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Genesis

About this book

The Seventh Day

Chapter 2

1 The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them.⁠ 2 By the seventh day God finished the work⁠ that he had been doing,⁠ and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.⁠ 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.⁠

The Garden and the First Humans

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created—when the Lord God made the earth and heavens.⁠ 5 Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 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.⁠ 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food.⁠ (Now the tree of life⁠ and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil⁠ were in the middle of the orchard.)⁠ 10 Now a river flows from Eden⁠ to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams. 11 The name of the first is Pishon;⁠ it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is pure; pearls and lapis lazuli are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is Gihon;⁠ it runs through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.⁠ 16 Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”⁠ 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.⁠ I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him.”⁠ 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air.⁠ He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field,⁠ but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found.⁠ 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man,⁠ and he brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;⁠ this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”⁠ 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife,⁠ and they become one family.⁠ 25 The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 2:22 and Gospel of Philip 9:16

Hebrew Bible · Nag Hammadi

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Summary

The Gospel of Philip turns Genesis' creation of Eve from Adam into an explanation of how death began through separation. Jesus repairs that division by joining the two again, making the creation story a reason why salvation requires a lasting union.

Passages

Genesis 2:22

Hebrew Bible
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become one family. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Gospel of Philip 9:16

Nag Hammadi
If the female had not separated from the male, she would not have died together with the male. His separation was the beginning of death. Consequently, Christ came, in order that the separation that took place in the beginning could be cured. He will join them both together again, and those who died in the separation, he will grant them life, and he will unite them, and the woman will unite with her husband in the bridal chamber, and those who have united in the bridal chamber will be separated no longer. Eve separated from Adam because it was not in the bridal chamber that she united with him. It was from a breath that Adam’s life began. Its companion was the Spirit. What was granted to him was his Mother.
180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... Secondly, the imagery also clearly evokes the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib in LXX Genesis 2:21–22: “And God cast a trance upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs (πλευρά) and filled up the flesh in its place. And the rib (πλευρά) that he had taken from Adam the Lord God fashioned into a woman and brought her to Adam.” This double allusion is made possible in Interp. Know. by virtue of the fact that it is by means of Christ’s self-sacrifice on the Cross that the deficient Adamic covenant can be replaced with a new divine edict, for it is through the spear-wound in Christ’s side that the primal androgyne is restored when the soul enters into it. We find a strikingly similar soteriological scheme in the Gospel of Philip. [...] According to Gos. Phil. 68.22–26, “When Eve was still in Adam death did not exist. When she was separated from him death came into being. If he enters again and attains his former self, death will be no more.” Similarly in 70.9–12, “If the woman had not separated from the man, she should not die with the man. His separation became the beginning of death.” However, “Because of this Christ came to repair the separation which was from the beginning and again unite the two, and to give life to those who died as a result of the separation and unite them.” 59 By separating the primal androgyne into male and female, Adam and Eve, death came into the world. The redemptive work of Christ is to restore this androgynous state and thereby give eternal life. ...”
Matthew Twigg, “The Temple-Mystical Background to a Valentinian Saying of the Saviour: The Interpretation of Knowledge (NHC XI, 1) 10.18–38,” Correspondences 1.1 (2013): 49–50.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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