Commentary on Genesis (Complete Edition) - Martin Luther

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also there was between Adam and Eve themselves a singular unity of minds and of wills. Nor was there in the whole world an object sweeter to Adam or more beautiful in his eyes than his Eve! Nor is a wife, as the heathen say, a necessary evil. And why call they a wife an evil? The reason is manifest. They know nothing of the cause of evil. It was Satan. He it was who thus marred and corrupted woman's original nature.

      The influence however which we now have over beasts in this life, the use which we make of them, and the things we cause them to do are not effected by that dominion which Adam possessed, but by industry and art. Thus birds and fishes, as we see, are taken by deception and stratagem; and beasts are tamed in various degrees by art. For those animals which are the most domesticated as geese, fowls, etc., were of themselves and by their own particular nature wild. This leprous nature of ours therefore still retains, through the goodness of God, some appearance of dominion over the other creatures. This dominion however is very trifling indeed, and far, very far, beneath the original dominion. For under that there was no need of art or stratagem, to give man influence over the beast. Every creature was put absolutely under a state of obedience to the voice of God when Adam and Eve were commanded by that voice to have dominion over them.

      We do retain therefore the name and the semblance and as it were the naked title of the original dominion, but the reality itself is almost wholly lost. Still it is good for us to know and to think upon this state of things, that we may sigh after that day which shall come, in which shall be restored unto us all things we lost by the sin of Adam in paradise. For we look for that life which Adam also ever held in expectation. And well indeed may we wonder and render thanks unto God, as indeed we do, that we, so deformed by sin, so dull, so stupefied, and so dead by it, should be enabled through the merits and benefits of Christ to look with assurance for that same glory of a spiritual life, which Adam might also have looked for with all assurance, without the dying merits of Christ if he had remained unfallen in that animal life which possessed the image of God.

      V. 27a. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.

      Observe that the term likeness is not here used by Moses, but "image" only. Perhaps the sacred historian wished to avoid amphibology, too extensive circumlocution, and therefore he merely repeated the term image. I see no other cause for the repetition, unless we receive it as intended for emphasis, and as designed to signify the joy and triumph of the Creator in this most beautiful work of his hands. The purpose of Moses was probably to represent God as not so much delighted with any of, or with all, his other creatures as with man, whom he created in his own likeness. For other animals are termed traces of God, man alone is said to be the image of God. For in all the other creatures God is known as by his footsteps only, but in man, especially in Adam, he is known truly and fully; for in Adam is seen that wisdom, righteousness and knowledge of all things, that he may rightly be called a microcosm or little world in himself; for he understands the heaven, the earth and the whole creation. God therefore, as Moses would here represent, is delighted in his having made so beautiful a creature.

      Without doubt therefore, as God was so delighted with this his counsel and workmanship in the creation of man, so he is now delighted in the restoration of that his original glorious work, through his Son our Deliverer, Jesus Christ. It is always profitable to consider that God is always thinking thoughts of good, yea the best thoughts towards us, Jer. 29:11, and that he is ever delighted with these his thoughts and this his counsel in our restoration to a spiritual life, by the resurrection from the dead of those who have believed in Christ.

      V. 27b. Male and female created he them.

      Moses here mentions both sexes together. That woman might not appear to be excluded from all the glory of the life to come. For woman seems to be a creature somewhat different from man, in that she has dissimilar members, a varied form and a mind weaker than man. Although Eve was a most excellent and beautiful creature, like unto Adam in reference to the image of God, that is with respect to righteousness, wisdom and salvation, yet she was a woman. For as the sun is more glorious than the moon, though the moon is a most glorious body, so woman, though she was a most beautiful work of God, yet she did not equal the glory of the male creature.

      However Moses here joins the two sexes together and says that God created them male and female for a further reason that he might thereby signify that Eve also being alike created of God, alike with Adam became thereby a partaker of the divine image and similitude, and also of the dominion over all things. Hence woman is still a partaker of the life divine to come, as Peter says, "As being heirs together of the grace of life," 1 Pet. 3:7. In all domestic life also the wife is a partaker in ruling the house and enjoys, in common with her husband, the possession of the offspring of the property. There is nevertheless a great difference between the sexes. The male is as the sun in the heaven, the female as the moon, while the other animals are the stars, over which the sun and the moon have influence and rule. The principal thing to be remarked therefore in the text before us, that it is thus written to show that the female sex is not excluded from all the glory of the human nature, although inferior to the male sex. Of marriage we shall speak hereafter.

      In the second place this same text furnishes us with an argument against Hilary and others, who wished to establish the doctrine that God created all things at once. For by the present passage of holy writ our interpretation is confirmed that the six days mentioned by Moses were truly six natural days, because the divine historian here affirms that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. This text cannot be gainsaid. But concerning the order and manner of the creation of man, Moses speaks in the following chapter, in which he informs us that Eve was created a little after Adam, and that she was not made from the dust of the ground, as Adam was, but from one of the ribs of Adam, which God took from his side while asleep. These therefore are temporal works; that is, works done at a certain time and not all wrought at one moment, as were also the sacred facts "that God brought every animal to Adam," and "that for Adam there was not found an helpmeet for him," Chap. 2:19-20.

      Many divines think also that it was on the sixth day that Adam sinned. And therefore they hold the sixth day sacred on a twofold account, because, as Adam sinned on the sixth day, so Christ also suffered for sin on the sixth day. Whether these things really be so, I leave it to them to settle as matters not fully known. Moses does affirm as a certainty that man was created, and his wife also on the sixth day. My thoughts on the matter, as I will hereafter show, are that it is much more likely that Adam sinned on the seventh day, that is on the Sabbath; just as on the Sabbath also Satan the most bitterly annoys and torments the church while the Word of God is being preached. But neither can Adam's sin having been on the Sabbath be clearly shown from Moses. There are therefore, respecting both ways, "reasons against reasons," as Cæsar Maximilian used to say. I leave these doubtful things therefore to be settled by each one according to his own judgment.

      Lyra relates a Jewish fable, to which there is a reference in Plato, that God originally created man in both sexes so that man and wife were together in one body, but were divided or cut apart by the divine power as the form of the back and spine seems to indicate. Others have added more obscene trifles. But the second chapter overthrows and refutes such lies. For should that be true how could it be written that God took from Adam one of his ribs and built a woman out of it? Such lies are found in the Talmud of the Jews and reference must be made to them in order that we may see the maliciousness of Satan, who suggests to men such absurd things.

      Like this is the fable of Aristotle who calls woman a ............ man, virum occasionatum, and others call her a monster. But they themselves are monsters and children of monsters, who calumniate and ridicule such a creature of God, in whom God himself had delight, as in the noblest of his works, and who as we saw was created by a special counsel of God. We cite such heathenish and unbecoming things to show that the human mind is unable to establish anything sure about God or the works of God, but advances reasons against reasons, "rationes contra rationes," neither does it teach anything perfectly or fundamentally on these themes.

      V. 28a. And God blessed them; and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, etc.

      God did not utter this command to the other animals but to man and woman only. Doubtless however all other animals are included in the blessing: "Be fruitful."

      This is the command of God to

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