CREATION: MALE & FEMALE
This piece is very repetitive. I don't care.I'm open to correction.
GOD CREATING MALE AND FEMALE
Genesis 1:26-27 [KJV]:
And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 5:1-2:
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
AS THE NARRATIVE PRESENTS IT
1. God created humanity in his own image.
2. God created humanity [Man] as a plural unity and not two images.
3. “Him” and “them” are used interchangeably in the texts.
4. God called “their” name [not “names”] “Adam” [“humanity”].
5. Eve is not “humanity” independent of and apart from Adam.
6. Adam is not “humanity” independent of Eve.
7. Together they are named [identified as] “humanity”.
8. When we see ”humanity” as God created it we see a male & female pair.
9. That is “Man” [humanity] and when we see “the image of God” that’s what we
see—humanity as a plural but single reality and not as two independent images of God.
10. God created “him” male and female.
11. Gender distinctions are not confused or mixed but together they constitute
“Man”.
12. If you drew a single figure in a circle named humanity that would not be
what God created as humanity.
13. Only if you drew two figures in that circle would you be representing
humanity as God created it.
14. But God didn’t just create Man [humanity]—he created Man “in his image.”
15. If you drew one figure in a circle named "the image of God" you would not
be representing the “image of God” as God created it.
16. Only if you drew two figures as a single reality in that circle would you be representing “the
image of God.”
17. “The image of God” in humanity is seen in the Genesis account as male and
female, as a plural singularity.
18. God could have made two independent creations; he could have made the
woman out of the dust as he had made the man but the narrative says he chose
not to.
19. Genesis offers this truth as a creation truth and not as something that became
true after the Fall when curse entered.
GOD CREATING MALE & FEMALE: ADDED DETAILS
Genesis 2:18-23:
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
AS THE NARRATIVE PRESENTS IT
1. This is a creation narrative that adds details about the way in which God created
humanity. It says that the creation took place in two phases. The male was first
created and then the female was created.
2. The creation of humanity [Man] was not completed when the male was created
[as the earlier observations have made clear].
3. God says that it isn’t “good” that the male be alone. In the absence of a female the
situation is “not good” [but see Genesis 1:31 after the woman has made her
appearance—it is "very good"].
4. Adam [the male, here] names all the animals and whatever else is involved in
that exercise we’re told at its conclusion that in God’s created animal world there
was nothing that suited Adam’s need—nothing that made Adam’s solitary
existence “good”.
5. At this point God puts Adam to sleep and creates Eve [the female] out of a rib
from his side.
6. The man says, “Finally, at last” [see the versions and the literature], as distinct
from all that he has seen, named and identified in the animal world that God
created, “this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
7. Now that the female [Eve] has been created the male [Adam] finds himself
complete—without her, God calls the man’s existence “not good”. She is part of
him and he is part of her. They are "one flesh" prior to marriage.
8. [Marriage becomes the grand illustration of that truth—a truth that existed at
creation and before marriage—Genesis 2:24. Unmarried males and females are
together the image of God. It is a gender issue and not a marital one.]
9. This section adds narrative details not earlier spelled out and Paul, for example,
will call on it for various reasons. But these added details do not conflict with the
earlier mentioned creation texts and truths.
10. Nevertheless, these added details are not to be ignored.
11. However we understand Paul’s point when he uses this section he does make a
case built on the fact that the man [male] was created prior to the woman
[female]. See 1 Timothy 2:12-13.
12. However we understand Paul’s point when he uses this section he does make a
case built on the fact that the woman was created out of the man and for the
man. [“For” the man can be understood in more than one way.]
See 1 Corinthians11:7-9, taking note of 11:3.
SUMMARY TO THIS POINT
The Genesis creation narrative and Paul’s use of it tell us that as the biblical witness presents it there is no “humanity” or “image of God” without the male/female interdependent existence.
The Genesis creation narrative and Paul’s use of it tell us that within that “plural singularity” as created by God there are truths to be acknowledged and lived out in and as the “image of God.”
The Genesis creation narrative and Paul’s use of it tell us that these truths about male and female as “the image of God” are pre-Fall truths; they are what God purposed. They are not social constructs but creation truths.
God enabling I mean to take this a bit further.