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asher553This chapter begins with the Sabbath day, on which the Creator rested and refrained from creation. I want to point out the verb "and He rested" [vayanach]. The root verb is [nachah], meaning to rest or to be contented, and we're going to see it again.
The narrative then seems to begin again at the beginning, with a second account of the creation of the heavens and earth. There are some tantalizing details about the climate and landscape: there's mist but no rain, and four rivers are named.
*
And He set him in the Garden of Eden:
The verb here is [vayanichehu], literally "set to rest"; it's that root again.
The tree of knowledge, good and evil:
Robert Alter correctly translates this as "the tree of knowledge, good and evil" (and not "... knowledge of good and evil"). The definite article here is attached to [ha-da'at], knowledge, and therefore by the rules of Hebrew grammar it cannot be "knowledge of" something else. "Good and evil" therefore describes the ambivalent nature of the tree and its fruit - both good and evil.
It is not good for man to be alone:
Notice that the solution is not to create a second Adam from scratch; rather, the single, unitary man must give up his completeness - just as (so to speak) the Creator must self-limit and withdraw to make room for man and free will.
*
When woman is created as a separate entity, man exclaims, "This one shall be called woman, for from man she was taken." Notice that he does not address her directly. Who's he talking to? His words - the first recorded human speech in the Bible - are spoken in the third person, and there isn't even a third person in the world yet!
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife" - here is a moral imperative, a commandment, explicitly linked to the Garden of Eden. The message is that our instinct to seek union and wholeness cannot be fulfilled by staying in our parents' home. The way home is forward.
And notice that here the narrative voice of the text exhorts the reader directly for the first time. Up until now, the text has been declarative and expository: this happened, and then that happened. Here for the first time the text says: you shall do this.
The narrative then seems to begin again at the beginning, with a second account of the creation of the heavens and earth. There are some tantalizing details about the climate and landscape: there's mist but no rain, and four rivers are named.
*
And He set him in the Garden of Eden:
The verb here is [vayanichehu], literally "set to rest"; it's that root again.
The tree of knowledge, good and evil:
Robert Alter correctly translates this as "the tree of knowledge, good and evil" (and not "... knowledge of good and evil"). The definite article here is attached to [ha-da'at], knowledge, and therefore by the rules of Hebrew grammar it cannot be "knowledge of" something else. "Good and evil" therefore describes the ambivalent nature of the tree and its fruit - both good and evil.
It is not good for man to be alone:
Notice that the solution is not to create a second Adam from scratch; rather, the single, unitary man must give up his completeness - just as (so to speak) the Creator must self-limit and withdraw to make room for man and free will.
*
When woman is created as a separate entity, man exclaims, "This one shall be called woman, for from man she was taken." Notice that he does not address her directly. Who's he talking to? His words - the first recorded human speech in the Bible - are spoken in the third person, and there isn't even a third person in the world yet!
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife" - here is a moral imperative, a commandment, explicitly linked to the Garden of Eden. The message is that our instinct to seek union and wholeness cannot be fulfilled by staying in our parents' home. The way home is forward.
And notice that here the narrative voice of the text exhorts the reader directly for the first time. Up until now, the text has been declarative and expository: this happened, and then that happened. Here for the first time the text says: you shall do this.
I just learned something!
Date: 2019-11-05 03:40 (UTC)I had never, ever heard of the Alter translation, and I know of no one who has. I’m away from my own resources, but I’ll definitely check that. I’ve only ever heard the standard version, wherein Man is given a moral sense - which angels do not have. (They’re basically Terminators as portrayed in the movies, destroying, protecting, conveying or guarding as programmed, without question or remorse.)
[Back in the 1960s, a romance novelist wanted to write a murder mystery romance story with Space Age science fiction mixed in, but she didn’t know from SF, so she drew on what she did know: There were two (2) forbidden trees in the Garden. Her antagonist came from a race that ate of the other one. The result was an amoral immortal creature who was fascinated by this “death” thing, and experimented on captured test subjects without a shred of pity or empathy or remorse, and even the police lost their lunch when they found the discarded remains… It was a surprisingly good book, but of course I have no recollection of the title or author.]
no subject
Date: 2019-11-05 07:05 (UTC)If we consider the first chapters of Genesis as a parable, then we will not find contradictions with science. 10 thousand years before the new era, the first cities appeared, and people began to study, light arose. Then 6 days of creation, every day is equal to 1000 years. Then about 6,000 more years of biblical genealogy. Total 12,000 years (approximately). The seventh millennium was Shabbat. Now is the 13th millennium. It's Friday.