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Israelite Homicide Law and the Term “Enmity” in Genesis 3:15*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

Stanley N. Rosenbaum
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Extract

Biblical translation is partly science and partly the ex parte efforts of translators subtly to support their various theologies. Genesis 3:15 is a case in point. The Revised Standard Version (Protestant) translates it as:

      I will put enmity between you and the woman,
      and between your seed and her seed;
      he shall bruise your head,
      and you shall bruise his heel.

Protestant tradition sees Jesus as the ultimate “he” in 3:15c. The Catholic tradition elevates Mary to equal status here and, indeed, visitors to Catholic churches can often find statuary depicting Mary treading upon a serpent.

Understandably, Jewish tradition has no use for either of these ideas. The new Jewish Publication Society translation (1962) has “they” and “their” for “he” and “his.” Because the three parties to this polite dispute have a heavy theological stake in their own interpretation, none of them has paid much attention to the rare and curious term 'eyvah that characterizes the relationship between Jesus or Mary, humanity and serpentkind.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , 1984 , pp. 145 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1984

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Association for Jewish Studies Convention, Boston, Mass., December 21, 1982. The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of his wife, Mary Rosenbaum, as well as that of professors Dennis Pardee and Jon Levinson of the University of Chicago, in the preparation of this paper.

References

1. A good discussion of early commentary is found in Skinner, J., Genesis 80passim. (1930)Google Scholar. See also, Revelation 12:1-17.

2. Speiser, E., Genesis 24 (1964)Google Scholar. See also Driver, S., The Book Of Genesis 48 (1904)Google Scholar; von Rad, G., Genesis 90 (1961)Google Scholar.

3. The only recent article to mention it is Scott, , The Place of Enmity in Scriptural Teaching, The Law and the Prophets 128–40 (Skilton, J. ed. 1974)Google Scholar. The article is lacking in textual analysis.

4. 'eyvah appears five times in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis 3:15; Numbers 35:21; Ezekial 25:15, 35:5. See, roseah and related terms in Noth, M., Numbers 255 (1968)Google Scholar.

5. Thus the King James Version, Jewish Publication Society, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, and New Jewish Publication Society. Webster's 1828 Dictionary still knows precise shades of meaning for “enmity” that modern dictionaries lack.

6. Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 1:10.

7. Morgenstern, J., The Book of Genesis 50 (1965)Google Scholar. The terminology is terribly imprecise; only some two percent of us are classifiable as phobic—of anything.

8. Driver, supra note 2, at 48. This identification is made as early as Revelations 12 and the Apocryphal Life of Adam and Eve, which may predate 70 c.e. Russell, D., The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic 59 (1964)Google Scholar.

9. Cassuto, U., Commentary on Genesis 1:160 (1961)Google Scholar; Sarna, N., Understanding Genesis 26 (1966)Google Scholar.

10. Skinner, supra note 2, at 78, writes of “… the attempt to establish unholy fellowship with the woman.” In the Life of Adam and Eve, supra note 8, the attempt succeeds. See Prusak, , Woman: Seductive Siren and Source of Sin, in Religion and Sexism 138 (Reuther, R. ed. 1974)Google Scholar.

11. Cited in Williams, , The Relationship of Genesis 3:30 to the Serpent, 89 Zeitschrift fur Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 367 (1977)Google Scholar. This suggestion is not new. Christian iconography as far back as the fourteenth century depicts the serpent as female. See Longnon, J. & Cazelles, R., The Trest Riches Heures of Jean, Due of Berry 49 (1964)Google Scholar. Et tu, Freud?

12. Namely Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12-14; Deuteronomy 4:41, 19:1-13; and Joshua 20.

13. See DeVaux, R., Ancient Israel 9 (1960)Google Scholar. McKeating, , Vengeance is Mine, 74 Expository Times 239 (1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, writes: “The patriarchs … expected vengeance to be taken, and if it was taken boldly, and without excess, it was not condemned.”

14. McKeating, , The Development of the Law on Homicide in Ancient Israel, 25 Vetus Testamentum 46–8 (1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 3:5 interprets this literally, positing that the two parties had not been on speaking terms during the previous three days.

16. A similar observation is made in Hittite Law. See Pritchard, J., 3 Ancient Near Eastern Texts 189 (1964)Google Scholar.

17. Kugel, J., The Idea of Biblical Poetry (1981)Google Scholar, provides the most recent discussion of what we might call the pitfalls of parallelism.

18. 0. Keel, , Feinde Und Gottesleugner (1979)Google Scholar and Rosenbaum, S., The Concept: Antagonist' in Hebrew Psalmography (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Brandeis Univ., 1974)Google Scholar. This also holds in the “vast majority of cases” in Mesopotamian and Ugaritic usage. See Botterweck, G. & Ringgren, H., Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament 212–14 (1965)Google Scholar.

19. Contra Pedersen, , Israel 280 (1926)Google Scholar. Much has been made of Saul's presumed mental condition, but we must recall that our text has been composed and transmitted by partisans of the Davidic house.

20. The verb barah, used of David's flight in I Samuel 19:10, 20:1, 21:11, 27:4 has specific application to one who flees the political jurisdiction of a superior. See Rosenbaum, , A Northern Amos Revisited: Two Philological Suggestions, XVIII Hebrew Studies 138 (1977)Google Scholar.

21. Or both, Though Saul and David effect occasional reconciliations, the essential hostility between them permeates the relationship between their respective survivors as well. Significantly, after I Samuel 18:29, 'oyev is used three times to characterize the relationship of Saul and David (I Samuel 19:17, 24:5, 20).

22. Professor M. Fishbane informs me that nehustan of Numbers 21 might very well be a form of caduceus (private communication).

23. Jackson, B., Essays in Jewish and Comparative Legal History 118 (1975)Google Scholar.

24. Scott, supra note 3, at 129.

25. See Albright, , The Judicial Reform of Jehoshaphat, in A. Marx Jubilee Volume (Lieberman, S. ed. 1950)Google Scholar; Childs, B., Exodus 469 (1974)Google Scholar.