. Narrative Unit (36:6-8)
A'. The descendants of Esau
(36:9-43)
Turner also notes that 5:1
departs from the traditional toledot formula by saying “This
is the book of the descendants of...” So we certainly cannot make
any hard and fast judgments ahead of time regarding the exact manner
in which these formulae should function.
Possibility
#3
B.W.
Anderson says of 2:4b-3:24, “This is a different tradition from
that in 1.1-2.4a, as evidenced by the flowing style and the different
order of events, e.g. man is created before vegetation, animals, and
woman.”
At this
point, you may be tempted to agree with the conclusion of Ellison:
“Whether v. 4 is taken as the conclusion of the former story
[Possibility #1]...or as the introduction to the second story
[Possibility #2]...is of little importance...In fact (in opposition
to MT [i.e. the standard Hebrew text]), Skinner, Speiser, NEB, JB,
and GNB divide the verse between the two stories [in agreement with
Possibility #3]...“It does not seem to make much difference to our
understanding.” Ellison may well be correct, but in fact, he has
left out one more possible way to look at this swing verse 2:4, as
unlikely as this last theory may seem to be.
Possibility
#4
As you can see from the above comments, there appear to be equally
good reasons behind these first three views. And one way in which to
at least partially agree with all three of them is to propose a
rather counter-intuitive fourth possibility.
In
the first place, it is almost universally recognized that the
parallels between Gen. 1:1-2:3 and 2:5-25 are so strong that a
two-part organization to these combined chapters seems inevitable,
whether one treats the second half as a reiteration of the first
creation or a special creation in a special location. By viewing it
in this manner, the structural function of Gen. 2:4 becomes obvious
and explains why the function of this swing verse here is so
controversial. This key verse contains two lines:
“These are the
generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.”
(v. 4a)
“In the day that the LORD
God made the earth and the heavens...” (v. 4b)
Note the chiastic (i.e., mirror-image) elements
within these semi-poetic lines. This verse takes the form of
introverted parallelism found quite often in the Psalms. And this
even extends to the reversed order of the two elements “heavens and
earth” in the last line – a sure sign of an inclusio marking out
the borders of this one verse as a literary unit in its own right.
Figure 2: The Structure
of Genesis 2:4
These are the generations
(toledot) of
the heavens
and the earth
when they were created.
In the day that the LORD
God made
the earth and
the heavens.
One unusual feature of this
verse is that its first line appears to point forward to the rest of
Gen. 2 as similar occurrences of toledot do. However, Gen.
2:4b looks backward to the very beginning of Genesis where the same
phrase is used with another reversal of the same “heaven and earth”
elements. Thus viewed, the structural function of ellah toledot
here is neither as an opening nor closing phrase. Instead it is part
of a hinge verse securely tying together the two halves of Gen. 1-2
in an interlocking pattern. Similar examples of such “reversed”
hinge verses and sections appear elsewhere in the Bible, such as in
seen, in a slightly different manner, the structure of the book of
Daniel.
Thus, J.L. Collins states,
“The most perplexing anomaly lies in the fact that the division on
the basis of form and date does not coincide with the division on the
basis of language.” In other words, why is Dan. 1 in Hebrew instead
of Aramaic as are the other court stories of Daniel, and why isn't
Dan. 7 in Hebrew with the other visions of the second half of the
book? The answer to the second question at least is seen in the
overall structure of the book, which is composed of two entirely
different types of literature. Figure 3 shows how Chapter 7 serves to
tie Parts I and II together by utilizing the language of the bulk of
Part I while taking the literary form of Part II.
Figure 3: Overall
Structure of the Book of Daniel
I. Court Stories (Daniel
1-6)
Chapter 1 in Hebrew
Chapters 2-6 in Aramaic
II. Prophecies (Daniel 7-12)
Chapter 7 in Aramaic
Chapters 8-12 in Hebrew
What is the relationship between
Genesis 1:1-2:3 and 2:5-25?
Assuming now that Genesis 2:4 acts as a
swing verse in one manner or another between the longer sections on
either side, that still leaves open the question as to whether (1)
these are two varying, and differing accounts of the same creation
event or (2) the bulk of Chapter 2 describes events subsequent to
those in Chapter 1.
View #1
Ellison feels that these are two versions of the same creation event,
not from different sources but written with two completely different
perspectives in mind, 1:1-2:3 being from God's standpoint while
2:4-25 treat it from man's viewpoint.
Hamilton distinguishes these two parallel accounts in a different
manner: “Both the OT and other ANE [i.e. Ancient Near East]
literature know of only four methods of creation: by speech, by
action, by sexual activity, or by combat with forces of evil. Gen 1
highlights the first of these, while 2:4-25 focuses on the second of
these.”
As a key similarity between the two, Vorlander points out, “In both
accounts of creation (Gen. 1:1ff; 2:4b ff.) the creation of man is
the high-point.”
“If
we turn to chapter 2, we immediately recognize that we are being
given a complementary, and perhaps alternate, account of certain
aspects of creation. The beginning of verse 4 seems at first to be
merely a summary of what we have already been told...But then we read
further...and the more we read, the clearer it is that the creations
of the fifth and sixth days of chapter 1 are being reformulated, with
a different order and with a different emphasis.” (Gros Louis)
At this point we should point out that although both Vorlander and
Gros Louis feel that this is to some extent an alternative account of
creation from that in Chapter 1, one states that the emphasis is the
same in both while the other says that there is a different emphasis
in Chapter 2.
And
we could add the opinion of Van Leeuwen, who sees the relative
emphases in these parallel accounts in yet a different manner: “If
the portrait of creation in Gen 1:1-2:3 emphasizes God's sovereign
transcendence as he orders creation by separations, 2:4-25 complements
the former text by its picture of Yahweh's creative activity as
immanent...Moreover, in Genesis 2, the emphasis is not on the
separations in the cosmic order, but on the bonds
that connect man and soil..., man and women, God and humans..., and
humans and animals...”
Freitman makes this same point using another observation: “The OT
begins with reference to Elohim rather than Yahweh (Gen 1:1); this
may indicate that it more readily carried a universal sense for that
audience than the personal name Yahweh. The addition of Yahweh to
Elohim, 'LORD God,' in Gen 2:4-3:23 may be meant to claim that this
universal creator God is none other than Israel's personal God.”
View
#2
In favor of the second creation accounts covering later historical
events, scholars have often pointed out that a common literary Hebrew
pattern was to broadly describe an event and then proceed to go into
increasingly more detail. This can be seen in the creation story with
a general introduction given in Gen. 1:1, followed by more details in
1:2-2:4a, and finally zeroing in on a particular geographical
location and human couple in 2:4b-25.
Kline: “Since the genitive in this formula [2:4] is uniformly
subjective, the reference is not to the origin 'of the heavens and
the earth' but the sequel thereof, particularly the early history of
the earthlings. The first part of this verse, therefore, must be
taken not with the preceding but the following account, which is not,
then, presented as another version of creation.”