A Daily Genesis

Genesis 2:6-7

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 2:6 . . a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.[/B]

The word "mist" is from [I]'ed [/I](ade). It's a very rare word and appears only one more time in the whole Bible in the book of Job.

"See, God is greater than we can know; the number of His years cannot be counted. He forms the droplets of water, which cluster into rain, from His mist. The skies rain; they pour down on all mankind. Can one, indeed, contemplate the expanse of clouds, the thunderings from His pavilion? See: He spreads His lightning over it; it fills the bed of the sea." (Job 36:26-30)

According to the translators; Job understood 'ed to mean water vapor; viz: fog. California's coastal redwood trees derive much of their moisture from fog.

The reason for the mist is something I learned in a high school science class. Had God brought rain prior to flourishing ground cover, the land would have eroded something awful and millions of cubic yards of perfectly good dirt would have washed into creeks, and streams, and rivers to be carried out to sea where it would be lost in perpetuity.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 2:7a . . And Yhvh God formed a man's body[/B]

Mankind's creator didn't give birth to man like women give birth to children or baby chicks hatch from eggs; no, humans aren't God's biological progeny --humans are God's handiwork like the glass products manufactured by craftsmen in Murano; where they make things from scratch using mostly sand for their base material.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 2:7b . . from the dust of the ground[/B]

The Hebrew word for "dust" is a bit ambiguous. It essentially refers to powder, but can also be translated clay, earth, mud, mortar, ashes, and/or rubbish.

A major ingredient in man's construction is water, without which his "dust' wouldn't coalesce. Water is essential to complex organisms; which is why scientists get really excited when they discover it out in in the universe.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 2:7c . . and breathed into it the breath of life[/B]

The word for "breathed" is from [I]naphach[/I] (naw-fakh') and means; among other things: to kindle; which Webster's defines as (1) to start (a fire) burning: light, (2) to stir up: arouse, (3) to bring into being: start, and (4) to animate.

Naphach is sort of like what Indy Car drivers do when they're given the order to start their engines.

The word for "breath" is [I]neshamah[/I] (nesh-aw-maw') which means: a puff. Neshamah is a bit ambiguous and has been variously translated air, soul, spirit, blast, and inspiration.

What we're looking at here isn't artificial respiration because it doesn't do a bit of good pumping air into the lungs of a corpse. They won't come alive like that; it's been tried.

The kind of life that's in God is eternal life. His kind of life never had a beginning-- it always was, it always is, and it always will be; ergo: eternal life isn't a created kind of life.

The breath of life, on the other hand, is a created kind of life that had its beginning in the book of Genesis; and there is quite a variety of it from lowly bacteria to lions and tigers and h[B].[/B]sapiens.

The breath of life then is a natural kind of life as opposed to eternal life which is a supernatural kind of life.

It is very difficult to analyze and/or define life. It's all around us, but though we are so familiar with life; we know practically nothing about it.

"Think not to say within yourselves: We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." (Matt 3:9)

True enough; viz: if God can make dirt spring into action, then He can just as easily make stone do the same. Don't ask me how because not even the best and brightest minds in the whole world have been able to figure out how to do it.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 2:7c . . and man became a living soul.[/B]

The Hebrew words for "living soul" are [I]chay nephesh[/I] which is the very same nomenclature of every living thing aboard Noah's ark at Gen 9:10. Although Man possess a higher intelligence than all the rest of the chay nephesh, he is, nevertheless, a creature; and little more than brutish in his basic nature: Men eat like brutes, sleep like brutes, react like brutes, reproduce like brutes, excrete like brutes; they're territorial like brutes, drink water like brutes, run and hide like brutes, squabble like brutes; and they die like brutes.

"For one can see that even wise men die; the stupid and the senseless perish too; and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is: that their estates are forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They have called their lands after their own names. But man's pomp will not sustain him; he is little different than other perishable beasts." (Ps 49:10 12)

Some feel that the "breath of life" is limited to humans; but it's easily shown from those who missed a ride aboard Noah's ark that both man and beast share that aspect of their creation.

"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." (Gen 7:21-22)

The problem is: folks desperately want something to account for mankind's interest in religion. But the breath of life makes neither man nor beast religious; it just makes them alive instead of dead.

As we saw; the two Hebrew words composing "living soul" are [I]chay[/I] and [I]nepehesh[/I]; which are very common and very definitely not restricted to humans.

Nephesh, for example; are located in 1:20, 1:21, 1:24, 1:30, 2:19, and 9:4.

Chay are located in 1:20, 1:21, 1:24, 1:25, 1:28, 1:30, 2:9, 2:19, 2:20, and 3:1.

When all those references are compared, it's easy to see that a living soul is simply a creature as opposed to an object like a lump of coal or a passing cloud.

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Updated 11-23-2015 at 11:35 AM by WebersHome

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