Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 2/0

Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 2

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Two Creations - Bereshit 1 and 2

Tanakh Lab demonstrates that one of the chapters that shares the greatest number of textual elements with Bereshit 1 is Bereshit 2. These two chapters contain two accounts of the creation of the world.

Tools

See the Tanakh Lab to compare the two chapters and view their linguistic parallels.

Primary Sources

• Mishnat R. Eliezer, Rashi, R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, Rashbam – These sources view the parallel accounts of the Creation story in these two chapters as a literary technique in which the Torah first presents a general overview of the world's creation and then returns to provide greater detail about its most significant individual components.

• Hoil Moshe – According to Hoil Moshe, Chapters 1 and 2 describe two distinct events. While Chapter 1 describes the earlier creation of the whole world and the entire human race, Chapter 2 speaks of a subsequent and wholly separate creation of the Garden of Eden and the individual Adam.

Articles

• Two Accounts of Creation compares and analyzes the two accounts of creation in Bereshit 1 and 2. It presents three approaches to the parallels, viewing the doubled accounts as either a literary device, as complementary stories which each portray a distinct facet of creation, or as describing two totally distinct creations.
• See Bereishit: The Two Stories of Creation by R. Menachem Leibtag for an exploration of the two accounts as reflective of two perspectives on the nature of human existence and the relationship between God and man
• R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik's The Lonely Man of Faith contains an extensive discussion of the two accounts of the creation of man and woman. He notes that Chapter 1 focuses on man in his majestic and creative capacity and his search for dignity through control over his environment, while Chapter 2 describes the submissive man of faith and his search for redemption. As each prototype approaches his surroundings differently, the descriptions of each creation differ.
• The Ideal and the Real by R. Zvi Grumet suggests that the first chapter of Sefer Bereshit describes the ideal world that God created, followed in the second chapter by an account of the world as it actually existed through the partnership of God and man.

“These are the Generations”

Tools

Makbilot Bamikra points out the many times that the phrase “אלה תולדות” appears in Sefer Bereshit.  

Articles

See this article by R. Menachem Leibtag for an exploration of the significance of genealogical lists in Sefer Bereshit.