Gender and Sex II - Loneliness solved and Sex added ...

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010. There are two records in the bible about the creation of humans as man and woman. Today, we have a look into the second record, written in Genesis 2:

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” […] But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2: 20 ff)

One Bone and one Flesh

Man and woman are created from one flesh. The story which we read here has several things in it. Historically, often the little fact that the woman is called the “helper” of the man has been selected as a key point. But there are many other key points and the question of the relation between woman and man needs to be studied in the complete framework.

For me the key point here is that it is not good for man to be alone. It is better to live together with another being which is like man. God did not find such a being in the set of animals. An animal is not the right company for man to be with something like him. So God created another human, a woman, which was like man. This “likeness” here is physically established by creation from the same flesh. God took the ribs of men, the inner core of his body, and created a woman for him and him for the woman. When we now look into the way the two humans are made physically, we see a creation which is strongly interwoven. The apostle Paul states this later: man comes from his mother, a woman. And the woman has been created from men. They are made for each other. They will be one flesh! The woman is really a worthy partner for man and he is a worthy partner for the woman.

Sexuality added

In history men and woman have had difficulties to fully realize and appreciate the way they are made. Here, the man is truly astonished: she is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh - she is like me! God as created a basis for true community and he added a physiology which wonderfully fits together. So it is not only that we can admire the way God solves the problem of loneliness, but he also adds wonderful sexuality. What an amazing creativity we can see in this problem solution! ... more texts