I believe in the book of enoch and some of the othe ancient writings it was about two years.
Adam alone for YEARS before Eve's creation
by alanv 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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alanv
Thanks for all your comments guys. Farkkel I totally agree with you, the whole thing is stupid.
All time Jeff. Great comment.
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Narkissos
It may be worth repeating that the book of Genesis deliberately juxtaposes two entirely different creation stories (1:1--2:4a AND 2:4b--3:23) which are basically independent from each other yet intertextually related by their very juxtaposition.
The first story implies a ("literal") 6-day creation ending with mankind as it is (from the priestly writer's perspective) -- including gender difference, sex and procreation. This is declared "all good".
The second story is obviously not a follow-up. It starts again from (almost) nothing and tells another (alternative, as it were) story of creation: first Yhwh creates man, then the garden, then trees, including the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, then animals, then the woman. The remark that "it is not good for man to be alone" (which in the present context of Genesis seems to respond to the "all good" statement of the first story) comes before the creation of animals.
So when the WT situates the gap between the creation of Adam and Eve (which belongs to the 2nd story) within the 6th day of creation (which belongs to the 1st story) it is actually mixing the two stories and making up a third one, which is actually written nowhere (in Genesis).
To Peace Freedom Grace (welcome! :)), most rewritings of Genesis in "pseudepigraphical" books (Jubilees, Life of Adam and Eve, Pseudo-Philo etc.) already depend on a blending of the two Genesis creation stories (implying that the creation of Adam AND Eve occurred on the same "literal" day), and the datations they add are usually found after Adam and Eve's eviction from Eden -- at least I can't think of any exception to that at the moment, but if you can bring up a reference I'll stand corrected.
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thomas15
The Bible doesn't really tell us how long the gap between Adam's creation and Eve. Personally I don't get hung up on the amount of time Adam would need to name all of the animals because I'm not sure he actually named every single species before Eve was created. Also, I don't think anyone knows how many species were in the garden, it may have only been a few compared to the number today. My personal opinion is that things happend very quickly in the garden. Eve appeared very quickly after Adam, maybe only days and the fall also happened (in my opinion) very soon, possibly the same day Eve was made. But that's just my opinion as the Bible doesn't give us the data.
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Leolaia
Narkissos....I just noticed something interesting. In 2:18, Yahweh says that it is NOT good (l'-twb) for man (h-'dm) to be alone and thus he makes from man a suitable partner ('tsr kngdw), first attempting but failing by creating animals and then succeeding by creating the partner from man's own flesh. There seems to be a resonance of this in ch. 6. The "sons of God" look at the "daughters of man" and find them "good" (tbt), apparently for themselves, a word that does not necessarily mean "attractive, pretty" and which thematically has echoes with 2:18, as upon finding the women "good" they take them into marriage (v. 1), and later their wives bear them children (v. 4). This raises the question of whether it was good for the "sons of God" to be alone in the sense of lacking suitable partners and whether their judgment was correct or wrong that the women were "good" for taking as wives. In 2:20, it was expressly stated that no suitable partner was found among the animals that Yahweh formed for the man, and that it was only by taking the man's own flesh was Yahweh able to make a partner that he could become "one flesh" with (v. 23-24). But in ch. 6, the "sons of God" resort to finding their partners outside of their own kind (with the effect of depriving men of suitable wives for themselves). This makes me wonder if the "lust" interpretation of ch. 6 is totally wrong and whether the author intended the reader to draw a link with ch. 2 and recognize that the "sons of God" were NOT good being alone. I guess this reading depends on whether the text presumes gendered lesser deities that could pair up with each other (as in older Canaanite mythology) or exclusively male lesser deities (as in later Hellenistic Judaism). Thoughts?
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Narkissos
Hi Leolaia, good to see you again! :)
Interesting idea. Seems like 1 Enoch 15 is struggling with the same problem somehow:
Wherefore have you forsaken the lofty and holy heaven, which endures for ever, and have lain with women; have defile yourselves with the daughters of men; have taken to yourselves wives; have acted like the sons of the earth, and have begotten an impious offspring? You being spiritual, holy, and possessing a life which is eternal, have polluted yourselves with women; have begotten in carnal blood; have lusted in the blood of men; and have done as those who are flesh and blood do. These however die and perish. Therefore have I given to them wives, that they might cohabit with them; that sons might be born of them; and that this might be transacted upon earth. But you from the beginning were made spiritual, possessing a life which is eternal, and not subject to death for ever. Therefore I made not wives for you, because, being spiritual, your dwelling is in heaven.
The basic Enochian narrative, though, clearly depicts the Watchers as "bodily" and male; they do not "materialise" as the Watchtower has it: they simply descend from heaven to the top of a mountain, in classic mythological fashion. And this is certainly also true of the earlier stage of the story when the "sons of (the) god(s)" were gods. Moreover, it is worth noting that in the Genesis context there is no moral judgement whatsoever on the "sons of the gods".
Another interesting aspect is that in Enochian literature the descent of the Watchers functions as an alternative etiology (alternative to the Eden story) of mankind's knowledge, always obtained from the divine realm through women (cf. also Gilgamesh). By uniting with the daughters of men the Watchers teach mankind a number of technical and magical skills. And the Genesis theme of Eve giving birth to Cain with Yhwh, and then civilisation and techniques appearing in Cain's line, may be an echo of this motif.