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Genesis 2:1-3/1.1.1
Accordingly Moses says, That in just six days the world, and all that is therein, was made. And that the seventh day was a rest1, and a release from the labor of such operations; whence it is that we Celebrate a rest from our labors on that day, and call it the Sabbath2, which word denotes rest in the Hebrew tongue3.
Genesis 2:4-25/1.1.2-3
Moreover, Moses, after the seventh day was over begins to talk philosophically; and concerning the formation of man, says thus: That God took dust from the ground, and formed man, and inserted in him a spirit and a soul. This man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifiesone that is red, because he was formed out of red earth, compounded together; for of that kind is virgin and true earth. God also presented the living creatures, when he had made them, according to their kinds, both male and female, to Adam, who gave them those names by which they are still called. But when he saw that Adam had no female companion, no society, for there was no such created, and that he wondered at the other animals which were male and female, he laid him asleep, and took away one of his ribs, and out of it formed the woman; whereupon Adam knew her when she was brought to him, and acknowledged that she was made out of himself. Now a woman is called in the Hebrew tongue Issa; but the name of this woman was Eve, which signifies the mother of all living.
Moses says further, that God planted a paradise in the east, flourishing with all sorts of trees; and that among them was the tree of life, and another of knowledge, whereby was to be known what was good and evil; and that when he brought Adam and his wife into this garden, he commanded ;hem to take care of the plants. Now the garden was watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts. And Phison, which denotes a multitude, running into India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes down into the Red Sea. Now the name Euphrates, or Phrath, denotes either a dispersion, or a flower: by Tiris, or Diglath, is signified what is swift, with narrowness; and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the east, which the Greeks call Nile.
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FOOTNOTES
1 Whereas the Hebrew text (Gen. 2:2) declares that God rested from all the work that He had done, with no implication that He would later resume His work, Josephus, in stating that He took a rest from His activities, implies that He had merely taken a respite from His activities and that He intended to resume them. So also Philo ( De Cherubim 26.87): “Moses does not give the name of rest to mere inactivity. The cause of all things is by its nature active; it never ceases to work all that is best and most beautiful. God’s rest is rather a working with absolute ease, without toil and without suffering.”
2 Josephus omits the biblical statement (Gen. 2:3) that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. The basis for observance of the Sabbath is merely imitatio Dei.
3 In a number of places Josephus indicates his knowledge of Hebrew through citing Hebrew etymologies: e.g., Ant. 1.33, 34, 36, 333; 2.278; 5.121, 200, 201, 323, 336; 6.22, 302; 7.67, cited by Sterling (1992:256 n.133). creatures after their kind,” will remind the reader of Plato’s familiar picture of the δημιουργός, the artificer who creates the visible world in Plato’s Timaeus (40C).
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