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In Genesis, the verb used for shaping the human is spelled with an extra, repeated letter. Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah and the Aramaic translation in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan see this as a hint that humans were given a good and a bad impulse.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 2:7
Hebrew Bible
6 Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 7 The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed.
Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:7
Targum
6 But a cloud of glory came down from beneath the throne of glory, and was filled with water from the ocean, went up again from the earth, and sent rain down and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 The Lord God created Adam with two inclinations. And He took dust from the site of the sanctuary and from the four winds of the world, and a mixture of all the waters of the world, and created him red, black, and white. And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the breath became in the body of Adam a spirit capable of speech, to give light to the eyes and to give hearing to the ears. 8 Before the creation of the world, a garden had been planted by the Memra of the Lord God from Eden for the righteous, and He made Adam dwell there when He created him.
Genesis Rabbah 14:4
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“Formed” [Vayitzer] – there were two acts of formation [involved in the creation of man], a formation from the lower realms and a formation from the upper realms. Rabbi Yehoshua bar Neḥemya in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak and the Rabbis in the name of Rabbi Eliezer: He created in him four creations from the upper realms and four from the lower realms. He [man] eats and drinks like an animal, procreates like an animal, defecates like an animal, and dies like an animal. From the upper realms: He stands upright, speaks, understands, and sees like ministering angels. But does an animal not [also] see? This is bewildering. The difference is that this one [a human] has peripheral vision. Rabbi Tafduyei said in the name of Rabbi Aḥa: The supernal beings were created in the [divine] image and likeness, but do not procreate, while the earthly beings [that have been created up to now] procreate, but were not created in the [divine] image and likeness. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I will create him [Adam] in the [divine] image and likeness, [a trait] from the supernal realm, but he will procreate, [a trait] from the earthly realm.’ Rabbi Tafduyei said in the name of Rabbi Aḥa: The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘If I create him from the supernal realm, he will live and never die; if from the earthly realm, he will die and will not live. Rather, I will create him from [both] these [the supernal] and those [the earthly]. If he sins, he will die; if he does not, he will live.’ “Formed" [Vayitzer] – [alluding to man’s] two inclinations [yetzarim], the good inclination and the evil inclination. Were an animal to have two inclinations, when it would see a person with a knife in his hand ready to slaughter it, it would die of fright. But does man not have two inclinations [and nevertheless does not die of fright]? Rabbi Ḥanina bar Ida said: “He forms [yotzer] the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1) – this teaches that a person’s soul is bound up [tzerura] within him. Were it not so, whenever he would experience anguish, he would shed it [his soul] and cast it off from himself.
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The presence of two yods in the Hebrew וַיִּיצֶר, "and (the Lord God) formed," gave rise to the midrashic view that God created man with two yetzers, or inclinations—a good inclination and a bad one. (compare Genesis Rabbah 14:4; b. Berakot 61a) ..."
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