We find a similar use of the substantive infinitive with a preceding preposition in verse 21, chapter iii. “Ctnout is derived from tne, a consoling word. Tnout, the infinitive of the conjugation Piel, adds to the word the act of causing to be done, and of doing with care.”
A similar construction, lraout, is employed in chapter ii. verse 19, translated in the English version, “and brought them unto Adam to see what …”; more literally, “as regards the act of seeing,” or according to a vision, or show. That is, they were brought and presented to his sight.
The object in writing these two words, bra and l-osh-out, together at the very end of the narrative was to conclusively establish the fact, beyond all possible doubt, that the whole work of creation was an orderly and harmonious progression.
Mlactou, which word is used twice in verse 2 and once in verse 3 of the second chapter, and not previously, is also introduced for specific emphasis. It means that the whole preceding work of creation was, in its nature, “the work of Mlac,” a messenger, or a specially energized and directed agency, sent to fulfil the appointed work of Jeove. Its purpose was to forever prevent the belief that the work of creation was due to mere natural forces, on the one hand, operating by chance; and, on the other, that these forces were independent gods carrying out their own purposes, and of their own will. It was set up as a double barrier against rationalism on the one side and polytheism on the other.
It may be incidentally added that the popular belief that “Adam was created out of the dust of the earth” is not in accordance with the original record. In the second narrative, chapter ii. verse 7, the word ophr is rendered “dust” in our English version, but it does not signify ordinary terrestrial dust at all; “its radical meaning is to volatilize a substance, to sublimate it.” The true signification of the word used is analogous to a “material essence.” The same word is used in [ Numbers xxiii. 10] as a synonym for “seed;” it is said that “the Septuagint version translates ophr by sperma.”
The formation, described in the third chapter, of the female human being out of one of the ribs of Adam, excised for that purpose (which is a matter of almost universal popular belief), is not, in reality, what is stated in the original. In verse 21 of chapter ii. the words are rendered in our version, “And he took one of his ribs.” What is really said, however, is “And he brought out another one from his sides.” So the similar expression in verse 22 in reality signifies, “caused to be made according to womankind the individualized substance of his side.”
The word translated “of his ribs” is precisely the same as is subsequently used by the same writer ([Exodus xxxvii. 27]) to designate the location of the supporting rings upon an altar of incense, and is there rendered, “by the two corners of it, upon the two sides.”
The defective translation is due to imperfect knowledge, at that time, of the processes of organic development. The true signification is that given in the “Institutes of Manu”: “Having divided his own sub-sistence, the Mighty Power became half male and half female.”
The words rendered “help meet” in verses 18 and 20 have a far higher meaning; “I will make him a help meet” should be translated, “I will cause to be made for him an overseeing help as a guide, an instructor, a revealer.” And in verse 20 of chapter iii., “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve,” the latter word is not translated; the correct rendering is, “And Adam called the symbolic name of his wife the female serpent-wise revealer, she who explains, points out things, who instructs,” for that is what the true root-meaning of Eve signifies. The concluding words of this verse, “because she was the mother of all living,” are obviously mistranslated, for not only was she not a mother at all, but she did not even conceive, as stated in the next chapter, until she had left the garden finally. The true signification is, “because she was the mother of all [spiritual, see verse 22, as contradistinguished from animal and vegetable] life.”
The female human being, the word translated woman, has the generic root-signification of “flame,” while, prior to Eve, that of the Adamic man is the “red earth.” As the male was formed from a material earthly essence, the female was created one remove further from the gross and material in the direction of the spiritual; and her powers were distinctively subjective, those of intuition, while those of the male were objective, those derived from instruction. Even in the final curse (so called) the man turns back to the earth to earn his subsistence, while the woman turns forward to the instruction of the future men and women, the children; for the words, “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children,” have left one word of the original untranslated, and by supplying this the sense is entirely changed, “and conceiving, and bringing forth, in sorrow shalt thou bring up, care for, and train children.” In those countries childbirth was never attended with much pain or sorrow.