The Discovery Of Genesis

They Shall Be One Flesh
Even today the Chinese man refers to his wife as “my
inside man.” One character sometimes used for wife is
$J ,2 which also carries the more common meaning of
within, inside, or inner, and is very similar to the larger
character for flesh h This combination of symbols for
flesh, wife and within inside, inner, seems more than
coincidental when compared with the Biblical narrative
of the creation of Eve, Adam’s mate.
Thus Eve is depicted as originating in Adam. Paul
in the New Testament also says this about the woman:
“He [a man] is the image and glory of God; but woman
is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman,
but woman from man” (I Corinthians 11 :7, 8). Think of
the uniqueness of this situation: a woman being formed
from the body of a man. It happened only once!
We look to this first couple, Adam and Eve, as our
common ancestors; “And God blessed them, and God
said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
and subdue it’ “(Genesis I :28). The thought-provoking
question might be asked : why did God not simultaneously
create 10 couples, or 100, or 1,000, is order to populate
the earth quickly? Why this time-consuming process
with only two persons? Another alternative, God might
have given the first man several wives for the same purpose.
However, it was God’s plan to create only one
couple, male and female, for the beginning of the human
family.
Of the several words in the Chinese language signifying
the beginning, there are three characters that appear
to correspond to the Genesis narrative and commemorate
the most momentous beginnings in original history.
The first of these memorializes the beginning of mankind,
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