{"id":735,"date":"2011-02-01T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=735"},"modified":"2022-04-07T09:39:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T01:39:54","slug":"25-are-men-more-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=735","title":{"rendered":"25. Are Men More Important?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c<strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man<\/span><\/strong>\u201d [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Genesis 2:23<\/span>].<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Creation-of-Adam.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-739\" title=\"Creation of Adam\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Creation-of-Adam.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"611\" height=\"282\" \/>\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/creationeve2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" title=\"creationeve2\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/creationeve2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"238\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[L] Michelangelo\u2019s iconic Creation of Adam. [R]\u00a0<em>Creation of Eve<\/em>, by\u00a0William Blake, c.1803-05.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A super-intelligent boy of 8 years of age came out from Sunday school and his mother was at the car waiting to take him home. At that age, the boy was obviously putting on his thinking cap when he asked, \u201cMom, do you know why we call God \u2018Father\u2019?\u201d \u201cNo, why?\u201d the mother replied. \u201cBecause He is a man. So Jesus called God our Father in heaven.\u201d The mother knew her son. She knew that something else was coming after this. \u201cYa, ok,\u201d she just answered real casually as if that was no big deal, while she slowly eased the car out of the church compound. Then the boy continued, \u201cThat\u2019s why men are more important.\u201d The comparative \u201cmore\u201d here clearly implies \u201cwomen\u201d as the subject of comparison. \u201cOh, is that so? How did you get that?\u201d asked the mother. Sensing that he has solid backing for his knowledge, the boy confidently answered, \u201cYou see, mom, God is a man, and the Bible says God first created the man and only afterwards created the woman. That\u2019s why men are more important.\u201d Q.E.D.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Not bad for an eight-year-old, using Scriptural backing with apparent ease to demonstrate his claim. Did he just get some biblical tips from his Sunday school teacher on that one? Perhaps the teacher was talking about the story of creation from the Book of Genesis that morning? Whatever, the trouble is, the boy\u2019s Sunday school reference to the Bible did not go deep enough to clarify the <em>relative importance<\/em> of boys and girls, if ever there was such a thing at all in the will of God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Old Testament gives us two creation stories out of different traditions. In the first story, the first chapter of the Book of Genesis narrates creation in six days, completing the cycle on a day of divine rest on the seventh day. A few preliminary points stand out for us here.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At the end of the third, fourth and fifth days, the first two days being the creation of light and separation of the waters, God saw what He made and it was \u201cgood\u201d. At the end of day sixth, after a habitable garden was made ready for humanity, God created the man and the woman \u2013 the summit and crowning glory of His creation. He <em>then<\/em> saw all He had made and it was \u201cvery good\u201d \u2013 the first usage of the superlative.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In this first creation story, God made both man and woman together. When God said, \u201cLet <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">us<\/span><\/em> make <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">man<\/span><\/em> in our image, in the likeness of <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ourselves<\/span><\/em>\u201d, the word \u201cus\u201d and \u201courselves\u201d signify divine consultation with the heavenly court, while the word \u201cman\u201d, translated from the Hebrew \u201c<em>adam<\/em>\u201d, is <strong>a collective noun <\/strong>which includes man and woman. The full meaning of mankind, or better \u201chumankind\u201d, is achieved only when there is man and woman. The divine intention is crystal clear: it is \u201clet us make humans\u201d. We should mention in passing that instead of \u201cLet us make man in our image\u201d carried in the Revised Standard Version (RSV), the <em>New<\/em> Revised Standard Version (NRSV) now reads \u201cLet us make humankind in our image\u201d. \u00a0So long as Christian religious texts of whatever category intended for circulation within the faith community continue to use the grossly inadequate word \u201cman\u201d, or worse \u201che\u201d, to denote both man <em>and<\/em> woman, instead of speaking inclusively in terms of \u201chuman\u201d or \u201cthey\u201d or \u201che and she\u201d, our eight-year-olds and even their Sunday school teachers will continue to be quite confused and in error.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And so, <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">man and woman<\/span><\/em> were created in the image of God and thus share the same fundamental dignity, <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">man and woman<\/span><\/em> were blessed by God, <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">man and woman<\/span><\/em> were told to be fruitful and multiply, and <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">man and woman<\/span><\/em> were given dominion over all creatures that move in the earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The second chapter of Genesis begins by saying God completed the work of creation on the seventh day, blessed that day and made it holy, and He rested on the seventh day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The second creation story narrated in Genesis 2, however, is a whole lot different from the first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>The<\/em> <em>man was made from dust<\/em>, lifeless at first, and was given life through the gift of the breath of God. Here the emphasis is very different. The man [<em>ha adam<\/em> in Hebrew] is specified as being made from earth [<em>ha adama<\/em>] thus conveying the image of humankind\u2019s relation to earth, an earth-creature whose material-origin is earth (recall \u201cand to ashes you shall return\u201d). Also conveyed here is the image of the Divine Maker as a potter molding clay (Jeremiah 18:6). At this point, <em>the man<\/em> did not possess any sexual distinction, not until the woman was created in 2:22. \u00a0Meanwhile, <em>the man was desperately lonely<\/em>, needing a fitting companion. Translated, that means the man was experiencing a deep longing for community. So God put the man to sleep, took a rib from him and fashioned it into a woman and brought her to him. The man welcomed this new creature as \u201cbone of my bones and flesh of my flesh\u201d. He called her \u201cwoman\u201d for she was \u201ctaken out of man\u201d. Gender distinction began at that point, and the two went on to become one flesh..<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Under closer scrutiny, a shocking truth emerges about the woman that offers a rebuttal to the eight-year old boy\u2019s statement that \u201cmen are more important\u201d. In fact, the woman in this second creation story is presented as God\u2019s most special creation. How do we get there?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We turn to St Thomas Aquinas of the 13<sup>th<\/sup> century. He has an exegetical principle which shakes our usual interpretation of the creation stories. This principle is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>What comes last in the order of execution is first in the order of intention. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the first creation story, being the last created before God rested, human creatures were the ultimate intention in God\u2019s plan. Creation was not complete without man and woman in place. One might even go on to say that creation would have been pointless were it not populated by human beings. Who would be there to even say the word, \u201cGod\u201d? And then, in the second creation story, since woman was created after man, and God did not rest after creating man, we would have to accept, based on Aquinas\u2019 principle, that woman was undoubtedly God\u2019s masterpiece \u2013 the last \u201citem\u201d executed in the work of creation to cap it all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There is more, for the man in the second creation story was fashioned directly out of dust and then given life by God\u2019s breath, which perhaps explains why men tend to be a bit \u201csquare\u201d [at least comparatively so]. As the men are evidently more deserving of the description of \u201cblockheads\u201d when it comes to sensitive and emotional matters, women today are challenged to forgive their stiff and blockheaded men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Turning our focus on the woman, the picture we get is evidently different. She was <em>not<\/em> <em>fashioned directly from dust<\/em>, but from something that was taken out from the man who by then was already flesh and blood, imbued with God\u2019s <em>ruah<\/em> or Spirit, and capable of feelings and emotions, knowing that he was lonely, lamenting it, and desiring community. With her starting point clearly a step up from the man, her development was understandably faster. That perhaps explains why women are so much richer than men in emotional cells and in feelings. Women being so much more gifted in intuition and sensitivity, men today are also challenged, but in a different way &#8211; to learn to bear with their women whenever necessary in the rich department of intuitions, emotions and sensitivity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Combining the two creation traditions in Genesis 1 and 2, one realises that God places His secrets in men and women who are supposed to complement each other; yet, surprisingly, it is in the women \u2013 God\u2019s masterpieces \u2013 that God saves for the ultimate disclosure of His secrets. The \u201cfemale genius\u201d that Pope John Paul II referred to clearly included women\u2019s special gifts to nurture nature and to care for the gifts of nature. They love better and care deeper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">However, as with all gifts, the special gifts of women come with a heavy responsibility. As women, their duty is not to encourage their men to be aggressive, even violent, to go and grab as much wealth, status and power as possible for the family by any means and to trample on others if that\u2019s what it takes to get there (like \u201cthe ends justify the means\u201d). Instead, the special role God has assigned to women is to love, to care for, and to nurture the gifts of nature, and to teach men \u2013 square, blockheads, and mad because they are insensitive, violent, aggressive, and often power-crazy \u2013 to love, care for and nurture the gifts of nature. If the women fail to do that, they fail God\u2019s will in the special gift of the female genius. This world would then be so much more impoverished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh, February 2011. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to <strong>jeffangiegoh@gmail.com<\/strong>. You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThis at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man\u201d [Genesis 2:23]. \u00a0 [L] Michelangelo\u2019s iconic Creation of Adam. [R]\u00a0Creation of Eve, by\u00a0William Blake, c.1803-05. A super-intelligent boy of 8 years of age came out from Sunday school and his <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=735\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"\u201cThis at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man\u201d [Genesis 2:23]. \u00a0 [L] Michelangelo\u2019s iconic Creation of Adam. [R]\u00a0Creation of Eve, by\u00a0William Blake, c.1803-05. A super-intelligent boy of 8 years of age came out from Sunday school and his&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7021,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/7021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}