In these two chapters the writer communicates a number of very important ideas, some explicit but some implicit, which connect with the whole teaching of the Bible. We may summarize them as follows:

1. God is, before the creation event which brought space, time and matter into being. In Genesis 1: 1-2: 4a, there are over thirty references to God as the sole creator, planner and organizer of the universe.

2. God is the sole source of life. The implication of Genesis 1-2 is that God created everything from nothing. The word for create is used in these chapters at three critical points. The first is the point at which God brought the primeval universe into being; the second, the point at which God created animal or conscious life; the third, the point at which God created human beings. The universe is so created and organized that it can maintain the life in many forms, culminating in human life that is put into the world.

3. All that we understand as personal is the creation of God because we understand God as 'person', not as an impersonal ‘first of everything. The personal God thinks, wills and loves. God creates human beings to be like him, who are blessed by him, so that they might enjoy a personal and loving relationship with him.

4. God creates male and female, to complement each other and live in a relationship of companionship. They are given control of all that God has created on the earth.

5. All order and design are the creation and plan of God. After each of the points of creation described in (2) there is ordering and completion of what has been brought into being.

6. What God creates is perfectly good and gives him joy. God is the source of goodness and true happiness.

7. In 1: 1-2: 4a, there is no indication of unhappiness, evil, imperfection, disorder, disharmony, disease or death. The first of the human race, man and woman, live in harmony and together hold first place in the world of creatures.

8. The mystery of God's eternal being is not discussed, but the character of God is shown as perfectly good, loving, wise, the great creator, designer, provider, who creates man and woman so that they might enjoy a joyful, blessed relationship with him and his creation and with each other.

When we turn to the text, we find that the two chapters divide into two sections, the first from 1: 1-2:4a, and the second from 2:4b-2S. In the first section the cosmic setting and the world setting into which the first human beings are put when all is ready for them, is described. In the second section, the first human beings, in their relationship to each other and to God, are the centre of interest. The two sections complement each other.

In these two chapters the writer draws on very ancient stories of the Middle East, but it is his own spiritual genius and the divine inspiration which comes to him which enables him to set out the ancient ideas which we have summarized in a new way. A comparison may be drawn between this and the parables of Jesus, in which Jesus set out spiritual truth in a brilliantly simple way.

1: 1-19 presents the first four stages of the creation of the universe from the bringing into existence of its primeval matter in space and time to the stage where our world was ready to support life.

1: 20-25 presents the fifth stage when the world is given animal life in all its forms.

1:26-31 describes the climax of God's creation, the creation of human beings. Then God said, 'And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small'. So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them and said, 'Rave many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. ... I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food' -and it was done. God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased.

2: 1-4a is the conclusion, with the blessing of the seventh day.

2: 4b-8 draws the reader's interest to the man whom God creates and for whom the earth is made habitable and good. Man's life comes from God.

2: 9-17 refers twice, for the first time, to the possibility of disorder. It is not necessary to theorize about the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad; the real point of God's command to the man not to touch the tree is to make man aware that he can do what no other creature can do, make a willed choice. Man has no need to eat the fruit of that tree as all the needs of the man have been met by what God has provided for him. If he touches the one thing that is forbidden it will be as a result of willful disobedience. Why was man able to make a choice in the way that other creatures cannot? Because man could also love in a way that other creatures cannot, and love is bound up with choice. We can love, or not love, and the choice is in us. Man had not been created by God as a machine which responded automatically to God. There is no such thing as automatic love.

2: 18-25 emphasizes the complementary nature of man and woman and God's plan that they should live together as companions, finding fulfillment in their union. Their sexuality is in God's plan. (Genesis 3)

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