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Was man first made androgynous? The Hebrew word baanaah from the side of the man God builds the female, through whom the human race is to be built up by the male. Gen 1:27-28 “He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them” “The distinction drawn between ‘otow (OT:853) (in the image of God created He him) and ‘otaam (OT:853) (as man and woman created He them) must not be overlooked. The word ‘otaam (OT:853), which indicates that God created the man and woman as two human beings, completely overthrows the idea that man was at first androgynous” (cf. Gen 2:18ff.). (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary) Adam was created mature in mind and body and he was made with age, as was all of creation. How did Adam become a human being? Gen.2:7 The Hebrew is nephesh chayah means a living being. Nephesh does not mean a soul, as in a separate entity. The man that was formed from the ground became a breathing creature, having a life of its own. Because of the breath breathed into him, he became alive. He had a unique personality all his own. Man then was made of two distinct parts, physical and non- material, substantially made a tri-part being consisting of spirit, soul and body. Adam became a creature by his natural body and his spiritual nature. The image of God was directly given to man by the breath of God that gave him life, spiritual life. Gen. 2:7 “ And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”-literally, lives in Hebrew. Adam was endowed with the property of continuing life, his nature passed to his offspring. God made a woman from Adams side for this to occur. Gen 2:15-25 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. …v.18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." Adam was put into a sleep while God made Eve from him, ishshah meaning feminine, a woman. Gen 2:18 signifies one like, or as himself, standing opposite to or before him. And this implies that the woman was a perfect resemblance of the man being neither inferior nor superior, she was made with the same nature that man had (having the image of God), the same in kind as he was. Eve was not breathed into as she was alive However she was designed differently to be his helper. She was made from a small part of Adam that he once had authority over: it cost Adam a part of his own body to have Eve. In Genesis 2:22- 23, we find reference to Adam calling the female 'woman'. He says, “ This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”, or the same substance, a blood relation, of the same body. “ She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” It was a woman that was taken from the side of Adam to be a suitable mate, another Adam (human kind) Adam, the man was made first. Women are called a “helper” to man, this is more than being an assistant, a “helper” (`ezer-help) means a co-worker. When it comes to women and the concept of submission in the Bible, it does not imply that she is inferior to man in any way, but she is ordained to have a different position in relation to man, each having distinct roles, but they are one in marriage. So because she was “taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23), the man has the preeminence, as he was the source of the helper, therefore we have both the principle and the position that “The head of the woman is the man.” In the same manner the head of man is Christ the Son of God who was the creator of Adam first, then the woman. So was set into place the creation order. 1 Cor. 11:8-9 “ For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. ” This describes an ontological order, a creation ordinance of man and women. In creation, God made Adam first and then Eve was taken from his side to be his helper. Eve was made after Adam, not from the ground, but from Adam himself. Gen 5:1-2 “ This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him (mankind – singular) in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created . (plural them, they) It is William Branham that taught emphatically on man being both male and female, androgynous when he was created in heaven (not earth) and many word faith teachers accept this terrible interpretation, such as Kenneth Copeland. Branham taught that God is an androgynous being, and that he created man as both male and female in his image. “ And man in his spirit was both man and woman.” (58-0928E) This is a standard teaching from occultists and mystics. As it is also what the mystical book, the Kabbalah teaches: “All souls are pre-existent in the world of emanations, and are in their original state androgynous, but when they descend upon earth they become separated into male and female ” (p. 35 Kabbalah). The creation story told to Hermes by god in the first book of the Corpus Hermeticum. God created an androgynous man, in God's own image, and handed over his creation. Other mystics also misinterpret the bible Jacob Boehme wrote “God created man in His own image. Male and female (in one) created He them.” (Chapter VII. Man The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme, by Franz Hartmann, 1891) Madam Blavatsky, the famous occultist, refers to Adam Kadmon, the Primordial Being as “the androgynous Adam” (p.67 By H. P. Blavatsky) “there was a time when Man-in-the-making was a hermaphrodite, male-female” (Freemasonry and Catholicism by Max Heindel Part VII The Philosophers stone –what it is and how it is made.) Gen 1:26-28 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, “Man,” meaning the species, mankind. “them” (see also Gen 5:1-2) What it does not mean is that man was both male and female first and that God separated the female part to make a woman.
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