Page 21 - ADAM IN GENESIS

Land respectively. Though the geologic record records such events, it should be clear that
the events took place because of His divine will.

In verse 10 we see the localizing of the Creation narrative begin. In the beginning the
shamayim and the erets were created. God now defines and narrows the semantic use
geographically. The erets is now referring to the yabashah (dry ground). The mayim
(waters) are now referring to just the yam (or seas). From the text, there appears to be no
more going back to the global definition of the words we saw in the beginning (Gen.
1:1-2). Later in Scripture the yam is further reduced by adding the name of the sea (e.g.
the great sea (Num. 34:6), salt sea (Num. 34:3), Red Sea (Ex. 10:19), etc).
Like the light that shined on the earth in verse 4, and unlike the toxic skies in verse 7, the
land of the earth was seen as good (LXX kalos). That is it was good and useful in
purpose. Its purpose was to make a habitable place for humans. The next step was to
make the atmosphere into its stable breathable form. To do that, God summoned the dry
land to appear in order to plant the great plants and forests we observe in the geologic
record.
In verse 11 God says Let the earth sprout vegetation. In the Hebrew, the jussive form of
the verb to sprout and the vegetation that sprouted are derivatives of the same root. It
reads tadeshe haarets deshe (let sprout the earth vegetation). Similar uses of a noun and
verb form of the same root are common in the OT. This is the main action of God's
planting. The text goes on to elaborate on the kinds of deshe. He summons the esev (low
lying plants) and the ets (trees here modified by periy (fruit)). The command is that the
deshe will yield seed according to their kind. The phrase yield seed is mazriya zera;
another verb-noun couplet having the same root.
The word min has been surrounded by much needless debate. It has been drawn into the
Creation vs. Evolution debate, and rightly so as it clearly states that plants (and later
animals) are to reproduce after their own kind. Nowhere in Scripture do we see
reproduction across kinds. It is used 31 times in the OT, 30 of which are in the Books of
Moses. The term kind has never successfully been imbedded into the modern taxonomy.
Some suggest Species, some Genus, some Class, but it appears that this is a classification
across which no reproduction can take place. I believe we should leave it at that as there
is no clear equivalent in modern taxonomy. At the very least we can say that it is lower
than Kingdom and Phylum and therefore does not give support to any kind of biological
evolution from a single-celled common ancestor. This argument is simple and it is
supported by both Scripture and the geologic record where ancestral relationships
between higher taxa are not found.
As He did with the dry land, God looks at the vegetation, both the low lying plants and
the trees and determines that they are good (LXX: kalos). Their purpose is clear in that
they appear on land before the land animals and especially human beings in order to
change the toxic expanse made on Day 2 into a breathable atmosphere. Indeed, the
geologic record shows that with the appearance of land plants, the oxygen levels in the
atmosphere burst upwards to even above present levels.

This seems a good point to address the extents of the Creation account so far. Many
people have argued that this account is global in nature meaning not only does the use of
erets indicate the global earth is in view, but also that it mentions or categorizes