Clarification on a Biblical passage

  • Thread starter Thread starter coolduude
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

coolduude

Guest
I’m afraid I don’t quite understand Genesis 2:24.

This is what it says:
*23 The man said,
Click to expand...
***“This is now bone of my bones
***and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
***for she was taken out of man.”
Click to expand...
*24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Click to expand...
I included the previous verse for some context.

I don’t really understand verse 24. A man leaves his family for marriage because woman was created for him? That’s how I understand it right now; I’m mostly just confused though. What does this passage actually mean?

Thank you,
Coolduude:cool:
 
It means…

Stay at home, unless you want to find yourself sitting in a divorce court like a chump while the feminist judge and the feminist lawyers carve you up like a thanksgiving day turkey.

👍
 
Are you not sure about the apparent “chicken and egg” mentioned in one of the above response…that is, with the first man and woman. The first man “leaving his family”?

Or is it something else you’re not sure of?

Adam was alone…and something told him he was alone…and that the other animals were not for him.

His own body didn’t make sense as long as he was alone. Once he saw woman his own body made sense. He knew then he was made for someone else, for communion. Pope John Paul II in his collection of addresses making up the Theology of the Body beautifully describes the meaning of this…I believe he uses the express “spousal meaning of the body” or maybe “nuptial meaning of the body”.

Sorry if I misunderstood your question.
 
Edward_H said:
Are you not sure about the apparent “chicken and egg” mentioned in one of the above response…that is, with the first man and woman. The first man “leaving his family”?

Or is it something else you’re not sure of?

Adam was alone…and something told him he was alone…and that the other animals were not for him.

His own body didn’t make sense as long as he was alone. Once he saw woman his own body made sense. He knew then he was made for someone else, for communion. Pope John Paul II in his collection of addresses making up the Theology of the Body beautifully describes the meaning of this…I believe he uses the express “spousal meaning of the body” or maybe “nuptial meaning of the body”.

Sorry if I misunderstood your question.
Click to expand...
I’m afraid you did; no worries 🙂

Let me try to rephrase my question then. Why does a man leave his family? The preceding verse doesn’t answer the question. Well, not up front anyway. I’m guessing a man leaves his family to be united with a [his] wife because God created men and women for that purpose? Verse 24 just doesn’t make a whole ton of sense to me right now. :o
 
coolduude said:
I’m afraid you did; no worries 🙂

Let me try to rephrase my question then. Why does a man leave his family? The preceding verse doesn’t answer the question. Well, not up front anyway. I’m guessing a man leaves his family to be united with a [his] wife because God created men and women for that purpose? Verse 24 just doesn’t make a whole ton of sense to me right now. :o
Click to expand...
The reason we leave is that we weren’t made to stay with our born family, but to multiply God’s love, mainly through the means (and fruits of) nuptial or spousal union. That’s what spousal meaning of the body entails.

We were made for love; our very bodies are imprinted with the purpose of our lives. This is part of what JPII’s Theology of the Body is all about.

Marital union is but a foretaste of divine union with God.
 
“We were made for love”. Quite an interesting statement; I’m sure it will fascinate me for a while! 😃 🙂
 
God made the woman for the man because no other animal in the Garden was suitable as a companion for him. But then the man sees the woman and says, “This at last is bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” No other creature is fit for me because You have made no other creature of my kind until now. Finally, there is a helper fit for me - there is woman for the man!

And therefore a man leaves his father and mother to take a wife, because God has made woman for the man. He has made the sexes with complementarity; i.e., He made it so that we’re “made for each other.”

edit: I think I’m misunderstanding the question too! 😛

I don’t see v. 24 addressing why a man leaves his parents but rather why he takes a wife and cleaves to her. The leaving-your-family part is a side detail.
 
Because if a man marries and stays too close to his family of origin, all hell will break loose between the mother-in-law & daughter-in-law. :D. 👍
 
Edward_H said:
The reason we leave is that we weren’t made to stay with our born family, but to multiply God’s love, mainly through the means (and fruits of) nuptial or spousal union. That’s what spousal meaning of the body entails.

We were made for love; our very bodies are imprinted with the purpose of our lives. This is part of what JPII’s Theology of the Body is all about.

Marital union is but a foretaste of divine union with God.
Click to expand...
This is beginning to make sense, but I don’t understand all the rational behind it. Can you please elaborate?
 
JaredR said:
God made the woman for the man because no other animal in the Garden was suitable as a companion for him. But then the man sees the woman and says, “This at last is bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” No other creature is fit for me because You have made no other creature of my kind until now. Finally, there is a helper fit for me - there is woman for the man!

And therefore a man leaves his father and mother to take a wife, because God has made woman for the man. He has made the sexes with complementarity; i.e., He made it so that we’re “made for each other.”
Click to expand...
I understand that the sexes are complimentary, but why does that mean we have to leave our families and get married?

Obviously no one wants to live with their parents for 30 years… 😛 But why does the fact that the sexes are complimentary mean that we have to get married?

I’m just a jumbled mess in my head right now :whacky:
 
It seems an error has occurred. I received about 5 emails saying that there were responses to this thread, however when I checked back here there wasn’t anything new. So you guys either did post then delete the post, didn’t post at all and the CAF notification system is broken, or I’m going nuts 😛

If you guys did post and I just can’t see them, can you copy/paste into a new post so I can read what you said? If that’s not too much work though 🙂

Thank you,
coolduude:cool:
 
coolduude said:
I understand that the sexes are complimentary, but why does that mean we have to leave our families and get married?

Obviously no one wants to live with their parents for 30 years… 😛 But why does the fact that the sexes are complimentary mean that we have to get married?

I’m just a jumbled mess in my head right now :whacky:
Click to expand...
I don’t think it is so much that BECAUSE the sexes have complementarity that we leave, but instead that - let’s face it - one of the couple has to leave his or her family, no?

And perhaps for the sake of growth and balance and self-development (requiring a couple to get on their own feet, developing best and to their fullest extent their talents and gifts) it’s best for both man and wife to BOTH leave their family, drawing strength from each other now, vs. lounging around the basement apartment, living off one of the couple’s parents.

Not sure why you’re having a hard time with this one. Tell us more.

I wouldn’t get all wrapped around the axle with the construction of “That is why…”. I don’t think it’s always constructive to rigidly apply english parsing rules to Biblical verses and constructions, as if they’re coming from a physics or chemistry book.

There are some examples of the use of the word “until” that lead people afield.
 
I guess I’m just new to the Theology of the Body and what it means. I’ve been trying to figure out what love is exactly and why it is that way.

For example: Why should I love others? Why should I love my girlfriend more than a stranger (applying agape love)? Why do two people love each other? Why is it like that?

I’ve been able to answer most of those questions, but only generally. I am curious, as you can probably see 😛 Verse 24 was stopping me up so I asked for clarification.

I hope this all makes sense! 👍
 
coolduude said:
I guess I’m just new to the Theology of the Body and what it means. I’ve been trying to figure out what love is exactly and why it is that way.

For example: Why should I love others? Why should I love my girlfriend more than a stranger (applying agape love)? Why do two people love each other? Why is it like that?

I’ve been able to answer most of those questions, but only generally. I am curious, as you can probably see 😛 Verse 24 was stopping me up so I asked for clarification.

I hope this all makes sense! 👍
Click to expand...
We love others for a number of reasons. We are commanded to love by God. And experience tells us that when we give ourselves fully, generously, with abandonment, without counting the cost, good things come about in great measure all around us.

For example, when we smile when we don’t feel like it, when we help others without them knowing it, when we decide not to be resentful, to rehearse and sharpen bad memories, good things happen. The power of the Holy Spirit spills out.

Our nature was designed to love, to respond to love. We may screw ourselves up, or others may damage our willingness to love.
 
Good points 🙂

I understand we should love other people (“love one another as I have loved you”) but why should I love my girlfriend more than a stranger I help on the street?

I apologize if these questions sound dumb :o 😦
 
coolduude said:
Good points 🙂

I understand we should love other people (“love one another as I have loved you”) but why should I love my girlfriend more than a stranger I help on the street?

I apologize if these questions sound dumb :o 😦
Click to expand...
You need to remember the harder definition of love, to will and to work for the natural and supernatural good of another.

You and I are not God. We are limited. God knows this and gives us vocations which we use to channel and focus our limited abilities and time and energy. Toward those ends we love most.

This doesn’t mean we don’t love the new born baby born this morning in a mud hut in the village of Udarkhun in Pakistan. But in practice - using the real definition of love (contrasted with the airy fairy one, the we-are-the-world definition of love) we need to spend our energies and ourselves fully along the pathways of our vocation.

The devil would love it if we decided to actually try to love the whole world in that abstract, we are the world, one atom deep sense. There’d be no time to actually do anything useful and substantial in our ordinary life. No real time to play ball with our children, to help the neighbor with his fence line, because we’re too busy writing letters to the UN.

So we pray and do what we can for the whole world, but our main effort of love needs to be spent (I am emphasizing spent…as in real work not feelings) along our somewhat limited vocational paths. A priest doesn’t lay awake at night wondering about whether he could be offering confessions to a small city 726 miles from his own church.

Shepherds have specific flocks for a reason.

God understands we are limited - He made us - that’s why he gives us vocations to focus and channel our finite energies.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top