New Evangelizers Post: The Unity of Man and Woman in Genesis

          

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

In the second chapter of Genesis, we hear about how God created the woman out of the man. One of the most important points to grasp from this story is how men and women are made to be equal in dignity. To be sure, God did not make men and women to be exactly the same. But it is clear from the reading that one was not made to have less value than the other.

We can see in the story that Adam is lonely: he needs a “helper.” The word used here for “helper” does not mean an inferior servant, but is the same word used to describe how God is our “helper.” But how can Adam be lonely if he has God? It is because there is no one like him on his level. God creates the beasts and Adam names them as a sign of his authority over them. But none of them are suitable partners for him. God is above him and the beasts are below him. Adam needs someone who is at his level.

So God makes the woman out of Adam’s side. It is important to note that she is not made out of a separate lump of earth as Adam was. This is to show that there is to be a unity, a connectedness, between the man and woman. When Adam sees her, he says she is “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23) These are words that correspond to the covenant bond between the man and the woman in marriage. He says that she is “woman.” The Hebrew word for this is isshah, which is so strikingly close to ish (which is the Hebrew word for “man”) that it shows that men and women are made of the same stuff and have the same value.

The marriage language found at the end of the passage also points to this unity and equality. It states, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) In the ancient world, Near East cultures often viewed women as subordinate to men. But in this verse, it is the man, and not the woman, who leaves or “forsakes” his parents. If the woman was purely subordinate to man, then it would make sense that the woman would forsake her family and cling to her husband. But in this marriage verse, it describes the man forsaking his old family and clinging to his wife, his equal partner, to start a new family.

It is not until woman, his equal helper, that he can know who he really is because he derives much of his identity by his relationship to her. And the woman, in her creation from Adam, finds her identity and completeness by her relationship to the man.

The reference to sexuality in this passage also points to this unity of man and woman. It is interesting to note that even though there is a reference to the sexuality of the two, procreation is not mentioned. The concept of having children has not been introduced. But man sees in the woman a person to whom he can be united. And in that unity, there is a completeness.

You can read the whole article here.