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