Before Genesis 2:7?
Man as a soul had been already created in Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule
over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,
and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created (bara) mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created (bara) them;
male and female he created (bara) them.
Bara means to create something out from nothing.
Only God can create in that fashion.
Man's body was not created out from nothing.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7
Man being created by God in Genesis 2:7, was not the Hebrew word "bara."
For the body was not God creating something out from nothing.
That was simply God providing a body for the already created soul.
The Hebrew word is "yatsar" - to form and to mold something.
Man is a soul.
That is what God called "man" when He created the soul out from nothing. He called him 'man.' Genesis 1:27.
The body that God provided in Genesis 2:7 was a means for the soul to navigate within the created material world.
English translations can not lend that kind of understanding to us.
A good pastor teacher who knows the needed ancient languages can.
For our sakes God has raised up a few who do.
This one will not ask for money for his teachings...
https://rbthieme.org/about-us
grace and peace .....
