God's name
With any ancient text, when dealing with names, there are two main options: one can either preserve the original name (transposing the alphabet letters if need be) or one can attempt simply to translate. Adam, for instance, is either a name or the Hebrew word meaning man. The word 'God' can mean so many things to so many people; from a bearded old gentleman sitting on a throne upwards. It will mean something different to an atheist, an agnostic, a Christian, or a member of a non-monotheistic religion. When we speak of God we cannot avoid being anthropomorphic in our visualization, of carrying some human qualities and attributes into our mental picture, which are totally contradictory of a being not limited by time, place, or shape.
To side-step this problem I shall initially use the original Hebrew word, as a name without translation, in my retelling, and also the passive voice extensively in the creation myth so as to avoid repeating an unfamiliar word.
So what was the original name given for 'God' in the texts we are looking at? And what is a 'name' even?
If a name is a description we need to start with this passage in Exodus chapter 3. Moses has been given the task of leading his captive people out of Egypt by God, and so asks what name he should use to identify God to the people.
Moses said to God, "Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you;' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What should I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM," and he said, "You shall tell the children of Israel this: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.
The description of God is simply 'I AM'. In other words to describe God in any other way would be to diminish Him, to limit His attributes to those included in any more specific name. It was for this reason that the Jewish nation gave up saying God's name. It was simply too holy to be said. The most frequent word used instead was a tetragrammaton, a four letter word, with the letters YHWH. As religiously observant Jews are forbidden to say or write the Tetragrammaton in full, when reading the Torah they use the word Adonai, which means 'lord'. The word YHWH itself is derived from 'to be'. English translations have often used 'the LORD' (with capitals to show a special usage), or else a mistaken rendering 'Jehovah' (King James Version), or the probably more accurate and now widely accepted 'Yahweh', as here in the World English Bible.
The other Hebrew word used for 'God' is 'Elohim'. It is the plural of El, though usually followed by a singular verb or adjective. To understand this better we may consider this commentary: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to those, You want to know my name? I am called according to my actions. When I judge the creatures I am Elohim, and when I have mercy with My world, I am named YHWH (Yahweh)."
A further insight which may help us appreciate who 'Yahweh' is comes in the fourth gospel, where Jesus uses a phrase 'I am ... ' several times. One particularly notable instance comes in this passage:
Jesus answered, "...Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and was glad." The Jews therefore said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM." [John 8:54-58]
We can see how significant this saying was because the immediate reaction was to treat this as blasphemy, and there was an unsuccessful attempt to hand out instant retribution by stoning, but Jesus managed to escape.
So it is clear that when the Bible uses the name 'Yahweh' it is indicating that the eternal 'I AM' is manifesting His presence on this planet in such a way as to be interactive with people. It is in this context that we can understand the passages we are going to look at soon, where the 'I AM' converses with Adam, Eve, and others.