The Discovery of Genesis (27 page)

The Genesis record continues: “And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘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
’” (Genesis 2:22, 23). The
person
that was taken out of Adam, molded from his rib, was Eve. How happy he was that she was actually his flesh, a part of him!

Even today the Chinese man refers to his wife as “my inside man.” One character sometimes used for
wife
is
,
²
which also carries the more common meaning of
within, inside, or inner
, and is very similar to the larger character for flesh
. 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
” (1 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 1:28). 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,
. It is composed of two familiar radicals:
two
and
man
, an adult. The beginning of the human family had just two individuals, also adults. The Chinese, who were often polygamous in practice, might have thought in terms of three, four, five, or ten persons (
, or
) for the
beginning
of mankind. But they did not do this. The character
further confirms the Hebrew writings as recorded in the book of beginnings.