Day 694: Folklore or facts - Genesis 2 vs 4 - 9

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5-6 When no bush of the field (or open country)  was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist (or spring)  was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground - 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and  breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 

8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:4-9 English Standard Version.

The Bible isn’t without it's difficulties! Can you see one in vs 5-6 today?

It could appear there that man was created before all the vegetation. Yet Chapter 1 told us that it was on the third day when God said “let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it”, and that Adam and Eve were only created on the sixth day. So is the Bible contradicting itself?

The answer is more likely that Genesis 1 was looking at creation in general, while chapter 2 now focuses on mankind. It sets the scene for the tragic events that will unfold in Chapter 3. It's also possible that the vegetation God brought into existence on day 3 hadn’t yet sprouted due to what we read in vs 5-6 today. It was awaiting the creation of man who would work the land. So Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are not two different stories, but the same event from two perspectives. Chapter 1 had also told how man and woman were created in God's image. How marvellous and exalted that is! But what is the humbling truth that comes out in vs 7 today?

Man was formed from the dust of the ground. What a lowly origin that is. But it also shows that human beings are not the end product of countless developments from blobs, to fish, to land creatures. We may have been fashioned from dust, but we were uniquely created by God. We are not highly developed apes! Taking it even further, vs 8 says that man wasn't placed in a wilderness, but in a garden. And vs 9 says how beautiful that garden was. The words that God made trees which were pleasant for sight and good for food to “spring up” add to the idea that bushes and small plants created on day 3 did not sprout till day 6.

What are two reasons (in vs 4 and vs 8) that show this is real history and not myth?

The word 'generations' in some Bible versions is translated as 'history'. That's what it implies. The same word is used many more time in Genesis to describe the family history of people like Noah, Terah, Isaac and others. And vs 8 speaks of a physical location. The events of Genesis 2 are not mere folklore tales, or some imaginary legend.

Having said that, it's likely that some events in the Bible have symbolic meaning. Did the trees of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil, possess fruits that gave life or knowledge? Or were they placed as symbols of what was in store depending on how Adam and Eve would respond to the command God would later give to not eat of the tree of knowing good and evil?

As I said at the start, the Bible isn’t without it's difficulties. But perhaps we should expect that when we consider that it's dealing with profound issues such as the existence of our universe, the origin of mankind, and the condition of the world we now live in. The encouraging thing for Christians is knowing that Jesus Christ quoted from these chapters in a manner that showed He believed them to be true. They are real facts of history.