Texts in Conversation
Genesis says humans were formed from soil, and writings like the Aramaic Targums and 2 Enoch say the dust came from around the world, making Adam like the cosmos. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds dust from the Temple, hinting that Eden was a temple.
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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.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
2 Enoch 30:13
Secrets of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
13 And I appointed him a name, from the four component parts, from east, from west, from south, from north, 14 and I appointed for him four special stars, and I called his name Adam,
Date: 1–100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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.
Date: 300–1200 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... According to 2 Enoch 30:13 and Sibylline Oracles 3:24-26, God composed man of four letters—east, west, south, and north. E. B. Levine claims that in this verse Pseudo Jonathan has combined two contradictory traditions: (a) Adam was created from dust from the Temple site; (b) he was created from dust gathered from the four corners of the earth. However, Shinan asserts that Pseudo Jonathan unites the two traditions and thus creates a new view ..."
Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, ArBib 1B (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 22.
* 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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