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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 2:9 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:9 and Genesis Rabbah 15:6

Hebrew Bible · Targum · Rabbinic

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Summary

Genesis shows the tree of life as one tree among many in the garden, yet the Aramaic Targums and Genesis Rabbah describe it as impossibly huge and placed in the middle. Their picture connects it to the idea of a world tree at the center of creation.

Passages

Genesis 2:9

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

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:9

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

Genesis Rabbah 15:6

Rabbinic · Aggadah
“The Lord God grew from the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). “The Lord God grew from the ground […and the tree of life]” – it is taught: [The tree of life is] a tree that spreads out over all the living. Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai said: [The extent of] the tree of life is a walking distance of five hundred years and all the waters of creation branch out from beneath it. Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai: It is not merely that [the extent of] its branches are a walking distance of five hundred years, but even [the extent of] its trunk is a walking distance of five hundred years.
500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis Rabbah

References

"... Genesis 2:9 ... compare Targum Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:9; Genesis Rabbah 15:6; j. Berakhot 1:2 and Song of Songs Rabbah 6:9 which all state that the tree of life covered a five hundred years’ journey ..."
Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, ArBib 1B (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 23.

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 2:9 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:9 and Genesis Rabbah 15:6

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