Probably many Bible students have been puzzled by the wording of Genesis 2:2. The KJ reads:

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”

Most translations are very similar, although some have “finished” instead of “ended.“ As this reads, it is contradictory and confusing. This has led some to believe and teach that Eve was created on the seventh day. Bro. Russell does so, in several places.

However, there is good evidence, we think, that Eve was created on the sixth day. It was the disobedience of Adam that caused God to withdraw from active participation in man’s affairs, and start his day of rest, or seventh day. Genesis 3:8 shows that up to that time, God sent his messenger to talk to Adam and Eve – he had not withdrawn from them. Eve had a part in the disobedience of Adam, so she was created before the seventh day began. The date 1874, the end of the sixth Millennium and the beginning of the times of restitution, corroborates this point – it counts from Adam’s fall, not from his creation. In other words, the fall of Adam brought on the need for restitution, and exactly 6,000 years after, the times of restitution began. A few quotes supporting this thought:

C128: “The six thousand years in which God has permitted sin to dominate the world, prior to the beginning of the great seventh or sabbatic thousand, or times of restitution, dates from the entrance of sin into the world.”

R1731c2p1 “God’s rest day, instead of being a 24 hour day, is a day 7000 years long. It began as soon as sin brought God’s curse upon Adam.”

R5697p1: “God entered into his rest when his creative works were finished in the earth.”

Here is the question: is Genesis 2:2 correct as rendered in most versions? Let’s first look at the context. The two verses before, and the one after, read thus:

Gen. 1:31; 2:1,3: “And God saw everything that he had made [1:27 includes “male and female”], and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made…”

Also, Exodus 20:11 affirms:

“in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, … and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.”

These verses do not prove, but they do indicate strongly, that Genesis 2:2 should read: “On the sixth day, God finished his work, and on the seventh day he rested.” Do we have any support for this? Yes.

Gen. 2:2, NIV- “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”

Gen. 2:2, NW: “And by the seventh day God came to the completion of his work that he had made, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made”

Gen. 2:2, Ferrar Fenton: “And God rested at the seventh age from all the works which he had made.”

Gen. 2:2, Rotherham (1976): “Thus God finished, on the seventh [sixth] day, his work which he had made, and rested on the seventh day, from all his work which he had made.” (A footnote for the first “seventh” states: A correction, “sixth.” From Ginsberg’s revised Hebrew notes; based on the Samaritan’s Pentateuch and the Septuagint.)

This change makes this Scripture harmonious and reasonable.

– Marion Schrock

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