Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 3/0

Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 3

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Knowledge of Good and Evil

Tools

Concordance – By using the concordance one can explore the usage of both the root "ידע" and the phrase "ידע טוב ורע" to gain further insight into the nature of the knowledge granted by the Tree of Knowledge and acquired by Adam and Chavvah..

• By double clicking on the word "ידע" in the Mikraot Gedolot Bereshit 3:5, one can find Biblical parallels that demonstrate the various connotations of knowledge in Tanakh.  This root word can relate to: a) skilled knowledge b) intent or will c) knowledge of God and d) sexual knowledge.
• One can then click on “יֹדְעֵי טוֹב וָרָע” in the same verse to see parallels to this phrase in Tanakh:
• In Devarim 1:39 and Yeshayahu 7:16 the phrase seems to refer to moral knowledge
• In Shemuel II 19:36 it appears in the context of physical/sensual experiences. 

Primary Sources

Almost all commentators question the nature of the knowledge granted by the tree.

• Ibn EzraBereshit First Commentary 3:7About R. Avraham ibn Ezra, RadakBereshit 2:17About R. David Kimchi, Abarbanel About Abarbanel Mashmia Yeshuah– These exegetes all suggest that the fruit of the Tree introduced sexual desire to mankind.
• Rashi, R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, Ramban and R. Y"S Reggio – According to these commentators, upon eating from the Tree, humans acquired an inclination to do evil (יצר הרע), thereby giving them the free will to choose between good and bad.
• U. Cassuto, Rambam, Ralbag  – According to these commentators, partaking from the Tree affected the intellect of man, either increasing man's intellectual knowledge or introducing subjective (and not simply objective) knowledge.
• R. D"Z HoffmannBereshit 2:17About R. David Zvi Hoffmann – The tree granted moral knowledge. After eating from it, universal concepts of right and wrong were instilled in mankind.

Articles

• See The Tree of Knowledge for an overview of different understandings of what constituted knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Avraham

Many Midrashim, commentators, and contemporary authors have noted the connections between the stories of Adam and Avraham.

Primary Sources

• Bereshit Rabbah 14:6 – The Midrash suggests that Avraham was worthy of being the first man, but was created after Adam only so that he could be a corrective to his sins.

Articles

• In לך לך: בין אדם הראשון לאברהם אבינו, R. Shlomo Brin compares and contrasts the religious awareness embodied by Adam with that of Avraham.
• In Zikhronot - the Covenant of the Akeida and the Repair of Adam’s Sin, R. Uriel Eitam demonstrates that Avraham’s acceptance of God’s command at the Akeidah repairs the sin of Adam’s and Chavvah’s decision to follow their own passions, and that the blessings bestowed upon Avraham reverse the curses of Adam and Chavvah. 
• In Back to the Garden: Where Lies the Path?, R. Yehoshua Pfeffer analyzes how Avraham’s legacy is a corrective to the ultimately ill-fated environment of the Garden of Eden.  

The Garden of Eden and Shir HaShirim

Articles and Lectures

• In Paradise Regained: The Return to Gan Eden in Shir Hashirim, Dr. Yael Ziegler explores the ways in which Gan Eden remains a symbol of harmonious closeness to God, and how other books of Tanakh (primarily Shir HaShirim) draw on that symbol.

Adam and Kayin

The first two stories about man are tales of egregious sins of different sorts.

Tools

• The Tanakh Lab¹ demonstrates that one of the chapters that shares the most linguistic parallels to Bereshit 3 is Bereshit 4, perhaps hinting to the reader to compare the sins of Adam and Kayin. See here to compare the chapters.

Articles

• In Religious Sin, Ethical Sin and the Punishment of Exile, Professor Yonatan Grossman notes the parallels and contrasts between the stories of sin in Bereshit 3 and 4, and the purpose of these parallels in illustrating the different types of sin that warrant exile.

¹ In the Tanakh Lab, click on the Torah icon for a list of linguistically similar chapters to that being displayed.