1Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”
4The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die, 5for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too. 7Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves. 8They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
9Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14Yahweh God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
you are cursed above all livestock,
and above every animal of the field.
You shall go on your belly
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”
16To the woman he said,
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.
You will bear children in pain.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17To Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,
and have eaten from the tree,
about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
the ground is cursed for your sake.
You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
18It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
and you will eat the herb of the field.
19You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground,
for you were taken out of it.
For you are dust,
and you shall return to dust.”
20The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. 21Yahweh God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
22Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—” 23Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
There are several specific and unique differences between the literary and theological account found in Genesis and that of the various stories of creation in the Ancient Near East. There are minor comparisons between Gen 1 and Gen 2 with the Ancient Near Eastern cultures around Israel, but the historical account given to us by Moses has a very different presentation of the creation than ANE cosmologies, including a chronological account consistent with mainline science (absent the evolutionary hypothesis). Moreover, the biblical account has greater literary statement of creation than the ANE cosmologies. Subsequent discussion below reveals a vastly different theological view of the act of creation and its purpose.
Probably the most obvious difference between the biblical account of creation and that of the Ancient Near East cosmologies is monotheism. The biblical account begins with one God who created the universe (Gen 1:1). This is unlike the Ancient Near Eastern cosmologies, in which there were many gods who were created out of a primordial mass.
In some ancient Near Eastern myths, creation is often the result of divine conflicts or struggles among gods or deities. In Genesis there is no such conflict. God creates the world by His will and divine speech, without the need for struggle or conflict. The Creator God simply spoke and by an act of His will the world came into existence (Heb 11:3).
Unlike ANE cosmologies, whose gods came out of the pre-existent cosmos and part of it, the Genesis 1 account presents God and the creation separate from each other. The Creator is not part of creation but over creation, and distinguished from the physical universe.
Genesis emphasizes that humanity is created in the image of God and is given the task of stewardship and dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). This concept of human purpose is distinctive and reflects the biblical idea of humanity's special relationship with God as being in His image, and given responsibility over tending the earth. As well, the creation of the male and female in God's image speaks of a theomorphism1.
There is a limited comparison between God's speaking and ANE accounts, the latter connected to speaking words of incantation, or the like, while God in Genesis 1 speaks reality into existence without manipulating words, demonstrating His sovereignty and control over creation (see also Ps 33:6; 107:20; Isa 55:10, 11; John 1:1, 3; Heb 11:3; Rev 4:11).
The Genesis account of the creation includes a unique feature, with the creator introducing a day of rest on the seventh day. The rest that God takes does not relate to the Creator being tired, but rather an indication that He had ceased the creation of the universe. In the Ten Commandments the creator sets aside a day for His people Israel to cease from work and to contemplate their relationship with the Creator (Gen 2:2, 3).
One may observe in the biblical account of creation a focus on the Creator's evaluation of His handiwork, much like an artist would stand back to view the fruit of his labor in a picture that he has just completed. One sees in Genesis 1 this evaluation of "good" repeatedly as the Creator does His work (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) and "very good" (Genesis 1:31) at the end of His work. This is in stark contrast with the Ancient Near Eastern cosmologies where the result of the creative process is not "good" but a result of conflict between the various deities and the chaos produced.
The Genesis account of creation carries a distinctive theological message that emphasizes the goodness of creation, the responsibility of His human creatures to act as co-regents and stewards in the earth. As well, the biblical account of the fall of humans into sin, and the subsequent covenant of God with humans, serves as the foundation of subsequent themes, and human redemption and God's kingdom (Gen 3:15) is unlike anything within the pagan creation accounts.
"When we speak about humans made in the image of God, we understand this as theomorphic and theopathic language. By this is meant that humans are created to be like, but not the same, as their Creator, in our form and in our spiritual expression, since God created humans physically in His image, as well as spiritually. Consequently, without material eyes, the infinite God sees, and without a brain, He thinks. God has created humans as finite physical beings to act similarly to God." H. Wayne House, "Does God Have a Spirit Body?, Christian Research Journal, Vol 40, Num 3, p. 9; Original quote is from H. Wayne House, Does God Feel Your Pain? 2d ed. (Lampion House Publishing, 2009 (rev., 2023), 110. ↩︎