(Genesis 2:7) says God formed man from "the dust of the ground." The Targum Jonathan says something far more specific. God took dust from the place of the Beit HaMikdash (בית המקדש), the site of the future Temple, mixed it with dust from the four winds of the world and all the waters of the world, and created Adam in three colors: red, black, and white. This is not a minor embellishment. It means the first human was built from the holiest spot on earth before the Temple even existed, and his body contained the entire planet in miniature.
The Targum also specifies that God created Adam "in two formations," a phrase the Talmud (Berakhot 61a) connects to the two yods in the Hebrew word va-yitzer (וַיִּיצֶר), suggesting God formed both a good inclination and an evil inclination within the same body. Where Genesis says God breathed life into Adam, the Targum says God breathed into him "the inspiration of a speaking spirit," making the power of language the defining feature of humanity.
Eden gets transformed too. The garden was "planted by the Word of the Lord God before the creation of the world" for the righteous. This is the "Eden of the Just," existing before time itself. The Tree of Life was so enormous that its height was "a journey of five hundred years," a measurement that appears in multiple Talmudic sources. God placed Adam in this garden not to simply tend it but "to do service in the law, and to keep its commandments." Adam was the first Torah scholar. The garden was the first study hall.
Even the creation of Eve carries a surgical precision absent from Genesis. God took "the thirteenth rib of the right side." And the chapter closes with a devastating revision. Where Genesis says Adam and Eve were "naked and not ashamed," the Targum says they were "wise but not faithful in their glory." The fall has not happened yet, but the Targum already sees it coming.
And the creatures of the heavens and earth, and all the hosts of them, were completed.
And the Lord had finished by the Seventh Day the work which He had wrought, and the ten formations which He had created between the suns; and He rested the Seventh Day from all His works which He had performed.
And the Lord blessed the Seventh Day more than all the days of the week, and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His works which the Lord had created and had willed to make.
These are the geneses of the heavens and earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens.
And all the trees of the field were not as yet in the earth, and all the herbs of the field had not as yet germinated, because the Lord God had not made it to rain upon the earth, and man was not to cultivate the ground.
But a cloud of glory descended from the throne of glory, and was filled with waters from the ocean, and afterward went up from the earth, and gave rain to come down and water all the face of the ground.
And the Lord God created man in two formations; and took dust from the place of the house of the sanctuary, and from the four winds of the world, and mixed from all the waters of the world, and created him red, black, and white; and breathed into his nostrils the inspiration of life, and there was in the body of Adam the inspiration of a speaking spirit, unto the illumination of the eyes and the hearing of the ears.
And a garden from the Eden of the just was planted by the Word of the Lord God before the creation of the world, and He made there to dwell the man when He had created him.
And the Lord God made to grow from the ground every tree that was desirable to behold and good to eat, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, whose height was a journey of five hundred years, and the tree of whose fruit they who ate would distinguish between good and evil.
And a river went forth from Eden, to water the garden, and from thence was separated, and became four heads of rivers (or four chief rivers).
The name of the first is Phishon; that is it which compasseth all the land of Hindiki, where there is gold.
And the gold of that land is choice. There is the bedilcha, and the precious stones of byrils.
And the name of the second river is Gichon; that is it which encompasseth all the land of Koosh.
And the name of the third river is Diglath; that is it which goeth to the east of Athoor. And the fourth river is Pherath.
And the Lord God took the man from the mountain of worship, where he had been created, and made him dwell in the garden of Eden, to do service in the law, and to keep its commandments.
And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying, Of every tree of the garden eating thou mayest eat.
But of the tree of whose fruit they who eat (become) wise to know between good and evil, thou shalt not eat: for in the day that thou eatest thou wilt be guilty of death.
And the Lord God said, It is not right that Adam should be sleeping alone: I will make unto him a wife who may be a helper before him.
And the Lord God created from the earth every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and brought them to Adam, to see by what name he would call it. And whatever Adam called the living animal, that was its name.
And Adam called the names of all cattle, and all fowl of the heavens, and all beasts of the field. But for Adam was not found as yet a helper before him.
And the Lord God threw a deep slumber upon Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, it was the thirteenth rib of the right side, and closed it up with flesh.
And the Lord God builded the rib which he had taken from Adam into a woman; and He brought her to Adam.
And Adam said, This time, and not again, is woman created from man. Thus, because she is created from me, (she is) bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. This it is fit to call Woman, because from man she was taken.
Therefore a man shall leave, and be separate from the house of the bed of his father and of his mother, and shall consociate with his wife, and both of them shall be one flesh.
And both of them were wise, Adam and his wife; but they were not faithful (or truthful) in their glory.
