Moses 3

Spiritual First, Then Natural

God created all things spiritually before they were naturally upon the earth. He created man, the first flesh, upon the earth, and woman is a help meet for man.

Last revised October 6, 2026

Moses chaptersChapter 3 of 8

Received June–October 1830. In the text, the seventh day and then the Garden of Eden before the Fall; the chapter gives no date for either. Also in Gen. 2:1–25 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Moses 3 finishes the account of the Creation that the Lord began telling Moses in Moses 2.

Moses 3 finishes the account of the Creation that the Lord began telling Moses in Moses 2. The Church edition dates the chapter June–October 1830, within Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible. Inside the book, it is the Lord's own account to Moses: He had told him, “thou shalt write the things which I shall speak” (Moses 1:40), and the account opens with “write the words which I speak” (Moses 2:1). So the “I, God” and “I, the Lord God” of this chapter are the Lord speaking, not a narrator.

The chapter runs beside Genesis 2, and Abraham 5 tells it a third way; the Church's Scripture Helps takes the three together. The commentary here keeps to what Moses says that Genesis does not: that everything made on earth had first been made spiritually (verses 5, 7, 9), that the trees and the beasts are called living souls, that the commandment about the fruit comes with the words “thou mayest choose for thyself” (verse 17), and that the Lord speaks to His Only Begotten before the woman is made (verse 18). The Hebrew of the shared verses, the rivers of Eden, the rib, and “one flesh” are in the notes on Gen. 2.

Verse 7, on “the first man,” is where readers look for the Church's teaching on the origin of man; one note gives it from the Church's own pages.

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 2 tells the Creation forward, from a bare field to a garden, a man, and a woman.

Genesis 2 tells the Creation forward, from a bare field to a garden, a man, and a woman. Moses 3 tells it forward too, but keeps looking back. Verse 5 says that the plants, the herbs, and “all the children of men” had already been created, “for in heaven created I them.” Verse 7 says it again at the moment the man is formed: “all things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.” Verse 9 says it of the trees.

Each look back changes what the garden is. The man is not a new being appearing out of dust; he is one of the children whom the Lord had created in heaven, now given a body. The trees and beasts are called living souls. The Lord gives Adam a commandment and with it the choice. And before the woman is made the Lord speaks to His Only Begotten, the one by whom, Moses has been told, the earth was made. Moses 3 is Genesis 2 with what came before kept in view.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

The seventh day

In plain words

The heaven and the earth, and everything in them, were finished. On the seventh day God ended the work He had made and rested, and saw that all He had made was good. He blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all His work.

1 Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day I, God, ended my work, and all things which I had made; and I rested on the seventh day from all my work, and all things which I had made were finished, and I, God, saw that they were good;

3 And I, God, blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it I had rested from all my work which I, God, had created and made.

Verses 4–9

Created spiritually, then naturally

In plain words

This is the account of the heaven and the earth when the Lord God made them. Before any plant or herb was on the earth, the Lord had created all things spiritually, and had created all the children of men in heaven; there was not yet flesh on the earth. Then a mist watered the ground, and the Lord formed the man from the dust, breathed life into him, and he became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth and the first man. The Lord planted a garden in Eden, put the man in it, and made every pleasant tree grow in it, naturally; each tree also became a living soul. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

4 And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air;

Related Scriptures #

All things created spiritually first

Verse 5 breaks into the Genesis account to say that everything about to be made on earth had been made once before.

Verse 5 breaks into the Genesis account to say that everything about to be made on earth had been made once before. The Lord names two groups: the plants and herbs of the field, and “all the children of men,” whom He created “in heaven.” Of the children of men He adds that there was “not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air.” The note on Gen. 2:5 sets this verse beside the Genesis wording and gives President Joseph Fielding Smith's reading of it; what is left to ask here is what the verse tells us and what it leaves open.

It tells us an order. In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord gives the same one: “First spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work” (D&C 29:32).

It leaves open how the spiritual creation was done, and how it relates to the one in the chapter; Moses 3 does not describe it. What the verse does is change the subject of what follows, which is “not a retelling of the Genesis 2 account of Adam and Eve's creation per se, but a concentration and focus on the eternal nature of God's children.” That is a reading of the chapter's shape, not a statement of how the spiritual creation happened.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 3: Identity, Commandments, and Purpose”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book).

6 But I, the Lord God, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.

Latter-day Prophets #

The first flesh, the first man

Verse 7 calls the man “the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also,” and it is where readers ask what the Church teaches about the origin of Adam.

Verse 7 calls the man “the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also,” and it is where readers ask what the Church teaches about the origin of Adam. The Lord had already called him “the first man of all men” (Moses 1:34).

“First flesh” is the harder half, since the fish, the fowl, and the beasts are made in Moses 2:20–25, before the man. The verse does not explain it. The explanation in the Church's study materials takes “flesh” as mortal flesh, subject to death: “in the Fall, Adam and Eve became the first beings upon the earth who were mortal flesh.” That is an interpretation, resting on President Joseph Fielding Smith's teaching about the Fall, and not a further word of the text.

On “the first man” the First Presidency spoke in 1909, in a statement the Church reprinted in 2002 as one that “expresses the Church's doctrinal position on these matters.” Citing Moses 1:34, it says: “It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men.” What it affirms is who Adam was, “a preexistent spirit” who “took upon him an appropriate body, the body of a man.”

How that body was formed is not given. The Church's present answer is that “the details of what happened on earth before Adam and Eve, including how their bodies were created, have not been revealed,” and that the Church “has no official position on the theory of evolution”; the note on Gen. 1:5 gives that answer more fully, and the note on Gen. 2:7 has the Hebrew of “formed.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “What does the Church believe about evolution?”, New Era, Oct. 2016, 41. The First Presidency, “The Origin of Man”, Improvement Era, Nov. 1909, 75–81; reprinted in Ensign, Feb. 2002, 26–30. Moses 3:1–25, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017).

8 And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put the man whom I had formed.

9 And out of the ground made I, the Lord God, to grow every tree, naturally, that is pleasant to the sight of man; and man could behold it. And it became also a living soul. For it was spiritual in the day that I created it; for it remaineth in the sphere in which I, God, created it, yea, even all things which I prepared for the use of man; and man saw that it was good for food. And I, the Lord God, planted the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and also the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Related Scriptures #

Trees that became living souls

Verse 9 calls the trees of the garden a “living soul,” using the words verses 7 and 19 use of the man and the animals.

Verse 9 calls the trees of the garden a “living soul,” using the words verses 7 and 19 use of the man and the animals. Restoration scripture defines the term for man: “the spirit and the body are the soul of man” (D&C 88:15), and Joseph Smith, in a sermon of April 1844 as Thomas Bullock reported it, said that matter and spirit “put togr. made a living soul.” Verse 9 is read beside that definition, “a soul is a spirit and a body combined,” though how it applies to a tree is not spelled out.

Where Restoration scripture speaks of other creatures, it speaks of their spirits: “the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created” (D&C 77:2). That verse says nothing of trees, and verse 9 gives only its own reason: “it was spiritual in the day that I created it; for it remaineth in the sphere in which I, God, created it.” The reason ties the trees to the spiritual creation of verse 5. The text does not explain the phrase “the sphere in which I, God, created it,” and what the verse means for plants is not taught in the sources read here.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Moses 3:1–25, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017). Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 3: Identity, Commandments, and Purpose”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book).

Verses 10–15

The river and the garden

In plain words

A river went out of Eden to water the garden and divided into four. The first, Pison, flows around the land of Havilah, where the Lord created much gold, with bdellium and onyx. The second is Gihon, around the land of Ethiopia; the third, Hiddekel, east of Assyria; the fourth is the Euphrates. The Lord put the man in the garden to dress it and keep it.

10 And I, the Lord God, caused a river to go out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 And I, the Lord God, called the name of the first Pison, and it compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where I, the Lord God, created much gold;

12 And the gold of that land was good, and there was bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river was called Gihon; the same that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river was Hiddekel; that which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river was the Euphrates.

15 And I, the Lord God, took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.

Verses 16–17

The commandment

In plain words

The Lord told the man he could freely eat of every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He added that the man could choose for himself, since the choice was given him, but that the Lord forbade it, and that in the day he ate of it he would surely die.

16 And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Related Scriptures #

A commandment and a choice

In one sentence the Lord forbids the fruit and tells Adam he may choose: “nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it.”

In one sentence the Lord forbids the fruit and tells Adam he may choose: “nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it.” Other revelation says the same of Adam. In the Doctrine and Covenants: “I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself; and I gave unto him commandment” (D&C 29:35). And the Lord tells Enoch that it was “in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency” (Moses 7:32).

The permission is not a way around the commandment. The words can be taken “as a type of escape clause,” yet “the plan was for them to learn obedience and how to choose with accountability and consequences, conditions they may not have fully understood at first.” The garden is arranged for it: the two trees “were not hidden from view but situated openly,” and once the commandment is given, “Adam and Eve are confronted with choice and agency.” This is a reading of the verse, offered as what “seems clear,” and not something the text states.

Whether the commandments given in the garden conflicted belongs with the account of the Fall, at Moses 4:5–11. The notes on Gen. 2:9 and Gen. 2:17 have the two trees and the warning of death.

Verses 18–25

The woman

In plain words

The Lord said to His Only Begotten that it was not good for the man to be alone, and that He would make a help meet for him. He formed the beasts and birds and brought them to Adam to be named; they were living souls too, but none was a help meet for Adam. The Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, took one of his ribs, and made a woman and brought her to him. Adam said, “This I know now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” and named her Woman. Therefore a man leaves his father and mother, cleaves to his wife, and they are one flesh. The man and his wife were naked and not ashamed.

18 And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be alone; wherefore, I will make an help meet for him.

Related Scriptures #

What the help meet does

The book of Moses goes on to show what the help meet of verse 18 does.

The book of Moses goes on to show what the help meet of verse 18 does. What the phrase means, and why it implies no lower standing, is in the note on Gen. 2:18; the picture is in Moses 5:1–12, after the Fall. There Eve “worked alongside Adam (see Moses 5:1), raised the children she had with Adam (see Moses 5:2), prayed and worshipped with Adam (see Moses 5:4–6), and taught her children the gospel (see Moses 5:12).” Read so, the help of verse 18 is a shared work and not a lesser one: “Truly, she was a ‘help meet’ for Adam, a necessary helper.”

Sources: Scripture Central, “What Does it Mean that Eve is a “Help Meet” for Adam?”, KnoWhy #833, Jan. 6, 2026.

19 And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life, and commanded that whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that should be the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but as for Adam, there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And I, the Lord God, caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and he slept, and I took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof;

22 And the rib which I, the Lord God, had taken from man, made I a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said: This I know now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Seeing Christ in Moses 3

The Only Begotten stands behind this chapter's account of the Creation. The Lord told Moses that He made all things “by the Son” (Moses 1:33) and “by mine Only Begotten” (Moses 2:1). When man was to be made He “said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man” (Moses 2:26), and in this chapter He speaks to Him again, before the woman is made (Moses 3:18). The verse gives the Lord's words to Him and no reply.

The man of verse 7 is also set beside Him. In the First Presidency's words of 1909, Adam “was, like Christ, a preexistent spirit, and like Christ he took upon him an appropriate body, the body of a man, and so became a ‘living soul.’”

Worth exploring next

The same chapter in Restoration scripture. Abr. 5, the account as the work of the Gods, and D&C 29:30–35 on the spiritual and the temporal.
What comes next. Moses 4 on the Council in Heaven and the Fall, where the commandment of 3:17 meets the serpent.
The Genesis chapter. Gen. 2 for the Hebrew, the rivers of Eden, the rib, and “one flesh”; Scripture Helps, “Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5,” for the Church's own treatment.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Gen. 2:1–25 — The same account, verse for verse. Moses adds the spiritual creation (3:5, 7, 9), “thou mayest choose for thyself” (3:17), and the Lord's words to His Only Begotten (3:18).
Abr. 5:1–21 — The account as the work of the Gods.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
“What does the Church believe about evolution?”, New Era, Oct. 2016, 41.
The First Presidency, “The Origin of Man”, Improvement Era, Nov. 1909, 75–81; reprinted in Ensign, Feb. 2002, 26–30.
Moses 3:1–25, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017).
Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 3: Identity, Commandments, and Purpose”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book).
Scripture Central, “What Does it Mean that Eve is a “Help Meet” for Adam?”, KnoWhy #833, Jan. 6, 2026.