Genesis 2:23, commentary and pictures

Adam recognized the woman God had made from a rib taken from his side while he slept and brought to him as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, calling her Woman because she was taken out of Man. Taken from his side to stand beside him, she was made to be his equal companion and second self in love and sympathy, to be loved and protected rather than ruled from above or trampled from beneath. From this beginning God ordained marriage as one man joined to one wife in a holy union of heart with heart as one flesh, blending spirit and life together rather than living for self alone. Entered with holy purpose this union is meant to cheer, bless, refine and complete both husband and wife, guarding purity and happiness while elevating the physical, intellectual and moral nature for the good of children and society. The same bond of shared bone and flesh is fulfilled in Christ clothing His divinity with humanity identical with our own, drawing near to fallen beings instead of cutting loose from them to deliver them from death and serve as a merciful and faithful high priest.

Eve Formed in Eden

God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took one of his ribs, made the rib into a woman, and brought her to the man, and Adam recognized her as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh and called her Woman because she was taken out of Man. Christ was present at the creation as Commander in the heavenly courts. Adam was appointed monarch of the world under God.

Eve was formed from a rib taken from Adam's side to be a companion corresponding to him, one with him in love and sympathy. Being taken from his side means her place is beside him as an equal to be loved and protected, not above him to rule as head and not beneath him to be trampled as inferior. Being made a part of him makes her his second self. God originally designed woman to be her husband's equal, and her distinctive duties are more sacred and holy than those of man, and the world needs mothers who are mothers not merely in name but in every sense the word implies.

God created the race male and female on the principle of a division of labor in which the sexes are complements but not equal in faculties, capacities, duties, and adaptations for the same work. Each sex is not the other but is necessary as the complement of the other, and it takes both to complete either. Unlikeness in body, mind, heart, and aesthetic and spiritual endowments is as remarkable as likeness, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot every vital organ by form, locality, or function revealing its sex. The distinction is to be kept unmistakable including in costume, and dress serves as a guard and restraining monitor to protect virtue and keep society from becoming Sodom.

The family and the Sabbath were both established in Eden, with the family intended to share work, study, worship, and recreation. Adam and Eve lived in Eden in holy innocence with communion with God and sinless angels before sin entered, and Adam was still in that innocence. At creation Adam and Eve were perfectly happy in untainted purity in the Garden of Eden, an emblem of heaven and of God's love, with beautiful fragrant flowers, precious fruit trees for man's good, and birds singing praise that delighted them. Those sights and sounds are what God still wants people to rejoice in, and it is not His order for people to be crowded into city terraces and tenements. Sin marred His purpose and brought care and anguish, yet His image is to be impressed again on souls, angels are to fill hearts with heavenly peace, His people are to be joyful in His goodness, mercy and love, and sinners are to be converted for God has not abandoned the earth.

The Eden home given to Adam and Eve was lost through transgression of God's law. Jesus ransomed humanity from Satan by perfect obedience, and those who do not transgress as they did but obey all God's requirements and overcome as Christ overcame will be brought back to that Eden home, pointing others heavenward. The first marriage was celebrated by God Himself when He presented Eve to Adam, with angels as witnesses, making the Creator of the universe the originator of marriage as honorable, one of God's first gifts and one of the two institutions Adam carried beyond Paradise after the fall.

Marriage and Family Kinship

Marriage is a sacred and holy ordinance arranged and sealed by God in Eden to create homes. Marrying in itself is lawful and the fulfillment of duty, marvelously adapted to man's nature, not sinful. God's order for marriage from the beginning is one man joined to one wife, established by giving Adam one wife. Plurality of wives is contrary to that order and came from following carnal, sinful desires after the fall, and multiplying wives increases wickedness and unhappiness. Disregard for marriage and property, seizing neighbors' wives and possessions by force and killing, violates justice and led to rapidly increasing crime, wretchedness, and exulting in violence.

The woman taken out of man was made after man to be a companion and helpmeet, to be one with him and blend heart with heart as one flesh. No longer living for self alone, husband and wife blend in spirit, words, and speech with one mind when Christ abides in the heart, joined in the love and fear of God to glorify Him by consulting, praying, and searching Scripture together, which carries forward God's work. True oneness is not made by the ceremony and vows alone but comes afterward through this blending, made happy by true heart affection, while carrying selfish ideas into marriage causes much unhappiness. The holy purpose of the union is for the wife to cheer, encourage, bless, respect and reverence her husband, to soften and improve his character and give it completeness. For the husband it is to be her strong helper, to love and cherish her and obtain the pure affections of her heart, and entered with holy purpose marriage is meant for perfect love and harmony, with human love refined, purified, elevated and ennobled by divine love.

Because a wife is bone of her husband's bone and flesh of his flesh, her husband must impart blessing and care to her, and to fail in this is not right and just. When divine principles are recognized and obeyed, marriage guards the purity and happiness of the race, provides for social needs, and elevates the physical, intellectual, and moral nature. It was designed by Heaven to bless humanity and brings responsibilities beyond mutual love, including consideration of the health and physical, mental, and moral character of children and the influence of the family on society. Christ put His seal on this Eden institution and began His work by sanctioning it as Maker of the first pair and their paradise home amid the singing of the morning stars and shouting of the sons of God. He came not to destroy it or the law but to fulfill the law, restore marriage to its original sanctity and elevation, and restore the moral image of God in man.

The sin connected with marrying, as in the days of Noah, is not marrying itself but perverting what is lawful by making eating and drinking, buying and selling, and marrying and giving in marriage the supreme objects of life, corrupting God's gifts through excess and using them to minister to selfish desires. Eve was a part of Adam himself, his joy valued above every other blessing, and God had given her to be his companion. Adam regarded her as part of himself, his love made him unwilling to face separation, and love, gratitude and loyalty to the Creator were overborne by love to her and fear of losing her, so he deliberately shared her fate and died with her. He forgot that the Infinite Power who made him from dust and gave him a companion in love could supply her place. In creating Adam and Eve as parents of all, God designed every person to stand related to all others as part of one web of humanity made for reciprocal action, with all connected together and the whole connected to God, so nothing is independent and no one can be dropped without affecting the whole.

Being bone of bone and flesh of flesh names close relatives of one's own family and household, calling for regard, care, and sharing with needy relatives who appeal for help. Those rushing for earthly treasure, riches, honor, and fame disregard even that bond, holding gains tighter and refusing to divide for fear of loss. A father's children are blood of his blood and bone of his bone, joined by a close flesh-and-blood tie that claims his heart with tender love, sheltering arms, and protection. That bond lays a sacred first duty on him as head of the house to keep his interest fixed on them with tender sensibility, ready sympathy, and thoughtful care to make them happy, to take them to his heart and speak when things are not right. This is to be done with unselfish Christlike sympathy rather than silence from fear of displeasing his present wife or care moved only by self-gratification, for God will deal with parents as they deal with children, God is not pleased when another steals the father's heart away, and unfaithfulness to his own lambs leaves a shepherd unfit for God's blessing in caring for others.

The same bone-and-flesh bond describes a mother's close, true and faithful bond to her own children, which a stepmother fulfills when she is as true, constant, and faithful to her husband's children as if they were her own, preferring their interest and happiness to her own. The phrase also gives language for loving another as one's own child. Woman's distinctive duties are more sacred and holy than man's, and the world needs mothers who are mothers not merely in name but in every sense the word implies.

Christ Sharing Human Flesh

Adam's words about shared bone and flesh describe Christ becoming truly human and sharing the nature of those He came to save, clothing His divine nature with humanity to be made flesh and dwell among men. He took a human body and a human mind identical with our own. After Adam's sin plunged the race into hopeless misery, He did not cut Himself loose from fallen beings but by this human relationship drew men close to God, coming still nearer to demonstrate before the heavenly universe, the unfallen worlds, and the fallen world how much God loves the human race, and this identity is the power of His influence.

He did this to deliver people from death and the devil through His own death, to reconcile them to God, and to serve as a merciful and faithful high priest able to help those who are tempted. From His first entrance into the world He entered poverty, faced disappointment and trial in His own home among His own brethren, lived without the pure and lovely company of heaven, and was compassed with difficulties. He came to maintain a pure sinless character and to refute Satan's lie that human beings cannot keep God's law, living the law in human character in just the way all may live it in human nature if they do as He did by taking hold of God's strength to make peace with God. His was a created human nature identical with our own, not even possessing angelic powers, so that as man He could be strongly tempted and could yield, passing through the same test Adam and Eve passed through on the ground where Adam fell in order to redeem Adam's disgraceful failure and fall. Whereas Adam in Eden was still in his innocence, Jesus took humanity weakened by the effects of four thousand years of sin.