translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET study note

text: Advocates of the so-called documentary hypothesis of pentateuchal authorship argue that the introduction of the name Yahweh ( Lord ) here indicates that a new source (designated J), a parallel account of creation, begins here. In this scheme Gen 1:1-2:3 is understood as the priestly source (designated P) of creation. Critics of this approach often respond that the names, rather than indicating separate sources, were chosen to reflect the subject matter (see U. Cassuto, The Documentary Hypothesis ). Gen 1:1 –2:3 is the grand prologue of the book, showing the sovereign God creating by decree. The narrative beginning in 2:4 is the account of what this God invested in his creation. Since it deals with the close, personal involvement of the covenant God, the narrative uses the covenantal name Yahweh ( Lord ) in combination with the name God. For a recent discussion of the documentary hypothesis from a theologically conservative perspective, see D. A. Garrett, Rethinking Genesis . For an attempt by source critics to demonstrate the legitimacy of the source critical method on the basis of ancient Near Eastern parallels, see J. H. Tigay, ed., Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism . For reaction to the source critical method by literary critics, see I. M. Kikawada and A. Quinn, Before Abraham Was ; R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative , 131-54; and Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative , 111-34.


text: The name Eden ( עֵדֶן , ’ eden ) means “pleasure” in Hebrew.


text: Eden is portrayed here as a source of life-giving rivers (that is, perennial streams). This is no surprise because its orchard is where the tree of life is located. Eden is a source of life, but tragically its orchard is no longer accessible to humankind. The river flowing out of Eden is a tantalizing reminder of this. God continues to provide life-giving water to sustain physical existence on the earth, but immortality has been lost.


text: Cush . In the Bible the Hebrew word כּוּשׁ ( kush , “Kush”) often refers to Ethiopia (so KJV, CEV), but here it must refer to a region in Mesopotamia, the area of the later Cassite dynasty of Babylon. See Gen 10:8 as well as E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 20.


text: This is the first time in the Bible that the verb tsavah ( צָוָה , “to command”) appears. Whatever the man had to do in the garden, the main focus of the narrative is on keeping God’s commandments. God created humans with the capacity to obey him and then tested them with commands.


text: This poetic section expresses the correspondence between the man and the woman. She is bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh. Note the wordplay (paronomasia) between “woman” ( אִשָּׁה , ’ ishah ) and “man” ( אִישׁ , ’ ish ). On the surface it appears that the word for woman is the feminine form of the word for man. But the two words are not etymologically related. The sound and the sense give that impression, however, and make for a more effective wordplay.