The Original Marriage

If you want a marriage that flourishes, you need to know what marriage is, where it comes from, and what it is meant to be. You need to know what a man is, what a woman is, how they are the same, and how they are different. 

A great way to begin learning these things is by looking at the first man, the first woman, and the original marriage, described in Genesis 2.

There the Bible says that God formed the first man, Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being. The Lord put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

But something was missing. The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." God didn't make the ideal helper that instant. First Adam had to sort through various animals and birds and give each a name. Each animal was excellent in its own way. "But for Adam no suitable helper was found" among the animals. None imaged God as Adam did; none had a body and mind to match Adam's; none could produce offspring with him to fill and rule the earth. 

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

When Adam saw the woman, he knew that this wasn't just another animal for him to name. She was his own kind. She was just as human, just as much God's image, as he was. He exclaimed in delight, "This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."

"For this reason," says Genesis, "a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis adds, "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." Adam was magnificently masculine; Eve was fabulously feminine; both were happily human; and neither felt ashamed or inferior.