Montague expresses the connection compellingly: “Man’s breath of life is a direct gift of God to him. It is not said of any other of God’s creatures in this account that he gave them the breath of life in this way. He planted a garden (2:8), he made trees grow (2:9), he ‘formed animals’ of all kinds out of the ground (2:19), but it is never said that he breathed the breath of life into their nostrils. This suggests that man’s life is a more intimate gift from the Lord than is that of the rest of
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