ABSTRACT
The present chapter discusses the “second creation account” and related stories of Genesis 2–3. It includes a verse-by-verse commentary on the anthropogony and zoogony of the Second Creation Account and the tale of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2–3. This chapter shows the essential unity of Genesis 1–3 by the systematic influence of Plato's Timaeus throughout, with both texts portraying the kosmos and mortal life as having been created in two distinct stages: first the creation of the orderly kosmos by an eternal Creator, and then the creation of mortal life forms by the Creator's offspring. In Genesis 1, the cosmic Creator is named Elohim, while the deity Yahweh Elohim in Genesis 2–3 is a lesser terrestrial god dwelling in the land of Eden, one of the sons of God. Timaeus, like Genesis 2–3, was also greatly concerned with the problems of theodicy and death, exonerating the supreme cosmic god from responsibility for human wickedness and from the mortality of created life forms by delegating the creation and oversight of humanity to the lesser gods. Other motifs, such as eating the fruit of the tree, are shown to have drawn directly on Plato's Timaeus.
