Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

In the account of creation in Genesis 1, on both the fifth and sixth days of creation, after God had made living creatures, he told them to be fruitful and multiply. This command could not have been carried out unless there had been a male and female of each species to make reproduction possible. 

The account in Chapter 1 groups this creation together with respect to humans and animals, making it seem as if God created the male and female of both animals and humans at the same time. However, Genesis 2 then makes it clear that, in the case of humans, God created the male of the human species first.

This condition could not have been intended by God to be permanent (or even of long duration), since it would then not have been possible for humans to multiply as God had commanded in Chapter 1. This was one of the senses in which God would have said that it was not good for the man to be alone. 

I believe that it was also to impress upon man both his uniqueness and his need for a companion similar to himself, in the same way that each animal species contained a male and a female. In the case of humans, however, this related not just to the biological process of reproduction, but to the realization of the full range of abilities and emotions given to humans that had not been granted to any other creature; that constituted the fullest sense of having been created in God's image; and that could not have occurred if there had only been a single gender. It was also indicated by the woman being formed from the man himself, rather than merely spoken into existence (like the animals), or formed from the dust of the ground (as the man had been). 

The fact of the man initially having been alone would have resulted in this awareness on his part, and given him an appreciation of the manner in which the woman possessed unique characteristics that complemented his own, and that were intended specifically for benefiting their shared life together in a way that could not have been achieved separately, or between man and any other living creature.

July 05 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report