Tag Archives: Adam and Eve

The Tale of the Riblet

19 Sep

Genesis 2

If Genesis 1 is Genesis Lite, then Genesis 2 is the kitchen-sink version. It has Adam, Eve, that magic riblet, and lots of man-God bonding. It’s also less abstract and has much stronger narrative and characterization, setting the scene for “The Fall of Man.” This time, after God has created the basics (i.e., heavens, earth, land, seas), he creates plants. He plants them in the Garden of Eden but it’s just too much landscaping for him to manage on his own. God needs a gardener. Enter man: a single human created from the dust of the ground and given life when God breathes into his nostrils. (Eww.)

God puts this yet-nameless man in the Garden of Eden “to work it and take care of it” (NIV, Gen. 2:15). In the center of the garden, he plants the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (He also plants the seemingly irrelevant Tree of Life, which may or may not be the same tree.) Eden is a vegetarian’s paradise, with the exception of a little foreshadowing:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat it you will surely die.’” (NIV, Gen. 2:16–17)

It turns out that the man could use some help with the shrubbery—and he wouldn’t mind some company, either. God gets to work shaping animals from the earth, but the man rejects them all. But unlike in Genesis 1, man here collaborates with God in the creation of animals by naming each one, despite not finding a companion.

God conducts surgery on the man and takes out a rib to create what might considered a sort of female mutant clone. The man calls this marvelous creature woman. And now that he has discovered sex, he really couldn’t give a whit about her gardening talents. Their sex is endorsed by God and is completely absent of lust; it bonds the man and woman together, and is the reason why people leave their parents when they grow up.

Bible Heathen’s Reflection

Adam and Eve’s relationship is interesting in how it turns our earthly birth process on its head. Here, Adam’s gut is the source of new female life, while we modern humans find new life in a woman’s belly.

This inversion reinforces the gender hierarchy. In Genesis 2, the men, literally and figuratively, come first. Adam and God are the collaborators, creators, and leaders, here. Eve is their support staff, but she also bears innate and powerful knowledge that will change Adam’s world and his relationship with God. After all, if God is the father, and we are all destined to leave our parents for our romantic partners, Adam’s following Eve is preordained.

Up Next: Genesis 3, “From Figleaf to Fur: The Loincloths of Eden”

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Genesis Lite

18 Sep

Genesis 1

Even heathens know that in the beginning, there is Genesis, which actually contains two creation stories, thanks to oral storytelling origins.

The Adam-and-Eve-less version contains God’s famous line, “Let there be light,” as well as the less catchy, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters” (KJV, Gen. 1:6), or “an expanse between the waters to separate water from water” (NIV, Gen. 1:6). Firmament or expanse, in the beginning it’s a bit like the cosmic quark-gluon soup of physicists. From this, God creates the following, in order: heavens, sky, land/sea, plants, sea creatures, birds, animals, whom he tells them to “be fruitful and multiply.” Included in these critters are livestock, who—I would argue are sorely in need of shepherds, vets, ranchers, trainers, and county fairs. Known for his master planning skills, God’s one step ahead of me and creates a bunch of humans to take care of this pastoral wilderness:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1: 27)

All the while, God is explicitly in spirit form, so how we are in his likeness seems open to interpretation. It’s possible that spiritually we are like God—after all, he does make humans caretakers of his earthly creation:

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (KJV, Gen. 1:28)

Seven simple days. No Adam, no Eve, no Garden of Eden. The end.

 

Up next: Genesis 2 (the other creation story)

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