The First Book of Moses: Genesis

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 2 -

(Exodus 16:22–30; Hebrews 4:1–11)

And so the heavens and the earth were completed, with all their adornment.

And on the seventh day, God fulfilled his work, which he had made. And on the seventh day he rested from all his work, which he had accomplished.(a)

And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. For in it, he had ceased from all his work: the work whereby God created whatever he should make.(b)

Man and Woman in the Garden

These are the generations of heaven and earth, when they were created, in the day when the Lord God made heaven and earth,

and every sapling of the field, before it would rise up in the land, and every wild plant, before it would germinate. For the Lord God had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the land.(c)

But a fountain ascended from the earth, irrigating the entire surface of the land.

And then the Lord God formed man from the clay of the earth, and he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.(d)

Now the Lord God had planted a Paradise of enjoyment from the beginning. In it, he placed the man whom he had formed.

And from the soil the Lord God produced every tree that was beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat. And even the tree of life was in the midst of Paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.(e)

(f)

And a river went forth from the place of enjoyment so as to irrigate Paradise, which is divided from there into four heads.

The name of one is the Phison; it is that which runs through all the land of Hevilath, where gold is born;

and the gold of that land is the finest. In that place is found bdellium and the onyx stone.

And the name of the second river is the Gehon; it is that which runs through all the land of Ethiopia.

Truly, the name of the third river is the Tigris; it advances opposite the Assyrians. But the fourth river, it is the Euphrates.

Thus, the Lord God brought the man, and put him into the Paradise of enjoyment, so that it would be attended and preserved by him.

And he instructed him, saying: “From every tree of Paradise, you shall eat.

But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in whatever day you will eat from it, you will die a death.”

The Lord God also said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper for him similar to himself.”

Therefore, the Lord God, having formed from the soil all the animals of the earth and all the flying creatures of the air, brought them to Adam, in order to see what he would call them. For whatever Adam would call any living creature, that would be its name.

And Adam called each of the living things by their names: all the flying creatures of the air, and all the wild beasts of the land. Yet truly, for Adam, there was not found a helper similar to himself.

And so the Lord God sent a deep sleep upon Adam. And when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and he completed it with flesh for it.(g)

And the Lord God built up the rib, which he took from Adam, into a woman. And he led her to Adam.

And Adam said: “Now this is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. This one shall be called woman, because she was taken from man.”

For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.

Now they were both naked: Adam, of course, and his wife. And they were not ashamed.

Footnotes

(a)2:2 He rested, etc:That is, he ceased to make or create any new kinds of things. Though, as our Lord tells us, John. 5:17, “He still works”, viz., by conserving and governing all things, and creating souls.(Challoner)

(b)2:3 The Latin is phrased in such a way as to suggest that God did the work of creation to accomplish or to arrive at the seventh day.(Conte)

(c)2:5 In other words, this was the time before agriculture, when the trees and plants were wild and not yet cultivated. The saplings grew in fallow fields, like brushwood, and the edible plants ‘herbam’ were merely those found in the wild in that region, before planting and cultivated growing.(Conte)

(d)2:7 Clay is used in the Book of Daniel to symbolize human nature.(Conte)

(e)2:9 The tree of life:So called because it had that quality, that by eating of the fruit of it, man would have been preserved in a constant state of health, vigour, and strength, and would not have died at all.(Challoner)

(f)2:9 The tree of knowledge:To which the deceitful serpent falsely attributed the power of imparting a superior kind of knowledge, beyond that which God was pleased to give.(Challoner)

(g)2:21 The word ‘soporem’ refers to an unnatural sleep, often in the context of a drug (a soporific preparation) or even a trauma to the head. But in this case, the unnatural sleep is a supernatural sleep, sent by God.(Conte)