(BA) Notes on Genesis 3

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20 August 2022 index-genesis

(3:1) The role of the serpent in this story echoes that of a serpent in the Epic of Gilgamesh which steals the plant of life from the protagonist.

(3:1) serpent. The Hebrew term means "snake" or "serpent". The term "serpent" here is chosen on the theory that it helps capture the sinister connotations that may be associated with the term via possible Hebrew cognates that refer to sorcery.

(3:1) On the relationship between "crafty" and "naked", see here.

(3:1) And he. Following the Masoretic Text. The Septuagint and Peshitta read And the serpent.

(3:1) Any tree. Or "all the trees" (RV marginal note).

(3:1) garden. As in the previous chapter, this term in Hebrew does not refer only or primarily to "gardens" in the American sense of "vegetable garden" or "flower garden". In this case, the only plants in the "garden" that are explicitly mentioned in the text are trees, so that perhaps "orchard" (as in the New English Translation) would be a more apt description.

(3:2) Of the fruit of the trees. Following the Masoretic Text. Instead of these words, the Septuagint reads Of all the trees; and the Peshitta reads, Of the fruit of all the trees.

(3:3) the tree. How many trees were in the middle of the garden? See here.

(3:3) nor shall you touch it. But in God's warning in 2:17, God does not prohibit touching. Either we assume that Eve has been given some additional warning not in the text, or here she adds something that God did not originally say.

(3:4-5) Is the snake right? Here.

(3:4) like gods. Hebrew, kelohim, which could also be translated "like God." See here.

(3:5) knowing good and evil. Much ink has been spilled over what precisely the serpent is promising the woman here.

(3:6) to make one wise. Hebrew hiśkil. The Septuagint, Peshitta, Vulgate, Gesenius, and an RV marginal note interpret it as meaning "to look upon" (Driver).

(3:6) he ate. Following the Masoretic Text. The Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch read, they ate.

(3:7) eyes ... were opened. As Driver notes, this is a stock phrase for "any sudden, or miraculous, enlightenment".

(3:7) fig leaves. According to Driver, these were the largest sorts of leaves that existed in Palestine.

(3:7) coverings. The KJV has "aprons". From the other uses of the term, it would seem to refer to something that one wears to cover ones' loins.

(3:8) sound. Or, "voice". Hebrew qol. See here.

(3:8) walking about. Or, "going back and forth".

(3:8) cool of the day. Hebrew ruaḥ ha-yom. On its meaning, see here.

(3:9) What does the question imply? See here.

(3:14) On above all and livestock and belly, see here.

(3:15) On the meaning of this verse, see here.

(3:16) For various notes on this verse, see here.

(3:17) the human. Hebrew la-ʾadam, an emendation. The Masoretic Text reads lᵉ-ʾadam, "to Adam". See here.

(3:17) pain. Hebrew ʿiṣṣabon, a term which in all three of its verses could be said to refer to the pain of labor -- the labor of childbirth in 3:16, and the labor of agricultural work in 3:17 and 5:29. The KJV has "sorrow", but there is nothing in these passages to indicate that it refers to sadness.

(3:17) eat of it. Literally, "eat it". Both man and serpent are cursed to "eat dirt", as it were.

(3:18) According to Driver, for the writer the essential difference between tree fruit and field crops is that trees produce fruit spontaneously, while crops require constant labor to avoid the growth of weeds.

(3:19) sweat of your face. Driver: "It may be worth recalling that classical antiquity also supposed that in the Golden Age the earth brought forth spontaneously all that was required for human needs, and that the cultivation of the soil was only introduced at a later period." Driver cites Hesiod, Ovid, and Vergil as examples of this motif.

(3:20) Eve. By a series of translations, Hawwah became, in English, Eve. But in Hebrew it is Ḥawwah, which the verse relates to the word ḥay, for "living."

(3:21) the human. The case here is like the one in Genesis 3:17.

(3:22) Yahweh God. Following the Masoretic Text. The Septuagint reads simply "God".

(3:22) For various things worth noticing about this verse, see here.

(3:23) to till. On a possible nuance in this word, see here.

(3:23) ground. Hebrew adama, similar to adam ("human"). See here.

(3:24). For various notes on this verse, see here.