Lent 1 A ADAM AND EVE

ADAM AND EVE

Genesis: two creation accounts:

I.Chapter 2-3 older version:
YAHWEH who walks in the Garden and converses with Adam.
The earthling is fashioned or formed.
2: 7“The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.”
Wes Howard Brook, Come Out My People, p.28 “inspired earth” 2:15 “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it.” (Contrast with “dominion in the chapter 1 account, vs. 26,28a,28b “subdue the earth))
2:18 “It is not good that the earthling should be alone. I will make him a helper as his partner” (NRSV), Wes H. Brook, p. 27 “counterpart”, Amy Jill Levine, “some one who can match him.”

“Out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air,” Adam names the animals. “No partner fit for him.”
Woman’s creation from man’s “side” or “rib”
One Midrash (rabbinic story) states that woman was not taken from man’s head, lest she lord it over him, nor his feet, lest he walk all over her. She is from his side, and they are partners.
Her formation from the man’s rib, rather than from his head, for instance, is seen by the rabbis as symbolic of her essentially inferior status, lest she be proud or ‘that she should be modest.” Passion and Compassion, p. 48

Man and woman question their assigned roles in the Garden.
The snake initiates a dialogue with a question: “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” (3:16)
Come out My People. p 29 “..the woman both omits from and adds to the divine word, rendering the question of obedience to the command confused and risky. First, she omits the divine emphasis on the availability of the tree food. Second, she omits the name of the one tree expressly prohibited, focusing on its relative location rather than its nature..Next, she adds a prohibition to God’s command: “nor shall you touch it.” Finally, she omits the link between the immediacy of the consequence and of disobedience and death.” (3:2,3)
The snake proceeds with three half truths. 1) you will not die 2) your eyes will be opened 3) you will be like God knowing good and evil. (3:4,5)
The woman’s decision is thoughtful: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and she ate.”(3:6) She does not tempt man. “She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.” 1 Tim. 2:14 “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” That is, Adam was not seduced; his choice was one of conscious solidarity with his partner (Amy Jill Levine).
“Missing the nature of the tree, she miscalculated the degree of the risk. Missing the boundary of prohibition, she went with the evidence of her senses and mind against the divine Word.

As a result of the transgression, the couple experiences not death, but loss of innocence or shame (“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves” (3:7) .
“ Adam complains in (3:8) The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit and ate.” Adam tried to shift the blame to Eve and then to God.

This loss is compounded by punishments.
For the woman, 3:16 “I will greatly increase your work and your pregnancies; along with work you shall give birth to children.” Women’s lot is thus to work in two spheres: procreation and production.
“Yet your desire shall be for your man (husband) and he shall rule over you”
Wes H. Brook, p. 27"The “curse” of this was not the “pain of parenting” but the reality that childbearing was the single biggest cause of early death for women until modern medicine. Thus, in a very literal way, the development of surplus agriculture killed countless women. (Book is reading this account against his supposition that it is written against the scene at the Babylonian captivity.)
The second part of the woman’s “curse” is the breaking of the egalitarian relationship between herself and the man. No longer will women be “counterparts” (Gen. 2:18), but instead, the man will “rule” over the woman. In other words, part of the “curse” is the establishment of the patriarchal family structure. Carol Meyers notes, “in light of an understandable reluctance of women to enter into the risks of pregnancy and birth, and because of the social and economic necessity that she do so frequently, the male’s will within the realm of sexuality is to be imposed on the will of the female.”

For the man” the text moves on to the curse of the other person, who is called once again adam (human) rather than ish (man). The man’s punishment (takes up three verses Gen. 3:17,18,19) is prefaced by a rationale that is missing for the other two (snake and woman): 17 “ To the man he said: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life.
18 Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return."

The punishment of the man continues: the man is to wrestle food from the cursed ground. The Hebrew word itstsavon describes both the woman’s pain and the man’s pain, although the specific task (childbearing, agriculture) differs. He is to eat the plants of the field in contrast to the tree fruit given by God (2:16) p. 28
The second detail is in the naming of the food that will come from this sweaty, painful work: “you shall eat bread until you return to the ground.” Bread is not a “natural” food but one manufactured from agricultural grains. Childbirth leading to pain and death, patriarchy, and agricultural labor leading to death: this is the divinely ordained judgment in Genesis on the development of surplus agriculture. ...it is only one step from this to “the city”.

20
(4) The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.

21
For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments, with which he clothed them.
Yahweh alone can remove humanity’s guilt and shame. This is symbolized at the end of the story (v.21) when Yahweh makes garments for the man and the woman. (Collegeville commentary)

II. Chapter 1 (later version):
Elohim a distant transcendent God.
God who creates ex nihilo.
The first commandment is a positive one, “be fertile...”

26 ( 4) Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."
27
God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth."