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Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

About this book
Chapter 2

1 Thus the creatures of the heavens and of the earth and all their hosts were completed. 2 And on the seventh day God completed the work which He had done,⁠ and the ten things He had created at twilight; and He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day, more than all the days of the week, and He sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and was to do. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 And no trees of the field were yet on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, because the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the soil. 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. 9 And the Lord God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is desirable to see and good to eat, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, whose height was a journey of five hundred years,⁠ and the tree whose fruit enables those who eat it to distinguish between good and evil. 10 A river goes out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four river-heads. 11 The name of one is Pishon; it is the one that encircles the whole land of India, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is choice; bdellium is there, and precious stones of beryl. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that encircles the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one that flows to the east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took Adam from the mountain of worship, the place whence he had been created, and made him dwell in the garden of Eden to labor in the law and to keep its commandments. 16 And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of which those who eat its fruit have the wisdom to distinguish good and evil, you shall not eat, because on the day on which you eat of it, you shall incur the death penalty.' 18 And the Lord God said, 'It is not⁠ right that Adam should sleep alone; I will make for him a woman who will be a support alongside him.' 19 So the Lord God created from the ground every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to Adam to see what name he would call them; and whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 And Adam gave their names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the heavens, and to all the beasts of the field; but for Adam, no support alongside him was yet found. 21 The Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs—it was the thirteenth rib of the right side—and He closed its place with flesh. 22 And the Lord God built the rib He had taken from Adam into a woman and brought her to Adam. 23 And Adam said, 'This time, but never again will woman be created from man as this one had been created from me—bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. It is fitting to call this one woman, for she has been taken from man.' 24 Therefore a man shall leave and be separated from the bedroom of his father and of his mother, and he shall be united to his wife, and the two of them shall become one flesh. 25 And the two of them were wise, Adam and his wife, but they did not remain in their glory.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 2:18 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:18

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

In Genesis, God says it is not good for the man to be alone before giving him a companion. The Aramaic translation in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan avoids the word “good” here, likely to resolve an issue with the earlier verse that describes creation as good.

Passages

Genesis 2:18

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

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:18

Targum
17 but of the tree of which those who eat its fruit have the wisdom to distinguish good and evil, you shall not eat, because on the day on which you eat of it, you shall incur the death penalty.' 18 And the Lord God said, 'It is not right that Adam should sleep alone; I will make for him a woman who will be a support alongside him.' 19 So the Lord God created from the ground every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to Adam to see what name he would call them; and whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

References

"... The Targums do not translate the Hebrew word 'good' at Genesis 2:18 by the corresponding Aramaic word in order to avoid the apparent contradiction between this verse and Genesis 1:31, which states that everything God made was good ..."
Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, ArBib 1B (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 24.

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 2:18 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:18

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