What Does Genesis 1:31 Mean?

The close of the chapter doubles back on the opening not-good: with the creation of the woman, the last gap in the garden has been filled. The man has his helper, the garden has its two tenants, and the account that opened with the not-good of solitude ends with the man and woman together, naked and unashamed. Genesis 2 moves from incompleteness to completion, from the not-good to the good, from the single to the pair. The creation week's "very good" of 1:31 has its human embodiment in the pair of 2:25.

The transition to Genesis 3 is abrupt: The serpent arrives without introduction and the conversation with the woman begins immediately. The unashamed nakedness of 2:25 is the last breath of the unfallen world before the serpent speaks. Everything that follows will be measured against what has just been established: the goodness of the creation, the provision of every tree, the companionship of the pair, the unbroken openness before God. The paradise is real and fully described before it is lost.

The two creation accounts together (Genesis 1 and 2) provide the full theological foundation for the story that follows. Chapter 1 establishes the created scope: God, creation, humanity in God's image, the Sabbath. Chapter 2 establishes the personal scope: the particular man, the particular garden, the particular woman, the particular tree. The God who made everything made these particular people in this particular place with this particular calling. Both scales are necessary: the created provides the frame; the personal provides the content that makes the fall, and the redemption, matter.