1. Vs. 1 - "The creation was accomplished; it was
done. This earth, and man and life in all its forms and varieties existed in
physical form. But none of these had the same nature they now possess. The
great Creator had created a paradisiacal earth, an edenic earth, an earth of
the kind and nature that will exist during the millennium, when it will be
renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. There was not yet procreation nor
death." (BRM, New Witness for the
Articles of Faith. p. 84)
2. Vs.1-3- God rested- “The Sabbath was blessed and sanctified as a holy day, a day of rest (not
to pursue his own pleasure, but that man should serve God and worship
him. …“President SWKimball
put our teaching on Sabbath observance in a nutshell when he suggested that we
‘measure each Sabbath activity by the yardstick of worshipfulness’ (DHOaks, Pure
In Heart [1988], 27–29;
4. Isaiah 40:8- Hast thou not known? that the Everlasting
God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
5. Vs. 4- The Hebrew word for "generations" is
towldah which simply means "accounting" or "story."
6. Vs. 4-7- All
things were created spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the
earth In 1925 the First
Presidency taught: “Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly
parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to
coming upon the earth in a temporal body to undergo an experience in mortality”
(Improvement Era, Sept. 1925, 1090; D&C 77:2).
7. “Man became a living soul—mankind, male and female.
The Creators breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and man and woman
became living souls. We don’t know exactly how their coming into this world
happened, and when we’re able to understand it the Lord will tell us”
(SWKimball, Ensign, Mar. 1976, 72).
8. “Those natural elements that make up the physical
earth are sometimes referred to in the scriptures as dust. Thus
Adam was created from the dust of the ground meaning that the physical body which
he received was created from the elements of the earth. (Gen. 2:7; Moses 3:7; Abra. 5:7; D&C 77:12.) Similarly all men are created from the dust of
the earth; that is, the elements organized into a mortal body are assembled
together through the birth process (Moses 6:69)”
(Mormon Doctrine, 209).
9. In the physical creation, man became a “living
soul” (Moses 2:26–27; D&C 88:15). This means his spirit body gained a physical
body of flesh and bones. "The bodies of Adam and Eve were at first
“quickened [made alive] by spirit and not by blood. … After the fall, which
came by a transgression of the law under which Adam was living, the forbidden
fruit had the power to create blood and change his nature and mortality took
the place of immortality, and all things, partaking of the change, became
mortal” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:77). Thus, in the Fall, Adam and
Eve became the first beings upon the earth who were mortal flesh, or subject to
death.
10. In 1909 the First Presidency stated: “It is held by
some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth, and that the original
human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These,
however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declares that Adam was
‘the first man of all men’ (Moses 1:34),
and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our
race” (“The Origin of Man,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1909, 80).
11. “In the beginning, after this earth was prepared for
man, the Lord commenced his work upon what is now called the American
continent, where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, he took the
people to another part of the earth.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 102, 157).
12. Vs. 9 - “every tree … became also a living soul.”
Man, animals, and birds “were also living souls” (Moses 3:7, 19).D&C teaches
that a soul is a spirit and a body combined. “The idea prevails in general, I
believe, in the religious world where the gospel truth is misunderstood, that
man is the only being on the earth that has what is called a soul or a spirit.
We know this is not the case, for the Lord has said that not only has man a
spirit, and is thereby a living soul, but likewise the beasts of the field, the
fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea have spirits, and hence are living
souls” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:63).
13. Vs. 10-14- "Where then in the world are there
four rivers tht flow together, making one? The Mississippi River and its
tributaries fit well with the description given in "genesis and in the
Book of Moses. Among the principal rivers that flow together in the upper Mississippi
Valley are the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois. (MRhunter, Pearl of
Great Price Commentary. p. 108)
14. “The
scriptures set forth that there were in the Garden of Eden two trees. One was
the tree of life, which figuratively refers to eternal life; the other was the
tree of knowledge of good and evil, which figuratively refers to how and why
and in what manner mortality and all that appertains to it came into being” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 86) Moses 3:9; 2 Nephi 2:15–16, 24.
15. President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “Now this is
the way I interpret [Moses 3:16–17]: The Lord said to Adam, here is the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. If you want to stay here, then you cannot eat of
that fruit. If you want to stay here, then I forbid you to eat it. But you may
act for yourself, and you may eat of it if you want to. And if you eat it, you
will die” (“Fall—Atonement—Resurrection—Sacrament,” in Charge to Religious Educators, 2nd ed. [1982], 124)
16. Vs. 17- "What is meant by partaking of the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is tht our first parents complied
with whatever laws were involved so that their bodies would change from their
state of paradisiacal immortality to a state of natural mortality."
(BRMcConkie, Ensign, June, 1982)
17. Vs. 17-20- Adam named the animals. They all had
partners. Adam did not.
18. Vs. 21-23- Eve was not literally created from Adam's
rib. "The storiy of the rib, of course, is figurative. (SWKimball, Ensign,
March, 1976)
20. “Human intimacy is reserved for a married couple
because it is the ultimate symbol of total union, a totality and a union
ordained and defined by God. From the Garden of Eden onward, marriage was
intended to mean the complete merger of a man and a woman—their hearts, hopes,
lives, love, family, future, everything. Adam said of Eve that she was bone of
his bones and flesh of his flesh, and that they were to be ‘one flesh’ in their
life together [Genesis
2:23–24]. This is a union of such completeness that we use the
word sealto convey its eternal promise. The Prophet Joseph Smith
once said we perhaps could render such a sacred bond as being ‘welded’ [D&C 128:18] one to another.
“But such a total union, such an unyielding commitment
between a man and a woman, can only come with the proximity and permanence
afforded in a marriage covenant, with solemn promises and the pledge of all
they possess—their very hearts and minds, all their days and all their dreams”
(JRHolland, Ensign, Nov. 1998, 76).
21. Vs. 24 “Do you note that?
She, the woman, occupies the first place. She is preeminent, even above the
parents who are so dear to all of us. Even the children must take their proper
but significant place” (SWKimball, Ensign, Mar. 1976, 72).
22. Vs. 25- Adam and Eve were
innocent in the Garden of Eden, not knowing good and evil and not feeling any
shame or embarrassment over their nakedness. These are emotions that came after
the Fall. Adam and Eve were much like little children who are naturally naive
and trusting and lacking self-consciousness and knowledge of good and evil
because they are innocent.
