I feel like I may have learned about it before, but I was taken aback in reading Genesis chapter 2 by the things that were re-“created”. For example, in chapter 1, verse 12, it says that “the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind.” However, in chapter 2, verse 5, it is written that “no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted.” And this was after the seventh day, on which God rested. Additionally, though both male and female were created on day six, according to verse 27 of chapter 1, chapter 2 commences with the story of Adam and Eve after the seventh day was finished. What is the explanation for the creation of both trees and man to be told as happening during the first six days, as well as afterwards? How are these two stories reconciled?
As for the segment from Proverbs, the woman described here seems to have an agency and independence not afforded to most women in the popularized stories of the Bible. She is able to conduct her own business, buying a field, selling garments, earning and spending her own resources. Is this meant to be an idealized vision of what a wife can be? Who is this description coming from, and who is it being told to? Is this image being pitched to men, as the ideal wife, or to women, as the ideal role for themselves?
