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From Eden to Ednah - Lilith in the Garden

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From Eden to Ednah - Lilith in the Garden University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Department of Near Eastern Languages and Departmental Papers (NELC) Civilizations (NELC) 2016 From Eden to Ednah - Lilith in the Garden Dan Ben-Amos University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, History of Gender Commons, History of Religion Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Ben-Amos, D. (2016). From Eden to Ednah - Lilith in the Garden. Biblical Archaeology Review, 42 (3), 54-58. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/142 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/142 For more information, please contact [email protected]. From Eden to Ednah - Lilith in the Garden Abstract For centuries, the paradise described in Genesis 2-3 has been a formative myth in Judeo-Christian culture. The creation of the woman from Adam's rib (Genesis 2:21-23) both projected and validated women's inferior and secondary role in Western society. Therefore, the new interpretation of the Hebrew word tsela, shifting its meaning from rib to baculum (penal bone), which Alan Dundes and Ziony Zevit have proposed, is nothing short of revolutionary, shifting the mythic paradigm from an obscure derivation of woman from man, to her primary and equal role in procreative bonding. With their insightful analyses, Zevit and Dundes challenge a fundamental tenet of Judeo-Christian culture, and a basic principle that has underscored social gender relations for generations. In recent public and academic discourse these relations have been subject to intense examination, generating changes in the family and in public spaces of modern society. What may appear only to be a pedantic philological hair- splitting argument is, in fact, a radical changes in the mythic model for relations between men and women. Dundes and Zevit still recognize that in paradise woman was created from man, but instead of the sexually neutral rib, their interpretation recasts this creation in concrete sexual terms that are the basis of human regeneration. Let me unpack this. Disciplines Biblical Studies | Cultural History | History of Gender | History of Religion | Near and Middle Eastern Studies | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion | Social History This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/142 From Eden to Ednah Lilith in the Garden Dan Ben-Amos For centuries, the paradise generations. In recent public and aca- described in Genesis 2–3 has been a demic discourse these relations have formative myth in Judeo- Christian been subject to intense examination, culture. The creation of the woman generating changes in the family and from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21–23) in public spaces of modern society. What both projected and validated wom- may appear only to be a pedantic philo- en’s inferior and secondary role in logical hair-splitting argument is, in fact, a Western society. Therefore, the new radical change in the mythic model for rela- interpretation of the Hebrew word tsela‘, shifting its tions between men and women. Dundes and Zevit meaning from rib to baculum (penal bone), which still recognize that in paradise woman was created Alan Dundes and Ziony Zevit have proposed, is noth- from man, but instead of the sexually neutral rib, ing short of revolutionary, shifting the mythic para- their interpretation recasts this creation in concrete digm from an obscure deri- sexual terms that are the vation of woman from man, basis of human regenera- to her primary and equal Was Eve tion. Let me unpack this. role in procreative bonding. Made from In his recent BAR arti- Adam’s Rib— With their insightful or His Baculum? cle,* Ziony Zevit exam- analyses, Zevit and Dundes Ziony Zevit ines the basic philological In a BAR review of my recent book, WHAT REALLY HAP- pened in the Garden of Eden?, Professor Mary Joan Leith of Stonehill challenge a fundamental College remarks that I argue persuasively that woman was made not aspects of his proposal. from one of Adam’s ribs but from his os baculum, his penis bone.* Subsequently, BAR received a letter in response to this review call- ing attention to a fact that may appear to make my argument difficult to accept. Genesis 2:21 reads, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and tenet of Judeo-Christian closed up its place with flesh” (NRSV). If Adam had more thanone of He points to the extensive these from which God could choose, it could not refer to his baculum. I agree with the letter writer who pointed to a highly unlikely implication of my analysis, and yet I still maintain the correctness of my argument. Here’s why. culture, and a basic prin- RESOURCE, NY ORTI/ART ALFREDO DAGLI *BAR, May/June 2014. WITH ONE RIB (Hebrew, tsela‘) from Adam, God created woman (Genesis 2:21–22). This 12th-century C.E. mosaic in the Palatine Chapel at the Nor- man Palace in Sicily depicts Eve emerging from Adam’s ribcage. Or was *Ziony Zevit, “Was Eve Made from she crafted from another part of Adam’s body? Ziony Zevit explains that the traditional translation of tsela‘ in this context is wrong and that it should be rendered instead by a word referring to a limb lateral to the vertical axis of ciple that has underscored the human body, such as hand, foot and, for males, penis. Zevit believes Eve was created not from Adam’s rib but from his os baculum (penis bone). Adam’s Rib—or His Baculum?” BAR, social gender relations for 32 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 33 September/October 2015. 54 MAY/JUNE 2016 use of the lexeme tsela‘ in the Hebrew Bible, from first version of binary oppositions into an opposi- Genesis to the Prophets; yet it occurs only twice (in tional projection from the man’s perspective between Genesis 2:21, 22) in the challenged meaning, that matter and desire, and then labor and pleasure. is, rib. In all the other occurrences in the Hebrew In addition to the binary oppositions that the Bible, it clearly refers to the side of a structure, an Biblical text articulates, there is another that is object, or a mountain. This is its meaning in Bib- implicit in the unfolding versions of the myth. In lical Hebrew from Exodus to Ezekiel (early sixth the instances of binary opposition that tell us about century B.C.E). the creation of woman, human fertility is part of the In post-Biblical Hebrew, the meaning changed. story. But in the first version God’s blessing of fertil- From the Hebrew of the Mishnah until the pres- ity and increase is not confirmed, while in the third ent time, tsela‘ has come to refer to either a rib or version it is confirmed both as a punishment and as side, depending on its context, or metaphorically— the singular attribute of the woman. She becomes drawing upon the traditional interpretation of the “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20), and Biblical text—to wife.1 It is quite true that in the Adam names her individually, employing the same Biblical texts there are no other examples of the use literary device of the etiological pun, Eve: Vayikra of tsela‘ as penal bone, but words with unique mean- ha-’adam shem’ishto h· avah ki hi haytah ’em kol-h· ay. ings are not a rarity in the Hebrew Bible. (“The man named his wife Eve [h· awwâ], because A philological approach to the problem would she was the mother of all the living [h· ay]” [Genesis examine linguistic changes over time and seek out 3:20]). The name Ḥavah in Hebrew puns with h· ay, word meanings in their historical contexts. A mytho- and both are a derivation from the root h· yh “to live.” logical analysis, however (especially in the structural But who is this woman of the first version of method of Claude Lévi-Strauss [1908–2009]), would binary opposition, whose fertility is not confirmed, collapse historical times into structures of binary and whom the Biblical text does not name? Her oppositions that represent thought, belief and imagi- story seems to hover at the edges of literacy with nation in oral societies.2 (For this kind of analysis, sporadic references. Isaiah mentions her name at the literate record of myth is accidental, depending one point, but not her mythic identity, referring to a on a literate person, who happened to be a witness demonic female in the desert: “Wildcats shall meet to the verbal or ritualistic articulation of a given hyenas, goat-demons shall greet each other; there mythic theme. Successive recordings of myth do not too the lilith shall repose and find herself a rest- necessarily demonstrate its historical changes, how- ing place” (Isaiah 34:14). Later, in the post-Biblical ever, but only expose the development of existing period, the sages identify the lilith several times, mythic thought.) not by name, but as “the First Eve,”3 indicating that The myth of the Garden of Eden and the story of her full story was well known in oral tradition, yet creation of humanity is a prime example. They rest barred from the canonized Biblical text. Finally, in upon a structure of binary oppositions that unfold the tenth century C.E. in Babylon, an anonymous in three versions: writer, who was not bound by normative traditional In the first, the binary opposition is sexual, zakhar principles and who included in his book some other u-nekevah bara ’otam (“male and female He created sexually explicit tales, spelled out the lilith’s adven- them”) (Genesis 1:27).
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