Genesis 2
- Rabbinic tradition that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is not physically in the middle of the garden, but is in the middle of "her" garden (when she says to the serpent, we are not to eat of the tree in 'the middle' of the garden)
- Tree of Life is for sure in the middle, whereas the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil might be, might not be...
- There's 4 rivers, decreasing level of details given
- No rain so far - made evident by the streams coming up from the earth. These may or may not be the rivers - there's freedom to go either way
- God says it's not good that man is alone and then he's told to name the animals
- We might expect it to be the other way if it was to be discovered that Adam was alone, but God knows he is alone and then it's reiterated that there's no helper suitable for him
- is this part of the chiastic structure?
- Man leaves his father and mother?
- Doesn't the woman leave? Why the emphasis on the man in verse 24?
- Could be an a thought imputed into the text by a scribe doing commentary later on
Genesis 3
- Jewish Oral tradition teaches that Adam added to God's command, and that's why Eve says "we must not touch it"
- Just a talking snake out of nowhere?
Man and Woman
- Woman being taken from man
- Woman is the edzer kinegido
- She is the help that comes against him or the help that opposes
- A part of man, a part of is is taken and is called is-hah. Only when male and female come together is humanity seen at its fullness.
- Rabbinic teaching of 2 planks resting against each other to form a pyramid shape - if you remove one, they fall, but because they are in opposition to each other, the pyramid shape is supported and remains standing
What are the Problems?
- Talking snake
- The fruit was seen to be desirable for gaining wisdom - how?
- When God made trees we're told the trees are pleasing to the eye and good for food, so the woman adds this third element
- What is "the sound" of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day?
- Eve has the knowledge of good and evil before she eats from the tree - so it's clearly not just a tree that gives wisdom about right and wrong, it's something more
- There's also an element of injustice for God to punish someone to eat of the the knowledge of good and evil if they don't know good and evil before they eat of it
- Serpent says they can be like God, but they're already like God (humans are)
- Weird that God would set up his creation for failure (if that's what's happening)... "You can whatever you want, just don't touch this one extremely desirable thing right in the middle of the garden"
Chiasm
- Bookends of being placed in the garden and banishment
- Middle details of Adam naming woman and Eve
- Final note: First name "woman" is about "who [eve] is, her being" and the second name, after banishment is "Eve" which is about "what she can do" – callback to Sabbath, to Egypt, that God says worth is about who we are, but Egypt put all value on what someone can do...
- Dead center is "the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked"
- Interesting routine return back to nakedness within the story (stay tuned as this continues)
- Of all the things that could happen - after they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it's nakedness that the human realize
- When God finds Adam and Eve the first thing Adam says is "I hid because I was naked"
- God's response isn't about the tree immediately or anything, it's that "who told you you were naked"
- Hebrew word play on naked (Arowm), nakedness (Erowm), and the word in 3:1, "crafty" (description of serpent, Eruwm). So if you're literally hearing the story, via spoken word, those 3 words all come from the same root and they are nearly extinguishable when heard... it would stand our significantly if we were hearing this.
- Also note that the snake is oddly human
- talks
- reasons rather well
- snake relates to the humans
- snake is walking (curse is that it crawls, meaning it's not crawling in the beginning)
- it's incredibly human but it's clear in the story that the snake is a beast
- what is the real temptation that the snake issues towards Eve?
- Look at emphasis...
- In English we put emphasis on "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree..."
- But in Hebrew the emphasis must be on "say"... "Did God really say you must not..."
- The temptation is to give into desire - which is a new element from Eve... She was the fruit was "desirable".. it's animals, beasts, who give into desires, but as God's imagers they are invited to trust the story, trust God, and to know, like God on Day 7, when to "say enough"... The Serpent offers them to question God's design of humans... he challenges the humans to give into beastly desires and to forsake the humanness, which they do.
El Shaddai
- Put the Hebrew consonants into a phrase and it means the God who knows when to say "enough"
- Humans made in God's image need to know when to say "enough"... They are tempted by the serpent to keep going, to keep gaining wisdom apart from what God has given them
Problems with literal view
- Western tendency is to read creation accounts in a chronological fashion but this story, starting in verse 4, doesn't pick up where the first story leaves off... best you could do is start at day 3