Genesis 2

Toledoth I (Genesis 2:4)

This chapter is a further elaboration of the revelation of God regarding the creation. It must be rejected as irresponsible, unreasonable, and unbelievably poor exegesis to make this chapter in any manner a "contradictory" account of the creation narrative of the previous chapter. There is in this chapter a continuation of exactly the same pattern observable in the first, where, for example, Days 4,5, and 6 are in each case elaborations of that phase of creation presented in Days 1,2, and 3, respectively. (See notes above.) It is most logical and fully in keeping with the unity of the entire book, therefore, to find here in Genesis 2 an elaboration of what was revealed in Genesis 1. In addition to this, the author of Genesis (whom we believe is Moses) precisely and dramatically introduced the chapter in Genesis 2:4 as the [~toledowth] of the heavens and the earth, meaning not their beginning but the developments that followed after their creation. This term, [~toledowth], is used ten times in the Book of Genesis, setting off what may be received as an accurate outline of the whole book; and in every instance, this word signifies "following developments."

Biblical critics are acutely aware of this, and in a vain and ridiculous effort to get rid of the mandatory deductions required by such facts, have moved Genesis 2:4 to the head of Genesis 1, making it a title of the creation narrative. Men must must be endowed with infinite gullibility to be taken in by such arrogant and arbitrary devices.

Thus, this chapter is not another and contradictory account of creation, but a review of certain phases of creation, with respect to a new focus of interest, namely that of humanity. It must be viewed as supplementary information to what is already revealed in the preceding chapter. This change of focus is specified in Genesis 2:4b, where the shift from the "heavens and the earth" occurs in the words, "the earth and the heavens."