Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
VOLUME I
NUMBER 3
JULY I 9 5 6
I93
ssiiii
"De kennis van goed en kwaad en de compositie van Gen. HHI", Bijdragen,
xv (1954), 162-71; G. Lambert, "Le drame du jardin d'Eden", Now. rev.
tbiol. LXXVI (1954), 917-48, 1044-72; J. L. McKenzie, "The Literary
Characteristics of Gen. 2-3", Tbeol. Stud, xv (1954), 541-72; G. Pidoux,
"Encore les deux arbfes de Gen. 3I", Zeitsebr. f.d. alttest. Wiss. LXVI (1954),
37-43; I. Engnell, "'Knowledge' and 'Life' in the Creation Story", Supplements to the Vetus Testamentum, m (1955), 103-19. When these works are
quoted in the following, only the name of the author and the year of publication will be mentioned.
1
Cohon (1948), pp. 282 ff.
194
n
The sin of Adam and Eve consisted in disobedience.6 It was not
general disobedience against the will of God, but transgression
1
Gospel of the Infancy and other Biblical Essays (1940), pp. 111 ff.
13-2
196
m
However, the interpretation should not be confined to this
observation. The sexual element seems to be part of a wider
context.4
The scenery is a fertile garden and the forbidden power is
deposited in a tree. Comparative anthropology suggests that in
such cases one has to do with the idea of vegetation and agricultural fertility which, in ancient civilizations, was associated
with human procreation.
Some interesting details are able to confirm this impression.
The tempter is the serpent which appears in the Orient and in
Palestine as a particular symbol of fertility,5 connected with the
worship of Ba'al6 and Astarte,7 cf. Num. xxi. 4, II Kings xviii. 4
(the Nehushtan of the Jerusalem temple destroyed by King
Hezekiah together with the images and the Asherah). After the
fall Adam and Eve adorned themselves with fig-leaves, through
which they acquire the appearance of satyrs and similar fertility
geniieverybody living in the proper milieu of the old conceptions was probably able to apprehend the meaning implied.
Finally the punishment of the man indicates again the basic
1
G. Widengren, The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Near Eastern
Religion ( 1 9 5 1 ) , p p . 37 f., 5 5 .
2
Robertson (1938), p. 30.
3
Engnell (1955), p. 116, has rightly emphasized that one has to think of
procreation in a wider sense, not only of sex.
4
McKenzie (1954), pp. 370 f.
5
A great many parallels to illustrate this are quoted by Coppens (1948),
pp. 21 ff., 91ft".,99 ff.
6
H. Ringgren, "Ar den bibliska skapelseberattelsen en kult-text?", Sv.
exeg. arsb. x m (1948), 13, 20 f.
7
L. H. Vincent, "Le Ba'al cananen de Beisan et sa paredre", Rev. bib/.
xxxvii (1928), 542.
197
und judiscben Mytbus (1931), pp. 47 ff., has also compared the story of the
Paradise with the Prometheus myth; but he is concerned with more abstract
relations than such ethnic traditions as are jn view above. See further,
Cohon (1948), pp. 279 f.; Pritchard (1948), pp. 12 f. There is no question
of deriving the Hebrew tradition from the Greek myth, but its meaning can
be illuminated by this well-known legend. Otherwise the cuneiform tablets
can afford more related material; it is conveniently studied in the book of
Vriezen (1938), pp. 22 ff.; cf. Pritchard, pp. 14 ff.
198
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