Creation & The Fall

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”

So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.

God blessed them: God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.”

Then God said, “Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit.

And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant.” And that is how it was.

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them.

On the seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce.

Here is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created. On the day when Adonai, God, made earth and heaven,

there was as yet no wild bush on the earth, and no wild plant had as yet sprung up; for Adonai, God, had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no one to cultivate the ground.

Rather, a mist went up from the earth which watered the entire surface of the ground.

Then Adonai, God, formed a person from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living being.

Adonai, God, planted a garden toward the east, in ‘Eden, and there he put the person whom he had formed.

Out of the ground Adonai, God, caused to grow every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river went out of ‘Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided into four streams.

The name of the first is Pishon; it winds throughout the land of Havilah, where there is gold.

The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.

The name of the second river is Gichon; it winds throughout the land of Kush.

The name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one that flows toward the east of Ashur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it.

Adonai, God, gave the person this order: “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden

except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.”

Adonai, God, said, “It isn’t good that the person should be alone. I will make for him a companion suitable for helping him.”

So from the ground Adonai, God, formed every wild animal and every bird that flies in the air, and he brought them to the person to see what he would call them. Whatever the person would call each living creature, that was to be its name.