What Does Genesis 2:23 Mean?

(23) **This is now.**—Literally, *this stroke, *or *beat of the foot *in keeping time. It means, therefore, *this time, *or colloquially, *at last. *Adam had long studied the natural world, and while, with their confidence as yet unmarred by human cruelty, they came to his call, grew tame, and joined his company, he found none that answered to his wants, and replied to him with articulate speech. At last, on waking from his trance, he found one standing by him in whom he recognised a second self, and he welcomed her joyfully, and exclaimed, “This *at last *is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:” that is, she is man’s counterpart, not merely in feeling and sense—his flesh—but in his solid qualities. In several of the Semitic dialects *bone *is used for *self. *Thus, in the *Jerusalem Lectionary *(ed. Miniscalchi, Verona, 1861) we read: “I will manifest my bone unto him” (John 14:21), that is, myself; and again, “I have power to lay it down of my bone” (John 10:18), that is, of myself. So, too, in Hebrew, “In the selfsame day” is “in the bone of this day” (Genesis 7:13). Thus *bone of my bones *means “my very own self,” while *flesh of my flesh *adds the more tender and gentle qualities. **She shall be called Woman (Ishah), because she was taken out of Man (Ish).**—Adam, who knew that he was an Ish (see *Excursus *at end of this book), called the woman a “female Ish.” The words of our Version, *man *and *woman *(perhaps womb-man), represent with sufficient accuracy the relation of the words in the original.