We have seen that the Elohim created first the world, placed man in it; and that man created in His image was allowed to use his free will to give names and to use nature for his own good, having in a certain way dominion over the other creatures. (Genesis 1:26-29; 2:7-9)
For the first time we also see (hear or read) the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) or the four–letter proper name of the God of Israel, the pronunciation of which rabbinic law forbids categorically. The Name of God, given in verse 5 of the 2nd chapter of the first book, is the Name conventionally rendered in English as “Lord” and in Hebrew as “Adonai” (in prayer and in the liturgical reading of Scripture) or “ha-Shem” (in other contexts), but which in later times has been given free to become known all over the world and for glorification.
“no bush of the field was yet on earth, no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for YHWH God had not made it rain upon the earth, and there was no human/adam to till the ground/adama—
but a surge would well up from the earth and water all the face of the ground.
And YHWH God formed the human, of dust from the ground; he blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being.
¶ YHWH God planted a garden in Eden/Land-of-Pleasure, in the east, and there he placed the human whom he had formed.”
(Genesis 2:5–8 SB)“God said: Let us make humankind, in our image, according to our likeness! They shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, animals, all the earth, and all crawling things that crawl about on the earth!
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God did he create it, male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them: Bear fruit and be many and fill the earth and subdue it! Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, and all living things that crawl about on the earth!
And God said: Here, I give you all plants seeding forth seeds that are upon the face of all the earth, and all trees in which there is tree fruit seeding forth seeds; for you shall they be, for eating,
and also for all the living things of the earth, for all the birds of the heavens, for all crawling about on the earth in which there is living being— all green plants for eating. It was so.
Now God saw all that he had made, and here, it was exceedingly good! There was setting, there was dawning: the sixth day.”
(Genesis 1:26–31 SB)
We saw that the first man was formed the man of dust from the ground and that he got life by the Neshemet El or Breath of God into his nostrils (the breath of life), so that the man became a living creature. Everything was created by the Breath of God’s Mouth, and everything we see around is there by God’s Breath. But only the man taken from the aphar got the Breath installed in himself. From the beginning of days the Breath was there, and today it still continues to hoover over the world. By His Breath sounds came over the darkness and His voice sounded in the void and His Word (formed by His Breath making sounds) brought things into being. By giving His Breath He gave something of Himself. (The same as when you exhale, you are also releasing something from within you.) Bringing forth His breath and blowing it in the nostrils of the man in clay, the man became a living being.
“And YHWH God formed the human, of dust from the ground; he blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being.”
(Genesis 2:7 SB)
By having received the Breath of Jehovah God in his nostrils we can feel that this indicates a closer relationship with God than with the other living beings. Man received the Ruach chayyim or breath of life into him by his Creator, transforming that lowly, earth–bound creature into a living being higher than animals. In this understanding, the human being is not an amalgam of a perishable body and immortal soul, but a psychophysical unity that depends on God for life itself.
Adam is conceived as a human being able to work on the earth, albeit in an exceedingly easy form, given the miraculous fertility of Eden — is part of the divine plan. Each of us, descendants from Adam, depend on the Divine Creator for having life or not and shall have to fulfil our duties. We exist because He allows us to be here.
“ YHWH God took the human and set him in the garden of Eden, to work it and to watch it.”
(Genesis 2:15 SB)
Whereas in the first creation account human beings are God–like creatures exercising dominion (1:26-28), the tragic choice or their ambition to be like God or like divine beings is the root of their punishment and expulsion from Eden.
“The snake said to the woman: Die, you will not die!
Rather, God knows that on the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will become like gods, knowing good and evil.”
(Genesis 3:4–5 SB)
They did not become like God, but perhaps could have felt like they were gods, though their innocence was gone and for sure they came to see or understand what was good and what was not good or bad. We come to read about the fatal progression in the woman’s mind which began with the psychological, thinking God kept something hidden from them, then the physical (eating), moving to the aesthetic (a delight to the eyes), and culminating in the intellectual (a source of wisdom), that what would bring them on the same level of that Supreme Being above all animals. The progression may reflect the process of rationalization to which she succumbed just before she engaged in humanity’s first act of disobedience.
“The woman saw that the tree was good for eating and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to contemplate. She took from its fruit and ate and gave also to her husband beside her, and he ate.
And the eyes of the two of them were opened and they knew [then] that they were nude. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
(Genesis 3:6–7 SB)
Adam and Eve had looked forward to getting more knowledge. What they had not hoped for was that this knowledge would bring certain things over them where they had previously no problem with, like their nudeness. With the new knowledge comes the shame of nudity that they had lacked in their childlike innocence (vv. 10–11; cf. 2:25), a symbol of a much more encompassing sense of guilt and an ominous estrangement between God and the primal couple. The man lamely attempts to pass the buck to his wife, and thus, also to the God who put her at his side (v. 12). She, with more credibility, blames the serpent (v. 13).
“He said: I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid, because I am nude, and so I hid myself.
He said: Who told you that you are nude? From the tree about which I commanded you not to eat, have you eaten?
The human said: The woman whom you gave to be beside me, she gave me from the tree, and so I ate.”
(Genesis 3:10–12 SB)“YHWH God said to the woman: What, now, have you done? The woman said: The snake enticed me, and so I ate.”
(Genesis 3:13 SB)
The breath of God sounded in the Garden, but came also to send those two human beings out of His Royal Garden.
The man and woman were from then onwards to feel their own breath. They would come to sweat and more than ones would sigh, groan and moan. The man, for having obeyed his mannin rather than the El ʿElyon, from then onwards had to work the earth by toil and sweat, all the days of his life, until the ground from which he was taken would reabsorb him (vv. 17–19; cf. 2:7).And in those days that he shall be alive he shall have to wonder again about his relationship with the Bore.
In the next chapters we shall see how the primal couple have left the magical garden of their childhood and their innocence and entered into the harsh world of adulthood and its painful realities, of which death became part of it.
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Preceding
Created in the image of the Elohim to use their likeness properly
The image, living beings and being accountable to God
United flesh and knowingly actions
Orders for the first human beings and Rebellion against their Maker
Moment of getting knowledge and its consequence
Scattered, broken, thwarted reflection of God
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Additional reading
- An openingschapter explaining why things are like they are and why we may have hope for better things
- The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything
- The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #2 Beginning of mankind
- Creation of the earth and man #13 Formation of man #5 Living soul
- Creation of the earth and man #15 Formation of man #7 Living creatures of the natural world
- Creation of the earth and man #16 Formation of man #8 Dust, flesh, blood,breathing and life
- A solution for a damaged relationship 1 All vegetation for food except one fruit
- Concerning the Spiritual Body
- Today’s thought “Allowed to have dominion over the universe” (January 02)
- Prayer theme for February 2020
- Hashem hebrew for name
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Further related
- The Substance Of Creation
- Genesis 1 and 2: The First Earth Day When God Created
- Dust of the ground
- Breath
- God’s Breath
- Breathe On Me, Breath of God
- Unfolding God’s Word – Day 13
- March 17, 2021 Promise Of God – By the Breath of His Mouth
- The Breath of God
- God’s Breath within us
- Prehistoric Adam?
- Adam’s World
- Made for each other
- Story of Adam&Eve Pt1
- Story of Adam&Eve Pt2
- The Knowledge of Good and Evil
- Hide and Seek First Played in Genesis 3:8-10
- Did God clothe Adam and Eve in Goat Skins?
Immanuel Verbondskind - עמנואל קאָווענאַנט קינד 
2 thoughts on “The Man and mannin versus the One Who allows us to exist”