At the outset of "the generations of the heavens and the earth" (Gen 2:4 ESV), Yahweh God resolves two notable absences in his creation. The first is the absence of man to cultivate the plants (Gen 2:5). Thus he forms the first human ('adam) from the ground ('adamah) to work the ground ('adamah) (Gen 2:7).

The second absence is that of the woman to help the solitary man as his counterpart (Gen 2:18). Thus God makes the woman ('ishah) from the man ('ish) to help the man ('ish) (Gen 2:22, 23). Only through the creation and marriage of man and woman is humanity able to fulfill their stewardship to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

Note that the class discussion helps clarify that the man and the woman were indeed free to eat from "every tree of the garden," including the tree of life (Gen 2:16; 3:2, 22; Rev 2:7; cf. Rev 22:2, 14, 19). The sole prohibition, of course, was the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17).