The design of God in the creation of the woman is perceived by Adam, as soon as he awakes, when the woman is brought to him by God. Without a revelation from God, he discovers in the woman "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh." The words, "this is now (הפּעם lit., this time) bone of my bones," etc., are expressive of joyous astonishment at the suitable helpmate, whose relation to himself he describes in the words, "she shall be called Woman, for she is taken out of man." אשּׁה is well rendered by Luther, "Mnnin" (a female man), like the old Latin vira from vir. The words which follow, "therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh," are not to be regarded as Adam's, first on account of the על־כּן, which is always used in Genesis, with the exception of Genesis 20:6; Genesis 42:21, to introduce remarks of the writer, either of an archaeological or of a historical character, and secondly, because, even if Adam on seeing the woman had given prophetic utterance to his perception of the mystery of marriage, he could not with propriety have spoken of father and mother. They are the words of Moses, written to bring out the truth embodied in the fact recorded as a divinely appointed result, to exhibit marriage as the deepest corporeal and spiritual unity of man and woman, and to hold up monogamy before the eyes of the people of Israel as the form of marriage ordained by God. But as the words of Moses, they are the utterance of divine revelation; and Christ could quote them, therefore, as the word of God (Matthew 19:5). By the leaving of father and mother, which applies to the woman as well as to the man, the conjugal union is shown to be a spiritual oneness, a vital communion of heart as well as of body, in which it finds its consummation. This union is of a totally different nature from that of parents and children; hence marriage between parents and children is entirely opposed to the ordinance of God. Marriage itself, notwithstanding the fact that it demands the leaving of father and mother, is a holy appointment of God; hence celibacy is not a higher or holier state, and the relation of the sexes for a pure and holy man is a pure and holy relation. This is shown in Genesis 2:25 : "They were both naked ערוּמּים, with dagesh in the מ, is an abbreviated form of עירמּים Genesis 3:7, from עוּר to strip), the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Their bodies were sanctified by the spirit, which animated them. Shame entered first with sin, which destroyed the normal relation of the spirit to the body, exciting tendencies and lusts which warred against the soul, and turning the sacred ordinance of God into sensual impulses and the lust of the flesh.

Genesis 2:24 Parallel Commentaries

leave.

Genesis 24:58,59 And they called Rebekah, and said to her, Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go...

Genesis 31:14,15 And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house...

Psalm 45:10 Listen, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father's house;

cleave.

Leviticus 22:12,13 If the priest's daughter also be married to a stranger, she may not eat of an offering of the holy things...

Deuteronomy 4:4 But you that did join to the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.

Deuteronomy 10:20 You shall fear the LORD your God; him shall you serve, and to him shall you hold, and swear by his name.

Joshua 23:8 But hold to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.

Psalm 45:10 Listen, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father's house;

Proverbs 12:4 A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that makes ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

Proverbs 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

Acts 11:23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all...

and they shall be one flesh. The LXX. Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Samaritan read, they two; as is also read in several of the Parallel Passages.

Malachi 2:14-16 Yet you say, Why? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously...

Matthew 19:3-9 The Pharisees also came to him, tempting him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause...

Mark 10:6-12 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female...

Romans 7:2 For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead...

1 Corinthians 6:16,17 What? know you not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, said he, shall be one flesh...

1 Corinthians 7:2-4,10 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband...

1 Corinthians 7:11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.

Ephesians 5:28-31 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself...

1 Timothy 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house...

1 Peter 3:1-7 Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word...