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Adam and Eve as First Farmers (Genesis 2-3)


Adam and Eve
by Marc Chagall
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 The story of Adam and Eve--or more accurately, the human and its division into husband and wife-is the most considered story of the Hebrew Bible. From the theological explorations of St. Paul, Augustine and the Talmudic rabbis to John Milton's Paradise Lost to the division of evolutionists and creationists, it is a story of highest significance. Or is it?

Is it possible that the most consistent reading of the story has been ignored for twenty centuries? If we carefully withdraw from our understandings of the story what is not actually in the story, we are left with a narrative that can hold together without the interpretive strictures and weavings of either Rabbinic Judaism or Apostolic Christianity. It is true that the resulting narrative reading would not be consistent with those religious traditions, but it allows the reader to incorporate all the elements of the narrative-a goal that cannot be realized within the traditional readings.


Tree of Life
Assyrian Relief
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 What does the story not tell?

First, a close reading of the text quickly reveals that much of what is included in traditional Jewish and Christian interpretation is not inherent in the story. A partial list of such items includes:

  1. any of the following words: "tempt" (jSn); "temptation"; "sin" or "sinless"; "paradise" (sdrP); "Fall"; "judgment"; "perfect" or "perfection";

  2. identification of the serpent/snake with any demonic power (Satan/the Devil)--indeed, the serpent is said to be <wru ("wise," "prudent" or "crafty") which in Proverbs 12:16 is used as the positive and desired alternative to lywa ("fool" or "perverse")

  3. any labeling of Eve's and Adam's acts as sin, bad, rebellious or evil;

  4. any clarification of whether the LORD God's words to Adam regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were threatened punishment or an expected inevitable consequence--was it the LORD God's desire that death would follow the eating, or was it simply the LORD God's fear?

  5. any statement that the LORD God's pronouncements to the man and the woman are judgment, condemnation or punishment;

  6. identification of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;

  7. any indication that the "death" the LORD God warned of did indeed come to pass as a result of their act;

  8. the precise location of Eden--although the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are easily located, there is no evidence available outside the text of the existence of the Pihon and Gishon rivers. The text does not clarify whether the author intended the reader to know or not know their location;

  9. any statement that this man and this woman are the first human beings;

  10. the introduction of childbirth or hard work--both are simply mutilplied.

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