What's A Family For? Series

Please turn to Ephesians 5

The symbolic significance of the “rib” is that the man and woman are fit for one another as companions sexually and socially. The body metaphor is employed by Paul in his writings to indicate respective roles in community, especially speaking of Christ and the church (cf. 1 Cor 12:21–25; Eph 1:22–23; 4:15–16; Col 2:19). Genesis 1–3 is the authoritative fountain for the apostle Paul’s soteriology and his instruction on home and ecclesiastical order (Rom 5:12–21; 1 Cor 6:16; 11:8–9; 15:21–27, 45–49; Eph 5:31; 1 Tim 2:12–15.). The Lord presents or “brought his special “project” to the man, suggesting by this that she is a gift from the man’s Maker. God performed the first marriage; He sanctified and blessed the first home and the first family (Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M., eds. (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (p. 18). Thomas Nelson.)

Paul explains God’s design in the relationship in Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:22-33 [22] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. [25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28] In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29] For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30] because we are members of his body. [31]"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." [32] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [33] However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (ESV)

• In Eph 5:22–31 Paul draws on the “head-body” imagery in a domestic metaphor where the husband as “head” of the wife parallels Christ as “head” of the church (cp. 1 Cor 11:3). To apply the roles specified here universally to other social contexts, such as government, education, or commerce, would be unwarranted, for chaps. 2–3 do not address such institutions. Creation and Eden (chaps. 1–3) give a balanced picture of the man and woman in cooperation and companionship. Although they share all in common, Genesis also acknowledges that there are differences. Their sameness does not mean exactness.

Adam’s response centers on the sameness in poetic verse in verse 23 that he and the woman share as opposed to the creatures. The parallel elements “bone [out] of my bones and flesh [out] of my flesh” have the preposition min, indicating source. Although “bone and flesh” are used figuratively in the Old Testament for kinship (E.g., Gen 29:14; Judg 9:2; 2 Sam 5:1; 19:12–13 [13–14].), this is the one place where it has a literal meaning, like our contemporary idiom for family, “flesh and blood.” Possibly the expression refers to covenant loyalty, in which case Adam is expressing a covenant commitment (W. Brueggemann, “Of the Same Flesh and Bone (GN 2, 23a),” CBQ 32 (1970): 532–42). “Thus it would serve as the biblical counterpart to the modern marriage ceremony, ‘in weakness [i.e., flesh] and in strength [i.e., bone]’ ” (Hamilton, V. P. (1990). The Book of Genesis. Chapters 1-17. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (180). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).