Tag: Eve

Sameness

Posted on by jovial_cynic
When Adam first sees the woman in Genesis 2:23 and declares “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,” the excitement isn’t about sexual attraction. Adam’s words simply don’t translate that way.

It’s about SAMENESS.

It’s about seeing someone who is an equal. She is someone who can help Adam address the one thing that isn’t good about all of creation: that Adam was alone.

The reason I mention the “not about sexual attraction” bit is because… quite literally, “Adam & Steve” DOES work here, because the text is pointing to loneliness.

If you don’t understand this, I suspect you simply don’t have friends. You don’t understand that God gave us one another to address that woeful experience of being alone.

Human sexuality is a separate topic and a separate layer of experience. Friendship and recognizing sameness in others is a higher order of relationship.

Parallel Journeys

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַיֹּ֖אמֶר נִסְעָ֣ה וְנֵלֵ֑כָה וְאֵלְכָ֖ה לְנֶגְדֶּֽךָ׃
And [Esau] said, “Let us start on our journey, and I will proceed at your pace.”
Genesis 33:12 (Revised JPS, 2023)

There is a teaching among the rabbis that when Esau and Jacob separate here, Esau is saying something that should be understood theologically.

“I will proceed at your pace” can mean “I will travel parallel to you.” The Midrash speaks to a division of the world – a picture of this life and the hereafter.

I see it similarly, but within a slightly different framework.

My journey through Genesis has led me to believe strongly in this repeated theme of heaven and earth. Not the “future heaven” of the afterlife (that’s “resurrection”), but in the present spiritual reality of heaven, where God currently dwells. Genesis 1:1 speaks of God creating heaven and earth, and I think this describes “twin realities.” And here in this part of Genesis, we are shown a parallel path for Jacob and Esau. Twins.

The Jewish writings describe Esau as a sort of wickedness and evil incarnate, and point to repeated passages where God has rejected Esau. He appears irredeemable. But maybe the picture isn’t meant to be a picture of “good vs evil,” but rather “spirit vs flesh.” It is our flesh that craves the things of Esau. His stomach, his lust, his desire for blood. In the same way the Flood narrative specifically calls out an end to “all flesh,” I think the text is telling us that the corrupted flesh is dying, and that no flesh will survive. The spirit survives, and longs for a day of resurrection, where all flesh will be made new again.

Adam and Eve, too, are a story of flesh and spirit. Read the text carefully and see where death is assigned, and where life is assigned. It’s a repeated story.

So when Esau says “I will travel at your pace,” we’re being told a plain truth: our spirit and our flesh are twins. They are the same. And this is just like the way Adam and Eve came from the one body, cleaved in two, but are one.
Strangely, Jacob will INSIST on separating from Esau, and the next chapter is the tragedy at Shechem. I think this is related.

We are flesh AND spirit. We are not spirit that happens to inhabit a random body. We are not a body that happens to have a soul. They are linked as one. To try to separate this identity in the present life means to ignore the needs of the present life. The story of Dinah seems linked to a failure to see this.

The Redemption of Eve

Posted on by jovial_cynic
When I picture Eve crying out her dead son’s name, beating her chest and weeping, right after a chapter where her husband brings a curse of death on himself and all flesh, I see something: Maybe God’s redemptive plan involves restoring Eve for her husband’s doom, and restoring Eve for the loss of her son.

The unwritten message about Eve is that she is really the one who lost everything. But perhaps God will make all things right, and God will make all things new.

Bones and Flesh

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וַיֹּ֘אמֶר֮ הָֽאָדָם֒ זֹ֣את הַפַּ֗עַם עֶ֚צֶם מֵֽעֲצָמַ֔י וּבָשָׂ֖ר מִבְּשָׂרִ֑י לְזֹאת֙ יִקָּרֵ֣א אִשָּׁ֔ה כִּ֥י מֵאִ֖ישׁ לֻֽקְחָה־זֹּֽאת׃

Then the Human said,
“This one at last
Is bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh.
This one shall be called Woman,
For from a Human was she taken.”
Genesis 2:29 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

When Laban uses similar words to identify his relationship to Jacob in Genesis 29, we notice a striking difference.

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לוֹ֙ לָבָ֔ן אַ֛ךְ עַצְמִ֥י וּבְשָׂרִ֖י אָ֑תָּה וַיֵּ֥שֶׁב עִמּ֖וֹ חֹ֥דֶשׁ יָמִֽים׃

and Laban said to him, “You are truly my bone and flesh.” When he had stayed with him a month’s time,
Genesis 29:14 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Laban is not indicating oneness or equality with Jacob. The language he uses shows a hierarchy. He sees Jacob as inferior. Jacob is someone to possess and use.

Hidden in Goat Skin

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Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on; and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids.
Genesis 27:15-16 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

In Genesis 27, Rebekah has Jacob cover himself with goat fur to make himself appear like Esau.

This word “skin” has only been used one before in Genesis. It’s back when God covered Adam and Eve in skin.

I’ve wondered if God was doing something “tricky” for us in the Garden.

A Salvation Message

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We’ve journeyed 24 chapters into Genesis, and it’s impossible to ignore that the text is set up to be a redemption story for both Adam and Eve. For ALL of us.

There are two stories of salvation:

Adam:
I’ve done things I shouldn’t have done and brought harm to myself and others, and it has corrupted me. Please save me!

Eve:
I’m suffering due to the consequences of this broken world, and I’ve been abused and harmed by others. Please save me!

This isn’t a statement about “men” and “women,” but a statement about the full breadth of what salvation covers. Some of us are “Adam” in this story, whether we are male or female. We’ve caused harm, intentionally or accidentally, and for that, we must repent.

But some of us are “Eve” in this story, where the curse of someone else’s disobedience has harmed us, and we’re left to suffer for sins we didn’t commit. We carry wounds that we didn’t cause.

God can redeem all of this. God will.

Wandering

Posted on by jovial_cynic

And it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’
Genesis 20:13 (NASB)

Wandering may feel aimless, isolating, and hopeless. Lonely. But at this time in the story, Abraham has been wandering for 24 years, never settling. But look at who causes this wandering. It is God, who made a promise to bless Abraham and lead him to a land he would show him.

So when you read that God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, understand: He caused them to wander, too.

But not alone.

To Suffer with Us

Posted on by jovial_cynic
If Adam’s first words about Eve in Genesis 2 echo God’s heart towards humanity in Genesis 1, perhaps Genesis 4 is saying something: “And then Adam knew his wife.”

After sin, God said: I will know them. I will experience them. I will suffer with them.

And then Cain kills Abel.

Perhaps God is saying to Abel: I’m going to suffer your senseless death.

Perhaps God is saying to Eve: I’m going to suffer your heartache and loss.

And perhaps God is saying to Cain: I’m going to suffer being rejected and hated.