Rescuing Deliverer

NL201 for September 10, 2023

Aaron Ochart

Sep 06, 2023

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Adam and Eve in the Western and Byzantine Art of the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

The Text

Genesis 2:4-25

Last Time on Tales of Faith

We are back to the Narrative Lectionary. I hope that you had a great summer, whatever you may have preached. This year we start a new series, it will follow the basic pattern of the last one, but we will hit some different episodes.

We begin back at the beginning, the book of Genesis (which means beginning). This is the second creation account in the book of Genesis, though it is likely the older account (especially given the anthropomorphic descriptions of God). The account given in Genesis 1 is a grand and cosmic story, of the Spirit/wind/breath of God hovering over the great deeps. It is the classic six day creation narrative that we all learned in Sunday School, and which Creation ‘scientists’ cite as the reason they believe in a ‘young earth’ model of the cosmos.

This second account, however, is much more intimate. It is of a deity that lovingly crafts humanity out of the dust of the earth, and then breathes that same breath/wind/Spirit into the clay person. In this account, humanity is crafted in order to care for and nurture the garden that God plants. We also get a picture of humanity that is created to be in community, even a community of equals. This text has traditionally (at least the tradition of the last 200 years) been used to say very specific things about gender and marriage, I would argue that these bold statements are more closely founded on patriarchy than the text itself.

Overview of Genesis

Ch 1-11: Prehistory: Why is the world the way it is?
- 1:1-2:3 The Six Day Creation Narrative
- 2:4-25 The Creation of Man and Woman
  - 2:4-6 Introduction, n’adam (no one) to care for the garden
  - 2:7-9 YHWH creates h‘adam (man, human being) from the adamah (ground)
  - 2:10-14 Notes on rivers
  - 2:15-17 the garden, and instruction on the tree of knowledge (dun dun duuun)
  - 2:18-20 Not good for h‘adam to be alone, no suitable ‘ezer (help, partner, companion, deliverer) is found
  - 2:21-22 God builds ‘ishshah (woman) from h‘adam
  - 2:23- h‘adam’s speech
- 3:1-24 The first sin and punishment
- 4:1-16 Sin continues, Abel (‘breath’ child of the women) is killed by Cain (‘possession’ the snakey one)
- 4:17-24 Sin perpetuated, Cain builds a city of death
- 4:25-26 A new child of the woman is born
- 5:1-32 the righteous line, Adam(man)/Eve(living) to Noah (rest)
- 6:1-7 The violence of humanity continues
- 6:9-9:17 Noah and his family saved in the de-creation of the Great Flood
- 9:18-10:32 Noah’s descendants from Shem (‘name’ the good nations), Ham (‘hot’ the bad nations), and Japheth (‘opened’ the other nations)
- 11:1-9 The Tower of Babel™ and the scattering of the nations
11:10-23:20 The Abraham Saga: A Chosen Nation
24:1-26:35 The Isaac Saga: The Obedient Middle Patriarch
25:19-36:43 The Jacob/Israel Saga: The Crafty Heir
37:1-50:26 The Joseph Saga: #TheImageofGod
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Today’s Story

The Second Creation Narrative: Our paricape today begins the second creation narrative presented in the book of Genesis. Scholarly work suggests that this is actually probably the older account of the two presented in the Torah (though both are predated by remnants of an even older creation account suggested in parts of the Psalms and Job). It begins with “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created” very similar to the Genesis 1 opening of, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” It is marked by a more intimate, anthropomorphic description of the divine, and use of the divine name of God, YHWH (In English translations, this name is signaled by the use of LORD in all capital letters). [Note for the Audio: when saying the divine name of God, I will use the Hebrew ‘Adonai’ in difference to our Jewish siblings]

The First Problem: Narrative is driven by conflict (no matter what 90’s Gene Roddenberry says). The conflict presented in the beginning of this creation narrative is that GOD wants to plant a garden, but there are two barriers to that goal.

Barrier One- No Water: This creation assumes a ‘wild and waste’ beginning, the dry wilderness of the Ancient Near East. The first barrier to plants is the lack of water. This is easily answered by divine action, YHWH causes water to rise out of the ground to nourish it. These waters are not only the small springs of the forest, but the mighty rivers of creation: the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphretes. These rivers are not familiar to us, but ancient peoples of the area would have recognized them easily.
- Interesting to note that the Tigris and Euphretes are particularly important to the Babylonian and earlier Mesopotamian cultures. This area is what used to be known by anthropologists as the ‘fertile crescent’ where civilization was believed to have begun. While that model has been modified given more information about human development, likely on the African continent, the Babylon/Mesopotamia/Chaldean/Ur basin is certainly important to the development of civilization in the ancient near-east. Our oldest forms of writing link back to this area.
Barrier Two- No One to Care for a Garden: The second problem, and main one for this narrative, is that there is no one to care for a garden if it were to be planted. In an answer, YHWH intimately kneels down to the dust of the earth to create h‘adam (ואדם, the man, the human being) from the adamah (האדמה, dirt, earth). This is reminiscent of other creation myths* where humanity is created from the clay. It is also very reminiscent of an idol craftsman creating an idol or ‘image’ for a local god. This is a similar idea to that of humanity created in the “image of God” found in the first creation account. The human being is created, and then given the breath (רוח, ruach, spirit, breath, wind) of life.

* Myth: The use here of myth is in the anthropological sense, that of a ‘story which brings meaning to a people’ rather than the more modern use of ‘story that is not true’.

The word ‘adam for ‘man’ or more broadly ‘humanity’ or ‘human being’ has the definite article (-ו, h-, ‘the’) attached from here, until Genesis 4:25 when this general noun loses the definite article making it into the proper noun name, Adam. So up to that point, the ‘name’ of “the man” (or the ‘human being’) is not given. The definite article marks it as a particular man/human being, but they do not have a name yet. Given that this is the general word for a human being (with the patriarchal assumption that anyone of interest is going to be a male person) this individual does not necessarily have a gender either. I argue that h’adam should not be gendered at least until there is a contrast between h’adam/’iysh (איש) and ishshah (אשה).

The Garden: YHWH then plants a garden “in Eden, in the east” for the human being to live in and tend to. Notice that this garden is planted in the east, a direction that will gain significance as the narrative goes on: the man and woman will be exiled to the east, Cain goes east after murdering Abel, the humans build Babel to the east, etc. Suffice it to say, the east is not a good direction. Yet YHWH plants this garden in the east, in the land of humanity’s sinfulness. Interesting. This garden also has everything that humans will need, an abundance of fruits to eat. There are two trees, in the center of the garden, which are specifically noted:
- The tree of the knowledge of good and evil: In English, this has a particularly moralistic sounding name. It seems as if this is a tree whose fruit gives one the understanding of what is evil and what is good. This can often lead to strange questions about why this knowledge would be kept from human beings. The folks at the Bible Project suggest that this is a way of saying that humanity will be tempted in defining morality for themselves, rather than trusting God for that definition. Others suggest that the ‘good and evil’ (tov and lo-tov) is a poetic way of referring to everything (the good and the not good).
- The tree of life: The other tree in the center of the garden does not get as much attention because it is not forbidden. Its name implies that it gives life, and the narrative seems to suggest that it (potentially) gives a never-ending life. This tree of life will continue to be a theme throughout scripture. Abra(ha)m will meet God at various trees in the land of Cannaan, the tree of Psalm 1 suggests this life-giving tree, and John’s apocalyptic vision of the City of God has this same Tree of Life at its center. After the humans eat from the first tree, God will exile them from the garden so that they do not eat from the second.
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The Second Problem- No Suitable ‘Ezer: The next problem is much more personal. The human is placed in the garden to keep it, but YHWH declares “it is not good for them to be alone.” This is a beautiful statement on the necessity for community and connection. A message that is very relevant in our increasingly segmenting and individualizing culture. Of all the things that we have seen that are good (tov), this is not good (lo tov). The human needs an ‘ezer kenegdo (עזר כנגדו, helper ‘according to the opposite of him’).
- ‘Ezer: The Hebrew word ‘ezer is often translated as ‘helper,’ but arguably that translation has a lot of baggage to it. It brings up the image of an assistant, a sous chef, a sidekick, or the older option of ‘helpmeet.’ This translation has a decidedly ‘second class’ connotation to it. However, even a cursory look at the use of this word reveals that it is oftentimes used for YHWH themself, especially in the Psalms.
  - Psalm 20:2, May God send you help from God’s temple
  - Psalm 115:9, O Israel, trust in YHWH, your deliverer and protector.

or in the prophets to ask who is able to help Israel/Judah if God is against them.

Hosea 13:9, I will destroy you, O Israel! Who will help you?

The Hebrew connotation to this word has none of the hierarchy assumed in the english translation, in fact, quite the opposite. This is a ‘rescuing deliverer’ through whom victory would be impossible otherwise. It’s almost as if the translation was designed to keep a patriarchal hierarchy which benefits men…

First Solution- Animals as potential ‘ezerim: YHWH, in a rough first draft tries out the creation of animals of various kinds, “every animal of the field, and every bird of the air.” While this does not make sense from a certain point of view, we must remember that this creation myth is not only telling us about the creation of humanity (who we are and whose we are), but also is seeking to explain existence itself. This explainer myth has talked about the plants that the hearers would know, but what about the animals? The human names each one of them (again, explaining why they all have names), but none of them were found to be a suitable ‘ezer. There are some that suggest that the compatibility as an ‘ezer is sexual in nature. This interpretation is not particularly well attested, and has some definite heteronormative overtones.
Second Solution- God builds an Ishshah: YHWH God causes a deep sleep to fall over the human being, and takes a rib, from which they build (ויבן, banah) a woman [for a really interesting reflection on the ‘building’ of the woman as related to Cain’s later ‘building’ of a city (i.e. he creates his own ‘ezer because he does not trust YHWH as his ‘ezer) check out the Bible Project podcast(s) on the theme of ‘the city’]. Now the man finally has a rescuing deliverer, the same and yet different.

The First Human Song: We switch from prose to poetry, as the man sings of the building of the women.

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ishshah,
for out of ‘iysh (another noun for man) this one was taken.”

Here we have another explanation and a word-play. These two general gendered nouns likely have different roots, but they sure sound quite similar, and Hebrew authors cannot resist a clever play on words.

The Biblical Definition of Marriage: The man then goes on (back to prose) to explain the institution of marriage(ish). This text has long been used to give a ‘biblical definition of marriage’ as to be between one man and one woman (completely ignoring the rest of Genesis and Hebrew Scripture). The fact that Jesus later quotes this verse (answering a question about divorce) only adds to the credibility of this ‘definition’.

I will note however, how this statement is structured and is situated in the narrative. Much of the work of a creation myth is to explain why the world is the way that it is. This is for the physical things (plants, animals, people) but also seeks to explain things like the state of humanity (which happens on the next page), or why there are so many kinds of people and languages (Genesis 11). You may notice that this statement is not actually a pronouncement of the way things should be in the future (“from now on, a man should leave his father and mother…”), but an explanation of how things already are ("Therefore a man leaves his father and mother…”). The ‘institution’ of marriage already existed, and this story seeks to give a reason for it. This institution was also much less formal than we might assume, and more driven by biological needs/desires and ideas of male possession of females. Anthropologically we also know that same-sex attraction and pairing, while not the norm, was certainly not unheard of in the ancient world. It would later be described as to’evah [תּוֹעֵבָה, outside accepted cultural or religious norms, often translated ‘abomination’(another very loaded translation)] for the Hebrews. In my opinion, that is pretty shaky ground on which to exclude our siblings from committed, loving, long-term relationships.

Naked and Unafraid: The final statement of this paricape is that the man and woman were naked but unashamed. This is clearly a lead-in for the next story, where they will realize their nakedness and be ashamed. Here however, it speaks to the openness and vulnerability to their relationship. There are lots of reasons that we wear clothes, myself, I am susceptible to the cold (even the cold of A/C) so tend to wear long pants even in the summer. Clothing also serves to hide, to protect, to disguise, and to distract from our bodies.

The height of vulnerability and intimacy is when we are willing to stand before an ‘other’ without these impediments, to know and be fully known. To allow another to see our weaknesses and faults (especially our perceived weaknesses and faults) as well as our strengths, and allow them to love us as we are. The beauty of a long-term committed relationship, like marriage, is the deepening of that intimacy. In marriage we see one another on our best days and on our worst days, through years and decades of changes in body, mind, spirit; and yet remain committed and joined.

It is not good for us as humans to be alone. We are created to be in community and in long-term committed relationship. We are created to be in right-relationship with one another, with our Creator God, and the world around us.

Pop Culture References

In the 90’s sit-com “Home Improvement,” Tim ‘the Tool Man’ Taylor (Tim Alan) hosts a fictitious home improvement show with his co-host Al Borland (Richard Karn). The running joke is that Al is actually eminently more qualified than Tim is, but Tim is constantly saying that “He is my assistant, he assists me!” Sound familiar?

For more examples of explainer myths, though not quite as ancient, you might check out Rudyard Kippling’s “Just-So Stories.” These delightful (though admittedly problematic) stories seek to answer questions like, “How Did the Leopard Get Its Spots?” why the elephant has a long trunk, or how the alphabet was created.