"Rain did not then fall (in
the same way as now) on the earth, but the mist that exhaled from the
soil re-condensed, and fell and moistened the ground; but there was as
yet no MAN to till and cultivate the soil."
[Footnote 1: St. Luke iii. 38.]
[Footnote 2: Which had a real historic existence. _Vide_ Appendix A.]
Then God actually formed or fashioned _a man_. It is not now that He
created the ideal form to be produced in due time, but that He actually
formed the individual Adam, and placed him in a garden which He had
prepared for the purpose. All the words used now imply actual
production. The Divine ideal was ready, and the earth-elements (of which
we know man's body to consist) were ready at the Divine word to assume
the human shape. And that done, God "breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life" (mark the direct _act_ on the man himself), and the man
became a "living soul." There is nothing here of the "earth bringing
forth" as in the former narrative. We have the direct act of God, not in
the design only, but in the production of the thing itself.
If this is not a complete explanation and justification of the second
narrative, I do not know what, in common fairness, is entitled to be so
called.
The language may be rigorously examined, and it will fully bear out the
position taken up.
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