by jimwalton » Wed Nov 09, 2016 2:57 pm
Here's my conclusion about Genesis 2: Through the process of divinely-guided evolution humanity came about. When hominids evolved to the point of being spiritually capable and moral culpable, God knew that they were still mortal ("made of dust," Gn. 2.7), and wanted to give them the gift of life with him (Tree of Life, 2.9). But to have a relationship with Him (since he was holy), there was a moral component to sharing life (Tree of K of Good & Evil). God took two representatives of homo sapiens sapiens ("Adam" and "Eve") and put them in a place where he could form a relationship with them and he could reveal himself to them (The Garden, Gn. 2.15). The two were historical beings, but also served as representatives of the human race. Being typical hominids, their behavior was characteristic of all. They were subject to sin, they proved that, but God initiated a plan to redeem them from that, to pay for their sin for them, and to give them life.
> Did Adam literally lose a rib in the construction of Eve?
No. There are so many things to say here. First of all, in Genesis 2.21, the word used for "the man" is ha adam meaning "human." It's a category, not a personal name. The text is talking about something that happened to all humanity, not just one guy. While one guy is the focus of the text, what is happening to him is representative of what was happening to the whole human race. His representation role here is more important than what is happening to him as a person.
Second, the "deep sleep" is the world for a supernatural trance (tardema). This is not surgery while he is anesthetized, but a vision that God is giving to humanity through the one man. It's a message about a spiritual truth, not an operation. (They would have absolutely no understanding of surgery anyway.)
Third, the word for "rib" (tsela') in Genesis 2 is never used of an anatomical part anywhere else in the Bible. It occurs about 40 times and refers to a "side." It's typically directional (north side, south side), or structural (the sides of the box). More interestingly, it is mostly used of a side when there are only two sides that tend to come in pairs or matching sets.
So what's happening is that God is giving humanity a vision that the female is just as much a part of ruling over creation, as a co-regent or an equal, as the male. The woman is "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh," meaning that the two share a kinship bond of greater than even the blood of family. She is his "counterpartner," not his subordinate. She is "of him," not below him. What Adam says in 2.23 pertains not just to him and her, but to all humankind. The archetypal (please don't read in "metaphorical) element is that all womankind is equal to all mankind ("from his side"), and they relate to God as co-regents and co-priests. Equal in being and worth.
> Did animals literally talk in a language that the humans could understand?
The Hebrew word for serpent is nahash, which is indeed the common word for snake, but it also possibly means "able to stand upright." There are all kinds of verbal possibilities here. For instance, nahash is the same root as nehoset, which means "bronze." So the shiny, upright snake in Number 21.9 is the same root: it was a literal thing, but a spiritual symbol. "Snake" could also be a word play, because the Hebrew word for "deceive" is very close to it, and is the same root as for magic and divination. Snakes in the ancient world were very much associated with spiritual powers, magic, and cultic rituals. So what if this "thing" (the nhs) was a spiritual power, represented to the woman as a bright creature, speaking "spiritual wisdom", and yet was deceiving her—the word for snake? Just a little bit of research changes the whole picture.