Marriage: One Plus One Equals One

In my previous post I pointed to the mystery of marriage by suggesting a more accurate translation of Genesis 2:21-22, the story of Eve's creation. In that account we read how the LORD split Adam in two by taking one of his sides to make Eve. When Adam awoke he saw his other half, like him, yet different. He was separated, alienated, but here she was. He could only become one by being united to her, his wo-man.

Al Purdy points to this wondrous, strange union in words from his well-known song, "Being Alive."

Someone you have to let in

Someone whose feelings you spare

Someone who, like it or not

Will want you to share a little, a lot of being alive

Make me alive, make me confused

Mock me with praise, let me be used

Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive!

The LORD who created us declared from the beginning that "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Genesis 2:18). That was why He made Adam a helper fit for him. What does that mean? It points to what Purdy wrote about, what Barbra Streisand sings about, what it means to be alive. Alone is alone, not alive. And Adam could not change that by being alone. So the LORD made a helper fit for him.

Paul comments upon this when he encourages fellow believers to "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Ephesians 5:21). Then he goes on to spell out the implications of his exhortation in marriage. The Greek word for submitting (hypotassmenoi), although once a military term for arranging troop formations, here refers to giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, carrying a burden—and doing it voluntarily, out of love.

In this strange union of one man and one woman the two will encounter a paradox—one plus one equals one, not two. In this union Adam sang the first love song.

This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Gen.2:23)

This was it! This was the great therefore:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen.2:24)

And it remains the reason why men are so attracted to women and women to men, why we long to be married, joined, bonded and glued together, to become one flesh. So the whole human drama of marriage, family, community, people and country began and continues to this day. 

Now that you know the back story, the rest of the mystery of marriage will begin to unfold. You will see why it is absolutely impossible to redefine marriage in ways never intended by the Creator and Author of life. 

More on this another day.