The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination (review)

Gary A. Anderson, professor of Old Testament and Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, employs a methodology characteristic of rabbinic midrash in his lively analysis of Genesis 1–3 from both Jewish and Christian perspectives. Anderson, who describes himself as a Protestant-born Roman Catholic, “with the deepest and most abiding love for Judaism and the Jews,” attempts to draw a comprehensive picture of how Jews and Christians in the first centuries C.E. read, retold, and re-lived the story of Adam and Eve.

Anderson presents himself as scholar-storyteller, frequently using the first person, tongue-in-cheek humor, and chapters written in the style of meditations on creation themes. The depth of Professor Anderson’s knowledge is apparent in his use of a variety of rabbinic and patristic sources, as well as apocryphal works such as the Life of Adam and Eve and the Gospel of Nicodemus (texts included as appendices). A selected bibliography, glossary, and subject index add to the overall value of the text, but the absence of traditional footnotes may create confusion for both general and scholarly readers. The book’s informal style coupled with a presumption of knowledge of modern biblical scholarship, rabbinic, and patristic writings makes this book an unlikely choice for introductory academic courses. On the other hand, the text offers excellent opportunities for scholars, knowledgeable students, general readers, and biblical study groups interested in inter-religious or comparative biblical themes.

Anderson’s adaptation of midrashic methodology proves useful in presenting a variety of often conflicting scriptural commentary—Jewish, Early Church, or Orthodox Christian—with respect to Genesis 1–3. Traditional midrashic commentary can be described as functioning on two levels: syllogistic and symbolic. Scripture provides the commentator with facts and patterns of meaning. The commentator’s intellect provides the tools of discernment and discovery. Functioning both syllogistically and symbolically, a midrashic composition charts a sage’s intellectual path leading from a theological or cultural crisis at hand to the timeless truths found in the scriptural paradigms. People continue to study Midrash texts and midrashic methods because they make scripture understandable, useful, and relevant. Anderson makes excellent use of a modern midrashic methodology as he intersects Jewish and Christian interpretations of Genesis. In essence, he invites Jewish and Christian sages, liturgists, and artists into a modern midrashic dialogue on the meaning of their shared scriptural stories of origin.

As with traditional Midrash, Anderson begins his chapters with a question, for example: “Was Adam Jewish? Was Eve Mary?” (Introduction); “Where Did Adam Know Eve?” (Chapter Two); “How Did Adam Know Eve?” (Chapter Three); and “Is Eve the Problem?” (Chapter Five). He then identifies scriptural passages that shed light on his various questions. He intersects these scriptural “facts” with a variety of interpretive materials in his effort to combine the best of historical critical and interpretive scholarship.

Anderson has divided the Genesis story—an annotated version of which is found in Appendix B—into five major scenes: (1) Creation Story Part One: In the Image of God (Gen. 1:1–2:4a); (2) Creation Story Part Two: Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:4b–3: 25); (3) Temptation and Transgression (Gen. 3:1–7); (4) Interrogation and Judgement (Gen. 3:8–21); and (5) Expulsion (Gen. 3:22–24). Anderson states that in order to understand how the biblical narrative begins one must have some grasp of how it ends, or, as he puts it, how “the last things inscribe the first things.” Based on this premise, he applies three principles of biblical interpretation to the Genesis scenes: (1) a sense of how the biblical story ends; (2) the relation of that story to the lived religious life; and (3) identification of “stumbling blocks” within the texts themselves.

Anderson then evaluates the Genesis scenes and their scriptural details in light of a unique collection Jewish and Christian sources. He defines...