bone of bones, flesh of flesh

^{Genesis 2}

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 then 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 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

 ²⁵ Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

***

I confess I do not feel particularly adequate for tackling this passage today - it's been a long day; I'm tired and I feel the need to do more reading on it myself.  Nonetheless, I'll have a go at reflecting on it, and hope I am not too vague.

Adam's aloneness has only been emphasised by the parade of animals and birds brought before him, presumably both male and female in their kinds.  He, however, does not have his 'other', his matching counterpart.

Personally I take these verses as analogy and symbol rather than a literal removing of Adam's rib. So what analogy, what symbol do I see?

Firstly, woman is made of the same stuff as man.  They are not opposing in substance; they are complementary.  Natural opposites but only within this same substance, what Adam calls bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.  Today we might say: my flesh and blood.  There is a familial tie here, the establishment of a new relationship which completes the incomplete, while still being formed, ultimately, from the dust of the ground.

Adam reacts in joy - recognising his match, the one he has been lacking.  It's a poetic response, one that also involves naming, but this time a name that derives from his own (the Hebrew ishah from the ish).

Here the narrator uses this as a reason for an application - that of marriage.  This, he says, is why a man leaves his family - his flesh and blood - for his wife, so together they become flesh and blood.  A re-union, if you like.

The two of them - the man and the woman - are relaxed with themselves, unabashed at their nakedness, not even particularly aware of it.

Further reflection:

Is this then, a suggestion that marriage is the ideal state for a person?  That if a man or a woman remain unmarried, they are somehow incomplete?

I do not believe this (and find this frustrating when both culture and church imply this).  This story may have been told as an analogy and reason for marriage in a certain culture, but even within the words of the text I see Adam, portrayed as without any human company whatsoever, very different from an unmarried man or woman today.  

From a Christian perspective, we are all one in Christ Jesus, regardless of gender or social background (Galatians 3:28), and our oneness comes from unity with Christ, not marital union.  Marriage certainly carries blessing, but it is not the only blessing in life: Paul, in 1 Corinthians 7 :32-35, writes of the benefits of remaining unmarried, that we are not always trying to please our husband or wife but are able to focus on the Lord himself.  Granted he was writing at a time when there were difficulties to be faced, but I think it's a reasonable principle.  Jesus has become the focal point of our unity and our community (the body of Christ). This is the case regardless of whether we are married or not.

I am not trying to devalue marriage here, but I do feel that we have undervalued the single people in our churches and often we buy into this idea that we are 'waiting for the right person' to come along, as if this is the only norm and that for those who never marry or never have children, somehow they simply never 'found the right person' and are somehow lacking.  This focus feels a bit mixed up, in my opinion. We have been brought into an amazing community made up of men and women, celebrating their new re-unity in Christ.  'Family' within a church context should be all encompassing - young or old, male or female, married or single.  

At least, that's my opinion.

dust and breath

<sup>Genesis 2


7</sup> Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

***

Man from the ground.  In Hebrew, the adam from the adamah.  'Man' is composed of dust...and what makes him live is breath.  A gentle opposite here, making us think of the dust our bodies eventually become in death, and the loss of breath that death entails.  We stop breathing, we turn to dust.
Here in the beginning, we are made from dust, we start breathing.  Breath means life.  The man became a living being.

It's an intimate verse, speaking of Yahweh as the one who forms the man - more picture language here - a creator moulding something extraordinary from dust and then breathing into it. I love the imagery used here.  I feel called to watch as he does something incredible with the substance of the ground itself, forming a new creature, and himself giving this creature life.

Here is a picture of a creator who is intimately involved in creation, deliberate and purposeful in creating the adam - the human being who becomes a living being.  For me this verse evokes a tender and focused act.  No randomness or off-handedness.  

...the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Wonderful.

In the beginning - the image bearers

<sup>Genesis 1

26</sup>Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

²⁷So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

²⁸And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." ²⁹And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.
³¹And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

***

The image bearers. Here we have something different - something that can no longer be called 'something' but 'someone'. Let us make man.

Both male and female constitute this image, together reflecting the likeness of God himself. This is a high view of humanity; made with the same raw materials as the other created beings, but given the pattern of God within them. A God of relationship.

And God blessed them. The power of blessing, so strong in the Genesis narratives is here,right at the beginning, performed by God himself. God is the one who blesses, the source of all blessing, where blessing begins.

The image bearers are special and they are blessed.

The image bearers have responsibility.They too are told to be fruitful and multiply, their life begetting life, potential 'someones' still to come. They are also told to have 'dominion' over every other living thing (with the breath of life - breath so powerfully associated with what it means to be alive).

We can think of dominion very negatively, and misuse the idea, making it about heavy handed unpleasantness, an abuse of authority, an imposition. But these are the image bearers, and it is God whose image they carry, the God who formed the earth and saw that it was good. If the humans are to truly reflect his image, they will care for the earth with the same care and concern as its creator. They are the appointed stewards, caretakers of the earth. They are not just part of the cycle of the living, they carry a special responsibility for it. They are given this responsibility. Their position in creation is a gift.

They are filled with potential.