Next up:
Genesis 3:16 and following is the punishment, or as parents say, consequences, for ignoring Yahweh Elohim. First, Yahweh Elohim tells the snake “you shall go on your belly” (uh, hello…what was the snake doing before?!) and to the woman, you get pain in childbirth, and “he shall rule over you,” meaning the man over the woman, and to the man, you get to sweat and toil for food. 1
These verses have been used in ages past and are still being used today to put forth codified patriarchy as commanded by God. Trouble is, what is laid out in Genesis 3 is not God’s intention. The co-equal creation of humanity described in Genesis 1 & 2 is.
In the original intention as I read it Elohim says, “Let us make humankind according to our likeness,” and hey, presto, we have male and female who are together to be in charge of and care for creation (Gen 1); and Yahweh Elohim takes dust and makes a figure of a being and breathes life into it, and from the rib of that earth creature Yahweh Elohim brings forth ish and ishah (Gen. 2) at the same time.
Also not the original intent? Humankind knowing good and evil like Yahweh Elohim.
“Behold, ha-adam has become like one of Us knowing good and evil.” Yahweh Elohim adds the concern that if We aren’t careful, they’ll head for the Tree of Life next and live forever. (I gotta ponder this one for a while, but can you see how the snake was mostly truthful? The only lie was about there being no consequences.)
Okay, so now it’s all “Everybody out of my Garden! You ate for free, abused the privilege, and took me for granted. Scram.”
I remember one of my seminary classmates asking our Old Testament professor why God was so danged codependent. We all agreed these OT stories could stand in as a pretty basic Country Western song. “You broke my heart, but I can’t stop loving you, so I’ll take you back one more time but after that I’m done, I swear I’m done forever (rinse: repeat).
Anyway, what I want to point you toward in this particular story is the absolute tenderness of Yahweh Elohim making tunics of animal skins to clothe the ish and the ishah. You’ll note that they frolicked stick-stark nekkid in the garden without even the first thought to their unclothed estate until eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil when they suddenly recognized their nakedness and slapped together coverings from fig leaves. Very temporary and no match for the elements, of course. Yahweh Elohim does better with sturdier clothing, dressing them as if they are clueless children.
(Remember: this is a relational God who created humans in that same likeness, to be in relationship — with God, with each other, and with all of creation. Remember: love is the riskiest, costliest business there is.)
Then, in a painful irony, in order to get food ha-adam has to toil in the adamah from which he was taken. Ouch.
Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, and to make sure they don’t try to get back in, Yahweh Elohim puts kerubim (plural of kerub) there and a whirling, flaming sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life so those little stinkers can’t sneak back in.
Next, we get the birth of Cain as briefly told by Chavvah (somehow that got translated as Eve), and note this is the first time her name appears. Even though Adam “knew” Eve, apparently he didn’t know her well enough to get credit for it.
Eve reports, “I have acquired a man (son) from Yahweh.”
As soon as consciousness became a thing in the evolutionary journey, I imagine early humans sat around the campfire, looked up at the night sky and asked, “How the heck did we get here? Where did all these plants and animals and trees come from? And how come life is so hard?”
Also, I think of a little pigtailed girl snuggled next to her papa, avoiding bedtime, and asking, “Abba, how come snakes don’t have legs? Abba, where did cows come from? Abba, how come people have to die?”
Creation myths are thusly born.