Genesis 3:1

Hebrew Bible

1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Numbers 22:22

Hebrew Bible

27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she crouched down under Balaam. Then Balaam was angry, and he beat his donkey with a staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “You have made me look stupid; I wish there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now.” 30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”

 Notes and References

"... Our central concern here is a broader Pentateuchal context, in which a number of significant parallels between Numbers 22-24 and Genesis 2-3 reveal a reworking of the notions of blessing and curse as seen in the story of the Garden of Eden. The fact that Numbers 22 and Genesis 3 are the only narratives in the entire Bible in which an animal communicates in human speech invites a closer look at the intertextual relationship between the two stories. In the broadest sense, the expression 'intertextuality' implies a general recognition that 'every text is constrained by the literary system of which it is a part, and that every text is ultimately dialogical in that it cannot but record the traces of its contentions and doubling of earlier discourses'. But the term also has a more limited significance which will inform our discussion, namely an examination of the interaction between the specific text which is the object of study, and one or more additional texts (the intertext) ..."

Savran, George Beastly Speech: Intertextuality, Balaam's Ass, and the Garden of Eden (pp. 33-55) Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1994

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