וַיִּקְטֹל

Summary

The wayyiqtol is the standard Hebrew narrative verb form indicating sequential action. In Genesis 2, the wayyiqtol chain shows that God's creative acts unfolded before Adam's eyes in sequence — he watched God form the animals and bring them to him. This sequential witnessing gave Adam an epistemological advantage: direct knowledge of God as Creator, which protected him from deception in a way the woman, who was not yet formed during these acts, did not share.