INTRODUCTION

The Genesis story of humankind’s creation, temptation and eviction from the
Garden is a literary masterpiece. It has a terse narrative, is rich in imagery,
characterisation, and wordplay. With layer upon layer of meaning it demands a
variety of readings and interpretations. We shouldn’t be surprised if every time we
read this story we come away with a different question, a fresh insight, or a new
summons to discipleship.

The Christian tradition of interpretation has a tendency to single out and elevate
one theme above all others; the intrusion of sin and death into our world through
the cunning of the serpent and the freedom of human choice.

It has, in other words, been understood as the answer to the question of “Why, in a
world that God made good, is there evil and suffering?”

This question is absolutely present in the story.

Another popular interpretation of this story recognises the prophetic anticipation of

a Saviour who would one day come and crush the serpent who was responsible for
such sin and brokenness.

Once again, we can embrace such an interpretation of the story, especially in the
light of our faith in Jesus Christ who overcame the Devil through his paradoxical
victory on the cross.

But these are not the only themes that emerge from this story and we should never
allow a single interpretation to flatten out what is a rugged, contoured landscape
with great variety and insight. Neither should we allow the bad news to blind us to
the good news in this story.

In the midst of the man and woman’s disobedience, shame, blame and the
judgement that follows, we actually witness a new personal tenderness between the
man and woman and God. The three are bound together through a renewed promise
of life and God’s gift of provision.

ADAM’S NAMING OF THE WOMAN

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, whose insights I have come to value immensely over the
years, draws our attention to one moment of interaction between the man and the
woman and God towards the end of this story. It takes place between God
pronouncing the curse and their expulsion from the garden.

“The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And
the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and
clothed them.”
(Genesis 3:20-21)
God has just told the woman that her disobedience will result in her experiencing
pain during childbirth and being ruled over by her husband. Not good news for the
woman. God likewise tells the man that the ground has been cursed as a
consequence of his actions and he will from now on experience pain in his work of
cultivating the soil. Finally, as if there wasn’t enough bad news, God tells the man
that after his life of relentless labour he will die:

“you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:19

Man for the first time is confronted with sudden realisation that he is mortal.
Only at this moment does the man truly value his wife for who she is. She is the only
one who can ensure the continuation of life through giving birth to children. So he
turns to his wife, and in can be pictured as a tender exchange between them, he
gives her a personal name, “Eve”, meaning, “The mother of life.”

Up until this stage in the story Adam has only seen the woman as an extension of
himself; an “Ishah” taken from “Ish”. So far the man has only named her in the same
general way in which he has named the animals. Now he recognises in her a God-
like, life-giving quality, and he names her appropriately as an individually gifted
person. It is only after he has named Eve with a personal name that the man is
referred to by his own personal name, Adam. Before he was only referred to as The
Adam, or The Man. He was a generic, representative of all of humanity, but now he
stands in relationship with Eve; as two unique persons.

Jonathan Sacks draws this insight from the story: “It is only when we relate to one
another as persons possessed of non-negotiable dignity that we respond to the
“image of God” in the other.”

In a story otherwise stained by sin and tragedy, this moment of deep vulnerability
and loss enables Adam and Eve the opportunity to recognise each other and relate
to each other as individual persons and God responds by clothing them from their
shame.

A RELATIONSHIP WITH A PERSONAL GOD

According to Genesis it is only when Adam relates to Eve as a person that he able to
relate to God as a person. This understanding seems to fly in the face of our
traditional retelling of humankind’s fall from grace where we picture the man and
woman existing first of all in perfect communion with God and then after the eating
from the Tree of Knowledge experiencing separation from God.

There were clearly many terrible consequences from eating of the forbidden fruit,
but separation from God was not one of them! When God clothes them in skins he is
not only preparing them for a much harsher reality of life outside the garden, God is
also assurig them of his faithful commitment to continue being with them.
At the moment Adam names Eve with a personal name Genesis reveals to us a
foundational insight that is repeated throughout the Bible; we can only know and
respond to God personally if we know and respond to each other personally.

In other words, we are created to be persons in relationship with each other, and
our recognition and love of God as person is in some mysterious way bound up with
our recognition and love for each other as persons.

Genesis deepens our understanding of this connection in a remarkable way, and

again I’m grateful to Jonathan Sacks for pointing this out.

In the Bible God is referred to in two main ways.

First of all, God is referred to with the noun Elohim. We translate Elohim in our
English Bibles with the word God. Both Elohim and God are nouns, generic terms,
like man or woman, cow, bus or chair.

But God is also known by his personal name, YaHWeH, or as we had in English for a
time before going out of fashion, Jehovah. There is a custom within the Jewish
tradition of not speaking God’s personal name, so we follow this by translating God’s
personal name whenever it shows up in our English Bibles as LORD (with capital
letters).

Once we recognise the difference between these two words; that the first is generic
while the second is a personal name, Genesis offers us an incredible insight into the
new kind of relationship Adam has with God following his recognition of Eve.

In chapter 1 God is known only as Elohim. This is God as we encounter him in

creation, mysterious certainly, but also impersonal.

Through out chapters 2 and 3 God is referred to Yahweh Elohim (LORD God). This
seems to mark a transition from God’s role as creator of the universe to God’s role as
the creator of persons.

Finally, from chapter 4 onwards God begins to be known by his personal name
alone.

Jonathan Sacks points out that these three chapters mark a shift from God as an
impersonal force of nature to God who relates to us as person to person, who
forgives us and cares for us. It isn’t that God has changed over the course of these
three chapters, but Adam’s perception of God has changed. Only when Adam, in the
humility of his own human frailty and fallenness, finally recognises Eve as a unique
person in her own right, is he able to experience God through his personal name.
CONCLUSION
There’s far more to all this than the value the Bible ascribes to Eve having children.
As Christians we believe that our hope is based on much more than contributing to
the gene pool of future generations. Ultimately we believe in God’s restoration and
renewal of life that has already begun and been guaranteed to us through the
resurrection of Jesus.

But in the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, God is reveals to us the dignity of
personhood. We’re not merely numbers in a census, or consumers in an economic
system, or statistics in a government department. We are not merely a complex
biological arrangement of cells and genetic code. We are persons in relationship,
and therefore only through personal relationships, and through the act of being in
community with each other, do we value each other and express the image of God.

Finally, Genesis reveals the importance of the faith the faith community actually
being a community of people who are growing in their relationships and personal
recognition of each other. We do not relate to God in isolation from each other. If we
shut ourselves off from other people, or only see each other as things or objects or
ways in which we can get what we need, then we will also shut ourselves off from
God. Our culture has so emphasised the importance of the privatised individual,
over that of persons in community, and we can see that in the highly privatised,
individualised ways we have reduced our worship of God. Genesis is a summons to
discipleship, to living the life of faith life together.

Even though we live in a world that bears the human stain of sin, it is a world in
which God is personally present to us. There is good news beyond Eden. God invites
to know him, not as only as the force behind nature or as some remote, unmoved
origin of existence but by his personal name, the LORD, God in person. Because God
is personal when he sees us reaching out to each other as special persons, He gives
to us a special blessing; God clothes these fragile children of the dust in Christ, who
enfolds us with compassion, kindness, forgiveness and love.

How wonderful and pleasant it is

when brothers and sisters live together in harmony!
There the LORD has pronounced his blessing,
even life everlasting.

Ps 133:3