Genesis 1 says little about how God created humankind. It simply notes that God created male and female, adding a few remarks about their relationship to the rest of creation. Genesis 1 emphasizes humankind as created with authority; Genesis 2 emphasizes humankind as under authority.

This section (2:4–7) is introduced as “the account of the heavens and the earth”; this is the first of ten units in Genesis introduced with “account of” (or, “story of, descendants of”). In a sense man is viewed as the offspring of the heavens and the earth. But it is an earth without vegetation and water (2:5), except for subterranean streams (2:6).

God is pictured as a potter. He forms man from the dust. Perhaps we should translate dust as “mud” or “clay,” for potters do not work with dust. The idea of God cre…