Il paradiso perduto: Genesi 2–3, un racconto a doppia conclusione?

Abstract

Repetition in Bible narratives is very often a sign for scholars to identify in the text the presence either of a doublet or of different sources. One of the examples is the end of the story of the Creation, the lost Paradise (Gen 2–3). This article analyses the conclusion of the story (Gen 3:23-24) trying to answer the question: Is Genesis 2–3, a narrative with a double conclusion? The analysis is divided into four sections, complementary to each other. The first part of the research has a preliminary character, dedicated to the delimitation of the text. The second part compares Gen 3:23 and Gen 3:24, at the level of style and content; the third part concerns the comparison between Gen 3:23-24 and other narratives in the Bible that possess a similar concluding structure. Finally, the forth part is dedicated to the study of the legal meaning of two particular verbs שלח (send away) and גרש (drive out) and other legal aspects of the narrative in Gen 3.