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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 2:2 and Pirkei Avot 5:6 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:2

Hebrew Bible · Rabbinic · Targum

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Summary

Genesis describes creation and the uniqueness of the seventh day. The Aramaic translation in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Pirkei Avot both refer to the tradition that ten miraculous objects from Israel's history were also created at this time.

Passages

Genesis 2:2

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

Pirkei Avot 5:6

Rabbinic · Mishnah
6 Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: the mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the donkey, the rainbow, the manna, the staff of Moses, the shamir, the letters, the writing, and the tablets. And some say: also the demons, the grave of Moses, and the ram of Abraham, our father. And some say: also tongs, made with tongs.
190–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pirkei Avot

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:2

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

References

"... Unlike Onkelos, the other two complete Aramaic translations of the Pentateuch are filled with imaginative midrashic and legendary elaborations. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, for example, informs us that God created ten miraculous objects at twilight, just before the onset of the first Sabbath, a tradition reflected in the Mishnah (Pirkei Avot 5). Similarly, Targum Neophyti on 2:18 takes liberty in rewriting the biblical phrase 'It is not right for man to be alone' as 'It is not right for man to sleep alone.' Onkelos remains strictly literal and generally only paraphrases the biblical text when it is necessary to explain metaphors, to clarify verses, to protect the honor of God and Israelite ancestors, and to prevent the reader from embracing an erroneous understanding of the Bible ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Genesis: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 14.

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 2:2 and Pirkei Avot 5:6 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:2

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