The first two chapters of
the Book of Genesis (in the Old Testament) do not hold together in terms
of textual coherence; there is a sense of closure by the end of Chapter 1 and
we do not really expect a repetition of the same story in Chapter 2. In the
second chapter, the story is not only repeated but also told differently. It is
clear that the first two chapters were written by two different authors.
In Chapter 1, we learn
that God is good; and we are told what comprises this notion of “goodness”; God
also made human in its likeness and made them in an act that was simultaneous:
[1:27] So God created
humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he
created them.
In other words, God
created both man and woman. On the other hand, in Chapter 2, we learn that God
first made man and then, a rib of man was used to make woman. In other words,
woman is seen as being an appendage to man and thus, she is his subordinate. The
good God also becomes misogynous and this is seen as a normative behavior of
God. This narrative clearly negates the story of Creation as is narrated in
Chapter 1. These two chapters, thus,
contradict each other. The lack of textual cohesion makes the first two
chapters of the Genesis suspect; we really are unable to say with authority
that these two chapters were the products of a single author.
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