Genesis 2:4-25 Catholic Bible study Lesson 2

In the Beginning:
The Book of Genesis

Lesson 2 ‘It Is Not Good That the Man Should Be Alone’
the book of Genesis 2:4–25

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the book of Genesis
cross references in the book of Genesis
next lesson: The Fall of Adam & Eve

This material coordinates with Lesson 2 on pages 12–16 in the study book In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.”—the book of Genesis 1:31—2:2

welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Genesis
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 28-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to free lesson videos, an online glossary, and a list of cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, charts, illustrations, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the book of Genesis 1:1—2:3
Lesson 1 And God Said, ‘Let There Be Light’ gives the first biblical account of Creation, in which God takes six days to create the world and everything in it, and then rests on the seventh day. It’s worth noting that this first account of Creation describes God calling forth light on the first day before he creates anything else. It isn’t until the fourth day that the sun is created, which enables humans to measure time—but the biblical account clearly indicates that three days already have passed. Also of interest in this account is that water and God’s Spirit both are present at the beginning of Creation, and man and woman appear to be created together in one fell swoop. The number seven, which is the number of days in the first week, will hold significance in salvation history moving forward. It’s important to notice that the original Creation is complete but not perfect. The first week of seven days is followed by another and then another and so on, each one culminating on the seventh day (Saturday) as a sabbath day of rest. That won’t change until Christianity, when the first and eighth of days becomes the day that Christians set aside to worship God and to commemorate Jesus’ Resurrection.

map notes—the Garden of Eden
In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis is the first of our Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies to include maps with some of the lessons. Lesson 2 features a map showing the general vicinity in the Persian Gulf region where scholars believe that the Garden of Eden may have been located. Shifting topography makes it impossible to pinpoint the Garden of Eden, but it’s widely believed to have been located somewhere near the current Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. While both of those rivers continue to exist, archeologists believe they may have changed course over the centuries. Ancient boundaries of the Persian Gulf extended farther north, and it’s uncertain whether the Gihon and Pishon Rivers have dried up or perhaps now go by other names. The general area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers sometimes is referred to as the “fertile crescent” or “cradle of civilization” because archeological evidence supports the idea that ancient civilization emerged in that region. Click on the map (above) to enlarge it. The original map is on page 14 in the study book In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

a second Creation story (01:05:34)
Only a little more than a chapter into the first book of the Bible we encounter a fairly serious contradiction—a second Creation story that bears little resemblance to the one in the first chapter. As it turns out, there will be many pairs of stories in the book of Genesis, with quite a few conflicting details. What gives? Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses how these stories might have come to be in the Bible. Instead of focusing on the problems with apparent contradictions in Scripture, Matthew suggests we consider what we can learn about God and about our faith by examining the differences between two versions of the same story. The first Creation myth focuses on God as a craftsman, and everything builds to the creation of man and woman on the sixth day. The second Creation myth is very different, focusing from the beginning almost entirely on the creation of man. Everything else is in service to humanity. It’s impossible to weave together in any meaningful way how these two contradictory accounts of Creation occurred. They both present important truth about God, however, and in that regard they’re well aligned. In both accounts humanity is presented as the pinnacle of Creation. The relationship between the divine and human is what matters, and it’s what we should try to discover.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study from Turning to God’s Word match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 2, “It Is Not Good That the Man Should Be Alone,” on pages 12–16 in the study book.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about the two biblical versions of Creation?
The account of Creation found in the second chapter in the book of Genesis contains significant details that appear to be at odds with the account of Creation found in the first chapter. Such apparent contradictions occur a number of places in the Bible, many in the book of Genesis. Scholars often use the art term “diptych” to refer to two similar accounts of the same biblical event. You can learn more by reading “Diptych” on page 13 in the study book In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis. The key to understanding any biblical diptych lies in viewing each part as necessary to a bigger picture. Diptychs exist to make it easier for us to step back and see more of the spiritual truth contained in God’s Word.

? List all the specific differences you can between these two Creation accounts in Scripture. Consider whether there are any details in these two accounts that surprise you.
? What theological explanation can you suggest to explain why inconsistent versions of such an important event as Creation are included in the canon of Sacred Scripture?
? Consider which of these two accounts of Creation you find most appealing. What do you think might explain your preference?
? Look at the account of Creation to which you’re less drawn. Consider what effect it would have on our Christian understanding of God and his relationship to humanity and to the world if Scripture didn’t include both accounts.
? How would you explain a way in which the two accounts of Creation complement (complete) each other?

spirit & flesh—you could look it up in our archives
In the first account of Creation, all things come to be through God’s Word. In the second, God’s breath is the means by which the first man becomes a living soul. To learn more, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

the second Creation account is about what it means to be human
Men and women are designed to be a meeting place between heaven and earth. Humanity is the only thing on earth that’s both earthly and divine—both body and soul, created from dirt and breathed into by God. While both Creation accounts recall elements of the sacraments—the first account more closely resembles the sacrament of Baptism, and the second account more closely resembles Pentecost in which the spirit of God comes to dwell in the human body. Literally, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. Another way of looking at it: The sacrament of Baptism allows Christians to live in the body of Christ; the sacrament of Confirmation allows God to live in us. We become holy by allowing God to act in us. The Holy Spirit is likened to the wind. We can see what it does, but we can’t see the wind itself. When we see evidence of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit—fear of God, fortitude, knowledge, counsel, understanding, wisdom, and piety—then we know that the Holy Spirit is or recently has been present.

the popes inspire us—a primary covenant
In the video overview of this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps refers to the first covenant between God and humanity found in the book of Genesis 2:15–17: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the Garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you shall die.'” Pope St. John Paul II also saw in this passage evidence of the initial covenant between God and humanity. You can read his views in “A Primary Covenant” on page 14 in the study book In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about why this tree is in the Garden of Eden?
Anyone who spends time meditating on the account of Creation found in the second chapter in the book of Genesis can’t help but reflect on the question of why, if God didn’t want the man and woman to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was even in the Garden of Eden.

? Whenever we’re confused about something in Scripture or Church doctrine, it’s always a good idea to look for the way in which our concern is related to God’s love. What loving reason might explain why God wouldn’t want humanity to have access to the knowledge of good and evil?
? Consider why it is that God apparently placed no original restriction on access to the tree of life.
? Based on your understanding of human nature, consider whether you would expect the man and the woman to be capable of resisting the urge to sample the forbidden fruit.
? Do you think that God didn’t understand the typical way in which humans could be expected to react to such a restriction?
? Consider what God desires from the men and women that he’s created.
? What do our moral choices indicate about the way that we feel about God?
? What does God’s behavior indicate about the way that the LORD feels about humanity?

an important way that Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies are different
The preceding questions demonstrate how this study of the book of Genesis differs from many other Bible studies. Commentary-based studies are written with the goal of telling the reader what to think. The authors of the commentaries in such studies determine what they think that the Scripture means, and readers then are encouraged to agree with the authors’ interpretations. Instead of telling our readers what to think, Turning to God’s Word Scripture-based studies are designed to help participants know what to pray about. All of our studies have been granted an imprimatur, which ensures that the questions we ask don’t point away from Church teaching. This Catholic approach is built on principles of lectio divina, the Church’s centuries-old established method of reading and praying with Scripture.

some sections of the Bible are more difficult to understand than others
Many people struggle with the first 11 chapters in the book of Genesis. There are a number of factors that contribute to why this material is so challenging. We urge readers not to become discouraged. It would be extremely unusual to read the book of Genesis and not to have lingering questions. Thinking and praying about these questions is what Bible study is all about. Trusting in this process always leads to greater understanding, but clear answers aren’t always immediately forthcoming. A familiarity with the early chapters in the book of Genesis, even if much remains mysterious about this part of Scripture, is essential to understanding other sections of the Bible and the foundations of our Christian faith.

a study leader shares her thoughts
The following exchange veers from our standard question-and-answer format, but others may find it helpful. It comes from a study leader in a group planning to tackle one of our other studies.

comment: Thank you for your online study pages. They’re such a bonus. In our Bible study more questions come up in our leaders’ group than in my individual group about why you ask a certain question, or what you might be thinking, or where you are leading with your questions. I’ve often been able to point to the online study pages for direction and clues. I need to remind the other group leaders and myself that you’re trying to get us to think and pray about Scripture and its impact in our lives rather than limiting Bible study to an assignment that can be completed with a single academic answer.

response: We appreciate your comments, especially since we know that these online study pages aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. We go to some effort to provide optional information here and in the videos for participants who might be interested.

Matthew, Tami, and I feel that it’s important for people to know that sometimes asking the right questions is more valuable than having all the answers. It took us at Turning to God’s Word some time to get to this idea. The bottom line is that no one is able to hold onto information that they’re spoon-fed the same way that they can remember and live it when they have to dig concepts out for themselves. This is a big departure from the popular scholarly model of Bible study where everyone expects an expert to tell them what Scripture means, what’s important, and why. Sometimes when one of us sits in with a group, someone will ask what we were going for with a particular question. People almost always find it shocking when they’re told that we were thinking we wouldn’t mind hearing a discussion about what others think about the passage in question.

Studying any of the Old Testament writings presents some special stumbling blocks. These books introduce images and ideas that we might or might not recognize as also occurring in the New Testament. There’s a danger that we become so concerned with understanding the Old Testament message as it originally would have been received that we miss noticing that everything that happens in the Old Testament points toward Jesus. Then there’s the other side of that danger, in which we concentrate so much on a Christian interpretation that we miss important historical information that can shed light on Jesus and what he came to do. Finally, there’s a very real danger that we begin to view Jesus as the end point and miss seeing that the work of the Church only begins with Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

It’s easy to get derailed in one area and miss the big picture, which is why group discussion of the questions is so helpful. If one person is focusing on Old Testament history, someone else may be looking at the way the writing points to Jesus. Another person may be concentrating on how these ancient books are relevant in today’s world. Combining these different points of view gives us a clearer picture of what God is saying to us in Scripture.

more about the online study pages & videos
We hope that some people will find Bible study so compelling that they’ll want more information than realistically fits in the study books. We want to provide a vehicle for extra material and an easy way for people to ask questions and make comments, especially with so many contradictory views floating around on the Internet and elsewhere.

It’s also our intent that the books, the online study pages, and the videos each can stand alone if need be. We don’t want financial concerns or the lack of a compatible group to prevent anyone from reading and praying with the Bible. We know that there are people in our groups who never look at the website or watch the videos, just as there are people who do those things and more. The only really necessary part of studying the Bible, however, is reading the Bible. Everything else is secondary.

The caution we would add is that if you’re limiting your Bible study experience to reading the Bible—and you’re aware that you don’t understand what you’re reading—you probably should take a look at the commentaries in the study book and on the online study pages, and also listen to any related videos. Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps frequently addresses some of the more obvious difficulties in those places. If you’ve read all of our related commentaries and watched our related videos and still have questions, shoot us an email. We’re always happy to discuss Scripture, and some of our most cherished insights have come about in conversation with others.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons or places mentioned in the biblical text under more than one name or more than one spelling. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the biblical text for every lesson in In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a particular passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. A link to that list can be found at the top of every online study page; the list features links to cross references in the primary biblical text in the study book In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, open the link and click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the book of Genesis 2:4–25 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the book of Genesis.

O God, you created humanity out of love
and provided men and women with free will
to choose to love you in return.
Help us to use this precious gift of free will wisely.
We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ,
who shows us the way of perfect love. Amen.

Lesson 3 The Fall of Adam & Eve—the book of Genesis 3:1–24
Lesson 1 And God Said, ‘Let There Be Light’—the book of Genesis 1:1—2:3

you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in our study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start a Turning to God’s Word study or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.