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And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

2:7 dust of the ground. Man’s body was formed out of the “elements of the earth,” the same materials (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.) from which both plants and the bodies of the animals had been formed (Genesis 1:12,24). This unity of physical composition is a fact of modern science thus long anticipated by Scripture.


2:7 breath of life. Though animals also possess the “breath” (Hebrew neshama–Genesis 7:22) and the “soul” (Hebrew nephesh–Genesis 1:24), man’s breath (same word as “spirit”) and soul were imparted to him by God directly, rather than indirectly, as imparted to the animals.


2:7 living soul. Evolution is again refuted at this point. If man’s body had been derived from an animal’s body by any kind of evolutionary process, he would already have possessed the nephesh, rather than “becoming a living soul” when God gave him the breath of life.


2:22 made he a woman. This remarkable record of the formation of the first woman could hardly have been invented by human imagination. Neither can it be interpreted in the context of theistic evolution, even if one could interpret the formation of Adam’s body from the dust in evolutionary terms. Its historicity is confirmed in the New Testament (I Timothy 2:13; I Corinthians 11:8). All other men have been born of woman, but the first woman was made from man.


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