Genesis 2:21-23 "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man..."

"So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, 'This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken’" (Genesis 2:21-23 NRSV).

Question:

Considering the biological reality that the male contributes but one cell to a new human life and the female all the other cells—the baby literally takes the minerals for its bones from the mother's bones and the proteins for its flesh from her flesh, and it is the female whose being is painfully opened to expel men, not the other way around—this passage comes across to me as an example of male appropriation of female power. The pervasive "golem" myth, the fantasy that the male is capable of creating life (and civilization) independently of the female, has been so destructive throughout history to both men and women as well as to the whole planet. Must we reject this passage as merely the historical product of male jealousy, fear, and power-mongering, or is there some metaphysical way to redeem it?

Comment:

Well, it may indeed be a passage based in "male jealousy, fear and power-mongering," but it can also have a powerful metaphysical dimension. But to get there, I think we have to set aside what we think we scientifically know about male/female for a moment. Up to this point the being called “Adam” has not been a man as we would think of a man today. He has been a being both male and female—created in the image and likeness of God, which means that he contains and expresses the Allness of God.   What happens here is not that a different being to be called “Woman” is created as an afterthought. No, what happens, I think, is that the Allness of Adam is separated into two distinct energies. In physical form, this is depicted as man and woman. But in fact, since each of us is an expression of the Christ, which contains all aspects of God, what this means is that the Power of God in us is separated into two complementary entities. We all contain both; our physical forms simply express which spiritual force is expressing most strongly in us in this particular life experience.   Why? It's hard to describe, but I think, as Genesis suggests, we were “lonely” as the Allness. The creative process that we are about to undertake requires a sense of duality, an interplay between different energies—all aspects of the one Source.   So I agree that this particular aspect of this particular creation story has caused a lot of trouble through the millennia—as much in the Bible has. But you can't blame the book for the blindness of the reader. There's a profound metaphysical truth, helpful if we are to understand our spiritual purpose and how it's meant to express, in the image of a loving, intimate and profoundly creative interplay among different aspects of one divine Source.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed