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Genesis 2:6-8
New Catholic Bible
Genesis 2:6-8
New Catholic Bible
6 He made a mist rise out of the ground to water the whole surface of the earth. 7 Then the Lord God formed man[a] out of the dust of the earth and he breathed his breath of life into his nostrils and man became a living creature.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden,[b] in the east, and he put the man he had formed there.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 2:7 Man, in Hebrew adam, is the common name of the human species; only beginning in Gen 4:25 and 5:1 will it be regarded as the proper name of the first male. Here and in 3:19, 23, the author connects it with Hebrew adama, “earth.” This is not a scientific etymology but a popular one, based on assonance. In fact, it seems that adam derives from Sumerian ada-mu, “my father.” His companion, too, is initially called “woman” and receives the proper name “Eve” only from Gen 3:20 on. It seems that this name, haua in Hebrew, derives from Sumerian ama, “mother.”
- Genesis 2:8 Eden is derived from Sumerian edin, which means a level, steppe-like, desert region. The garden occupies an eastern section of it; this word, too, gan in Hebrew, is properly Sumerian and means a watered and cultivated piece of land. It was translated into Greek as paradeisos, “garden,” giving rise to the name “earthly paradise.”
