I have traced the narrative of fictive tribal origins through a narrated family tree, from Adam, through Abraham, to the twelve tribes of Israel. The family tree seems tidy, but it is not. Its querks are not accidental but need to be taken seriously. I start to do this through the trail of sex. A patrilineal family tree (that is, following the father's line) is vulnerable if paternity is not certain.
Genesis starts with humans created male and female (not explicitly a couple) and instructed to multiply, fill the earth and rule it. To have sex is therefore a divine commandment. The opening of Genesis negatively reflects the Babylonian tale of Tiamat the chaos monster from whose split body heaven and earth was created. That tale reflects the fact that existence is chaotic, depicted metaphorically as a great leviathan. Humans create order out of chaos, represented as a symbolic slaughter of chaos itself. That order of course soon reverts to chaos if order is not constantly renewed, by strong kings and armies. That was the Babylonian way, during which the Jews were wrested from their homeland to live out their lives in an exile which prompted them to write down their stories. They also wished to assert that their God was higher than the gods of their captors. Tiamat, in Genesis, is like all sea monsters, created by God. Chaos, that state of being "without form and void", was the ocean, or "the deep" (tehom is related to the word Tiamat) from which order and life was created during a six day period. Last to be created was humankind, who ate as vegans on leaves and fruits, and whose purpose was sex for procreation. This chapter is the prologue, the introduction to the history of that procreation. It is agenda setting, the work therefore of whoever put Genesis (and probably more) together. The humans were in the image and likeness of God, which means God is the human Ancestor, the start of the family, the family head. Seth, son of Adam and Eve, was in the image and likeness of his father, and so on. Even the New Testament, Luke's genealogy, calls Adam the son of God.
Genesis 2-3 recounts a different creation story. A male is created from dust, to which it will one day return. In the time between the body is animated by God's breath. The man (Adam is the Hebrew word for man, adamah for dust) named plants and animals and was 'in charge'. He was lonely and needed a helper or partner (there is nothing low status in the word). The woman was taken from his side (hence the inaccurate reference to Adam's rib). In fact the man was divided into two, split. Those two halves belong together, each half of the whole. They were "one flesh", sharing bone and flesh. The woman is called Ishshah, as she came "from man [ish)". Husband and wife are thus united, one, bodily the same, each partner having a different function. Finding ones wife means leaving one's parental home and setting up a new one of their own.
They are naked without shame, creatures of nature rather than creatures of culture. All that was to change. They did not have the knowledge of good and evil, but were instinctive, unreflective, like any cat, horse or chimp. The fruit of a particular tree could progress them to self-consciousness, but it was banned under pain of death. God did not wish his creation to have a will of their own. They were supposed to be natural and innocent. The instrument of progression was a serpent, which was "subtle" - logical, persistent, thinking, rational. The serpent therefore pointed out that by eating the fruit, their eyes would be opened (they would gain understanding) and they would not die. Contrary to the usual belief that the servent is the evil devil, we are shown that the serpent was in fact right. Self-consciousness meant shame at nakedness (unlikely in the context, but reflecting the Hebrew social reality) and God (who was not aware of the act of rebellion) was alerted to it by their aprons of leaves. God who was walking in the garden and curses the couple to live human lives that we recognise - having to work hard, have children in pain. The serpent would be a human enemy for ever. God says (and note the plural) - "humans have become like one of us". The worry was that by eating the fruit of the tree of life they would also live for ever. Presumably the gods had access both to the tree of knowledge and the tree of life; humans managed to steal one and not the other. The couple were therefore expelled from the garden. The paradise garden, by the way, was a typical royal walled garden in Mesopotamia. It had a gate, with guards. God's guards protecting the tree of life were cherubim, dragons, and a whirling sword.
Sex was part of the penalty of this rebellion. We are not told how they would reproduce otherwise, but childbirth as we know it was a consequence of the curse. Sexual passion is another consequence. "You shall be eager for your husband, and he shall be your master". She will be eager for sex, and eager to be dominated. The partnership is over; inequity has replaced equity. God made them clothes from animal skins - human relationships with animals would no more be innocent. It would be a short step to eating the animals themselves.
This is complex theology. God is not omniscient, nor omnipotent. God is one of many, the 'us' of the story, and is privileged by ownership of two magic fruit. The deities can wander about this innocent wildlife park enjoying their creation. They get their knowledge and discrimation from one fruit, and everlasting life from another. That makes them a cut above. But amongst their creation is one species which turns out to be rebels. They seek equality with God, and obtain this in part, that is, the ability to think and discriminate. Life thereafter to the end of time will be a battle between the gods and humans. That human life is dreadful is really the fault of the gods, and in particular of Yahweh the spokesman of the gods. This is not a pious tale; the gods are self-serving; humans trick them out of their privilege, and would get the other, eternal life, if they could. The gods have to keep one step ahead if they are to stay on top.
Our first couple, now called Adam and Eve ('mother of all who live') leave the garden and have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain marries (where does he get his wife from, we ask? Were there other humans around, and is Adam and Eve just the first Jewish couple? is Cain's problem that of intermarriage outside of Judaism?). Cain also prefers animal sacrifice to Abel's vegetable sacrifice, and as God prefers Abel, he kills his brother. So God still wants humans to be vegans, and the effect of the expulsion has made Cain a meat eater. Abel is killed, the vegan ideal has gone. Henceforward these rebel creatures will kill to eat. Cain is cursed to wander, to be a nomad. The line will now move to the next son, Seth, born "in his likeness and image" - the prologue writer intervenes with a genealogy of the next generations. Seth was legitimate, Cain was not.
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