Nurture and Protect
Introduction
We begin year 3 of the Narrative Lectionary with the Garden of Eden creation story and temptation. This account
Text
Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8
In the day that YHWH God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no vegetation of the field had yet sprung up—for YHWH God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground— then YHWH God formed human [h’adam] from the dust of the ground [ha adamah] and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being…
YHWH God took the human and put them in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And YHWH God commanded the human, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”...
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that YHWH God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God [or a god] knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her man, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
They heard the sound of YHWH God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his woman hid themselves from the presence of YHWH God among the trees of the garden.
Last Time on Tales of Faith
Well, there is not really a last time for this story, since it is the first in the Narrative Lectionary. However, there is a significant section that is skipped over in this pericape (an extract from a text, especially a passage from the Bible). Last year in the Narrative Lectionary, you may remember the text in the middle of Chapter 2 on splitting the human into woman and man. This is a significant shift from the singular ‘human’ (h’adam) from the ground (ha adamah) to two separate creatures, man (h’adam) and woman (‘ishah).
Since last year’s blog, I have learned that the Hebrew that is usually translated “from his rib” is actually more like “from the side” which has some interesting implications, especially in light of the Greek creation myth (referenced in the Hedwig and the Angry Inch song “Origin of Love”) of humanity being created together and then split by the gods into two halves.
In light of this shift, my translation starts with the created being simply as ‘human’ and then later them man and the woman (neither have received names by this point in the narrative).
Context
This Creation story likely predates the one from the Priestly source found in chapter one. First of all, the name for God is different, using YHWH God (Elohim) rather than just Elohim. This creation narrative is a much more intimate one than the cosmic scale of the priestly creation narrative. This highly anthropomorphized deity stoops down and gets their hands dirty by creating humanity out of the dust of the ground and seeks to be in relationship with their creation. There is also evidence that this creation narrative also takes some inspiration from the exile in Babylon (hanging gardens and all). As with any writing, this narrative pulls from many cultural motifs, assumptions, images, and metaphors; some of which we know about and understand, and many of which are lost to history.
Themes
Divine Problem: I Gave You One Job
This narrative begins with a problem, YHWH God desires to plant a garden, but there is no one to take care of it. This is the reason that they create the human from the dust of the earth. This is later made more clear when YHWH God puts the human into the garden “to till it and to keep it.” The Hebrew words used here are ‘abad (a primitive root of Hebrew meaning to work, and by extension to serve or be a servant) and shamar (to keep, guard, observe, give heed). These are interestingly pastoral words, and in stark contrast to the “fill the earth and subdue it” in the priestly creation account.
In this account, humanity is a servant of YHWH God, and the garden that they plant. The human is created to be a servant of the plants, and probably the animals when they arrive in a few verses. Protection is to be strictly defensive, shamar comes from a root that means to ‘hedge.’ This pastoral role brings up a couple of interesting topics.
Righteousness
The word righteousness (Tzadaq) means to be in a right relationship with someone (ultimately with God). There is much of the Torah (Instruction) that is about getting into right relationship with God, through rituals and sacrifice. However, a great deal of the Torah is also about being in right relationship with others. Much of the work of the Prophets was to call people back to righteousness, specifically right relationship with those in their own land (especially the poor, widows, and orphans) as a way to be in right relationship with God. Some even go so far as to say that God hates their solemn assemblies because the righteousness that they rehearse before God is not lived out with their other relationships. The Gospel heightens the relationship between the two.
Texts like this suggest that the relationship with creation itself is a part of this righteousness as well. This text specifically names the serving and protecting of the natural world as the very purpose of humanity. The counter is easier to see perhaps, later stories like the great flood and the plagues of the Exodus are the-creations of a sort. The violence of humanity is answered by the natural world itself rising against those who would shed innocent blood. Like the right relationship with our human siblings cannot be ignored while we pretend to be righteous, the relationship we have with our non-human siblings is a part of our righteousness as well.
I like to put it this way, that righteousness is being in right relationship with God, with one another, and all creation.
”righteousness is being in right relationship with God, with one another, and all creation.”
Ecological Righteousness
The obvious next step is a recognition of our complicity in ecological sin. If we are, in fact, entrusted with being the servants and protectors of creation, we have done a piss-poor job of it. We have used and abused the garden of the world instead of caring for and nurturing it, and we are living with the consequences. There are the more obvious (to some anyway) effects of global climate change where we see rising temperatures and extreme weather. We see the effects on the natural world in the extinction of animals, plants, and whole biomes. We see the effects on people and communities (especially poor, indigenous, and communities of color) who are losing their homes because of climate change. We can also see less grand effects in our own bodies like the rise in cancers due to carcinogens and the saturation of microplastics.
If we are indeed called to be the caretakers and protectors of creation, we must repent and work to repair the damage we have done.
Dust of the Ground
In this creation narrative, YHWH God creates the human from the dust of the ground. As mentioned before, this is an intentional play on words (Hebrews loved their puns) connecting these two similarly sounding words (h’adam, ha adamah).
This creation of the human also has linguistic ties to an artisan creating a clay idol. This idea is shared with the priestly creation narrative in which God creates humanity in their ‘image’ (a word almost exclusively used for idols or for kings). This image of humans being created from the dirt (specifically clay) was also a common one in creation stories in the ancient world.
I also think that this image of ‘dust’ and ‘ground’ is also being used in the beginning of this narrative as a foreshadowing of the pronouncement near the end of chapter three in which mortality is introduced,
“by the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you will return.”
Humanity is created from the dust of the ground, we are material creatures, yet we are also created to represent the Living God.
Breath of Life
The dirt being is imbued with divine lifeforce by the granting of ‘breath’ (ruach which can also be translated as ‘spirit’ or ‘wind’). The passage gets even more intimate when YHWH God breaths this ruach directly into the nostrils of the human.
This is a common image throughout the Hebrew scriptures that the lifebreath of a creature is actually the breath of God which can return to God at any time. Placed here in parallel with the priestly creation account, we can connect the Spirit/wind of God that blows over the watery chaos. Within this narrative, the humans will hear the wind of God from which they hide.
Command
The human is placed in the garden to care for and protect it, and given one command: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Abundance Ignored
I don’t know about you, but I tend to focus almost completely on the one negative, and completely ignore the offering of abundance. YHWH God has provided for the human every tree in this lush garden. There is certainly enough and even more. The human will never go hungry in this beautiful garden which has been designed for their dietary needs.
Most of us, especially in the Western world, have been deeply formed by the assumptions of capitalism which assumes scarcity for everything. If someone gets, then someone else must necessarily lose. There cannot possibly be enough, so everyone (especially those with means) must take all that they need and more as well. As a result the United States wastes an estimated 60 tons of food every year. At the same time, an estimated 35 million people in the United States experience food insecurity. How is it that we can throw away on average 30-40% of the food in our households and restaurants, while our neighbors go hungry? God has given abundantly more than we could ask or imagine, but our sinful nature and systems lack justice. According to some, if we were to waste just 5% less food and get it into the right hands, an estimated 4,000,000 people could be fed.
The picture of humanity in the garden of Eden is that of abundance, but we are so shaped by scarcity that we miss it. How might we also be missing the abundance around us?
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Here we are introduced to the Maltese Falcon of the story, Chekhov’s fruit tree, foreshadowing (maybe even fiveshadowing) of what is to come. All of the trees (including the Tree of Life that we hear about later in chapter 3) are free game for the humans. However, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is off limits. Already in the name, we see the paradox of this forbidden tree. It is a tree of knowledge which, in both an ancient and a modern mindset, is usually considered a net positive (though ancient listeners would likely have more wariness about it). This knowledge is specifically moral in nature, a knowledge of good and evil. As those brought along the ride of the narrative might already be seeing that this fruit is good for food and a delight to the eyes, we feel the pull of temptation.
God Lies?
There has been some conversation lately about the possibility of God lying in the instruction to the human. In the above video, Dan McClellan argues that the text has two possibilities: 1) YHWH God does threaten that the human will die if they eat of the fruit of the tree, but then later changes their mind and does not kill the human. This reading assumes a benevolent and graceful deity. or 2) This ‘lying’ is a vestigial feature of the context from which it comes. IN this reading, the text is borrowing from common features of ancient semitic creation narratives which assumes a more malevolent and oppositional view of divinity. In this case, God absolutely does lie in order to keep godlike knowledge from humanity, including threatening death. When the humans do eat from the fruit, God mourns the fact that “they have become like us, knowing good and evil.”
Either way, we have to deal with the fact that the consequence in chapter 2 and the consequence in chapter 3 do not match.
Deceitful Dialogue
We skip forward again to the famous dialogue between the woman (there is a woman now) and the serpent. This great article tracks the way that the initial instruction and the content of this dialogue shift. The above article is also a fascinating exploration of the theological idea of original evil and evolutionary claims on human development. In many and subtle ways, these shifts illustrate the ways that temptation feeds on and encourages misunderstanding of the original instructions. Here are some of them that I found particularly interesting.
While the name for God is consistently YHWH God (Elohim), the serpent and the woman use only Elohim (God or gods) throughout the dialogue.
Ch 2 has YHWH God ‘commanding’ not to eat from the tree, but the serpent talks about God ‘saying’ that they should not eat.
(My own observation) The serpent asks if God ‘really’ said that they cannot eat from “any tree in the garden” an obviously false command similar to some of the clickbait/thirst traps that we see on social media
The woman then adds that they can’t even touch the fruit.
Being Like God
Here is where things get really tricky, the serpent suggests that this fruit will make you like God or like the gods. Given the above mentioned trope of ancient creation stories, this is likely a feature of that genre. The gods are jealous of their divine status, and do not want the noisy human dirt creatures to be a part of their club. However, this is also a feature that has been retained in this narrative, even though the editors likely have a very different view of divinity and humanity. It may have been retained out of a sense of tradition (our English translations are full of holdovers from the King James or other ‘traditional’ translations, even though we know they are incorrect).
I wonder if there is another reason it was preserved. One of my favorite questions to ask my Middle School Bible class when teaching this story was, “are we supposed to be like God?” There is one sense, of course, where we are not to be like God, or more specifically to put ourselves in that place. As The Bible Project puts it so beautifully,
“Tim: Humanity now faces a choice that’s represented by a fruit tree. So humans could partner with God and find freedom by trusting in [God’s] knowledge of good and evil.
Jon: Or?
Tim: They could seize power and define good and evil on their own, which God warns will kill them.”
In many ways the temptation here is not to obtain the knowledge of good and evil, but to take the power to make the decision on what is good or evil, which ultimately leads to death. They go on to describe the overall conflict in the biblical narrative as humans making the choice between receiving God’s definition of good and evil, or making the call on their/our own. This is a compelling metanarrative. The call of faithfulness then is ultimately to be more like God, in that we accept and integrate God’s assessment of good and evil rather than our own.
Example: Corporate Greed
A great example of this dueling definition of ‘the good’ is what we are to do with the resources that we have (which will sound pretty similar to the above screed about ecological responsibility). There is certainly a human tendency towards a scarcity mindset. This tendency is turned up to 11 thousand in our current (neo-feudal technocratic hellscape) economic system, but it is nothing new. “You will always have the poor with you” Jesus said, not as an ‘out’ for actually doing anything about systemic poverty, but as a recognition of the ongoing greed of humanity which needs to be counteracted. The Torah includes numerous laws regarding the care for the marginalized. Leviticus 23:22 lays out a proscription to those with land and fruitful harvests not to harvest to the edge of their land, specifically so that those without such privileges can gather what they need. Leviticus 25 which outlines the year of Jubilee, which was to be a complete wiping out of all debt, every 50 years. The Prophets repeatedly point to the lack of righteousness towards the poor and marginalized as not being in-line with God’s definition of ‘the good’. Being like God/Jesus in our perspective would lead us to a more just and righteous society with care for the marginalized and oppressed.
See and Take
This quick pair of verbs where the woman ‘sees’ that the fruit is good on the eye and for gaining knowledge, and then ‘takes’ and eats it, will become a common refrain throughout Scripture, and will be a signal that the same design pattern is used several other times as a signal that something is fishy in the state of Denmark. Abraham and Sarai see and take Hagar for their reproductive ‘needs,’ Aaron sees and takes the gold of the Israelites to make a golden calf, etc.
‘The Fall’
Of course, this text is the proof-text of the Christian doctrine of ‘the fall’; and its bastard child ‘Total Depravity.’ It is fascinating to note that this is not a significant reading in the Jewish tradition. As Matthew Fox points out in his book “Original Blessing” this interpretation comes primarily from the Western Christian perspective. The Jewish (and other) interpretation, which Fox calls “original blessing” is one where God creates humanity to be in relationship as co-creators. The emphasis is not on the failure (much like the above focus on the one ‘no’ among an abundance of ‘yeses’), but on the blessing and invitation into co-creation. While the man and woman in Genesis 2 do choose to take the fruit and turn from the offer to be co-creators with the Divine, it is not this choice alone that sets the course for humanity. The next stories are Cain and Abel, Lamech, and the growing violence of humanity leading up to the Great Flood. This seems to present a descent into violence rather than an irrevocable ‘fall’. Saying that this decision is a once and for all fall is like saying that World War II started with the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand, a massive oversimplification to be sure.
Gave Some to Her Man
There is no doubt that historically most of the blame for ‘the fall’ is placed squarely on the woman. This is not an accident, it has certainly been a continued effort to structure patriarchal power.
Yet, it is almost comical the way the man appears in the story. We have this dialogue between the serpent and the woman, lies have been said, truths have been twisted, the woman has seen, taken, and eaten the fruit. Oh, and also the man was there. It's as if the camera pans out, and the man is sitting there picking at his fingernails the whole time. The woman’s sin may be taking control, the man’s sin is inaction and unquestioning compliance.
Liturgy
Call to Worship
Leader: Adonai God gently kneels and forms the human from the dirt,
People: An image of God, breathing God’s Spirit.
Leader: Adonai God places the human in the garden,
People: to nurture and protect it.
Prayer of Confession
God of creation, you made us in your image and fill us with your Spirit. You invite us as co-creators in the world that you love. Yet we do what is good in our own eyes. We see, desire, and take what we want. We refuse to see your image in our fellow humans. We store up more than we need, and waste what others could use. We poison the air, soil, and water for our own comfort. We extract what we want from the earth, and do not consider other’s needs either present or future. We have not been good stewards.
Teach us your ways, LORD God, instruct us in your knowledge. Teach us to be in right relationship with you, one another, and all creation. Help us to nurture and protect our human siblings, our non-human siblings, and this planet that you have entrusted into our care. Help us to create and restore your creation. Amen.
Resources
The Bible Project
The Story of the Bible (How to Read the Bible Series, episode 2) https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/the-story-of-the-bible/
Genesis 1-11 (Read the Bible Series) https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/genesis-1-11/
Genesis 1-11 (Torah Series) https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/torah-genesis-1/
Chaos Dragon https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/chaos-dragon/
Tree of Life https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/tree-of-life/
Intro to Spiritual Beings
Other Podcasts
Faith Adjacent- Season 14, Episode 5: Adam and Eve (Redux) https://faithadjacent.com/adamandeve/
Faith Adjacent- Season 12, Episode 1: The Serpent https://faithadjacent.com/serpent/
Faith Adjacent- I Kid You Not: Adam and Eve https://faithadjacent.com/ikynadamandeve/
Data Over Dogma Podcast: In the Beginning
Book
Original Blessing, Matthew Fox https://www.matthewfox.org/donation-store/original-blessing-a-primer-in-creation-spirituality