Monday 31 October 2005

The miracle and mystery of creation (Gen. 2)

“The creation of woman [in Gen. 2] is very far removed from that of man, for it is the last and most mysterious of all the kindnesses that Jahweh wished to bestow upon the man.... As distinct from the animals, [the woman] was a complete counterpart, which the man at once recognised and greeted as such. So is elucidated the age-long urgency of the sexes for one another, which is only appeased when it becomes “one flesh” in a child.... The Jahwist’s story of creation practically issues in this aetiological explanation of the power of eros as one of the urges implanted in humanity by the Creator himself, and so gives the relationship between man and woman the dignity of being the greatest miracle and mystery of Creation.”

—Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology I (New York: Harper, 1962), pp. 149-50.

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