Orthodoxy, Myth, or Something Else
Opening his eyes after a deep sleep, Adam’s gaze was fixed upon the most alluring figure. In that moment he announces, “She shall be called woman”[1]
Adam’s identifying announcement is either a matter of orthodoxy, myth, or something else. If orthodoxy, his words bring a great deal to the table in identifying a woman and questions of how he knew. If myth, his words can be read as mansplaining by not giving Eve the opportunity to identify herself, “My name is Eve, I am a woman and I go by the pronouns she and her.”
But there is something else to consider that speaks to the progressive and impressionable mind today. It come from the fictitious character called Jiminy Cricket in Disney’s 1940 movie Pinocchio.[2] Serving as the conscience of those who want to change their identity from a woman to a man or a man to a woman, Cricket suggests, “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are; anything your heart desires will come to you.”
I’m not mocking the biblical text, nether am I mocking individuals and their identity. I am, however, mocking the insanity of the identity culture that sets the stage for Jiminy Cricket to whisper into the ears of men who want to be women, and women who want to be men because it apparently ‘makes no difference who you are…”
Senator Blackburn’s question at Justice Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing brings to light that Jiminy Cricket already has the ear of progressive people. “Can you provide a definition for the word woman?”[3] Brown’s response, “I’m not a biologist.”[4] Admittedly, she could not precisely answer in the context she was asked. Perhaps a better question from Blackburn could have been, “Are you a woman and can you define that identity?”
Yet, the Democratic nomination for President of the United States declared with her exaggerated cackle, “I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, I am a woman.”[5] So Vice President Harris is now a biologist? My point is that Jiminy Cricket is jumping from shoulder to shoulder with his dandy umbrella and top hat randomly playing games with progressives, confusing their audience, and more so, making progressives look cross-eyed and disoriented after a lobotomy.
Let’s go back to Adam’s identifying announcement, “She shall be called woman” and ask a few congressional questions of our own.
1. Who wrote Genesis? It is widely accepted among biblical scholars that Moses wrote, or rather compiled, the Book of Genesis from at least four sources.[6]
2. When was Genesis written? Though no one can be precise, most biblical scholars believe it was written around the 5th century BC.[7]
3. What language did Moses use in writing Genesis? He used Paleo-Hebrew dating back to the 10th century BC.[8] Therefore, the language was already understood by his Israelite audience for several centuries. Unlike Justice Brown Jackson, they understood ‘Adam’ to be the first man (ish) and ‘Eve’ the first woman (issah). They also understood other aspects of Moses’ language, but I shall come to that shortly.
Regardless of these straightforward answers, Jiminy Cricket is sly and cunning like the serpent who spoke to Eve, “Did God really say?”[9] Cricket questions everything and twists it inside out playing the game of theological transgenderism. His disputes are not about Adam being the first man or Eve the first woman. Rather he manipulates the origin of the first male and female.
Genesis tells us, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them”.[10] Transgender theology argues, “The first human was created wholly female and wholly male at the same time.”[11] The argument is based on the successive use of singular to plural words in Paleo-Hebrew language. It looks like this:
1. Singular – “man” (adam/anthropon) understood as an architype.
2. Singular – “him” (oto/auton) understood as one person.
3. Plural “them” (otam/autous) understood as two genders.
The successive use of singular to plural words would also be understood by Moses’ original audience, in that, ‘Adam’ not only meant an individual male but also an architype for all mankind. That is, until Jiminy Cricket started to sing, “makes no difference who you are…”
As a result, Cricket’s whispering into the progressive ear about transgender theology convinces the impressionable that God created the first human with two genders both male and female. So, it follows, “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”[12] Hence, God takes the woman out of the man thereby creating two genders from one person. “When the Holy Blessed One, created the first Adam, God created him androgynous. That is what it means when the following is written: ‘male and female God created them.’”[13]
Added to this misdirection in the biblical text is a slight return to truth to make it sound plausible: God does not make mistakes, so He must have created a bi-gendered, intersex, or non-gendered person in His image. As a result, Cricket would have us believe that God Himself is multi-gendered. Admittedly, God is not a man or a woman.[14] But He is gendered male as a literary device so the reader understands, among many attributes, the characteristics of a father.
Contrary to the insanity of the progressive culture that ‘wish upon a star’, “God created one species, humankind, in two sexes.”[15] He did not create a bi-gendered, intersex, or non-gendered human being. Later in Genesis we read, “He created them (otam//autous) male and female and blessed them. And he named them ‘Mankind’ (adam/anthropon) when they were created.”[16] In this verse Moses starts with plural then singular words. The argument for transgender theology is flawed and openly guilty of eisegesis, imposing a current political and social agenda into the ancient biblical text.
However, the question of how Adam knew how to identify Eve still lingers.
God has brought all the living creatures to Adam “to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”[17] His process for naming God’s creation is unknown but it would not be difficult to believe it was done with intense observation. Within this context Adam (ish) named Eve ‘woman’ (issah). Though they are one species – “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”[18] – they were created very different to each other. I’m not simply referring to breasts and genitalia, but a thousand nuances that make a man different to a woman.
Over four millennia later, it is not surprising to read that St. Paul explains to the church in Ephesus that “husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies”,[19] or that Jesus quotes Moses that “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[20] Were they referring to the desire of a man to be married to a woman as an intuitive yearning to return back to a bi-gendered, intersex, or non-gendered human?
Of course not. That would be the nonsense of Jiminy Cricket who would have us ‘wish upon a star’ because ‘it does not matter who you are.’ St. Paul points out that a husband should not not abandon, abuse, or mistreat his wife leaving needs unattended any more than he would his own body. The words of Jesus simply endorse the marriage of a man and woman as Adam would not know the concept of leaving his father and mother to marry. He had no parents.
For those who disagree with my thoughts on Adam’s identifying words about the first woman, Cricket has another mantra for you, “When you get in trouble and you don’t know right from wrong, give a little whistle!”
[1] Genesis 2:23. All Scripture NIV unless otherwise stated.
[2] Originally a character created by Carlo Collodi for his 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio.
[3] Confirmation hearing by Senate Judiciary Committee from March 21 to 24, 2022.
[4] Ibid.
[5] The White House. “Remarks by Vice President Harris in a Roundtable with Disability Advocates” July 26, 2022.
[6] ZA Blog. Zondervan Academic. “Who Wrote the Book of Genesis?” August 31, 2018.
[7] Oliver, Simon. Creation. Bloomsbury. 2017, 12.
[8] Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis. Eerdmans. 1990, 1.
[9] Genesis 3:1.
[10] Ibid. 1:27.
[11] Keshet for LGBTQ Equality in Jewish Life quoting Rabbi Yirmiyah ben Elzar.
[12] Genesis 2:22.
[13] Ibid. Keshet for LGBTQ.
[14] Deuteronomy 23:19.
[15] Giles, Kevin. What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women. Cascade. 2018.
[16] Genesis 5:2.
[17] Ibid. 2:19.
[18] Ibid. 2:23.
[19] Ephesians 5:28.
[20] Matthew 19:5.