Genesis Chapter One, God speaks. He opens his mouth and light exists. He commands and creatures fill the sea and sky and ground. The distance between God and creation in Chapter One is vast — not cold, but vast.

Genesis Chapter Two, verse seven — God does not speak. He picks up dirt.

The Hebrew verb used for what God does in this verse is yatsar — a workshop word, a potter's word. Not the grand creative verb of Chapter One. A word that implies duration. Sustained attention. The close-quarters engagement of a craftsman who is giving something of themselves to what they are making. And what he is making it from — aphar min ha-adamah, dust from the ground — carries a resonance in Hebrew that no English translation has preserved. The creature is Adam. The ground is Adamah. The human from the humus. The  ...