The Yahwist Account of Creation

As we said before, in the Book of Genesis, we find two stories of creation: the so-called Elohist account (Gen 1:1-2:4) and the Yahwist account (Gen 2:5-3:20). The former is called Elohist because in that tradition, God is referred to as "Elohim." The former is called Yahwist because in this tradition God is called "Yahweh."

We shall focus on the Yahwist account because, according to John Paul II, it records for us the "first subjective experiences" of Adam and Eve created in the image of God. The Yahwist looks at creation, so to speak, from the perspective of the inner subjective experiences of the first man and woman. In the Yahwist account, Adam (the man) was created first. Eve (the woman) was created after Adam. This is one dis-tinctive characteristic of the Yahwist account.

After creating Adam, God said: "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper fit for him" This means that after God created Adam, Adam found himself to be "alone" in the midst of the visible creation that God has fashioned. In other words, Adam realized that in the whole of creation, there was no one else like himself: he was alone. How did Adam come to this realization?

If we read the Yahwist account, then we see that after creating Adam, God brought to him all the animals so that Adam can name them. In naming,in identifying the ani-mals that God brought before him, Adam realize that none of them was like him. And he longed for another being like himself, a being with whom he can establish a relationship of love. He longed to find another person like himself, a person who bears the image and likeness like he does, and therefore, someone with whom he can enter into a personal relationship. Strictly speaking one cannot really establish a loving relationship with an animal, isn't it? One can establish a loving relationship only with another human being, another human person. So what happens? We shall see next time.