Genesis 2:23,24

GENESIS—NOTE ON Genesis 2:23 This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Compare Genesis 29:14. Marriage creates the closest of all human relationships. Heterosexual monogamy is the divine pattern for marriage that God established at creation. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. Marriage creates obligations that are more important than one’s duty to one’s parents. In ancient Israel, sons did not move away from home when they married. They lived near their parents and inherited their father’s land. But they “left” their parents in the sense of putting their wife’s welfare before that of their parents. The term “hold fast” is used elsewhere for practicing covenant faithfulness (e.g., Deuteronomy 10:20). Thus, other Bible texts call marriage a “covenant” (e.g., Proverbs 2:17; Malachi 2:14). Paul’s teaching on marriage in Ephesians 5:25 is founded on this text. When a man leaves his parents and takes a wife, they shall become one flesh. That is, they become one unit, a union of man and woman. This oneness is consummated in sexual intercourse. Jesus appeals to this verse and to Genesis 1:27 when teaching about marriage (Matthew 19:4).