Is God a Liar? And other such interpretative problems concerning the second account of creation

1. Is God a Liar? And other such interpretative problems concerning the second account of creation Dr K Southwood

5. False Assumptions • There was an apple tree in Eden. • Nothing in the Hebrew text suggests that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was an apple tree. • We simply have ‘the fruit of the tree’ פרי העץ

6. False Assumptions • Satan or the devil was in Eden disguised as a snake. • ‘but though the devil’s envy death entered the world’ (Wisdon 2:24). • ‘that ancient serpent, who is [called] the Devil and Satan’ (Revelation 12:9; 20:2). • 1 Enoch: Snake is a wicked angel in the retelling of Gen 6:1-4.

7. Where did the snake come from? ‘When we bear in mind that the Gilgamesh epic tablet 11 has three points in common with Genesis 2-3, i.e. a serpent responsible for depriving humans of immortality, a plant or tree of life that conveys immortality, and the theme of humanity not quite achieving immortality (in this life), it becomes at least possible to suppose that these elements in the Garden of Eden narrative are a reworking of the same elements in the Gilgamesh epic.’ (Day 2012)

8. False assumptions • Sin emerged through Eve’s disobedience. • ‘From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die’ (Ecclesiasticus 25:24). • ‘Adam was not theone deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner’ (1 Timothy 2:14).

9. False assumptions • Genesis 2-3 is The Fall of humankind • The word for ‘sin’ is not found in the text. • This assumption is anachronistic and projects a later Augustianian concept of Original Sin on to the narrative.

10. False assumptions • Adam and Eve were in the garden • Women are inferior to men because Eve was created later • the LORD God formed the man האדם from the dust of the ground האדמה • then the Lord God made a woman from the rib צלעhe had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man • Trible(feminist scholar). • But D.J.A. Clines, (1990), What Does Eve Do To help? returns to the view of Augustine and Aquinas that Eve is a helper only in the sense that she can procreate;

11. Maturation? • Nature Foreshadowing the Human Maturation Process 2.4b-6 • Creation and Infancy 2.7-9 • Transitional Foreshadowing of Maturation 2.10-15 • Early and Middle Childhood 2.16-23 • Transitional Foreshadowing of Maturation 2 24-25 • Adolescent Maturation 3 1-19 • Transition into Adulthood 3 20-24 (Betchel)

12. Maturation ‘…the woman consciously chooses: she sees, assesses, judges and acts, without a single thought to the prohibiting divine words. It is important to note here that the woman's role is active and the man's essentially passive acquiescence. It is she who observes the merits of the fruit of the tree, who perceives it as desirable, who picks the fruit, eats it, and gives it to the man. This series of active verbs in describing the woman's role is followed by the single verb regarding the man's role: he ate. The man's role is thus minimized—he neither sees nor takes nor thinks; he just eats.’ (Dragga)

13. Loss of Immortality • תמותמות = you will become mortal? (Barr). ‘Not only . . . is the vocabulary of guilt and revolt lacking, but the atmosphere of catastrophe is also absent . . . there is no breakdown of relationship between God and them. They continue to talk on normal, if irritated, terms…. “What a fuss about a mere apple!’’’ (Barr)

14. Is God a liar? • God: ‘when you eat it you will die’, 2:17 • Serpent: ‘you will not die . . .’, 3:4 ‘The conflict in the narrative begins because Yahweh has lied to the human being about the nature of the tree of wisdom, and has declared that it is rather a tree of death’ (Thomas Thompson).

15. Social scientific approach? • Shame and guilt (Betchel). • Nakedness and shame: Cross-cultural implications?