Genesis 2:7, Rain Brings Forth Life, Part II of II

Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

//Yesterday, I quoted verses which indicated that when the earth was first created, no plant life could grow because it had not yet rained, and because there was still no man to till the ground. Nevermind the fact that the same verses indicate there was a mist covering the whole earth; it has to be rain, not mist. And there has to be a man to till the earth.

So in the next verse, God makes a man. Then God is ready to plant a garden, now that there is a man to care for it.

Finally, plant life arrives on earth. But why couldn’t it have happened without rain and without a man?

Well, let me tell you a little about the birds and the bees. In antiquity, it was understood that the man carried the seed; the woman provided the “garden” for the seed to grow. She was the incubator; he provided the life.

How do we know this type of “new life” is what the story is really about? Because the Hebrew word for sperm is also the Hebrew word for rain. These early storytellers were masters of meaningful myth.