From Earth Back to Sky (Gen 3:17)

Into and Out of the Garden

¹⁷ About the man: ס ‏ וּלְאָדָ֣ם אָמַ֗ר

Before we get to what YHWH actually said here in v. 17, a couple of reminders: one at the beginning of this verse, and one before the beginning. As Samuel Johnson said, “Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.” If you click the link, you’ll see that he was not the first to say so.

First, that ס that comes before the verse begins — or, more precisely, the two סs that come between v. 15 and v. 16 and between v. 16 and v. 17. As we discussed previously, Version 2 of the creation story would be one long paragraph taking in most of Genesis 2–3 if it were not for these brief spaces before and after v. 16.

As far as I’m aware, we don’t have this text in Hebrew before the era of the Masoretes, so I can’t claim for certain that this feature goes back to the author of Genesis, let alone to the original writer of Genesis 3. Before we dive into it, let’s lighten the mood a bit by pausing for a bit of alphabet fun, in which the ס that has such an important role is shaping my understanding of the text will play a featured role.

The ס stands for סתומה, the name for that kind of space in Hebrew. (You can learn more about that here.) It looks like a Latin “o,” especially in this font, but it’s the same letter as Greek σ (sigma), the equivalent of our letter s. The strange thing is that it’s in the same spot in the alphabet not as s (that’s ש) but as o, the letter it resembles but doesn’t sound like at all:

• כ K

• ל L

• מ M

• נ N

• ס S !!!

Then there is ע, a guttural sound that we don’t have in English and that is even dying out in Modern Hebrew, after which we’re back on our own recognizable alphabet track.

• פ P

Oops, here comes צ tz, a complete interloper; then we’re back:

• ק Q

• ר R

• ש S

• ת T

Now we climb up from the level of letters to the level of words for the reminder that pertains directly to the meaning of our text, the feature I think ס is meant to call our attention to. You’ll notice that our Hebrew text says אמר amar ‘he said’, and that I didn’t translate that word here at all. As I explained a couple of weeks ago, the words YHWH “speaks” after hearing from the woman are not spoken in sequence. They are perhaps not even spoken to the characters in the story at all.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the סs are not trying to focus our attention on v. 16, but to focus it on the first words of v. 16 and the first words of v. 17. When we do, we see that they differ from the first words of v. 14:

• va-yomer YHWH elohim el-ha-naḥash ‘[Then] YHWH God said to the snake’

• el ha-isha amar ‘To/about the woman He said’

• u-l’adam amar ‘About the earthling He said’

To briefly recap the earlier discussion, the va-yomer verb form tells us not only what happened but that it was the next thing that happened in the story. Deliberately avoiding that form, as vv. 16 and 17 do, tells us that these acts of “saying” were not the next things that happened. As in Gen 1:5, most likely we’re being told that all three were “said” simultaneously.

I put “said” in quotes because I don’t think he said these things to them at all. Normally, when speech is recorded in the Bible, “to” is the preposition אֶל el, not the attached preposition ל־ l-, which more naturally would indicate speaking “with regard to.” But if YHWH is saying something “with regard to” the earthling, the adam, to whom is he saying it? Not directly to the man whom he’s apparently talking about. Certainly not to the snake, who appeared to be the addressee starting in v. 14. We are no longer in the Garden watching God talk, we are in heaven hearing him think. Here’s what I mean.

Way back when we finished Version 1 of the creation story, I pointed to the beginning of the book of Job to show you a model of biblical writing that shifts back and forth between a Sky/shamáyim perspective and an Earth/éretz perspective. I think vv. 14, 16, and 17 of Genesis 3 may be doing something similar.  You do have to understand some Hebrew grammar to begin to see it.

When YHWH is talking to the woman, we know where they are and what is on the soundtrack: WYRIWYG, “what you read is what you get.” This part of Genesis 3, however, is shifting the ground under our feet. The most natural way to read Gen 3:14 is that the camera turns to the snake and God starts talking to him. Then the verb in v. 16 makes us stumble: This can’t be a flashback, can it?

Now, in v. 17, we start to think: Is YHWH even talking to ha-adam at all? Perhaps he is doing the same thing he did in Version 1, where אמר doesn’t mean “saying” but “thinking.” Once we get to v. 22, that is clearly what is happening. Instead of an abrupt shift, I would say the way these three speeches are introduced is moving us gradually — rather than abruptly — from the earthly perspective on things that Version 2 has accustomed us to back to the heavenly perspective of Version 1. I, at least, owe thanks to the unknown friend who added those two סs to the text, making me stop and think.

Because I find the interplay of the heavenly and earthly perspectives so common in Jewish literature and thought — the one cosmic, the other comic, in the “human comedy” sense — I intend to keep this idea in mind as we read forward, to see whether we are indeed back, already in v. 16, to a God’s-eye view of things.

But wait! — you say — Isn’t YHWH about to say “you” to the earthling? שָׁמַעְתָּ֮ shamáta means “you listened.” You don’t say “you” to someone you’re not talking to!

Oh, yes, you do. In fact, you the reader and I the author have just done so. Nothing could be easier for me to imagine than YHWH up in heaven storming into Mission Control and thinking, “All right, fruit-eaters! You’ll get what’s coming to you!” If I am right, the composer of this story has once again made sure everyone can understand the plot and added something deeper for the readers who can follow his more subtle literary techniques.

Next time, the third “fruit-eater” will begin to get what’s coming to him. See you then.