We all know the story: in Genesis 2, God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, and only at the end of this chapter is Eve created from one of Adam’s ribs. This is the traditional understanding: Creation of the Man occurs first, whereas creation of the woman occurs much later, after the animals are created. However, some Jewish commentaries read this story in a very different way.
The Hebrew word “adam” doesn’t denote a male only. The first time adam occurs in Genesis 1:26 when God says: “let us make adam”[1] – and the explanation, “male and female He created them,”[2] clarifies the nature of this human being. We find the same idea later: “He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them adam.[3]” Thus, Genesis first refers to adam in the singular, but then says that God created “them” male and female.
So was it one being or two? A number of rabbinic passages maintain that the first human actually comprised of both genders. Thus, Midrash Bereshit Rabba says: “man and woman were originally undivided, i.e. adam was at first created … hermaphrodite”. In Midrash Leviticus Rabbah we read: “At the time that the Holy One, Blessed Be He created Man, He created him as an Androgynous”. So, from the dust of the earth God forms a human who is both male and female.
God looks at this two-gendered creature and says: lo tov – “not good”[4]. This was definitely not the ideal way of creating a male/female couple, so God divided them into two people. That’s why, when a man and woman marry, they become “one” flesh: they return to God’s original design before theman and the woman were separated.
[1] Gen. 1:26, adam here is usually translated as Man.
[2] Gen. 1:27
[3] Gen. 5:2, adam here is usually translated as Mankind.
[4] Gen. 2:18