Embedded within the opening stories of Genesis is a profound rendering of what it means to know and name ourselves, through first recognising and naming our deepest other. In the beginning, two people emerge from one source—Eve is formed from Adam. It is only, however, when one ‘sees’ the other and calls out to that other, and names that other as distinctly and uniquely female, that the other recognises himself for who he distinctly and uniquely is.
This see-name-know encounter is recorded in Genesis 2:23 offering us the first usage of the words ‘woman’ (ishah) and ‘man’ (ish) in the Torah. The verse reads, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman (ishah אִישָׁהּ) for from man (ish אִישׁ) she was taken” (JPS). Until this point in the text, the first man has been referred to as HaAdam הָֽאָדָם֒, literally ‘the Adam’, with the use of the definite article (not included in most English translations). ‘The Adam’ was formed out of the dust of the ground, the feminine adamah אדמה, and infused with Divine Breath (the ruach ר֫וּחַ, which is the Spirit/Wind/Breath of God and also a feminine noun). Until the definitive moment when he stands opposite his deepest other, he is known only by the ground out of which he was formed. Before this encounter, he was literally known as ‘earth-ling’ or ‘ground-ling’.
Traditional rabbinic interpretation does not see ‘the Adam’ as either male or female, but possibly both. There is an androgyny to this pre-Eve state. Yet earlier in the text, prior to the creation of Eve, we are alerted to the fact that in Adam’s singular state something is missing and needs to be ‘found’. This ‘finding’ of another is intimately connected to the process of naming: “and the Adam gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found” (Genesis 2:20). Naming all the animals in the garden invites and awakens a conscious search for the other. Ramban (Nachmanides), a medieval Jewish commentator who wrote extensive commentaries on biblical passages, emphasises that being alone and autonomous in the Garden is ‘not good’ because ‘the Adam’ would live a static, unchanging and unwilled life. Humans need to live face-to-face with their other, living a life choreographed by freedom and delight, discovered through partnership. (Indeed, the word ‘Eden’, transliterated as a place name for the Garden in these early passages in Genesis, literally means ‘delight’. As such it is not necessarily a place name, as much as a description of the Garden itself.)
The-Adam had to recognise and name the one formed from the same bone before he could truly know and name himself.
Interestingly, if we look closely at the text, it is only when the name of the ishah (woman) is actually given and spoken aloud, that ‘the Adam’ becomes aware of his own maleness. Conscious of himself as an ish for the very first time, he can now identify and name himself as such. The-Adam had to recognise and name the one formed from the same bone before he could truly know and name himself. Man, we could say, was conscious of himself as a man, only after he was conscious of woman. Truly seeing another also implies being seen, and when we are truly seen something inside of us is brought to life. What can this teach us? That recognising and embracing another allows us to know more fully who we are; we are more complete in connectedness with and to others.
There is a rich word in the Shona language of southern Africa, which articulates just such a connectedness. Ubuntu, roughly translated ‘I am who I am, because you are who you are’, communicates a healthy dependency and acknowledges that we need one another, quite simply to be whole. That is why God places us in community, in connection with one another, fitted together as the body of Christ. Let us seek connection and remain connected.
By Dr Julie McKinley
Cherie Fox - July 9, 2021
I had not thought about this before; Adam not recognising he was a man until he saw a woman. Thank you for such an interesting article!
Richard Fowler - July 9, 2021
I agree! It is interesting that Adam names Eve and himself last, after naming the animals. Naming something has great significance in Hebrew thought.