Random Creation and Garden of Eden Observations

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Use of repetition of nouns

• Shadowing Genesis 3:18, there may be an example of antecedens pro pronomine relativo in the speech of Elohim:

“Adam, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast partaken of the forbidden fruit, the earth shall be cursed for thy sake. Instead of producing fruits and flowers spontaneously, it shall bring forth thorns, thistles, briars, and noxious weeds to afflict and torment man”. Since Adam means man in Hebrew, it is likely a play on words to emphasize the consequences that will occur to Adam.

Eve and her significance

• Unlike the biblical version of the story of the Garden of Eden, the Endowment portrays Adam as waking up from his deep slumber. When Adam wakes up, God presents Eve to him, just like in Genesis, who was made from his rib.
  • Notice how Eve is the last thing created by God in Genesis 2. She is given to Adam after God breathed into him the breath of life (or his spirit), and then it is followed by Eve (whose name in Hebrew means "life") and that is when Adam's true life starts.
  • The only other place in Genesis that mentions a "deep slumber" being placed on someone in a causative sense is of Abraham in Genesis 15:12. From my perspective, the deep slumber acts as the initiation of a covenant¹. Abraham is told by Adonai what blessings will be included in his covenant (Genesis 15:18) after he had slaughtered animals as a sacrifice. Soon after the rib is used from Adam's body to make Eve, Adam makes the statement about how the purpose of a man is to cleave to his wife. In the same sense that Abraham slaughtered and cut the animal bodies to make a covenant with Adonai, Eve was made from a cut-out of Adam's rib and was covenanted to be her husband.
• Notice the imagery with the rib and its placement on Adam's body. Eve is a companion and a complement to Adam.
• From reading Genesis 2:23 in Hebrew, this one verse has a triple repitition: “bone of my bones” (עֶצֶם), “flesh of my flesh” (בָשָׂר), and “she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man”. Following the spirit of repetition of Adam's statements, “Woman” and “man” sound super similar: ishshah (אִשְׁשָׁה) and ish (אִישׁ).

Fig leaves as coverings

• The fig leaves that Adam and Eve wore have a particularly interesting symbolism. Figs, the fruit, are full of seeds. Notice how the fig leaves are placed over the nether parts of the body covering the reproductive organs. It is likely that the fig leaves are a symbol of being fruitful, and having the capacity to have a family and reproduce in 3:7:

And the eyes of the two of them were opened, and the knew that they were nude; and they sewed leaves of a fig tree and they made for themselves loin-cloths.