The Breath of Life

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
-- Genesis 2: 7 (KJV)

In the middle of Genesis 2, verse 4, begins the second (and older) recounting of the Hebrew creation story, written by the Biblical author known as "J" (from the German for "the Yahwist"). It differs from the first in many ways; for example, J doesn't begin "in the beginning," but only with the creation of life.

Furthermore, as God creates, he doesn't use speech but his own two hands. For the first man, he takes some dust from the ground and crafts it into human form. He brings this form into life, as "Adam" (the Hebrew for both "man" and "mankind," perhaps derived from adamah, "dust," "ground") by blowing into its nostrils "the breath of life." J does not mean that God "breathes" a soul into Adam's lifeless body -- since the ancient Hebrews did not really distinguish body from spirit or soul. More precisely, God sparks the flame of a life already potential in Adam's form.

Whatever J meant, we now use "the breath of life" to mean a variety of things -- for example, "signs of life," "inspiration," and "the stuff of reality." Some have used it more biblically. "Do you remember the Dying Boar?" queries Oswald Barron in Day In and Day Out (1924). "He was a sixpenny toy of the pavement hawkers. You breathed the breath of life into him, filling with air his body that was as an air balloon." It doesn't take much to impress some people.

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!