Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan

Historical source scan page 229

I.] NOTES. 213 transgression ('A 7ro/caXin//if, in Vita Ados et E., p. 54, 55). 17 R. J. Abendana (Leqet Shecha, ad loc.) remarks on " one of his ribs," Gen. ii, 21, that 2bs "a rib," is feminine, and means "T37 "side," that confirms the opinion of Rabbis of blessed memory, that Adam was created ^SIXHS "H Si 7rp6<7W7rov, with two sides, or faces ; the one male, the other female. See notes 18 and 24. Targ. Jonathan, in Gen. ii, does not agree with that ; but says that the rib taken out by God was/mO^br! S^bV SrE^ -inD ]DT the thirteenth rib on the right side. 18 But R. Jeremiah B. Eliezer says, that in the hour God created Adam, He made him DID'U'mSS, dvdpoyvvos man and woman ; as it is written : " male and female created He them," Gen. i, 27. But R. Shemuel Bar Nathan, holds that God created Adam f SY2"1S VT, tft-TrpodwTrov, with two faces ; the one looking one way, and the other looking the other way. He then sawed them asunder, into two backs, a back to the one and a back to the other, etc. (Bcreshith Rab.} fol. 9 ; and Talk. Shimoni, fol. 6, 20), to which Matnoth Kah. adds, that one side was male and the other female. The same story is told in Talmud Bab. (Berachoth, p. 121, ed. W.) where the commentary (R, Shelomoh) adds, that God did not " saw " Adam asunder, but split (!"l bl£) him in two, and made Eve out of one half. And elsewhere (Erubin, p. 35), R. Jeremiah Ben Eliezer, repeating the same thing, founds his belief on Psalm cxxxix. 5, " Thou hast beset me, behind and before." Adam and Eve were twenty years old when created. ID^ " dust " is masculine and ilftlS "earth" is feminine ; and He who formed them made them thus of the dust of the earth, male and female. And God made Adam *T2 \nNn p taia in bulk (reaching) from earth to the firmament and then put breath into him. For " soul " is understood in five different ways: — (1) Spirit; (2) breath; (3) intelligent single use of double mem bers ; (4) life ; (5 ) and soul which is blood, as it is written : " For blood is the soul." (Beresh.Rab.,iol. 17.) [This is treated at length in R. Sh. Palkeire's Sepher Nephesh, on Hebrew psycho logy, 1864; and by Maimonides, in his preface to Pvrke Avoth.] R. S. Ben Melech (Miclol Yophi, Gen. i) under stands " in the image of God " Q^nbs, in the image of angels, like an angel, with breath given him from on high. And S. Macarius, Horn, xv, p. 88, ov ydo Trepi Mi^airjX ical ra/3ptj}\, rutv dp^ayygXwi/ tlTrev, on TToirjffwfjisv /car' tiKova icat Trtpi riJQ voepaf ovaiag TOV d TTJQ dQavdrov Xeya» xpu^^fC. R. Abarbanel (Com. in Pent., fol. 17) explains this, saying, Adam alone was created after the image and similitude of God [circumcised, according to R. Nathan, in Yalk. Shimoni, fol. 5, 16], being as it were the perfection of His creatures. And that, as some say, Adam was DI^WON a Greek term, means that he had both the name and the form within him ; wherefore is he also said to have had f DISTlE'OtP two faces (or sides) the one male and the other female ; but the male was actually wrought out, whereas the female was n^H in posse. rrnnn bv nntn (in oen., foi. 22, ad Liv.) explains it thus : God said to His companions, " O ye that are with Me, is not this Adam a male emana tion, with the female hidden within him ?" So was Adam. rvn /vb ^«nb bss mftT) DbS yet in reality he had neither form nor similitude, but was very high exalted, with a name that