The Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”
Genesis 2:18
Dear members and friends,
In the Bible, the first time we read “not good” is about “the man being alone.” In a way, it appears that a single man was created first and was lonely. And, somehow most people might claim to know his name: Adam. Yet, if we were to read Hebrew, it appears to be somewhat strange and different. The normal practice of Hebrew almost never takes the definite article “the” for proper names, such as Abraham or Moses. In Genesis chapters 1-3, it is always written as Ha-Adam, which in translation should be “the human” or “the earthling.” Also, in Hebrew the ground or soil out of which Adam was formed is Adamah. Thus, we could see that Adam was neither a name nor a distinctive word to describe a male person. Rather, Adam meant mankind who were made of ground (Adamah). Interestingly, beginning with Genesis 4, Adam appears as the name of a single individual, while Eve appears as his wife.
What we must remember reading Genesis is that chapters were neither written at the same time nor written by one author. It is, therefore, reasonable to understand that each chapter might have its own background and message. In Genesis 2:18-25, there are two main messages: one literal and another symbolic. Literally, it is about how marriage came into existence, and how a husband should treat his wife emphasized in “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Yet, we cannot help to notice that this poetic exclamation by the man already seems to have male superiority over female, meaning the influence of later time (2300 BC or later) when the standing army was created and praised for their strength and valor. Symbolically, according to Swedenborg, the story has nothing to do with human genders, thus creation of the woman is not about creation of a female gender at all. As the original material from the man for the creation of the woman was a rib, which protects his heart, the creation of the woman symbolized God granting humanity what they desire the most in their hearts: a certain sense of ownership of their life and autonomy from the Creator. In other words, the first humans moved away from their Creator because of the desire to have ownership of something that does not originate from them. “Not good” in Genesis 2:18 means that there arose a desire for ownership in the hearts of the first humans.
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a moment of meditation this week. Find time and space, and sink into the depth of your heart. Then, let us pray for wisdom and love. May the wisdom from God illuminate your heart, so that you find true love that is from God.
Blessings,
Rev. Junchol Lee