Bereshit 1:26-28 records the creation of mankind, and 2:7,21,22 record the creation of Adam and Havva. What is the relationship between these acts of creation? Is chapter two just describing in more detail the creation recorded in chapter 1 (Rashi on 2:8,27)?
My understanding is that chapter one and chapter two record two distinct creation processes, and the creation of mankind as recorded in chapter one transpired before the creation recorded in chapter two. Chapter one records the creation of the world, including mankind, and chapter two (and three) records the further development of mankind. Mankind was created at the end of the “sixth” day of creation and at a later point in time, G-d created Adam and then Havva.
This understanding can explain how Kayin married, 4:17. The descendants of the people created on the "sixth" day existed and lived outside of the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Havva left the Garden of Eden, there were other people around, and it was from these people that Kayin found a wife. Also, the fact that Kayin worried that other people might kill him, 4:14, demonstrates that other people existed besides Adam and his family, and these are the people whose creation was recorded in chapter one.
2:7,8 record that G-d created man and then placed him in the Garden of Eden. Radak (on 2:15) asks the interesting question, why did G-d not create Adam in the Garden of Eden instead of creating him outside and then having to bring him into the garden? He answers that this two stage process was in order to make Adam appreciate the Garden of Eden since it would be new to him. My guess is that the creation of man outside the garden is another indication that there were other people living outside the Garden of Eden. Adam, the representative of mankind, was taken from amongst these people and put in the garden.
Once there were two acts of creation of mankind then there is no contradiction as to whether men and women were created contemporaneously or not. In the creation of mankind as recorded in chapter one, men and women were created simultaneously, while afterwards in chapter two G-d created Adam before Havva. These were different acts of creation, and they did not have to occur in the same manner. In chapter two, Havva was not created concurrently with Adam in order to show the incompatibility between mankind and animals that Adam was not satisfied with just living with animals, see below on 2:19, "A biblical zoo."
(The creation processes are joined together in 5:2,3. 5:1,2 records the creation of mankind as recorded in chapter one, as 5:2 refers to the blessings that G-d gave mankind which were in chapter one. 5:2 refers to the name Adam, but this was not to the Adam the individual created in chapter two since 5:2 states that Adam was “their name” using the plural, which means that Adam in 1:26,27 and 5:2 means mankind, and not a specific person. 5:3 then refers to the Adam, the individual who was created in chapter two since the verses refers to a particular individual who had a son named Shet. The name Adam switches from referring to mankind to referring to a particular individual, and this links the two creation processes.)
Why were there two creation processes for mankind? Why did G-d create mankind in chapter one, and then afterwards create Adam and Havva? This raises the question, what happened to mankind due to the eating of the fruits of the tree of knowledge, which was the crucial event that occurred in the Garden of Eden? What knowledge did Adam and Havva gain from the fruits?
Rambam (Guide 1:2) argues that before eating the fruits from the tree of knowledge Adam and Havva had a higher level of intellect, and while the eating of the fruits gave them some intellectual ability this lowered their overall level of intellect. This is difficult since Adam and Havva increased their intellectual abilities by eating the fruits. The snake told Havva that if she ate the fruits her eyes would be opened, which signified mental discernment, and she would be like G-d knowing good and evil, 3:5. When Adam and Havva ate the fruit, their eyes were opened up, 3:7, and 3:22 records that they had become like G-d knowing good and evil. The snake was correct, Adam and Havva became more G-d like, which surely shows an increase in their mental abilities.
This increase in Adam and Havva's mental capacities indicates that it was good that they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, as argued by Luzzatto (on 3:24). As pointed out to me by my 11th grade English teacher Alfred Shapiro, when we were studying Paradise Lost, if G-d did not want them to have eaten from the fruits, then G-d would not have put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. If the point of the tree was to test their ability to listen to G-d, then there were innumerable ways to test them without making them like G-d. For instance, G-d could have put a rock in the garden and told them not to sit on the rock or there could have been tree whose fruit has no powers. Thus, it was good that they ate from the fruit, but what was the change in their mental abilities?
Luzzatto (on 3:5) writes that the knowledge of "good and evil" was the tselem elokim, the divine image. When Adam and Havva ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge they acquired tselem elokim, and this is why 3:22 (also 3:5) states that mankind had become like G-d. Yet, what does it mean tselem elokim and did not mankind acquire it before in 1:27 when he was created?
Luzzatto (on 1:26) explains that the divine image is to be a being of full capacities but I think tselem elokim refers to the creative ability of mankind. By the creation of the world, the Torah constantly refers to it as being good, 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31, which shows the connection between the term good and the act of creation. After eating of the fruits, Adam and Havva made clothing for themselves, which was an act of creation. Similarly, Devarim 1:39 refers to the children who grew up in the desert as not knowing good or evil because they did not have to be creative or productive in the desert since all their material needs were provided for in the desert. (This would not be true of the first generation who had lived in Egypt and had built the mishkan in the desert.)
Regardless of how the term tselem elokim is defined, the increase in Adam and Havva's mental abilities from the fruits of the tree of knowledge raised them above the level of animals. When mankind was created in chapter one, he was blessed that he was created with the tselem elokim, which signified that he had great potential. However, he had not yet actualized this potential and instead he was told that he could eat of the plants just like the animals, 1:29,30. Mankind was then comparable to the animals, albeit he was a "higher" animal with more potential. Therefore, before Adam and Havva ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, she conversed with the snake, 3:1-5, and the animals were potential companions for Adam, 2:18,19. Afterwards, when they ate the fruit of tree of knowledge, they "activated" their tselem elokim and this made them distinct from the animals. Thus, they were embarrassed by being naked and they attempted to change their environment by creating clothing, 3:7.
Furthermore, G-d's statements after Adam and Havva ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge also show this distinction between people and animals. First, G-d cursed the snake, the representative of the animal, that mankind would rule over him, 3:15. Also, while Adam and Havva spoke to G-d, the snake did not speak after Havva ate the fruits from the tree of knowledge. Secondly, G-d's statement to Havva emphasized a difference between humans and animals. She was told that childbearing would be painful, and as noted by Sarna (1989) "intense pain in childbearing is unique to the human species and generally unknown to other animals." Thirdly, G-d's statement to the Adam also showed the difference between mankind and animals, that mankind would have to work the land.
This development of mankind's creative ability which separated him from the animals is the purpose of the episode of the Garden of Eden, and the story is a continuation of the creation of mankind in chapter two. Chapter one records the creation of mankind with the potential to become a creator, but he was still more like the animals than a person, while chapters two and three record the actualization of this creative ability of mankind which transpired at a later period. The jump from potential to actualization was so significant that it merited a separate act of creation, and hence chapters two and three record a second creation process of mankind.
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