Knowing The Word in Genesis 2:24-25, The First Marriage

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. [This is a principle of the first marriage that applies to all marriages. Leaving father and mother means a man’s priorities change. Before, his first obligation is to his parents. Now it is to his wife. To become one flesh suggests both passion and permanence. It affirms that just as blood relations are one’s flesh and bone, so marriage creates a similar kinship between husband and wife. They become related to each other as brother and sister are.] 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. [They were unabashed, not disconcerted, as young children are unashamed of their nakedness. This is in total contrast to God clothing them after they try to clothe themselves at the end of chapter 3. In Genesis 1 it is not clear how the creation of man was achieved, nor how many humans God made to start with. Genesis 2, however, envisages just one couple being created, the father and mother of the whole human race. This enables them to function as the archetypes of every man or woman. This allows the writer to draw a universal principle about marriage and leaving parents and forming a one flesh union. Genesis presupposes that heterosexual monogamy is best for man from a social point of view and it enables the fulfillment of the command to be fruitful and multiply.]