God and Rhetoric of Sexuality (Overtures to Biblical Theology) by Phyllis Trible

Author:Phyllis Trible [Trible, Phyllis]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: National Book Network - A
Published: 1986-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Surrounding the poem and also occurring at its center, the feminine pronoun this (zo’t) unmistakably emphasizes the woman whose creation has made the earth creature different. Only after surgery does this creature, for the very first time, identify itself as male. Utilizing a pun on the Hebrew word for woman, ’iššâ, the earth creature refers to itself by the specific term for man as male, ‘iš. Sexuality originates in play, just as humanity did at the beginning of the story. The unit ’iš and ‘iššâ functionally parallels h-’dm and h-’admâ. Occurring at the beginning and the end of scene one, puns encircle Eros to give fulfillment and harmony through the delight of words.

With the advent of sexuality, the word h-‘dm acquires a second usage in the story. In episodes one, two, and three it designated one creature who was sexually undifferentiated (neither male nor female nor a combination of both).17 After God operates on this earth creature, to produce a companion, its identity becomes sexual. The surgery is radical, for it results in two creatures where before there was only one. The new creature, built from the material of h-’dm, is female, receiving her identity in a word that is altogether new to the story, the word ‘iššâ. The old creature transformed is male, similarly receiving identity in a word that is new to the story, ’iš. At the same time, the basic word for humanity before sexual differentiation, h-‘dm, now becomes a sexual reference so that it is used frequently, though not exclusively, for the male. With this altered meaning, the retention of the word h-’dm allows for both continuity and discontinuity between the first creature and the male creature, just as the rib allows for both continuity and discontinuity between the first creature and the female creature. The story itself builds ambiguity into the word h-’dm, an ambiguity that should prevent interpreters from limiting it to one specific and unequivocal meaning throughout. Furthermore, the ambiguity in the word matches the ambiguity in the creature itself—the ambiguity of one flesh becoming two creatures.

But no ambiguity clouds the words ‘iššâ and ’š. One is female, the other male. Their creation is simultaneous, not sequential. One does not precede the other, even though the time line of this story introduces the woman first (2:22). Moreover, one is not the opposite of the other. In the very act of distinguishing female from male, the earth creature describes her as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (2:23). These words speak unity, solidarity, mutuality, and equality.18 Accordingly, in this poem the man does not depict himself as either prior to or superior to the woman. His sexual identity depends upon her even as hers depends upon him. For both of them sexuality originates in the one flesh of humanity.

In the last two cola of the poem to Eros appear its only two verbs: call and take (2:23). They have already appeared earlier in scene one. Indeed, the verb call (qr’) occurs three times in episode three with reference to the naming of the animals (2:19, 19, 20).

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