The Two Become One—The Marriage of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:18-25)
God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” Why is it not good that man should be alone?
God created man for community and fellowship. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. Acts 2:44-47. Romans 1:11-12. God Himself is a social creature (Jn 17:5).
God intended to make a helper “comparable” to the man. The King James Version: “an help meet for him.” How is the woman “comparable” to the man?
Differences in Men and Women
- Women have greater constitutional vitality, perhaps because of their unique chromosomal makeup. Normally, females outlive males by four to eight years in the US.
- Women’s metabolism is normally lower than men’s.
- Men and women differ in skeletal structure, women have a shorter head, broader face, less protruding chin, shorter legs, and longer trunk.
- Women have larger kidneys, liver, stomach, and appendix than men, but smaller lungs.
- Women’s hormones are of a different type and more numerous than men’s.
- Women’s blood contains more water and 20 percent fewer red cells. Since the red cells supply oxygen to the body cells, women tire more easily and is more prone to faint. Her constitutional vitality is, therefore, limited to “life span.” (When the working day in British factories was increased from ten to twelve hours under wartime conditions, accidents increased 150 percent among women but not at all among men.)
- On the average, men possess 50 percent more brute strength than woman (40 percent of a man’s body weight is muscle; 23 percent of a woman’s).
- Women’s hearts beat more rapidly (average 80 beats per minutes vs 72 for men). Women’s blood pressure (10 points lower than men’s) varies minute to minute, but women have less tendency toward high blood pressure.
- Women’s vital capacity or breathing power is significantly lower than man’s.
- Women withstand high temperatures better than men because a woman’s metabolism slows down less.
God parades all the animals in front of Adam to see what Adam would call each thing. Why would God want Adam to participate in this exercise?
Why was there not a suitable helper found for Adam? Didn’t God already know what He was going to do? Why bother showing Adam that none of the animals was a suitable helper for him?
God performs “surgery” in order to create the woman. Why would God form woman out of Adam’s side? Are there any implications of this for marriage today?
Notice how excited Adam is when he sees Eve. “This is now bone of my bones…” He understands just how alone he has been.
A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. How does this take place? How does a man demonstrate that he has left father and mother? How is a man joined to his wife?
The man and his wife shall be one flesh. What is involved in being one flesh? What implications are there for today?
Why were the man and wife naked and unashamed? What changed that?
This Bible class was originally taught by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at the Dale Ridge church of Christ in Roanoke, Virginia.