Genesis: Chapters 1-3

Nick Meyer

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I Content

a. Title” “Genesis” (=LXX “source/origin” cf. Gen 2:4; 5:1); Hebrew: beresheet (“in [the] beginning” cf. Gen 1:1)

b. The Macro Structure of Genesis: Key Internal Marker: elleh toledot, “These are the generations” Gen 2:4; 5:1 (“This is the list of the generations of Adam”); Gen 6:9; 10:1, 32; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 13, 19; 36:1, 9; 37:2 Cf. Mann, Torah, p. 15, on the dual function of the title: underlined vv. look forward.

The Primeval History, Gen 1:1-11:26

1. Prologue, Gen 1:1-2:3, 4

2. Creation and Violence before the flood, Gen 2:4-6:8

2. Re-creation through flood and multiplication of humanity, Gen 6:9-11:9

3. Transitional genealogy: from Shem to Abraham, Gen 11:10-26

The Ancestral History, Gen 11:27-50:26

1. The Abraham Cycle: Gen 11:27-25:11

2. The Jacob Cycle: Gen 25:19-36:43

3. The Joseph Cycle: Gen 37:1, 2-50:26

cf. Mann, Torah, p. 16 on a too simplistic understanding of this primary division within Genesis

c. The Content of Genesis 1-3

i. The beginning: The seven-day account of the creation of heaven and earth, Gen 1:1-2:4a

ii. The creation of earth and heaven: The earthling(s) and the garden, Gen 2:4b-3:24

Issue: What is the narrative function and correct source analysis of Gen 2:4?

II Behind the Text

A. Sources: P (Gen 1:1-2:4a/b); J (Gen 2:4b-3:24)

General observations supporting the source division: Divine name, order of creation, manner of creation; what others can you detect?

B. Comparative Literature

a. Mesopotamian: Enuma Elish (“when on high”); Gilgamesh; Adapa; Atrahasis

b. Canaanite: The Baal Cycle; see biblical reflections in Ps 74:12-15; 77:16-18; 89:9-10; 93:3-4; 97:1-5; Isa 27:1; 51:9-11

c. Egyptian: Hymn to Aten cp. Ps 104

C. History, cf. CCC 337; 390

a. Mann, Torah, 13, on the relationship between myth, parable, and history

b. Mythic-history, represents reality parabolically; etiologies

c. Genealogies (e.g., chs. 5 & 10) have a historicizing impact, a distinctive feature of Israelite religion

III Within the Text

A. The beginning, Gen 1:1-2:4a

a. Structure, cf. Mann, Torah, p. 19, table 2

b. Themes:

i. Order Gen 1:4-25

ii. Responsibility Gen 1:26-30 “imago dei” democratization of kingship (cf. Gen 5:2; 9:6; Ps 8:4-5; Ezek 1:26-28); on the possbile distinction between “image” and “likeness” see CCC 705

iii. Blessing Gen 1:28; cf. Mann, Torah, p. 21 on association with fertility; on charge and responsibility

iv. Temple: Gen 1:6 cf. Ezek 1:22; Gen 1:26-27; 2:4; comparison with tabernacle narrative in P; cf. Levenson “Temple”; Smith Priestly

c. Issues

i. The translation of 1:1 is debated, affecting whether creation ex nihilo can be derived therefrom cp. NRSV with NAB; or see NRSV note “a” on v. 1

ii. If the text presumes pre-existent matter/chaos, then the use of the harsh verbs “subdue” (כ.ב.שׁ) and “have dominion” (ר.ד.ה) may subtly evoke that inimical powers are latent in creation (cf. the serpent, ch. 3!), despite the “very good” of v. 31. Other echoes of the chaos kampf? cf. Levenson Creation. Such echoes appear then as potentially menacing to humans but utterly benign to God (cp. Job 38-42)

iii. In any case, the character of human rule must surely be patterned on the Divine, in whose image they are made.

B. 2:4b-3:24

a. Structure:

i. The creation of the earthling and planting of a garden, 2:4-14

ii. A movement (into the garden) and a mitzvah (regarding its trees), 2:15-17

iii. Finding a partner, 2:18-25

iv. Temptation and transgression, 3:1-7

v. Alienation, 3:8-24

b. Themes

i. Standing on in its own: the narrative is an etiological tale describing how humanity has come to find itself positioned strangely above the animals but below the divine, sharing some characteristics of each (esp. mortality in the case of the former, see nephesh chayyah, Gen 2:7, 19 ; and knowldge of good and evil in the case of the latter)

ii. In the Primeval History: it functions to introduce the tableaux of incidents which would frustrate the divine blessing and verdict of Gen 1:26-31, culminating in the flood (cf. Smith “Before”)

iii. In the Pentateuch: it functions to prefigure the events which are partly described, partly anticipated as being the lot of Israel: it enters the land (cp. garden) with the torah (the prohibition) and a promise of blessing or curse (life/death) for their response. Should they disobey, they would be exiled from the land (garden).

iv. Questioning God’s goodness: the serpent questions God’s goodness and on some level is right about the consequences of eating from the tree in Gen 3:4-5 (cf. Gen 3:21-22)

v. A testing narrative (cf. Mettinger)? The narrative may design God’s prohibition as a test rather than an absolute; which is to say that knowledge of good and evil may only be temporarly withheld from Adam and Eve and that immortality is only now withheld from them because of their transgression.

vi. The theme of transgressing boundaries between the human and the divine will continue in Gen 6:1-5 and Gen 11:1-9.

c. Issues

Earthiness, adam from adamah Gen2:7; cf. Gen 3:19 (notice what is missing in Gen 1:26-27)

Knowlege of good and evil

The “curses”: predictions or prescriptions (cf. Meyers Eve)

Does Eve deserve special blame? (cf. Meyers Eve)

IV In Front of the Text

Mark 10:1-12 par; John 1:1-3; Rom 5:12-21; 16:20; 1 Cor 11:2-16; 15:35-50; 2 Cor 4:6; 11:1-3; Eph 5:21-33; 1 Tim 2:8-15

The Protoevangelium (“first gospel”); Gen 3:15 see CCC 410-111

MT Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” NRSV

Vulgate Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” D-Rh

A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture Genesis (E. F. Sutcliffe, S.J.)

It can hardly be doubted that the feminine pronoun had its origin in the error of an early copyist of Vg. In his Lib. Quaest. Heb. in Gen. St Jerome quotes the Old Latin version of this text with the masc. (ipse) and translates the Hebrew with the same, PL 23, 943, and ipse is the reading of various Vg MSS. It is therefore highly improbable that he translated ipsa here

Bibliography

Levenson, Jon D. Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence. 1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

_________. “The Temple and the World.” Journal of Religion 64 (1984): 275–98.

Mann, Thomas W. The Book of the Torah: Second Edition. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013.

Mettinger, Tryggve N. D. The Eden Narrative: A Literary and Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 2-3. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2007.

Meyers, Carol L. Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Smith, Mark S. “Before Human Sin and Evil: Desire and Fear in the Garden of God.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 80, no. 2 (April 2018): 215–30.