Texts in Conversation
2 Enoch and Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah describe the first human formed from multiple elements drawn from all creation, portraying Adam as a microcosm of the universe, suggesting he was initially created as a large, cosmic being.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Enoch 30:10
Secrets of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha
9 And there came evening, and there came morning the sixth day. 10 [Friday]. On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man from seven consistencies, one, his flesh from the earth, two, his blood from the dew, three, his eyes from the sun, four, his bones from stone, five, his intelligence from the swiftness of the angels and from cloud, six, his veins and his hair from the grass of the earth, seven, his soul from my breath and from the wind.
Genesis Rabbah 1:1
Aggadah
Rabbinic
Rabbi Hoshaya the Great began: “I was with Him as an amon, a delight day after day…” (Proverbs 8:30) – amon means a child’s caretaker, amon means covered, amon means hidden, and some say amon means greatness. Amon means a child’s caretaker, as it says: “As a caretaker [omen] carries a nursing child” (Numbers 11:12). Amon means covered, as it says: “Those covered [ha’emunim] in scarlet…” (Lamentations 4:5). Amon means hidden, as it says: “He was omen Hadassa” (Esther 2:7). Amon means great, as it says: “Are you better than No Amon [which sits in the rivers]?” (Nahum 3:8), which we translate in Targum as: Are you better than the great city of Alexandria, which is located among the rivers? Another matter, amon means artisan [uman]. The Torah is saying: ‘I was the tool of craft of the Holy One blessed be He.’ The way of the world is that when a flesh-and-blood king builds a palace he does not build it based on his own knowledge, but rather based on the knowledge of an artisan. And the artisan does not build it based on his own knowledge, but rather, he has [plans on] sheets and tablets by which to ascertain how he should build its rooms, how he should build its doors. So too, the Holy One blessed be He looked in the Torah and created the world. The Torah says: “Bereshit God created” (Genesis 1:1), and reshit is nothing other than the Torah, as it says: “The Lord made me at the beginning of [reshit] His way” (Proverbs 8:22).
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The testimonies from Midrash Rabbah, Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Jerahmeel demonstrate that in the Jewish materials the anagram tradition was consistently interpreted as a reference to the cosmic body of the protoplast, created from one end of the universe to the other. In light of this tendency, it is possible that the tradition about the anagram found in 2 Enoch 30 also represents a reference to the cosmic body of the protoplast. This suggestion is made more plausible when one considers that the anagram tradition in 2 Enoch 30:13 follows immediately after the definition of the protoplast as a great celestial creature ... Another tradition found in chapter 30 about the creation of Adam from the seven components might also serve as an allusion to the cosmic body of the protoplast. The description found in 2 Enoch 30:8 relates that Adam’s flesh was created from earth; his blood from dew and from the sun; his eyes from the bottomless sea; his bones from stone; his reason from the mobility of angels and from clouds; his veins and hair from the grass of the earth; his spirit from the Lord’s spirit and from wind. It is possible that by such postulations the text intends to stress that the primordial Adam was the creature of macrocosmic dimensions since Adam’s creation from the seven elements refers to Adam as a microcosm, e.g. the anthropomorphic representation of the world ..."
Orlov, Andrei A.
From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
(p. 161) Brill, 2007
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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