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As the first instance of marriage in the canonical Bible, the

relationship between Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:20-25) warrants close examination. The reader’s attention is drawn to the passage in Genesis 2:21 where God caused Eve to come into being through the grafting of Adam’s rib. Here, we encounter a scene that echoes marriage rituals across diverse cultures, wherein God brings Eve to Adam, who delights in her presence before him (2:22-23). In doing so it can be inferred that marriage is offered in ancient Israel as the primary and foundational human relationship (2:24). However, as it is presented in that narrative, marriage is not delimited to a sociological or

anthropological concept. The marriage of Adam and Eve can additionally be seen as part of the Creation itself, a status it shares ontologically with Eden. In the intimacy with which God enters Adam’s body to remove the rib-bone from which He then

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‘manufactures’ Eve (2:21-22) we also discover, in this foundational biblical text, marriage presented as the primary relational quality between God and humans. Thus, the union of Adam and Eve, in both its spiritual and physical aspects, is both naturalised and reflected in the physical encounter of God with Adam, and with the essential, complimentary human form that is the product of that union – the woman, Eve. From this the reader is given to understand that whilst, following The Fall, (re)union with God can be seen to be an ideal to which humankind can, and must, aspire if it is to flourish, they must also accept that ontologically that union, between God and

humankind, is also an unassailable reality that accompanies us regardless of the immediate circumstances of that relationship. Thus, the covenantal faithfulness of God is founded not just in ‘mere words,’ but more deeply, in the material reality of the procreative act.

The marital intimacy of God with humankind, as part of the Creation, is expressed again in Genesis 4:1, after Adam and Eve have been expelled from Eden, where “the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.”” The exegetical emphasis in this passage tends to be on Eve’s exultation in her procreative powers, and the concrete, sexual nature through which that occurs.14 However, a view also exists that, rather than being no more than the proud boast of a new mother, the passage once again reiterates and prioritises the marital status of God and humanity, as it is expressed through the birth of Eve’s child, Cain. This is the view developed in an article by David Bokovoy wherein, after an extensive linguistic survey and analysis of Eve’s exclamation, he conclude that of the three possible translations of יְה ו ְה׃

אֶת־ א׃ ִ֖י־ ׃ יֶ׃ִ֥יתוי qaniti ish et Yarweh (4:1), that is,

1. “I have acquired a man with Yahweh.” or 2. “I have created a man with Yahweh.” or

14 _{See, for example, Clifford, in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 13a; Alter,}

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3. “I have procreated a man with Yahweh,”

it is the third interpretation that is the most compelling. Having thus considered the material Bokovoy summarises that:

Even though Yahweh himself obviously did not engage in sexual relations with Eve, from a theological perspective the deity certainly had a mysterious, albeit direct divine role to play in the first act of human procreation. Eve’s declaration in Genesis 4:1 may suggest that she sees herself as a link from divine creation to successive human births; she becomes progenitor of man “with Yahweh.” If correct, this reading would explain why Eve makes the unusual statement that she created שיא “man” instead of the expected “child” or “son.”15

This conforms, for Bokovoy, to a matriarchal child-birth tradition, prominent in a number of ANE cultures, which reflects a theological view of YHWH as a direct and active participant in the process of procreation. It is a view that is echoed later in the Bible in the tradition of Isaac’s conception in Genesis 21:1-3, and articulated more

generally in Psalm 139:13.

The converse of the above, however, must also be considered – that Eve’s exclamation drawing attention to her procreative powers is an echo of, or allusion to, her possible status as an Israelite version of the Canaanite fertility goddess Asherah, or related deities, such as the Akkadian goddess Mami.16 _{That is to say, Eve, whose name in itself is} held to be a wordplay on, or referential to, notions of life and

fertility17 _{is a powerful creative and controlling force in her own right.}

Be that as it may, what is of interest, in the context of the

consideration of Eden and matrimonial symbolism, is not that these parallels between Eve and ANE fertility gods might exist – they are

15 _{David E. Bokovoy, “Did Eve Acquire, Create, or Procreate with Yahweh? A} Grammatical and Contextual Reassessment of הנק in Genesis 4:1,” Vetus

Testamentum 63, Fasc. 1 (2013): 19-35.

16 _{For an extended analysis of this see “Chapter V – Fertility and Sexual Motifs in} Gen 2-3,” in Wallace, The Eden Narrative, 143-181.

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still contested. Rather, it is that in the temptation of Adam and Eve by the serpent, their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the

subsequent travails of humankind as a result of that expulsion, the reader’s narrative expectations are reversed. That is:

Rather than the productivity and fertility associated with the mother-goddess, we see death, sterility, and hardship. Eve, the “mother of all living,” is designated to suffer in childbirth. The interaction between Eve and the serpent, also a symbol of fertility … ultimately leads to death. The man’s toil with the ground will yield little for his pains, and humankind is excluded from the garden of God, the place of fertility par excellence.18

Engnell declares this to be, “an Israelite interpretation of Canaanite tradition without equal.”19 _{As such, whilst the reversal of expectations} supports the identification of Eve and Asherah, it also suggests that the confounding of cultural expectations points to a polemic purpose or trend in the narrative that takes the reader back to the marriage of God and humankind in Eden.20 This concerns the circumstances whereby, against the prohibition of God, Adam and Eve have

attempted to become godlike in themselves. Indeed, “What produces life and fertility in Canaan, in Israel is rebellion against God and causes death and drought, since it is impiety and sacrilege.”21

It is the nature of that impiety that is problematic here, insofar as it occurs within the confines of the sacred marriage between God and humankind. This is a theme repeated in Chapter 16 of Ezekiel, the longest chapter in the book, suggesting the importance of this theme to ancient Israelite culture. Adam and Eve are tempted by the pagan serpent, which leads in turn to them being expelled from Eden, from what might be termed the marriage bed22 of God and humankind.

18 _{Wallace, The Eden Narrative, 159.}

19 _{As cited in Wallace, The Eden Narrative, 162.} 20 _{Wallace, The Eden Narrative, 159, 161,163.}

21 _{Soggin (1975a), as cited in Wallace, The Eden Narrative, 163.}

22 _{In some Kabbalistic and Rabbinic literature the Holy of Holies is pictured as the} bed chamber, or place of communion, of the Holy One and His Shekkinah, or bride. See Moshe Weinfeld, “Feminine Features in the Imagery of God in Israel: The

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Subsequently, Eve conceives through Adam, but procreates in relationship with God. It is possible, then, to see this event as the beginning of the reconciliation in the marriage between God and humankind that finds its fulfilment,23 according to Christian tradition, in the birth of Christ, the New Creation.

In relation to the question of the comparison between Edenic and matrimonial imagery, it can be seen that whilst matrimonial symbolism, in this account, potentially represents a social and

religious ideal, it is compromised through human infidelity, pride, and ignorance. By way of contrast, the imagery of Eden remains a

constant reminder of the loving predisposition of God towards his creation, a homing signal, as it were, guiding us back into

reconciliation with God, under which the potential blessings of marriage, including joy and fertility, are subsumed.