There are two creation stories in Genesis. The first one is a magisterial account that marches through a sequence of six days and culminates with the creation of the sabbath on the seventh day (Gen. 1:1-2:4a).

The second story is a much older one whose literary genre is that of a popular tale featuring a garden full of mystery, trees whose fruit confer wonderful gifts, and a talking snake (Gen. 2:4b 25).

Instead of a watery chaos that is turned into a glorious cosmos, the second story begins in a parched desert that is replaced by a fruitful garden. A stream of underground water makes possible a cohesion of soil on the surface for the clay out of which God will form a pair of humans who are the central purpose of this narrative (Gen. 2:6).

The utter creatureliness of the first man keys on a play of the Hebrew word adam ("human being") and adamah ("ground"). The writer pictures God as the potter molding the man from a piece of clay and then breathing the breath of life into him (Gen. 2:7).

The man is commanded to "till" the garden and this reminds us that even in Paradise human beings are required to work. The human creature has a vocation to care for and to tend the garden. Work belongs to the garden. Work is good. From the beginning, the human creature is called, given a vocation, and expected to share in God's work.

Unlike the first creation story, where all of the animals are created before the human beings (Gen. 1:27), the second story of creation depicts God creating the man first and then the animals who are brought to the man to be named (Gen. 2:19-20).

None of the animals are found to be a suitable helpmeet for the man. To be fully human one needs to be in relation to others who correspond to oneself. God does not intend to be this kind of partner, and none of the animals suffice, so there must be a newness, another creation, related to, but quite distinct from the creation of the man.

The emergence of the woman is as stunning and unpredicted as the previous surprising creation of the man. The woman is also God's free creation. The two human creatures of surprise belong together in the garden.

God causes the man to fall into a deep sleep and from his rib forms the woman. The choice of the rib as the raw material is due to the wordplay from the Semitic root word that gives us "rib" and "life".

The creation of the female from the rib of the male shows us an affinity between the two human beings such as is not possible between humans and animals. The affinity is expressed in the wordplay on the Hebrew ish ("man") and ishah ("woman"). The woman is the helpmeet of the man.

Sexual desire is a God-given impulse that draws a man and a woman together (Gen. 2:25). The writer of this second creation story is much more interested in the two human's lack of shame than in their nakedness.

The two are unashamedly naked, a symbol of their guildess rdation to God and to one another. The man and woman are perfectly at ease in their naked state which underscores their idyllic condition. But enter the talking snake, and this soon changes.