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.
The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. The Hebrew verb х wayiytser (H3335)], to form, is used of a workman who carves statues in wood and metal, or of a potter who moulds clay. It must be considered as used in the anthropomorphic style as applied to the Creator; but it is an appropriate term, as expressive of the artistic skill which is so strikingly displayed in the organic mechanism of the human frame. Haa'aadaam (H120), not "man," as in our version, but 'the man,' from haa'ªdaamaah (H127), the ground, vegetable earth or mould; and hence, arose the generic term Adam, denoting 'redness,' or of "the earth, earthy" - a derivation much more natural than others which have been suggested and advocated. `Aapaar (H6083), dry earthy dust (cf. Genesis 3:19; Numbers 23:10). The truth of the statement made in this passage has been demonstrated by science, which, by chemical analysis of the body of man, has found that its substance is composed of the very same elements as the soil which forms the crust of the earth and the limestone that lies imbedded in its bowels.
Physiologists enumerate them as follows:-carbon, chlorine, phosphorus, fluorine, nitrogen, magnesium, silicum, aluminium, potassium, sodium, calcium, iron, manganese, titanium, oxygen, hydrogen. Some of these, indeed, appear in very small proportions; but carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, constitute for the most part the soft tissues or fluids, while the bone or harder parts consist of calcium, the phosphate and carbonate of lime. Now, this statement of the origin and composition of the human body, so level to the apprehension of the simplest and rudest minds, yet in harmony with the most advanced philosophy, was of the greatest importance to be made, as it was calculated, and perhaps intended, to refute a notion which obtained most extensively among the ancient pagan, that people were indigenous [autochthonoi, as the Greeks termed it] - i:e., had sprung up spontaneously from the soil in every country they inhabited. Here it is announced, on inspired authority, that the progenitor of the human race was not only created by a Divine Maker, but fashioned by Him in adaptation to the exalted place man was destined to occupy in the economy of nature.
And what numberless evidences of wise and intelligent design does the fabric of the human body display? Look to its skeleton, and the framework of bones, of various shapes and sizes, so disposed and adjusted as not only to impart solidity to the corporeal structure, but to form a safe receptacle to the vital parts; whilst the arms and limbs, attached by joints like hinges, and the vast number of small bones which are placed at the extremities, conduce to flexibility and ease of motion. View it in its internal arrangements, and, besides the fleshy portions which adhere to the bones, and the integument of skin which covers and adorns them, there are the muscular and nervous cords, the sanguineous and absorbent vessels, which intersect the body like the meshes of a net, and respectively perform important functions, in repairing what is waste, in forming the secretions and circulating the fluids which are necessary for digestion and lubrication, and in sustaining the whole system in healthiness and activity. Consider the mechanism with which it is provided for communicating with external nature and mankind in the world around it; and there is the hand, that is of such indispensable utility for the purposes of personal convenience or industrial action, and on the structural fitness of which for prehensile services a treatise has been written; there is the eye, that is capable of discerning objects whether near or remote, and of revealing the wonders of the material universe; the ear, that, catching every variety of sound, forms the medium of holding conversation with friends, as well as receiving intelligence from instructors-of bringing to us sweet melodies that delight or soothe, as well as harsh notes that warn us of danger; and the other organs of sensation, which convey their several impressions to the head-which, placed, as it were, on the summit of the edifice, surmounts the whole frame, as 'the dome of thought, the palace of the soul.'
In short, the erect form, betokening superior dignity; the features of the countenance, expressive of intelligence; the number, variety, and symmetry of the parts; the outer configuration, as well as the inner structure, of the body of man, with its complement of ligaments, canals, glands, and humours-exhibit such a specimen of Almighty workmanship, that every reflecting person who contemplates it, must be forced to exclaim that "we are fearfully and wonderfully made." At its first formation, however, the body of man, so exquisitely organized, was no more than a mass of inert matter, until the Lord God endowed it with vitality.
And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life - literally, lives: but though in the plural form, it is commonly rendered "life" (cf. Genesis 3:14; Genesis 3:17; Job 24:22), breath, wind, "breath of life," the natural or organic life, as the phrase usually denotes (Genesis 6:17; Genesis 7:15).
And man became a living soul - literally, an animal of life (cf. Genesis 2:19; Genesis 1:20; Genesis 1:24; Genesis 1:30; Genesis 9:12; Genesis 9:15-16, where the words are used in this sense); and hence, Dr. Warburton paraphrases the passage before us in the following manner:-`He breathed into this statue the breath of life, and the lump of clay became a living creature' ('Divine Legation').
What it was that was thus blown into the unconscious frame we do not know. Life in all its forms and degrees is a mysterious principle, which for centuries has baffled the earnest enquiries of physiologists, and, notwithstanding the great advances of science in the present day, is as inscrutable as ever. We know something of life by its manifestations and enjoyments, as well as by its opposite, death. But what is that subtle invisible element, which, when infused into an organized body like that of man, not only imparts health, sensation, and capacity of action, but gives to each organ and tissue the elective power of absorbing from the air, and from other foreign substances whatever is suited for its own assimilation and nourishment, science cannot tell us, and revelation has not made known. We see the effects which life produces; but we must be content, perhaps forever, to remain ignorant of both its nature and the mode of its operation.
We are not to conclude from the expression, "breathed into his nostrils," that the Creator literally performed this act. However, respiration being the medium and sign of life, this phrase is used to show that man's life originated in a different way from his body; and that God by His immediate energy, described in the anthropomorphic style, imparted to the newly formed creature that power of breathing which is essential to life; and hence, it is added that in consequence of this communicated respiration "man became a living soul" -
i.e., a living creature (1 Corinthians 15:45). But while this is undoubtedly, according to Scripture usage, the import of the latter phrase-namely, that man was by a direct operation of his Maker endowed with the natural life which vivified his clay frame-it naturally occurs to inquire whether this is all that is meant in this passage, and whether no indication is given here of what is distantly taught in numerous passages of Scripture-a higher life possessed by man than the real existence he has in common with the brutes?
The Hebrew word х nepesh (H5315), animal or creature] does also denote the soul, with its feelings and affections (cf. Psalms 104:1; Psalms 116:7; Psalms 139:14; Psalms 146:1, etc.); х nishmat (H5397)], breath, is applied to signify the mind or spirit (Proverbs 20:27; the occurrence of х chayiym (H2416)], lives, and the significant act of the Creator breathing into his nostrils-an act which is not recorded as having been done in bestowing organic life upon any of the inferior orders of creation, and which was repeated by Christ in the new creation of the soul (John 20:22) - the use of such phraseology and such an act is very remarkable; and therefore we sympathize with the views of those interpreters who think the historian, without making here any express assertion of it (cf. Genesis 1:26), designed to intimate that the newly formed body of man was simultaneously animated by an intelligent, immaterial, immortal spirit, 'When of all animated, beings,' says Graves, ('Lectures on Pentateuch'), 'it is asserted of man alone that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul," we cannot much dissent from those commentators who conceive the breath of life, thus immediately derived from God, partook of the immortality of its divine Author, and that the living soul which man thus acquired deserved that title more eminently than the animating principle of any of the brute creation, all of which are described as formed with such different views, and sharing so inferior a degree of their Creator's favour.
This interpretation of the passage is supported by the most respectable authorities, ancient and modern. The Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos adopt it, and the Arabic version renders the words, "and Adam was made a rational soul;" thus showing how strongly these translators felt the reasonableness of distinguishing the principle of life in man and the inferior animals.' Poole thinks that the "breath of lives" is designed to express the various kinds of life which the act of divine respiration may be said to communicate to us, namely:
(1) The natural life, as far as respects the nourishment and growth of the body;
(2) The animal life, with respect to the power of sensation and locomotion; and, in this respect, the language of the sacred historian strictly accords with the doctrine of modern physiology, that animals have two lives-a vegetative life, which is involuntary, and whose center is the heart-an animal life, which is voluntary, and whose center is the brain;
(3) The life of an intelligent being, with respect to reason and the other faculties of the soul. Most modern writers take the same view of the verse before us, including even Dr. Warburton, who, though he has so strenuously maintained that in all the legislation of Moses no intelligible hint of a future state is to be found, yet, says on this passage, by the words "the breath of life," and "a living soul," which discriminate LIFE in man from LIFE in brutes, we are to understand not immateriality simply, but immortality, the continuance of life after the separation of the dualism, in virtue of man's rationality, which, making him responsible for his actions, may, according to the different parts in God's moral economy, require that separate existence. The passage which points out this difference is made to serve for an introduction to the history of the free gift of mortality. And a better place for it cannot be conceived than that which teacheth us that the subject on whom this gift was bestowed is, by the immateriality of his physical nature, capable of enjoying it, and by the freedom of his reasonable nature accountable for the abuse of it. So much is observed in honour of that exquisite knowledge with which the sacred historian was endowed.
According to this interpretation, then, which is the just view of the passage, man was formed immediately by the Creator, whence he is called "the son of God" (Luke 3:38), and made a compound being, consisting of body and soul. By the one he is connected with the inferior animals around him, while by the other he is the connecting link with higher orders of creation. Man thus formed was the natural head or progenitor of the whole human race, the father of all men who have been propagated according to the ordinary course of nature, and possess the same identical original substance of which his body was composed, with all its peculiar characteristics, from one generation to another.
Since man belongs to the animal world, he of course in that respect comes fully under the general category, and his body is propagated by the same law which regulates the transmission of that of other animals. But with regard to his 'spirit,' that immaterial part of his nature must be derived in a totally different manner; and accordingly all, except those who assert a perfect and inseparable identification of soul and body, believe either that the soul of every human being that comes into the world is separately created, or that it is propagated conformably to some mysterious, unknown law, by which men are endowed with the power of transmitting their compound rational nature. Without doing more than simply alluding to the Platonizing views of Origen and other Fathers, and the wild notion of the Talmudists, that all souls had been created "in the beginning," and were lodged by God in a certain place, whence each one was taken out to inhabit the respective bodies of individuals, a controversy was begun in the sixth century between the creational and transmissional theories - i:e., whether souls were successively created by the direct power of God, or parents were endowed with the property of propagating their rational nature to their offspring.
The former view seems to be necessitated by the simple, indivisible, spiritual nature of the soul; while the latter only appears to harmonize with the doctrine of human corruption. 'All positive dogmatism,' says Dr. Hodge ('Princeton Review,' April, 1860), 'upon this subject is unseemly and injurious. It is a point on which the Church has always differed, and as to which the most profound have been the least confident. In the early Church, Jerome was decidedly for creation; Tertullian for propagation; Augustine for creation, but with admission of difficulties on both sides which he could not solve. The Augustinians of the middle ages were for creation; the Lutherans in general for propagation; the Reformed or Calvinists almost in a body for creation. Such being the historical facts in the case, it would be an obvious impropriety to give a decided opinion.'