Reframing Genesis 3:16: Eve’s Creation Memoir
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Sense Divisions versus Chapters
The dividing of them into Chapters and Verses, as we have done, whereby they are so chop’d and minc’d, as they are now Printed, stand so broken and divided, that … even Men of more advanc’d Knowledge in reading them, lose very much of the strength and force of the Coherence, and the Light that depends on it. Our Minds are so weak and narrow, that they have need of all the helps and assistances can be procur’d, to lay before them undisturbedly, the Thread and Coherence of any Discourse; by which alone they are truly improv’d and lead into the Genuine Sense of the Author … These Divisions also have given occasion to the reading these Epistles by parcels and in scraps, which has further confirm’d the Evil arising from such partitions … It cannot therefore but be wondred, that that should be permitted to be done to Holy Writ.
3. Reading the Creation Stories Together with the Scribes
- The first creation narrative contains seven petuhot, one after each of the seven days of creation with the seventh petuha marking the end of the first creation story at the end of Gen 2:3 in the chaptered Bible. This is the extravagant story about a well-organized world created by Elohim.
- The second creation narrative connects to the previous story in the pivotal verse of Gen 2:4,3 but then introduces Yahweh Elohim as creator in a lush garden setting. Here, in the confinement of the Garden of Eden, the human couple is meant to enjoy life and not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The turning point happens with the serpent’s deceptive talks and the eating of the forbidden fruit with the result that the man and the woman discover that they are naked and filled with shame and fear. Yahweh Elohim arrives on the scene and issues verdicts for each, the serpent, the woman, and the man, and then clothes the human pair with garments of skin (Gen 3:21). Here, the Jewish scribe inserted a petuha to mark the end of the story. The lengthy petuha paragraph (Gen 2:4–3:21) of the second creation story contains one short setumah inserted by the ancient scribe as a blank space before Yahweh speaks to the woman and another blank space after the divine speech. This ingenious technique directs the reader’s full attention to the woman as she is listening to the fateful words. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia has setumah markers enclosing the verse in Gen 3:16, as shown here:
To the woman he said,I will make great your toil and your pregnancies.With hardship shall you have children,Your turning is to your man/husband,And he shall rule/control you (sexually).4
- III.
- A third and more complex creation narrative emerges in the scribal text with Yahweh’s exclamation “Behold, the human!” (Gen 3:22). A petuha marker occurs after the descendants of Seth “began calling Yahweh by name” (Gen 4:26). The first intricacy of this narrative is with the length and placement of the setumah; it starts with Gen 4:1 and extends into Gen 5:2, two verses beyond the petuha. Another sophisticated feature incorporated in this setumah is that Eve speaks in her own voice about the birth of her sons as an act of divine creation outside of the Garden of Eden. At the birth of Cain, she invokes Yahweh (Gen 4:1). Sarna notes, “[t]he most sacred divine name YHWH is here uttered by a human being, a woman, for the first time” (Sarna 1989, p. 32). But then for the birth of Seth, Eve evokes Elohim (Gen 4:25) from the first creation narrative.
Eve—not the narrator—is the first to mention both YHWH and Elohim after Eden. Both mentions refer to the birth of a son. So, we see that Eve knows the difference between divine characters after the expulsion from the Garden. Eve partners with YHWH in delivering Cain. Regarding the birth of Seth, she says: “Elohim has granted me other seed in place of Abel, for Cain killed him." The birth of Seth is the function of Elohim’s “grant”. YHWH and Eve partnered, but Elohim granted a son to Eve. From the perspective of the deity, YHWH is intimately associated with Eve, while Elohim lacks a personal relationship with her.
This is the book of the generations [sefer toledot] of humanity [’adam]In the day when Elohim created humanity [’adam]He made him in the likeness of Elohim.Male and female, he created them.He blessed them, and called their names ’adam,in the day when they were created.(Gen 5:2)5
4. Listening to Eve’s Story
Now ha’adam had known Eve [et-Hawwa] his woman,and she conceived and birthed Cain [et-Qayin] and she said,I have created [qanah] a human individual/man [ish] Yahweh [et-YHWH].(Gen 4:1)
Adam again knew his woman and she gave birth to a sonand she called his name Seth,for Elohim set for me another seed in place of Abel,for Cain killed him.(Gen 4:25)6
Your voiceI heard in the garden,and I was afraidbecause I was naked,and I hid myself.(Gen 3:10)
I have created [qaniti]a human individual [ish] Yahweh [et-YHWH].(Gen 4:1)
Eve’s statement highlights that she considers herself involved in the process of creation working with the Deity. The creation verb Eve uses is one of the verbs used to refer to the Divine’s role in creation ([Gen.] 14. 19, 22; Deut. 32.6), and of the Deity redeeming the people.(Exod. 15.16; Isa. 11.11)
She!Ha-paamBone of my bones, flesh of my flesh.She!She is called woman [isha]For from human [ish] she is taken.She!(Gen 2:23)
Adam again knew his woman and she gave birth to a sonand she called his name Seth,for Elohim set for me another seed in place of Abel,for Cain killed him.(Gen 4:25)
Adam lived one hundred and thirty years,and he beget in his likeness,according to his imageand he called his name Seth.(Gen 5:3)
She is the mother of both Cain, the slayer, and Abel, the slain.If I say what happened, I will be of no help for AbelAnd I will accuse Cain.How can I become the accuser of my offspring?I pity the life of this one, and I lament the death of that one.
5. Conclusions
Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;and its desire is for you, but you must master it”.(Genesis 4:6–7)
Funding
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Conflicts of Interest
1 | Unless otherwise indicated, all English Bible texts are my own translations of the Hebrew texts as they appear in BHS (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia). |
2 | Carol Meyers argues for the ancient life experiences of Israelite women as “Everywoman Eve,” see (Meyers 2012, p. 3). |
3 | In modern studies, the question about the end of the first creation story and the transition to the second story is a matter of source critical debate. The biblical text under discussion is Gen 2:4 with the toledot formula and the phrase about God creating “the heavens and the earth” in 2:4a, which forms an inclusio with Gen 1:1, and Yahweh Elohim creating “the earth and the heavens” in 2:4b. The first story (Gen 1:1–2:4a) is attributed to the Priestly source (P); the second story (Gen 2:4b–3:24) is regarded as Yahwist (J) or non-Priestly. For discussions on the creation stories see (Westermann 1994, pp. 78, 178, 197; cf., Speiser 1981, pp. 3–13). |
4 | This translation of Gen 3:16 is Carol Meyers’ in Rediscovering Eve, pp. 81–102. Meyers holds that the last line of the verse grants men “mastery in marital sex–but not dominance in all aspects of life” (96), which she considers as a response to the potential resistance of Iron-age women to sexual relations because of the dangers in numerous pregnancies and high infant mortality rates. |
5 | The Hebrew ‘adam without a definite article denotes the collective, “humankind” or “humanity”. See HALOT, p. 14. |
6 | Within Gen 1–4, it is only here in Gen 4:25 that the Hebrew ’adam without a definite article mention Adam as a personal name. |
7 | The implications of this interpretation are seen in depictions of Eve as femme fatale embodying the downfall of man in art and other cultural artifacts (Morse 2020, pp. 151–79; cf., Borney 2020). |
8 | See, yada, “to know sexually”, in HALOT, p. 391. The medieval scholar Rashi concluded that sexual intercourse had occurred in the Garden of Eden prior to the expulsion, a viewpoint that is supported by the textual evidence found in Gen 3:30. There is no evidence to support the notion that sexual behavior originated only outside of the Garden of Eden. |
9 | For an analysis about Adam in Gen 4, see Snyman (2020, pp. 1–17). |
10 | According to Merriam-Webster, an assistant is “a person who helps a more skilled person” such as an apprentice, servant, helpmeet, employee, subordinate, maidservant, etc. See, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/helper (accessed on 26 August 2024). Also implied in the “act of serving food”. See, https://www.etymonline.com/word/helping (accessed on 26 August 2024). |
11 | HALOT, pp. 810–12. |
12 | Exod 18:4; Deut 33:7, 26, 29; Ps 33:20; 115:9–11; 121:2; 124:8; 146:5 (cf. Trible 1978, p. 90). |
13 | See HALOT, pp. 665–66; (cf. Hardy 2022, p. 95). The verb nagad, “to tell, make known, inform” occurs in the Hifil and Hofal, only. |
14 | See HALOT, p. 1112; cf. Lipinski, E. qãnâ. TDOT 8: 58–65. |
15 | Those who take the particle et as the preposition “with” (Westermann 1994, pp. 290–92) or as an accusative marker, translate, “with the help of the LORD” (Sarna 1989, p. 32; cf. Speiser 1964, p. 30) acknowledge that “et never means ‘with the help of’” (von Rad 1972, p. 103). Robert Alter translates, “I have got me a man with the LORD” (Alter 2019, p. 19). |
16 | A similar prepositional use of the related particle itti is attested in the Babylonian creation myths, Enuma Elish and Atra-hasis, where the creatress deity creates mankind “with” or “together with” the male god (Pardes 1993, p. 45). |
17 | The Jewish pseudepigrapha of the Life of Adam and Eve dating to the first century AD and the Greek, Latin, and Ethiopic versions from the third to the fifth century AD contain various descriptions about the penances that Adam and Eve inflicted upon themselves after their expulsion from Eden. See https://pseudepigrapha.org/docs/intro/AdamEve (accessed on 26 August 2024). |
18 | Heschel’s contention for the divine pathos is no trivial matter given the Christian historical perspective that God is impassible (Heschel 1962, p. 284). |
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First Story | Second Story | Third Story |
---|---|---|
Gen 1:5 | Gen 2:4–3:15 | Gen 3:22–24 |
P | O | O |
Gen 1:8 | Gen 3:16 | Gen 4:1–26 |
P | O | P |
Gen 1:13 | Gen 3:17–3:21 | Gen 5:2 |
P | P | O |
Gen 1:19 | ||
P | ||
Gen 1:23 | ||
P | ||
Gen 1:31 | ||
P | ||
Gen 2:3 | ||
P |
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Frey, M. Reframing Genesis 3:16: Eve’s Creation Memoir. Religions 2024, 15, 1115. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091115
Frey M. Reframing Genesis 3:16: Eve’s Creation Memoir. Religions. 2024; 15(9):1115. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091115
Chicago/Turabian StyleFrey, Mathilde. 2024. "Reframing Genesis 3:16: Eve’s Creation Memoir" Religions 15, no. 9: 1115. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091115