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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 2:7 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:7 and Genesis Rabbah 14:4

Hebrew Bible · Targum · Rabbinic

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Summary

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.

Passages

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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

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.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

Genesis Rabbah 14:4

Rabbinic · Aggadah
“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.
500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis Rabbah

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) ..."
Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, ArBib 1B (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 22.

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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Genesis 2:7 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:7 and Genesis Rabbah 14:4

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