author of this second and earlier account of creation is usually identified by critics as the Yahwist, since he prefers to use the divine name Yahweh in his account of events even from the very beginning. Why does he do this, since obviously this is historically inaccurate? The earlier name, Elohim, by which God was addressed, and even the singular form El, is well documented in the traditions reaching back to early times. The author is not so concerned with historical accuracy as with another and more compelling concern. There is only one true God. Whatever he may have been called, he was and is Yahweh forever. Therefore it is theologically correct to address him by the unique and singular name Yahweh. The earlier divine name, Elohim, was probably not in his account, but was added by editors who joined the various strands of tradition together into a consecutive and orderly account sometime during the Babylonian exile, perhaps in the fifth century before our era.
The Yahwist wrote at a time when the Kingdom of Israel was at its zenith politically, that is, during the David—Solomon era. Saul, the first king of Israel, laid the foundations for a monarchy, but it was David who united the Israelite tribes and through a series of smashing military successes over neighboring states molded the conquered area into a kingdom that became the dominant power in the area east of the Mediterranean Sea in the tenth century before our era. The kingdoms of Egypt and Mesopotamia had all suffered declines and the vacuum was filled by this new and astute empire builder. His son and successor, Solomon, did not add new territory but carried forward the process of inner development and exploitation of the resources, including a massive program of building that included the temple at Jerusalem.
A New Threat to the Faith
A new threat to the faith of Israel emerged at this time, resulting in part from the many alliances with neighboring kingdoms sealed by marriage between the royal houses and in part from the trade and commerce with these kingdoms. Foreign ideas, customs, and even religious practices were introduced that, along with the growing emphasis upon wealth, luxury, the enslavement of captive peoples, and particularly nationalism, threatened the religious basis of the community. The Yahwist composed his epic account as a challenge to the alien religious ideas and practices that were infiltrating the community of God’s people and weakening their loyalty to the one true God. His intention is to focus attention upon the purpose for which Yahweh has called Israel out of slavery in Egypt and established her in the land of promise. Israel is called to be a blessing to the nations. It is a perversion of her calling to become like the nations, to set priorities and goals that are basically materialistic and self-seeking. The author’s theological perspective is unbounded and universal. What Israel has received as blessing from the one true God, Yahweh, is to be shared with all nations and all peoples. His insights and perceptions at such an early date in the history of mankind, or even in the history of the community of God’s people, are unique and exceptional. He anticipates the great eighth century prophets and their universal viewpoint that mankind is one family created by the one true God and called to live together for the mutual good of all.
The Meaning of “Man”
Who is man? Yahweh Elohim formed man (’adam) of dust from the ground (’adamah), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Man is creature, created of dust, of the basic elements of which the universe is composed. Therefore man is related to earth out of which he came and to all life that springs from the dust of the earth. How prophetic of our twenty-first century image of man, for we and all life, whether plant or animal, are shaped out of the same basic building blocks, the amino acids and nucleotides, common to the simplest forms of one-celled plants and animals and to man, the most complex of all creatures. The thread of unity and harmony runs through the entire constituency of the universe, whether we study a speck of dust from our planet’s surface or probe the farthest reaches of outer space with powerful telescopes.
We are dust, but we are more than dust and this is the genius of the Yahwist to have perceived a dimension to our being that transcends the dust out of which we have come. Yahweh Elohim formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The distinctive element that sets man apart from all plant life, from all creatures, is the inbreathing by God. It must be more than a happy coincidence that the word for wind or breath and the word for spirit are one and the same in the Hebrew and Greek languages. The Hebrew word, ruach, and the Greek word, pneuma, fulfill this dual capacity. Thus when God breathes into man, a creature of dust, that lump of dirt is inspirited and comes alive, a living being.
What is the Yahwist telling us by his description of man as a lump of dirt transformed into a living being? There is something so profound here that it boggles the imagination. It is incredible that an unknown thinker four thousand years ago could have arrived at such a profound concept of being. On the one hand, man is creature shaped of the same material as all creatures with physical capacities inferior to some and superior to other creatures. On the other hand, man is creature endowed with mental capacities that distinguish and set him apart from all living beings. All this was without doubt readily apparent to the Yahwist. But the quality of being that he perceived in man alone, a quality not found in other creatures except perhaps to a minimal degree, is the potential for man to be spiritual. The inbreathing, the inspiriting of God, gives to man a dimension, a quality, which sets him apart from all life. Without that inbreathing man is creature with physical and mental traits marking him as superior to some and inferior to others. But inbreathed by the breath, the spirit of God, man comes alive. He becomes aware of the Creator God who has made him and of his potential for life on a new and higher level, a life lived in trusting relationship with God and in loving relationship with man. He becomes aware that it is his glory to be preeminent among the creatures and that his preeminence is a gift and an opportunity to tend the earth and keep it.
The Highest Level for Human Attainment
Life can be lived on more than one level. The genius of the Yahwist was to perceive that the highest level for human attainment is possible only through the inbreathing of God. Only in and through the divine inbreathing is it possible for the potential within creature man to be stimulated and set free, so that he might attain to the highest levels of spiritual understanding and expression. Man alone of all created beings has the possibility and the potential to realize a three dimensional life in which body, mind, and spirit achieve the highest attainments, but only through the inbreathing, the inspiriting of God. Man is unique but his uniqueness is only latent and unrealized until he is in a true knowing, trusting, and responsive relationship with his Creator. Without that inbreathing he is creature; he is born, he lives, he dies, he returns to the dust out of which he came. But inbreathed by God and responsive to that inbreathing his life is unending. His future is forever.
Since we have acknowledged in our discussion that the scientific dating of the beginnings of our universe is intrinsically acceptable to a religious understanding of creation, that is to say, that this event took place some fifteen billions of years ago, the question rises as to the beginnings of human life. When did human beings first appear on this great time scale? The anthropologist searching for clues and evaluating the evidence has come to the conclusion that the emergence of man as a distinct genus came approximately three million years ago. Where then are we to place the Yahwist’s Adam on this time scale? There is no suggestion as to a date or an historic time in our biblical account. The event of creation and the advent of man belong to prehistory. It would not be correct in the view of this writer to equate or identify biblical man with the precursors of Homo Sapiens identified by the anthropologist. What then? Who is our biblical Adam?
The Biblical Adam
Adam represents the breakthrough in the history of man from bondage to creature hood, from finitude to authentic life, to the life of spirit. Through billions of years from the first beginnings of the universe, through millions of years from the first beginnings of the emergence of man, there has been forward movement through countless mutations to higher and more complex forms of material existence. And, finally, the culmination is reached with the unleashing of man the creature from bondage to his focus only upon satisfying the needs and appetites of his body and
