The first account of creation doesn't have the issue of man's original solitude. It's only in the second narrative that man starts out alone and then woman is created as his companion. It's in the second narrative that we find more fodder for thought.
Going back to my last post, you can't appreciate a state of being, unless you have a context for it, but you also need to understand the lack of that state. We know cold because it is a lack of heat. The two terms help to define one another. What's heat really mean, if you've never been without it?
So man's original solitude helps to define the companionship and unity that exists after the creation of the woman. He was alone, and then he was not. The two states define one another.
'Let us add that up to a certain point, the second narrative of the creation of man keeps the form of a dialogue between man and God-Creator. That is manifested above all in that stage in which man ('adam) is definitively created as male and female ('is - 'issah). The creation takes place almost simultaneously in two dimensions: the action of God-Yahweh who creates occurs in correlation with the process of human consciousness.'
God acknowledges that it is not good for man to be alone (Gn 2:18) right before Adam realizes that there is nothing else on the planet similar to himself (Gn 2:20).
Man is then put into 'sleep', and when he awakes he finds that he has a companion. It's almost as though he went to sleep longing for a companion, and woke up with the perfect match. Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. Did he think, even for a second, that he had dreamt her into being?
Some dreams we want to come true! :) Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteSusanne,
ReplyDeleteToo true. But it is funny, he goes to sleep depressed because he's alone, and wakes up, and there's the perfect companion. There had to be a few moments when he thought he was still asleep. :)
Loves this post!
ReplyDeleteSuroor,
ReplyDeleteThanks!