The second creation story officially ended at 2:23. Verses 2:24–25 insert a fable’s moral.
At this point Creation 2.0 draws a curtain on its Act 1. Here are two reflections during this intermission.
- The morality of a series of new creations loosed by ’ishah and ’ish clinging to one another in both a bonding ritual of “one flesh” or generating a separate “single flesh” child has come down to us in its heterosexual truncation that marriage equals one man and one woman.
The United Methodist Church is presently “unclinging” itself—dividing into its competing visions of Grace—forcing Arminian (female?) apart from Calvinist (male?). This division over sexuality reveals different relationships between a creator and creation that goes far beyond the wedge issue of sexual orientation. The war over grace is more than this current battle over the limits of marriage within a culture and its ecclesial counterpart of ordination as a relationship between humans and G*D.
Such a division reveals the limits of morality as a decision-making tool.
- I appreciate The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon R. Kass. This resource is a stimulant to this blog.
Kass writes as a philosopher using Genesis as a lens to look at the topic of Wisdom. He does an excellent job of noting alternative perspectives from biblical scholars not in the mainstream. His book is a helpful adjunct to a pious/devotional or traditional approach to the Bible.
Kass has been correctly critiqued for his tendency toward patriarchy and male privilege when it comes to matters regarding sexuality. His writing on the second creation story (including the coming Act 2 — “Adam, Eve, and Serpent”) needs attentive reading lest the traditionalist bias of dominion over a created order and the female part of an androgynous first ’adam hold sway in a reader’s response to the story as told.
With this caveat, I do recommend this resource for its emphasis upon wisdom and midrash that keeps Genesis pertinent to today. Kass’s focus on narrative and philosophy over piety and morality is refreshing and stimulating.