Friday, May 04, 2012

Pondering, pondering: The Androgynous Adam

So am sitting here wondering how different the original Adam was from the Adam after Eve was taken out of him and the Adam after the fall. In the same way, the earth and universe God created is slightly different from the earth we have now because the original earth was surrounded by water and had water inside and around and below it...and all the land mass was in one place. Then the ground was cursed, then the flood came and the earth was divided.

Anyway, back to Adam. It appears that Adam was somewhat androgynous in the beginning, made both male and female. There seems to be an issue here with pronouns.  Him and them. Our finite minds can't comprehend a being which is simultaneously both a solitary him and a plural them. But man was created to be plural just as god is plurally-one..a kind of gathering into one. God even told him to be fruitful and multiply although as yet Eve didn't exist. I don't even want to ponder that.


And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.  Genesis 1:27-28


Then God took the female part out of Adam. Now when he took the female part out of Adam, Adam was not entirely himself...so Adam declares that marriage is about finding the other female aspect of one's self and becoming one again. I won't go into the spiritual aspects of how this is about Christ and the Church. The description of this physical realm -- at the beginning of earth's creation-- is weird enough.


18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:18-24

So then they take the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil... I'm kinda thinking it was a real fruit. Heck, why shouldn't it be? Many things in nature are mutagenic and will change the cells of people who eat it or of their descendants. Also, many things in nature affect the brain.  Consider folks who take LSD and see colors not normally seen within the limitations of the human eyes. So I have no problem understanding or believing there could be a fruit that could affect neurons and brain cells. This fruit was majorly powerful it would seem to be both mutagenic toward the body, the descendants of the eaters and to also affect the brain in such a way. Oh, but I digress.

Back to man being cleft in two...Jesus talks about this later.

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?4And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:3-6
And Luke gives us an even stranger expansion of the idea. Paul later tells us that in Christ there is no male or female. He states that angels do not die and are immortal ...uhm..so what does that have to do with marriage? Is immortality not conducive to marriage? Or vice versa? Gotta think about this. He also goes on to say that they are wrong that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead and that God is only the God of the living. So, is Jesus saying that God is living in the eternal present and so everyone is alive before God? Or perhaps he could be saying that God is not aware of the spiritually dead?  Several times the apostles use the phrase "now that you are known of God" For instance in Galatians 4;9 ("But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?")
Or maybe Jesus is saying something else we are too carnal-minded to understand? 
34And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 35But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: 36Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. 37Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.38For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. Luke 20: 34-40
Matthew writes that in heaven men and women do not marry, but they are like the angels. This could mean that angels don't marry and/or that angels are a gender that is both men or women and/or that angels may or may not be men and women but they fall in love but they don't marry or that there is a kind of sexuality and kinds of relationship that is not understandable to human minds.

29Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.  Matthew 22;29,30
And Mark repeats it again;


2And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. 3And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? 4And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. 5And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.  Mark 10:2-9



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