Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/159

Rh teach that the soul arises through the union of the universal life-principle with the material frame : cf. e.g. Grüneisen, Ahnenkultus, 34 f. No such ideas are expressed: neither nor  is mentioned, while is not applied to a separate element of man's being, but to the whole man in possession of vital powers. "All that seems in question here is just the giving of vitality to man. There seems no allusion to man's immaterial being, to his spiritual element Vitality is communicated by God, and he is here represented as communicating it by breathing into man's nostrils that breath which is the sign of life" (Davidson, OTTh. 194). At the same time, the fact that God imparts his own breath to man, marks the dignity of man above the animals: it is J's equivalent for the 'image of God.'

8-17. The garden of Eden.—That the planting of the garden was subsequent to the creation of man is the undoubted meaning of the writer; the rendering plantaverat (V: so IEz.) is grammatically impossible, and is connected with a misconception of below.—a garden in Eden] This is perhaps the only place where Eden (as a geographical designation) is distinguished from the garden (cf. 2$10. 15$ 3$23. 24$ 4$16$, Is. 51$3$, Ezk. 28$13$ 31$9. 16. 18$ 36$35$, Jl. 2$3$, Sir. 40$27$). The common phrase would suggest to a Hebrew the idea 'garden of delight,' as it is rendered by G (often) and V (v.i.). There is no probability that the proper name was actually coined in this sense. It is derived by the younger Del. and Schrader from Bab. edinu, 'plain,' 'steppe,' or 'desert' (Del. Par. 80; KAT$2$, 26 f.; KAT$3$, 539); but it is a somewhat precarious inference that the garden was conceived as an oasis in the midst of a desert (Ho.).—] ‘in the (far) East’; i.e. from the Palestinian standpoint of the author; not, of course, to be identified with any other within the geographical horizon of the Israelites (see 2 Ki. 19$12$ [= Is. 37$12$], Ezk. 27$23$, Am. 1$5$).

Besides the passages cited above, the idea of a divine garden appears also in Gn. 13$10$, Ezk. 31$8$. Usually it is a mere symbol of

8. ] G 🇬🇷 (cf., Ca. 4$13$, Ec. 2$5$, Neh. 2$8$: probably from Pers.), and so VS.—] is regularly treated as ''nom. prop. by T$O$ S, by V only 4$16$ (everywhere else as appellative: voluptas, deliciæ''). G has 🇬🇷 only in 2$8. 10$ 4$16$; elsewhere 🇬🇷, except Is. 51$3$ (🇬🇷).—] Lit. 'in front' (on the see Kön. Lgb. ii. p. 318; BDB, 578$b$): in the hist. books it always means 'east' or 'eastward'; but in prophs. and Pss. it usually has temporal sense ('of old'); and so it is misunder