Genesis 4:1

Hebrew Bible

1 Now the man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created a man just as the Lord did!” 2 Then she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 At the designated time Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering to the Lord.

Genesis 14:19

Hebrew Bible

18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) 19 He blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 Worthy of praise is the Most High God, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.

Proverbs 8:22

Hebrew Bible

20 I walk in the path of righteousness, in the pathway of justice, 21 that I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, and that I may fill their treasuries. 22 The Lord created me as the beginning of his works, before his deeds of long ago. 23 From eternity I have been fashioned, from the beginning, from before the world existed.

 Notes and References

"... Named in Genesis 3:20 as Mother, as Mother she now names her son - 'Cain: Qayin' because 'I produced: qaniti.' As direct and simple and punning as it seems, her brief statement has troubled translators and interpreters. For most, the awkward 'with Yahweh' is the central problem in the way it loosely and ungrammatically hangs on the end of the sentence. A common solution is to read 'with the help of Yahweh,' assuming 'the help of' is implied in 'with.' In this reading, Yahweh shares in the activity that continues human life and our story. But this is not the only potential trouble spot in her words, and a glance at the others might cast a different light on this. The use of the verb qanah for giving birth is striking. It is a word often used for acquiring or producing goods, and goods such as livestock and possessions are called miqneh. Qanah is used elsewhere for the creative activity of God. Wisdom states in Proverbs 8:22: 'Yahweh created me (qaniti) first of his ways.' El Elyon ('God Most High' in many translations) is identified as 'creator (qoneh) of heaven and earth' by Melchizedek in blessing Abram in Genesis 14:19. Linking this usage of qanah with what Eve says, we may hear echoes of a divine mode of creation that involves giving birth (creation through pro-creation), certainly the most profound human experience in creating, and a theme richly scattered throughout the ancient Near Eastern traditions. But whatever traditions lie behind the text we now have, it is clear that the Woman adopts a term here used elsewhere for God's creating. In this light her 'with Yahweh' might well be read as 'along with' or 'in the manner of.' 'I have created a man, along with Yahweh / equally with Yahweh / in the manner of Yahweh.' Rather than recognizing that Yahweh is at the core of human reproduction, she asserts that in this arena at least she is on a par with Yahweh. She too creates a Man. She creates humans - thus her strange use of 'man' ('is) for a boy-child. She is in this respect 'like one of us,' even if expelled from the garden of Eden and denied access to the Tree of Life ..."

Humphreys, W. Lee The Character of God in the Book of Genesis: A Narrative Appraisal (pp. 53-54) Westminster John Knox Press, 2001

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