Most of us are pretty familiar with Genesis 1-2—the opening chapters of the Bible and the story of creation—but what we’re not as familiar with is how God immediately introduces himself to us, which is not only as Creator, but as something so much more.
One thing that is lost in our English translation is that there are actually, and quite significantly, two different names used for God in the original Hebrew text of Genesis 1-2, one name in Genesis 1 and another name in Genesis 2. Unfortunately, in our English translations, God is simply given the same generic name in both chapters… God.
As English-speakers, we don’t exactly have a type of ‘naming system’ for God, but the Hebrews, however, did.
The Hebrews ascribed many names to God, each name aiming to adequately represent a specific dimension of God’s character. Some names you’ve probably heard before are Elohim, Yahweh, Jehovah, El Shaddai, or Adonai. But practically, a Hebrew would use one particular name of God in a situation because it best expressed one of God’s particular attributes for that particular setting.
This is precisely what happens in Genesis 1-2.
Significantly, there are two different names used for God in these opening chapters of Scripture. Elohim is the name assigned to God in Genesis 1 while Yahweh is the name assigned to God in Genesis 2.
So why use two different names for God? What is the significance?
Ultimately, the author used different names for God in each creation account according to who God displayed himself to be in each chapter.
For example, the author uses Elohim in Genesis 1 because Elohim is the name of God that refers to his unparalleled power, might, and all-pervasiveness. Genesis 1 speaks most to God as Creator of all things; therefore, using Elohim is certainly appropriate.
But the author uses Yahweh in Genesis 2, which is the name that refers to God as being a covenant-maker. The author utilizes this name because it is the first place where God deals personally with Adam and Eve. Accordingly, Genesis 2 speaks most to God as a Covenant-Maker; therefore, using Yahweh is entirely appropriate.
Within the first chapters of the Bible, the author is displaying something incredibly unique about God that no other creation epic in human history has ever told: that the God of the Bible is not just all-powerful, but most-personal.
In the opening two chapters, the author is highlighting the two attributes of God that are key to knowing His true nature. They are attributes that we so easily try to tear apart, but nevertheless, attributes that the Bible continues to keep together as the most perfect picture of who God is: powerful and personal.
Genesis 1 emphasizes God’s hands and what he can do while Genesis 2 emphasizes God’s heart and who he is. In Genesis 1, God cosmically declares his abilities and sovereignty in the universe. But in Genesis 2, God personally communicates his intentions and heart for the universe, and especially, for humankind.
I don’t think there’s a better way to open the Bible or to understand the nature of God. He is the maker of all things, but he is not a detached, impersonal deity, like a Deist might like to think. He is the covenant-making God who has made himself near to us, and even bound himself to us in covenant. A type of covenant we’d later see the full glories of in the cross of Calvary, where he himself would bear the penalties of our sin so that we could be reconciled to him for eternity.
The author didn’t lapse into literary schizophrenia when he used two different names of God. No, he did it intentionally in order to highlight the beautifully powerful-personal nature of God—something that would significantly frame the rest of the Bible, and something that would find its ultimate culmination and fullest expression in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the God-man who would be the covenant between God and man.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in owall creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 8:38-39
