Dr. Dylan Johnson

We also find it in Mesopotamia and things like the Sumerian king list, where before this global flood, the world was different.

People lived longer, exceptionally long lives.

people had more direct contact with the gods.

It was a different world before the flood.

So in the mindset of the biblical writers, this is really what we call the primeval history, when God was still actively creating and then ultimately destroying when it comes to the flood.

So outside real history, in essence.

It's just a couple chapters later.

So we have Cain and Abel immediately after the Eden narrative, and then we get into the flood story fairly shortly after that.

So it more or less just pretends like the first chapter hasn't occurred.

Because at a certain point in verse 4, we have this kind of summation of, all right, God has finished creating, including creating man and woman.

They now exist.

And when we pick up in verse 4, the narrative acts like man and woman have not been created.

So they don't even try to connect it to the preceding text.

Because ultimately, it's a completely independent account of creation.

Now, unlike chapter one, which really focuses on the creation of the cosmos, you know, the sun and the moon and everything in between, this is more focused on living beings, including humanity, but also animals and things like that.

So it's a completely separate creation story.

And it sets off with this garden that God has planted this garden somewhere in the east.

And he is want for someone to work it.

And this becomes a really important theme that why is humanity created at all?

It's to work and specifically to toil in the land.