vers. 27, 28.
In this view, not only _a_ second narrative, but just the particular
kind of narrative we actually have, is not only natural, but even
necessary. _Before_, we had a general account of how God ordained the
scheme of material-form and life-form on the earth; _now_ we have a
detailed account of how He actually carried out one portion of it--that
one portion we are most concerned to hear about, namely the man Adam,
the progenitor of our own race, of whom came JESUS CHRIST, "the son of
Adam.[1]"
The account is designed to introduce to us the scene of Adam's
birthplace--the Garden of Eden.[2] The mention of a garden, and the
subsequent important connection of the trees of that garden with the
conduct of the man, naturally turn the writer's attention to the general
subject of the vegetation on the earth's surface. He prefaces his new
account accordingly with a brief summary--which I may paraphrase thus
without, I trust, departing from the sense of the original: "Such was
the origin of the earth (and all in it) and of the heavenly host, at the
time when God made them. He had made every plant _before_ it was in the
earth--every herb of the field _before_ it grew" (mark the language as
confirming what I have said--God "created" everything before it actually
developed and grew into being on the earth).
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