Sameness

When Adam first sees the woman in Genesis 2:23 and declares “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,” the excitement isn’t about sexual attraction. Adam’s words simply don’t translate that way.

It’s about SAMENESS.

It’s about seeing someone who is an equal. She is someone who can help Adam address the one thing that isn’t good about all of creation: that Adam was alone.

The reason I mention the “not about sexual attraction” bit is because… quite literally, “Adam & Steve” DOES work here, because the text is pointing to loneliness.

If you don’t understand this, I suspect you simply don’t have friends. You don’t understand that God gave us one another to address that woeful experience of being alone.

Human sexuality is a separate topic and a separate layer of experience. Friendship and recognizing sameness in others is a higher order of relationship.

To Know

The fact that Genesis 4 opens up with “Adam KNEW his wife” is striking. Yes, this is the Hebrew way of saying sex, but the wording suggests that immediately prior to this chapter, Adam did not know Eve. Not really.

We read that “their eyes were open” in Genesis 3, but perhaps “seeing” does not mean “knowing.” It requires something more.

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
Genesis 4:1 (NKJV)

Sexuality

I don’t believe temptation and the fall in Genesis 3 is specifically about sex, but there are things in the language that seem to link them.

I can’t shake this question: Is there anything more strongly linked to shame and sin than sexuality? Has it always been this way?

It’s an extremely heavy topic, and while I don’t think Genesis 3 is about sex, I think that the hints in the language are meant to help us understand that the brokenness we experience in our sexuality is like a living parable for what spiritual brokenness is.