Genesis 2:7

7 Therefore the Lord God formed man of the slime of [the] earth, and breathed into his face the breathing of life; and man was made into a living soul. (And so the Lord God formed man out of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breathe of life; and then the man was made into a living soul.)

Genesis 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 2:7

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
&c.] Not of dry dust, but, as Josephus F8 says, of red earth macerated, or mixed with water; the like notion Hesiod F9 has; or out of clay, as in ( Job 33:6 ) hence a word is made use of, translated "formed", which is used of the potter that forms his clay into what shape he pleases: the original matter of which man was made was clay; hence the clay of Prometheus F11 with the Heathens; and God is the Potter that formed him, and gave him the shape he has, see ( Isaiah 64:8 ) , there are two "jods", it is observed, in the word, which is not usual; respecting, as Jarchi thinks, the formation of man for this world, and for the resurrection of the dead; but rather the two fold formation of body and soul, the one is expressed here, and the other in the following clause: and this, as it shows the mighty power of God in producing such a creature out of the dust of the earth, so it serves to humble the pride of man, when he considers he is of the earth, earthy, dust, and ashes, is dust, and to dust he must return.

And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
which in that way entered into his body, and quickened it, which before was a lifeless lump of clay, though beautifully shapen: it is in the plural number, the "breath of lives" F12, including the vegetative, sensitive, and rational life of man. And this was produced not with his body, as the souls of brutes were, and was produced by the breath of God, as theirs were not; nor theirs out of the earth, as his body was: and these two different productions show the different nature of the soul and body of man, the one is material and mortal, the other immaterial and immortal:

and man became a living soul;
or a living man, not only capable of performing the functions of the animal life, of eating, drinking, walking but of thinking, reasoning, and discoursing as a rational creature.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1.
F9 Opera & dies, ver. 60.
F11 Martial. l. 10. Epigram. 38.
F12 (Myyx tmvn) Heb. "spiraculum vitarum", Pareus.

Genesis 2:7 In-Context

5 and each little tree of [the] earth before that it sprang out in [the] earth; and he made each herb of the field before that it burgeoned. For the Lord God had not (yet) rained on the earth, and no man there was that wrought the earth (and there was no man yet to work the earth);
6 but a well went out of [the] earth, and moisted all the higher part of the earth. (but a well, or a mist, went up out of the ground, and watered all the earth's surface.)
7 Therefore the Lord God formed man of the slime of [the] earth, and breathed into his face the breathing of life; and man was made into a living soul. (And so the Lord God formed man out of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breathe of life; and then the man was made into a living soul.)
8 Forsooth the Lord God planted at the beginning (the) paradise of liking, wherein he set man whom he had formed. (And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he put the man there whom he had formed.)
9 And the Lord God brought forth (out) of the earth each tree fair in sight, and sweet to eat; also he brought forth the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of knowing of good and of evil (and he brought forth the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.