Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: An Etiology for the Human Condition

According to the Documentary Hypothesis, Genesis 1:1–2:4a, the first creation story, was written by a Priestly writer (P). Genesis 2:4b–3:24 (Genesis 2–3, for short) was written by the Jahwist (J). My references to various passages in Genesis will be almost entirely limited to J; see Kawashima, “Sources and Redaction,” in Reading Genesis: Ten Methods, ed. Ronald Hendel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 47–70. For a popular introduction to the Documentary Hypothesis, see Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York: Summit Books, 1987).

I am in large part revisiting ground covered in Kawashima, “Homo Faber in J’s Primeval History,” ZAW 116 (2004): 483–501. See also Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses (New York: Free Press, 1992), 108–17; and Israel Knohl, The Divine Symphony (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003), 37–43.

In Genesis 3:17 and 4:25, the human is arguably referred to with the proper name Adam—without definite article. But there are text-critical reasons for reading “the human” in 3:17. And 4:25 is apparently the insertion of the Redactor (R) who combined the Pentateuchal sources: see Richard Elliott Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003); and Israel Knohl, “Cain: The Forefather of Humanity,” in Sefer Moshe, ed. Chaim Cohen, Avi Hurvitz, and Shalom M. Paul (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004), 63–67.

All translations of the Hebrew Bible are taken from Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018). Occasional modifications are placed in square brackets.

See also 2 Kings 21:18, 26; 25:4; Nehemiah 3:15. Editor’s note: For more on this story, see Norma Franklin, “The Story of Naboth’s Vineyard and the Ancient Winery in Jezreel,” TheTorah (2017).

Consider also the blandishments with which the wise woman from Tekoa approaches King David:

‏^{שׁמואל ב יד:יז} וַתֹּאמֶר שִׁפְחָתְךָ יִהְיֶה נָּא דְּבַר אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ לִמְנוּחָה כִּי כְּמַלְאַךְ הָאֱלֹהִים כֵּן אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ לִשְׁמֹעַ הַטּוֹב וְהָרָע... ^יד:כ...וַאדֹנִי חָכָם כְּחָכְמַת מַלְאַךְ הָאֱלֹהִים לָדַעַת אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ.

^{2 Sam 14:17} And your servant thought, “May the word of my lord the king, pray, be a respite, for like a messenger of God, so is my lord the king, understanding good and evil….” ^14:20 …“And my lord is wise, as with the wisdom of a messenger of God, to know everything in the land.”

Here, reminiscent of Adam and Eve, to understand good and evil, to know everything, is to be like a messenger of God, a comparison that points to a quality that makes one fit to rule.

By the same logic, when a man divorces his wife, he “sends her away from his house,” hopefully to return to her father’s house. In any case, she is no longer one of his dependents.

^{Luke 10:19} ἰδοὺ δέδωκα ὑμῖν τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ πατεῖν ἐπάνω ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ, καὶ οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς οὐ μὴ ἀδικήσῃ. The translation follows the New Revised Standard Version.

Herman L. J. Vanstiphout, trans., Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 65.

Stephanie Dalley, trans., Myths from Mesopotamia (rev. ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 56.

Dalley, Myths, 56.

See Dan Fleming, “By the Sweat of Your Brow: Adam, Anat, Athirat and Ashurbanipal,” in Ugarit and the Bible, ed. G. J. Brooke, A. H. W. Curtis, and J. F. Healey (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1994), 93–100.

Editor’s note: On biblical views of Israel as a good land, see David Frankel, “The Good Land of Israel,” TheTorah (2017).