A day in the life of Eve and Adam in a garden called Paradise

The Creation of Man

The creation of humanity occurs four times in the first five chapters of
Genesis. The most famous creation scene in western art appears on Michelangelo's
Sistine ceiling, where God's finger sparks restless Adam into life.

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Michelangelo, The Creation of Man, The Sistine Chapel, 1508-12

The position of Michelangelo's Adam is elucidated by comparison with the 5th-

century BCE sculpture of Dionysos from the Parthenon (apparently known to
Michelangelo); but in the case of the Greek image, the figure is in serene stasis, while
Adam seems ready to leap into activity.

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Pheidias, Dionysos, The Parthenon, ca. 435 BCE

The almost touch means that Adam will not be controlled by God. Humanity's future
unfolds beneath God's left arm, as Eve scrutinizes her future mate. Some say that the
fingers of God's left hand settle upon the Second Adam, Jesus, who will redeem
humanity from the First Adam's folly. Adam is fully mature (midrash puts his age at
20), his beautiful face lacking life experience. This painting reflects the first account
(Genesis 1:26f.), where God creates by language: "Let us make adam in our image."
The generic ambiguity of adam, meaning earthling or humanity, sets up the ongoing
puzzle of Adam's sexuality: a single bisexual human being, one man and one woman,
all of humanity. Eve is there, but she's not there.

A more concretely depicted version of humanity's creation is the work of God the
sculptor (2:7), who shaped Adam from the dust (Hebrew masculine) of the earth
(Hebrew feminine). The generic Adam (human from humus) emerges in German
artist Meister Bertram's colorful creation series.

<meister Bertram vayitzer>

Meister Bertram, The Creation of Man, The Grabow Altarpiece, 1375-83

Similar concepts are found in many of the neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near
East, as in this Ptolemaic painting of Khnemu, the creator god, shaping the future
pharaoh on his potter's wheel. Standing behind Khnemu is Thoth, the Egyptian god of
Time, who marks the duration of his life. Thus the universal concern of parents with
the life and well-being of their children is given concrete form.
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Khnemu shapes Pharaoh's son on the potter's wheel, while Thoth marks his span of life,
Ptolemaic Papyrus, British Museum
The same concern with time and mortality is introduced into Michelangelo's Adam by
this modern reworking.

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Nurit Karlin, Man and Time, NY Times 1992

The Creation of Woman

The birth of tiny Eve from the side of Adam (Genesis 2:22) in the late 14th century
Freiburg cathedral, looks like a vaginal birth, head first into the arms of the divine
midwife.

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Creation of Woman, Meister Bertram, Creation of Woman
Cathedral of Freiburg in Breisgau, Grabow Altarpiece, 1375-83
ca. 1200-1513

In the same period, another German artist, Meister Bertram, clearly shows the rib,
from which Eve was built, according the Latin translation of the phrase "vayiven et
hatsela." But the word tsela, which occurs some 50 times in the Bible, consistently
means "side", a structural element. Only in Genesis 2 has tsela been understood as
"rib". However, the accompanying verb "and he built," "vayiven" confirms that here
too, the word tsela means "side." In which case, either we read the account as the
caesarean birth of Eve or as God separating the feminine side of Adam and presenting
her to him. If the latter, the original Adam was an androgynous being. As already
noted, the description of the formation of Adam (Genesis 2: 7) is composed of both
feminine and masculine elements.
Marc Chagall, coming out of the world of traditional Jewish learning, expressed his
conception of humanity using two widely known midrashim on the creation of man
and woman. According to one, they were created as an androgynous being and then
separated into two, male and female. According to the other, the story of Adam and
Eve's creation, temptation and expulsion is limited to one single day, at the end of
which they are forgiven and time begins.

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Marc Chagall, Homage to Apollinaire, 1911-12

Between Chagall's split androgynous figure, a third, headless torso emerges, perhaps
representing the continuum of sexuality. A revolving cosmos, surrounding the figure,
becomes a clock, marking humanity's last three hours in the garden. Masculine solar
red and feminine lunar silver segments are switched, emphasizing the ambiguity of
human sexuality.

Four hundred years earlier, in what some consider the central element of the Sistine
ceiling, a matronly Eve emerges from the sleeping Adam's side. Her function will be
Mother:
Now the man called his wife's name Eve,
because she was the mother of all the living

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Michelangelo, Creation of Woman, Sistine Chapel, 1508-12

But her body is parallel to the cut off branch of the Tree of Life, marking her identity
in classical Christian theology as the bringer of death to the world. Thus, Eve is like
the earth that brings forth new life and takes back the dead

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Michael Bergt, Human Life Cycle, Tikkun Magazine 1998
The Temptation
A new character enters the scene by way of a word play:
They were both, the man and his wife, naked (arumim)…
And the serpent was shrewder (arum) than all the other creatures….
Genesis 2:25; 3:1
What is the need for and function of this new character? Immediately on appearing,
the serpent engages Eve in a critical conversation and convinces her to eat the fruit of
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What are his motivations? Why is she
so inclined to trust him?
In both Jewish and Christian interpretative traditions, the serpent is Evil and Eve is
either/both weak minded and a femme fatal. Is the serpent God's instrument for
bringing about the surrender to temptation? In any event, he eventually becomes
Satan, envious of the love of Adam and Eve and determined to possess Eve. Here is
Satan, in the work of Australian painter, Arthur Boyd, spying greedily on the amorous
couple.

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Arthur Boyd, Angel Spies on Adam and Eve, 1947-8

Via Eve, he'll get them into trouble. Boyd most likely drew on the midrash of
Paradise Lost, based ultimately on Bereshit Rabba.

But our research has brought us to the recognition that like all symbols, the snake is
bivalent and can also be benevolent. For example, in a painting on an Egyptian
sarcophagus, a two-legged snake, called "the lord of food", feeds the god Geb a red
fruit.
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Coffin of Penpii, The Lord of Food, 9th-8th cent. BCE
This scene might very well be the background necessary for an alternative
understanding of the biblical story: the snake is a benevolent figure! His motivation is
to bring the human couple to consciousness, which can only be achieved by their birth
from Eden and into Time. This interpretation would explain Eve's trust in the serpent.

Yet another alternate reading of the biblical story is found in William Blake's
painting, also an illustration of Paradise Lost.

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William Blake, Paradise Lost, The Temptation, 1808

Here, the serpent's scheme has come to fruition in an erotic tête-a-tête. Adam,
meanwhile, is too involved theologically to notice what's going literally behind his
back. Blake seems to be putting a different spin on the responsibility for falling into
temptation: Eve is no innocent maid, but Adam is out to lunch.
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Lorenzo Maitani, Cathedral of Orvieto, The Temptation, 1310-30

Depictions of the Temptation are among the most prevalent biblical scenes in art.
Above, on the 14th century façade of the Cathedral of Orvieto, in high relief
adolescent, and seemingly innocent Eve meets Adam's willing hand with a fig. The
luxuriant Tree in the center binds all the elements together: the serpent, wound both
below and above the hands joined at the fruit; an octagonal pool (a baptismal font) out
of which the four Edenic rivers flow. But next to her breast, Eve hides a luscious fig
in reserve. On the other hand, on the left sober Adam points a warning index finger.
Legs crossed, Eve is already sliding down hill. The serpent, meanwhile, with a
conspiratorial grin, sticks out his forked tongue toward Eve. All the elements of the
doctrinal Christian reading of the Temptation are here.
Rembrandt, as always, has a different reading.

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Rembrandt, The Temptation, 1638

Who's to say, Adam and Eve are 20 and sexy? Is temptation only for the young? Is
consciousness not a goal at any age? . Adam and Eve are two middle aged people
who have not had the best night. Flabby Eve offers scruffy Adam a cold breakfast,
which he may even be pushing away, while (as in Orvieto) he raises a finger in
warning. The serpent is monstrous, lurking above the bewildered couple. Rembrandt
views the gravity of this event, as opposed to the almost pornographic tendency of his
peers.

Perhaps the best known Eden painting is Michelangelo's Temptation and Expulsion
on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. A tantalizing three-part picture opens to the viewer.
There are three couples in this painting: Adam and Eve engrossed in each other but
distracted inhabit the left scene; Adam and Eve distraught leave the right-hand scene;
in the center a strange couple lives entwined in the tree. What is going here?

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Michelangelo, The Sistine Chapel, The Temptation and Expulsion, 1508-12

We know from the story that Eve and Adam have a fruitful exchange with the serpent
and we know that God kicks them out of the Garden for their disobedience. The
narrative is replete with theology. We might ask what is the relationship of the three
couples to each other and to God and to us?

On the left, voluptuous Eve and Adam are distracted from their lovemaking; they
reach up into the tree, Adam holding onto a branch and aggressively reaching out;
Eve awkwardly turning and reaching upward toward the serpent.
In the center, a busty serpent spirals around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil; she offers Eve the forbidden fruit. She is joined to a sword-wielding red cherub,
whose arm seems to grow out of the serpent's coils; these two figures are one. Parallel
pairs of arms emerge on the right and on the left, uniting the scenes. A female
serpent, the mate of the cherub: where is this in Genesis?
And on the right, a now unlovely but still naked Adam and Eve are chased from the
Garden. They're still together, but it's not the same. The cherub's sword practically
impales Adam, whose hands attempt to protect him, his face dismayed. Eve is
hunched over, clutching her hair, her face witch-like.
What is Michelangelo saying? In accordance with Christian doctrine, the
transition from carnal pleasure to angry flight forecasts the plight of humanity and the
hope for redemption from the flesh. But another symbolic reading is present. Eating
the fruit results in conscious sex which brings the baby, which brings awareness of the
passage of time. "You will surely die" means you will understand that time means
death. Awareness of time, and life in paradise are mutually exclusive. Having tasted
the fruit on the left they are instantly out of Paradise and into history, on the right.
The remaining puzzle is the bifurcated serpent spiraling around the Tree. The
serpent and cherub are one; good and evil, life and death are flip sides of reality, they
reflect the nature of the divine.
The Expulsion
Here are three remarkably different treatments of the Expulsion.

< Islamic Hadiqat> <a+e51> <a+e126>

Garden of the Happy, Masaccio, The Expulsion Murat Brierre, The Expulsion
TheExpulsion, 18th cent. 1426-27 1966

The most familiar is that of Massacio, which was known to Michelangelo

from his youth in Florence. Some call this the first humanist rendition of the
Expulsion, since the focus of the painting is on the emotions of Adam and Eve. While
Adam covers his face in shame, his body is exposed: he is ashamed of his actions, not
his body. Eve, on the contrary, covers her body, exposing the anguish on her
upturned face. And the cherub hovers over them, not as a danger but as an
insupportable burden.
 In the Muslim painting, some of the main elements of Christian iconography
are also present: Adam and Eve (here given halos and half clad) are about to exit the
gate of the garden, urged by a winged angel with a sword in his hand. But in addition,
curious angels both behind and above observe their banishment. On the lower right,
beyond the frame, three otherwise unknown figures, Islamic personifications of evil,
lead the way: Iblis (Satan), the serpent and the peacock.

A strong diagonal from the cherub's flying body cuts in half the ironwork of
Haitian artist Murat Brierre, separating the earthly and the heavenly. Three heads, cut
from the same round and pointed pattern, appear above the diagonal. While the
cherub is entirely above the divide, it is one piece with the serpent, entirely below. Its
round, vaguely feminine form, undulating to the right of the tree, is balanced by Eve's
pregnant belly. Her explicit pregnancy defies artistic precedent: Other expulsions
scenes only imply immanent reproduction. Eve, the "mother of all life," is still
attached to the Tree of Life/Knowledge emphasizing the earthiness of Brierre's
creation.

Some Modern Versions

Pretty serious stuff! Mortality, guilt, anger, redemption. And traditionally, Eve gets
the worst of it. But in Yevgeny Abeshaus' ironic rendition, Eve flowers, Adam is a
neboch. The inscription above them reads: And Adam ate of the fruit Eve gave him,
but he didn't "get it".

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Yevgeny Abeshaus, The Tree of Knowledge, 1975

So it was a setup from the very beginning?

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Nicole Hollander, Sylvia, 1985