Reading for February 1st

Read Genesis 2.4-14 A second creation story-the garden of Eden.
In verse 4 the opening formula, These are the generations of
(sometime alternately translated as "these are the descendants of" or "this is the story of"),
marks the beginning of new sections throughout Genesis (6/9; 10.1; 11.27; 25.19; 37.2).
In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens:
a heading for this second and different creation story.
The creation story in Gen 2 uses a different divine name, LORD God, instead of simply
"God" in Gen 1.
Genesis 2 begins not with chaotic waters of the deep as in 1.1-2 but with a dry desert.
Like the watery deep, the dry wilderness is a biblical image of evil and chaos (Isa 21.1-3; 43.15-21).
In verse 7 the Hebrew word for man ("adam") is closely related to the word for ground ("adamah").
This Hebrew wordplay underscores the close relationship of humans and the soil (3.19).
The LORD God formed man from the dust like a potter forming clay.
This earth creature becomes a living human only when the LORD God
breathes into it the breath of life.
In verse 8 the garden of Eden means literally "garden of delight."
In verse 9 two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
stand in the middle of the garden.
They will become important later in the story (2.17; 3.1-7, 22-24).
Eating from the tree of life would give immortality, and eating from the tree of knowledge would provide wisdom, moral discernment, and the experience of pleasure and pain.
In verses 10-14 the image is that of a lush garden at the center of the known world from which four major rivers flow to water the earth.
We know the location of only 2 of the rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The are in Mesopotamia.
Havilah (v. 11) may be in Arabia, and Cush (v. 13) may be associated with Africa.
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