An Aramaic Paradise: Adam and the Garden in the Jewish Aramaic Translations of Genesis — Professor Robert Hayward, Durham University

The Targums reveal to us what Jews thought, how they interpreted the Scriptures. The Aramaic Targumim emphasize that Adam was created from temple material   –   created from dust from the temple and the four winds.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Gen. 2:7: And the Lord God created Adam with two inclinations (y’tzarim); and He took dust from the place of the House of the Sanctuary, and from the four winds of the world, and [made a] moulding from all the waters of the world. And He created him red, black, and white, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the breath became in the body of Adam a speaking spirit for enlightenment of eyes and attentiveness of ears.

The Temple is a place of reconciliation with the Almighty. Adam was created as a “speaking being”

–“Dust of the ground” – what does this mean? The defined noun “the ground” may be significant –

–Altar of earth (ha-adamah)  should be made – Adam created from the same soil as the altar, the place of atonement (Jerusalem Talmud)

–Part of Adam’s constitution was taken from the Holy of Holies (inferred by Targum)

–from Holy Place and also from all corners of earth –particular and universal – he is a sort of representative of all mankind

–Targums have a very positive outlook on Adam

–God “fashioned” Adam in Gen. – but Aramaic translator insists that he was created –emphasizing that God was not a second-rate creator – (cf. the Gnostic view) — He was the Most High

–Gen.  2:8 – Eden was created  before the world – miqqedem = ‘from of old’

–Temple is also created before the world (along with Torah and  Name of Messiah)

–Adam’s placement in Garden was pre-planned

T Ps-J, Gen. 2:8: Now there had been planted by the Word (Memra’) of the Lord God a garden from Eden for the just, before the creation of the world; and He made to dwell there Adam, when He had created him.

Adam was created on the Temple Mount –created to do temple service (labor)

–Adam created to keep the Torah/commandments

–he can act properly in the holy place because he is partially constituted by dust from that holy place

–No mention made of Adam’s fall at this point

–He is meant to keep Torah, but it is also the reason he is rejected, but it is by keeping Torah that he may return

–Targum interpreter knows of different versions of Creation story

–Noah offered sacrifice on Adam’s altar –  Abraham also

T Ps-J, Gen. 8:20: So Noah rebuilt the altar before the Lord. It was the altar which Adam had built in Eden at the time when he was cast out from the Garden of Eden; and on it he had offered up a sacrifice, and on it he had offered up a sacrifice; and on it Cain and Abel had offered up their sacrifice. And when the waters of the flood came down, it had been destroyed. Noah rebuilt it…

–These are details that are not in the original Hebrew – Eden continues to be important –service of temple takes people back to Eden (text

–Adam led into the Garden of Eden by Lord

–Sacrifices are made in Eden – we must go back to Eden to make atonement

Psalm 69 – rabbis claim it was uttered by Adam

–When the Targum was written down, the temple was in ruins(see text 7) – things to be restored in the world to come – restoration of Eden

T Ps-J, Gen. 2:15: And the Lord God took Adam from the mountain of the Service (pwlchn’), the place from where he had been created, and made him dwell in the Garden of Eden, so as to be serving (plch) in the Torah and observing its commandments.

–Gen. 3:18–19 – Adam cursed by God for disobedence – thorns and thistles, eat herb, sweat of face will eat bread – this is the food given to animals (herbs of the field) – King Nebuchadnezzar turned to animal – but by honest labor, Adam would eat bread –distinguished civilized from uncivilized. Adam is to eat food after the manner of the animals – because your face trembled, you shall eat bread – fear that he should be as the animals  — in Targum there is a prayer that he would be able to stand upright and labor – you stand in the temple, you stand before the Lord, you pray standing up – you can’t approach God on all fours like an animal – if you can stand, you can serve God in His Temple

–Adam is rescued from a physical fall, in which he was condemned to eat like animals – redeemed to be able to stand in temple

(Margaret Barker, in response to my question, says that the Book of Daniel motif of falling to ground and then being stood upright by angel follows this same motif)

–you shall stand up from the dust and then return to dust and then rise again to give judgement in the last day (return to the temple) Targum to Gen 3:18–19

–Israel in Egypt is as Adam was after his fall – their backs are bent down (like animals) and they are slaves to a foreign king – they are drawn out (of Egypt and from the waters of the Red Sea) and enter the avodah of the temple

When you don’t have access to the temple, you are in darkness.