Robert Alter's Genesis translation: chapter 2

The creation story starting with the second half of 2:4 is considerably less elegant than that in Chapter 1. The creator, Yaweh, seems almost disorganized. His creation does not proceed in as orderly a manner. This is reflected in the more complex and clause laden sentence structure marking the prose in chapter two from that in chapter one. Or, as Alter puts it in note: "instead of the symmetry of parataxis, hypotaxis is initially prominent: the second account begins with elaborate syntactical subordination in a long complex sentence that uncoils [clever pun] all the way from the second part of verse 4 to the end of verse 7"(n4, p.7).

We begin at a moment where the narrator feels compelled to explain why an element of creation (no shrub...no plant) is not there (for the Lord God had not caused rain to fall....there no human to till the soil). Of course, after getting his...hands(?)...muddy, or so it would seem in "fashioning the human, humus from the soil", the Lord God planted a garden...and placed there the Human." God appears so human in this passage: fashioning from dirt, planting a garden, and then, like a child playing with dolls, placing Adam in his garden.

As indicated in the quote above, Alter does not make reference to Adam, but to "the human; he claims that the Hebrew term 'adam is "a generic term for human beings, not a proper noun"(n.26, p.5). Also, he believes that the term "does not automatically suggest maleness" but does not go so far as to agree with "Feminist critics" who contend that 'adam is to be imagined as sexually undifferentiated until the fashioning of woman"(n.27, p.5).

Adam has a reduced role in this second account of creation. He is not here to "hold sway over the fish...the fowl...the cattle...the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth"(1:26). He is not directed to "fill the earth and conquer it"(1:27). Instead, more modestly, he is "set...down in the garden of Eden to till it and watch it [the Hebrew shamar; typically translated 'keep,' as it is at this point in KJV; Alter uses 'watch']"(2:15).

From this moment, the cracks in creation begin to appear. In one, God commands man to action. The Lord in two commands Man not do something. As this prohibition suggests, the possibility of doom and disaster looms over creation from the start. The Lord God no sooner gives Man the prohibition, then he begins to appear anxious, fretful. He gives Adam the command, then expresses his fear by noting that "It is not good for the human to be alone"(2:18) This musing of the Lord in 2 clearly distinguishes him from the God of chapter one: the latter always looks on the creation and sees it is good while the Lord of two looks on his creation either without comment, or, as here, looks at an aspect of it and notes "It is not good"(2:18).

The Lord in two decides Adam needs a "sustainer," Alter's somewhat clumsy translation of the Hebrew 'ezer kenegdo, which Alter claims is "a notoriously difficult" expression to translate. According to Alter, the KJV translation of the Hebrew expression as "help meet "is too weak becae it suggests a merely auxiliary function, whereas ''ezer' elsewhere connotes active intervention on behalf of someone, especially in military contexts, as often in Psalms"(n.18, p. 9). If so, Eve is intended to aid Adam in what God forsees as a battle?

The less certain hand of God in Genesis two again reveals itself in the scene where God fashions and brings each to Adam. It is not entirely clear whether God is fashioning and presenting the animals to Adam so as to furnish him with a sustainer, but that is the general impression. None of God's initial attempts at a sustainer seem to suffice. Interestingly, it is Adam who makes the call; although, he doesn't appear to be deciding to the prospective 'sustainers' presented him as much as responding, with God evaluating his response. It truly seems as if God and Adam are proceeding on an essential portion of the creation in a trial-and- error fashion.

Alter suggests that upon seeing Eve, Adam speaks; "the first human is given reported speech for the first time only when there is another human to whom to respond"(n23, p.9). This seems essentially correct. Presented with the animals prior to Eve, Adam "calls" them, and "whatever the human called a living creature, that was it's name"(v.19). In addition, upon seeing Eve, Adam does more than call. He says something and he says something in verse. Of course, his speech, his verse, is just a more elaborate naming.