Two Stories of Creation

And the Lord God formed man ('adam' in Hebrew) from the dust of the ground (adamah) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being (Gen. 2).

 

Man is a solar-powered creature; our life-source, our energy, does not come from ourselves, but from the "breath of God" in us.  In Hebrew, the word we translate as "breath" is ruach, the same word that is used in the first chapter of Genesis at the moment of creation: When God began creating the heavens and the earth (adamah), the earth/adamah was formless and empty, darkness over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit(Ruach) of God was hovering over the waters (Gen. 1).

 

There is a deliberate connection -- or word-play-- betwen the Hebrew words of adam/adamah and the word ruach, translated in Enlish alternately as "Spirit" and "breath" in both stories of creation -- that of the universe and that of man.

 

The same creative energy that hovers over the formless deep in Genesis 1 to bring about order, harmony, beauty, balance hovers over the dust of the earth that is formed into a man.  The word "adam" was not at first a proper name, but a generic reference: the man.  In the first creation story, Elohim first creates the space for life--the heavens above, the earth below, and the sea beneath.  That is His work for the first 3 days of creation.  On days 4, 5, and 6, He fills the empty spaces with teeming life forms -- the birds of the air, the plants and animals on earth, the fish and all the sea creatures below.  And finally, mankind to rule over all the earth.

 

In the second creation story, YHWH Elohim first forms man from the dust of the earth/adamah, and then He breathes into his nostrils His own Spirit--His ruach.  And man becomes a living being.

 

One interesting note is the use of two different terms for "God" in the two stories.  In the first, He is Elohim--the plural form of the Hebrew El: God.  The word here is a title, signifying His role,something like Creator, or King, or Mr. President.  In the second story, the reference is to "the Lord God."  Since Hebrew does not permit the use of YHWH, out of respect and reverence for the Sacred Name revealed to Moses.  Every time that term appears in the Scriptures of old, it has been changed to Adonai (The Lord).  So our English "The Lord God" is really YHWH Elohim.

 

What can be the significance of two creation stories with two different terms for God?  The first story tells us who God is ---all powerful, transcendent, above His creation, the Source and Energy of all that exists.  Unlike the gods worshipped by the Babylonians--the sun, the moon, and the stars -- Elohim is the creator of these servants, made by him to mark out the times and the seasons for man.  He is great and powerful above all, to be worshipped in awe.  In the second story, the great Elohim "bends over" his creation of man, scooping the dust of the earth and fashioning it as would a potter fashioning a vessel.  Again, He is creating the "space" first; the "life" will fill it later, as in the first creation story.  Elohim is not just "out there and far away," someone to be feared, but right here, close by--immanent.  He has not just a title, but a name: YHWH:  I will be where I will be.  He is close enough to breathe into man's nostrils His own spirit/ruach.  Usually, we are that intimate only with our spouse or our infants.

 

In our rational, scientific approach to the bible, we find the two versions of creation incompatible: they cannot both be true.  And yet they are.  God is both Elohim -- powerful and transcendent-- and YHWH -- near enough and familiar enough to be called by Name.  To know someone's name is to be able to call on them, to appeal to them.  Elohim is to be feared because of His almighty power.  Yahweh is at our side, our "Helper, another name for Him even in Genesis.  Taking both stories together  reveals a truth we could get no other way, a truth beyond all our scientific quest for fact.  Elohim's power -- His Spirit/Ruach -- is at the service of His love for man.  His power -- His breath-- is in us to energize us, to create us, to order our lives as He first ordered the universe, creating harmony and beauty in us as well as around us.