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Yahweh elohim said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground Yahweh elohim formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So Yahweh elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that Yahweh elohim 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; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
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This is the Track 2 Old Testament reading that will be read aloud if a church is following the Track 2 path during Year B. It will be read on the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 22], according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. If read aloud, it will be paired with a singing of Psalm 8, which includes the verse praising, “You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, to quell the enemy and the avenger.” Those will precede the Epistle reading from Hebrews, where Paul wrote, “It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” All will accompany the Gospel reading from Mark, where is written: “Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”’
In 2018, the last time this reading came up in the lectionary cycle, I wrote my observations and posted them on my website. I placed focus on the genetics of ‘Adam’s rib,’ which is the remarkable truth that is to be found in this reading. Therefore, I firmly stand behind what I wrote three years ago, as I feel it is necessary to see that truth come forth. I invite all readers to click on this link and read what I wrote then, as it still applies today. Again, I welcome comments, questions, suggestions and corrections. However, at this time I will take a different angel approach to this reading, as it is an anchor for all the readings on this Sunday.
In the above translation I have amended the text to show the specific combination of words written (four times) that are “Yahweh elohim.” In all of these places, the NRSV [like all translators] states this simply as “the Lord God,” as if saying “the Lord” was not enough for Moses (the author), feeling the need to specify, “Oh, you know the God Lord, not just any old Lord.” That ridiculousness [putting words into the mouth of a Son of man (Moses)], when translators would not know Yahweh if He spoke to them in a dream, denies the obvious truth that says “el” translates as the singular “god” [not capitalized] and “elohim” translates as the plural “gods” [again, not capitalized].
In Genesis 1 Moses recited for rote memorizers to eventually put down on scroll parchment the word “elohim” thirty-two times. Not once did Moses [who was told by God, “Tell them I Am That I Am … or Yahweh for short.”] have the memorizers memorize the name “Yahweh.” Genesis 1:1 begins by stating, “In the beginning created elohim.” That infers creation was all possible only by Yahweh, so the first step in that process was the creation of “elohim” or little-g gods. Call them angels or call them the laws of physics, all of them are eternal beings and none of them possessed material bodies, as that was the point of the Creation: from the Spiritual came the material.
Now, the people who try to build ladders to stand on, which makes them feel higher than Yahweh [call them science worshipers], they like the idea that Genesis 2:1-3 was written by some guy they call “E” [short for the “Elohim writer”]. They theorize that "E" wrote Genesis 1 and then began to write Genesis 2, but somebody yelled out “Break time!” so E ran off, never finishing Genesis 2. The Big Brains figured out that E left a piece of scroll mostly unused, so this “J” guy [the Germans pronounce a “Y” like a “J”, so this is who they presume is the “Yahweh writer,” or “Yahwehist”] comes in and finishes Genesis 2, where he writes “Yahweh elohim” (in that exact same order) eleven times. So, rather than be devoted to Yahweh and asking Him to guide their understanding of this change, the eggheads say, “E wrote Genesis 1, which includes Genesis 2:1-3 as the end of Genesis 1; and, J wrote Genesis 2:4 through Genesis 4.
By seeing the word "elohim" as clearly meaning the “gods” created by Yahweh, to create the physical realm (by His design), it is then a simple adjustment in the minds of divinely led readers, to see the seventh day [a day we still live in today] as being when "Yahweh elohim" were “gods” possessed by Yahweh Himself. Two, in particular [Man and wife], would be angels placed within bodies of flesh, formed by the hand of God. This is then the creation of the first Saint, the one we love to call “Adam,” and the first “Saint” [the French would denote gender as “Sainte”], the one we love to call “Eve.” By being “saints” they were “Yahweh elohim,” while all the human beings [male and female, made by the elohim on day six] were not elohim and did not have a clue who Yahweh was. So, Yahweh created “Yahweh elohim” for the purpose of sending them to earth as the first priests of Yahweh [ergo teachers of religion].
In these verses, when it seems as if "Yahweh elohim" is more like Yahweh talking to Himself [the Lord God], this should be read in multiple ways. First, in the Creation of the first “six days” [eons of time uncalculatable otherwise], when “elohim” means all kinds of spiritual, unseen presences directing things [aka “matter”] to form. These same “spirits” were the heavenly host who stayed closest to Yahweh, as “Yahweh elohim.” Second, “Yahweh elohim” can be seen as the soul that was to be placed into the body that would be a divine “man.” Because a soul is only a creation of Yahweh, those creatures created on “day six” by the elohim, using Yahweh’s design, were all life souls that came from Yahweh, but because they were not directly formed from earth by Yahweh, they were simply life forms – souls in bodies of flesh – unable to hear the voice of Yahweh. This means the soul of Adam was a “Yahweh elohim” before it was placed into an earthly form. Third, once the soul of Adam was in his body of flesh, he became a “Yahweh elohim” that had form. In a body, Adam was able to communicate with Yahweh directly.
At this time, when in Eden (the garden or enclosure), Adam (man) was like a demigod, rather than a pure human being, meaning he did not age fast, although he did age, because he was formed from the earth. Just like a “day” of Creation is an unfathomable number of years in earth time, the forming of Adam in Eden cannot be seen as being fixed, according to the conception of time human beings accept. Thus, from his infancy, Adam was able to communicate with Yahweh, as an elohim in the flesh, which could have placed Adam in this protective environment for quite some time, relative to the geological and archeological assessments of the earth’s age.
In this selected reading, the Hebrew word “ezer” is written, which means “helper.” This is after we read Adam was “alone.” The Hebrew word translated as “alone” is “bad” [transliterated “lə·ḇad·dōw”], but the word better states “separated” or “apart.” This should be understood as Adam being created in something akin to a bubble, where he existed in the flesh on the earth, but not part of all the other things existing in the flesh on the earth. Think of this like Hollywood loves to present ‘haunted houses,’ where ghosts live in the same place, but in different states of being that keep one from knowing the other is there.
This means a “helper” should be seen as a necessary aid for all souls, such that in all life forms on earth none can exists in solitary. This becomes the way lifeforms congregate in numbers of their own species, such that all souls in the flesh are social creatures. The reason there is “safety in numbers” is because many provide help that otherwise would be absent. Therefore, Yahweh created ‘special’ animals (not necessarily the creatures that existed on the earth – like giant fish, lizards and fowl called dinosaurs) that could see Adam and Adam could see and touch them. That social interaction was then a help to Adam.
The aspect of Adam being able to name animals is a statement that divine communication existed. As this occurred well before the Greek and Roman Empires arose and the languages of Greek and Latin were created, such that this is less a statement about phylum and genus being determined, this takes one down to the individual relationship level, where each and every creature [“every animal of the field and every bird of the air”] had a personal relationship with Adam. I imagine language in this rudimentary era means human beings grunted like animals, with their grunts understood; so, language was more telepathic than oral. More than a lion being called a “lion,” the meaning here is something like: “Adam called that lion Rusty,” because Adam asked the lion what its name was and was told, “I like the name Rusty, because my fur is red.” The animals all had souls that could communicate divinely.
This is where it must be realized that Adam and all the animals were divine creatures, not simply those animals created on days five and six. The creations on days five and six (including the fish of the sea) all needed to breathe, eat and drink to live, mate to propagate their species, and age from birth to death. Those creatures created by Yahweh elohim on the seventh day, in the garden of Eden, were of divine nature in form, thus none of them needed to kill or be killed, none needed to breathe, or eat food and drink, and mating and aging were unnecessary. The fruit from the two trees in the center of the garden must be seen as spiritual food, not physical food. To eat only the fruit from the tree of life means there was no necessity to breathe air. Life was the presence of Yahweh within them all, making all creations of day seven in Eden be Yahweh elohim. They were essentially angels placed in physical bodies of flesh.
When we read [NRSV], “but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner,” the Hebrew translated as “helper as his partner” is (transliterated) “‘ê·zer kə·neḡ·dōw” [from “ezer neged”], which actually says, “helper opposite to.” This says Adam [a male form, albeit sterile, like a child] not only had no other forms of flesh holding a divine soul that were human, but he had no other souls in human form that were his opposite [a female form, albeit sterile, like a child]. This is where the DNA genetics is important to catch.
Yahweh certainly had the ability to whip up some more earth (like He did making the divine animals of Eden) and make a female version of Adam. Because Yahweh did not do that, each of the creations He personally crafted as Yahweh elohim had a most specific genetic code. For Yahweh to make a female like Adam would be the difference between the elohim creating Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons – similar, but different. Each creation had a specific DNA sequence, so as each were made, “male and female elohim made them.” Each species was made as opposites, so each could mate and propagate on the earth. Yahweh, of course, played a role in the formation of babies and the breathing in of souls, in all species.
When we read, “Yahweh elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept,” sleep must be seen as metaphor for death. Since a soul cannot die, being an eternal being – an elohim – death means the separation of the soul from the physical form. Just as Lazarus was “only sleeping,” Jesus knew Yahweh had placed the soul of Lazarus outside his body of flesh, with the plan being to restore that flesh to life, by returning the elohim to it. In this case with Adam, his soul was taken away so Yahweh could duplicate his DNA code in a second body of earth, with the difference being instead of an XY sex chromosome, the opposite form would be made XX. When two opposite forms of flesh were complete, the soul of Adam was returned to his male form, while the soul of Eve was breathed into the female form.
Again, because Adam had no opposite prior, there was no need for him to be making babies in Eden. One can assume that Adam was created in the bubble of an womb, which would have been with the Yahweh elohim that is Mother Earth. As such, baby Adam would take an unknown amount of heavenly time to grow and develop to something like a ten-year old child. Eve would have been made the same, again using the divine egg of Mother Earth and her Yahweh elohim womb. This would mean Eve was given to Adam in the same way a son would be allowed to hold his new baby sister, having come from the same parents. The ‘age difference’ would be planned as appropriate for a male to have a younger wife. Still, Adam and Eve were more like identical twins at different stages of development, more like brother and sister than husband and wife.
When we then read of Adam saying, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken,” this is him being presented a new ‘animal’ to name, just as he had been presented other creatures of the air and ground. By saying, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” Adam recognized Eve was his opposite, of the same species, not an animal and not a different type of man. Because the only difference was in sexual orientation, he said, “this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” In that, the Hebrew needs to be realized, as the word meaning “man” as a sexual statement is “ish,” and the Hebrew word for “female, woman, wife” is “ishshah.” In other words, Adam named Eve “the opposite of me.”
This then leads to the concluding verse that says [NRSV], “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Jesus will bring this out in the Gospel reading from Mark, when talking to Pharisees about divorce. This is seen as a statement of marriage; but Adam was not old enough to realize what the purpose of marriage was. The translation of “ishshah” as wife, when in Adam’s mind he was saying “female,” means Adam knew that he (“man” – “ish”) and Eve (his sister, “ishshah”) came from a “father” and a “mother,” which means a child has both – without a clue what makes a “father” be that and a “mother” be that as well. To Adam [the equivalent of a ten-year old boy], Yahweh and Earth were Yahweh elohim; and, those two kept bringing him new creations to name. Now, they had brought him a female form of himself, so the two opposites made one whole, both of the same flesh.
If one jumps ahead in the banishment portion of this story (Genesis 3), one sees how the punishment of sin would mean all the realities of men and women living as mortals on the earth, with all the pains of childbirth and parenthood completely unknown to both Adam and Eve. Thus, the “cleaving, clinging, or joining” [from “wə·ḏā·ḇaq,” rooted in “debaq”] actually means “keeping close” as the same species, with the exact DNA chromosome count. The divine element that comes from this [because Adam was a Yahweh elohim] says Adam was paired with another Yahweh elohim like himself, both him and Eve having come from the merger of Yahweh and Earth, as divine, which is better than being simply human. This needs to be seen as why Jesus responded to the Pharisees that divorce was adultery, in the same way that rejecting a soul’s marriage to Yahweh was sinful. One needs to marry one’s soul to Yahweh, in the same way that the DNA of a sperm merges with the DNA of an egg – all split and rejoined by the Hand of Yahweh – so the union of the two can never be separated or torn asunder.
As the Track 2 Old Testament reading for the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should already be well underway, the lesson here is divine marriage to Yahweh. One is called to be the wife of Yahweh so one’s soul is made into a Yahweh elohim. Because Eve had been created and handed into Adam’s arms, he proclaimed that both men and women could become Yahweh elohim, as souls born from the father and the mother that were Yahweh and elohim. Both could be one in the flesh. Ministry is all about this divine marriage. The message to preach is the truth of divine marriage, which is the truth of marriage as a Sacrament. Marriage of this divine nature cannot be given to anyone else. It is up to each soul to bow down before Yahweh and receive His Spirit. Then, ministry is spreading the truth so others will seek to do likewise. Only in that way can a Saint pass on the sacredness of divine marriage.
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