The Earthling Names "Woman" (Gen 2:23)

Into and Out of the Garden

²³ The earthling said וַיֹּאמֶר֮ הָֽאָדָם֒

By now I am getting somewhat tired of writing the translation “earthling” for adam, and you may be tired of reading it. But it is still worth avoiding the translation “man,” since we have just seen the word “woman” for the first time, in v. 22, and we’re about to see it contrasted with “man,” using a different Hebrew word. So this would seem to be the occasion to speak about the various words in the Torah that refer to human beings. However, I’m going to save that lengthy discussion for the next free Sunday post. There is too much else to discuss in v. 23.

In the meantime, I will continue using the following “simple” translations:

• “the earthling” for האדם ha-adam, the creature made in v. 7 of adamah

• “woman” for אשה isha, first introduced in v. 22

• “man” for איש ish, which we see for the first time here in v. 23

 “This one — this time …” זֹ֣את הַפַּ֗עַם

Standard, readable English can’t quite convey what the earthling is saying here. The first word he speaks, זאת zōt, is the Hebrew feminine singular word meaning “this” (the masculine singular and the plural take other forms) — and that is also the last word the earthling speaks; we’ll talk at the end of the post about the little poem he utters. Meanwhile, הפעם ha-pa’am, literally “the time,” is the normal way to say “this time,” just as היום ha-yōm, literally “the day,” is how you would say “today.”

To complicate matters even more, זאת הפעם is a natural way to say “this time” in Modern Hebrew, and even in Biblical Hebrew you can say הפעם הזאת to specify “this time,” since pa’am is a feminine noun. (Remember that every noun in Hebrew is either masculine or feminine in grammatical terms.) But זאת in our verse is clearly intended to indicate not “this time” but “this new, female being” whom our earthling has just met. “This time” — הפעם — YHWH has finally gotten it right, and provided our friend with the “matching helper” he lacked. Everett Fox’s snappy translation conveys the brevity of the expression, but reverses their order: “This-time, she-is-it!” (What did YHWH expect?)

“… is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” עֶ֚צֶם מֵֽעֲצָמַ֔י וּבָשָׂ֖ר מִבְּשָׂרִ֑י

As far as I can tell, this expression — which sounds so natural to us because of its familiarity to us from this story — is unique in the Bible. Some sort of construction material (which I’ve called a joist) was removed from Adam, leaving a gap in his own flesh that was closed by YHWH, but it was not obviously a bone, certainly not a rib, and it’s not even clear that any flesh was removed from him.

On the other hand, animals all have flesh and bones too. It is not the bones and flesh that make this woman a match for the earthling. He is recognizing that she is made of bones and flesh like his own, and that’s why I’ve emphasized the word my in the translation.

“Let this one be called Woman לְזֹאת֙ יִקָּרֵ֣א אִשָּׁ֔ה

For from Man was taken this one.” כִּ֥י מֵאִ֖ישׁ לֻֽקֳחָה־זֹּֽאת׃