mother, see Benzinger, Archæol.2 116. It is peculiar to the
oldest strata (J and E) of the Hex., and is not quite consistently
observed even there (426 529 2525f., Ex. 222): it may
therefore be a relic of the matriarchate which was giving
place to the later custom of naming by the father (P) at the
time when these traditions were taking shape.—The difficult
sentence (
Hebrew characters) connects the name (Hebrew characters) with the
verb (Hebrew characters). But (Hebrew characters) has two meanings in Heb.: (a) to (create,
or) produce, and (b) to acquire; and it is not easy to
determine which is intended here.
The second idea would seem more suitable in the present connexion,
but it leads to a forced and doubtful construction of the last two words,
(a) To render (Hebrew characters) 'with the help of' (Di. and most) is against all
analogy. It is admitted that (Hebrew characters) itself nowhere has this sense (in 4925
the true reading is (Hebrew characters), and Mic 38 is at least doubtful); and the few
cases in which the synonym (Hebrew characters) can be so translated are not really
parallel. Both in 1 Sa. 1445 and Dn. 1139, the (Hebrew characters) denotes association
in the same act, and therefore does not go beyond the sense 'along
with.' The analogy does not hold in this v. if the vb. means 'acquire';
Eve could not say that she had acquired a man along with Yahwe.
(b) We may, of course, assume an error in the text and read (Hebrew characters) = 'from'
(Bu. al. after TO). (c) The idea that (Hebrew characters) is the sign of acc. (TJ, al.), and
that Eve imagined she had given birth to the divine 'seed' promised in
315 (Luther, al.) may be disregarded as a piece of antiquated dogmatic
exegesis.—If we adopt the other meaning of (Hebrew characters), the construction is
perfectly natural: I have created (or produced) a man with (the co-operation
of) Yahwe (cf. Ra.: "When he created me and my husband
he created us alone, but in this case we are associated with him").
A strikingly similar phrase in the bilingual Babylonian account of
Creation (above, p. 47) suggests that the language here may be more
deeply tinged with mythology than has been generally suspected. We
read that "Aruru, together with him [Marduk], created (the) seed of
mankind": Aruru zí-ír a-mí-lu-ti it-ti-šu ib-ta-nu (KIB, vi. 1, 40 f.;
King, Cr. Tab. i. 134 f.). Aruru, a form of Ištar, is a mother-goddess
of the Babylonians (see KAT3, 430), i.e., a deified ancestress, and
therefore so far the counterpart of the Heb. (Hebrew characters) (see on 320). The
exclamation certainly gains in significance if we suppose it to have
survived from a more mythological phase of tradition, in which
literary school of J.—(Hebrew characters)] [root] (Hebrew characters) (Ar. ḳāna). In Ar. ḳain means 'smith';
= Syr. (Syriac characters), 'worker in metal' (see 422 59). Nöldeke's remark, that
in Ar. ḳain several words are combined, is perhaps equally true of Heb.
(Hebrew characters) (EB, 130). Many critics (We. Bu. Sta. Ho. al.) take the name as
eponym of the Ḳenites ((Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters)): see p. 113 below.—(Hebrew characters)] All Vns. express
the idea of 'acquiring' ((Greek characters), possedi, etc.). The sense 'create'
or 'originate,' though apparently confined to Heb. and subordinate
