Who Is Soloveitchik's Archetypes In Genesis
According to Soloveitchik there are two Adams in Genesis, one for each account of the creation of the earth. And these two Adams are representative of two aspects of the human character. Adam I and Adam II are each archetypes that teach a lesson to the readers of Genesis, which, according to Soloveitchik, is why they are both included in the Bible. Carrying Soloveitchik’s approach to reading Genesis to the rest of the book and applying his Archetype theory to other characters in the scripture yields a very interesting take on the stories of the Bible. For example, if one approaches Eve the way Soloveitchik approaches Adam it makes sense that, in addition to the two Adams, there are two Eves. Eve I is described in the first account
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In the second account of creation, God first creates Adam from the dust and then creates Eve from Adam’s body. Because Eve II is created later and in a different way, she is somehow inherently different from Adam. Not only is she different but she is considered to be beneath Adam in some way because her purpose for being created was to be his “helper” in cultivating the Garden of Eden. In this story the serpent tries to tempt Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fact that the serpent succeeds in this attempt shows that Eve II has a desire for knowledge and power; she has a desire to be more godlike. Eve II differs from her counterpart and the two Adams in the fact that she doesn’t try to imitate God through science and achievements like Adam and Eve I and she doesn’t passively try to find God in nature like Adam II. Eve II strives for knowledge and power and for a status that is equal to God. Eve II represents the curiosity of humans and an ambition that is different from that of Adam and Eve I because she is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. She searches for her own way to understand the divine and in that process become divine herself. Eve II is reckless and rebellious and therefore is a representation of the darker side of human
In the second account of creation, God first creates Adam from the dust and then creates Eve from Adam’s body. Because Eve II is created later and in a different way, she is somehow inherently different from Adam. Not only is she different but she is considered to be beneath Adam in some way because her purpose for being created was to be his “helper” in cultivating the Garden of Eden. In this story the serpent tries to tempt Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fact that the serpent succeeds in this attempt shows that Eve II has a desire for knowledge and power; she has a desire to be more godlike. Eve II differs from her counterpart and the two Adams in the fact that she doesn’t try to imitate God through science and achievements like Adam and Eve I and she doesn’t passively try to find God in nature like Adam II. Eve II strives for knowledge and power and for a status that is equal to God. Eve II represents the curiosity of humans and an ambition that is different from that of Adam and Eve I because she is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. She searches for her own way to understand the divine and in that process become divine herself. Eve II is reckless and rebellious and therefore is a representation of the darker side of human