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Various Precepts. A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, your God.(A)

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Chapter 23

A man shall not marry his father’s wife,[a] nor shall he dishonor his father’s bed.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 23:1 Father’s wife: stepmother.

then the Lord God formed the man[a] out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2:7 God is portrayed as a potter molding the human body out of earth. There is a play on words in Hebrew between ’adam (“human being,” “man”) and ’adama (“ground”). It is not enough to make the body from earth; God must also breathe into the man’s nostrils. A similar picture of divine breath imparted to human beings in order for them to live is found in Ez 37:5, 9–10; Jn 20:22. The Israelites did not think in the (Greek) categories of body and soul.

18 The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.[a](A) 19 So the Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name. 20 The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man.

21 So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.(B) 22 The Lord God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, 23 the man said:

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
This one shall be called ‘woman,’
    for out of man this one has been taken.”[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 2:18 Helper suited to him: lit., “a helper in accord with him.” “Helper” need not imply subordination, for God is called a helper (Dt 33:7; Ps 46:2). The language suggests a profound affinity between the man and the woman and a relationship that is supportive and nurturing.
  2. 2:23 The man recognizes an affinity with the woman God has brought him. Unlike the animals who were made from the ground, she is made from his very self. There is a play on the similar-sounding Hebrew words ’ishsha (“woman,” “wife”) and ’ish (“man,” “husband”).

11 [a]Woman is not independent of man or man of woman in the Lord.(A) 12 For just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things are from God.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 11:11–12 These parenthetical remarks relativize the argument from Gn 2–3. In the Lord: in the Christian economy the relation between the sexes is characterized by a mutual dependence, which is not further specified. And even in the natural order conditions have changed: the mode of origin described in Gn 2 has been reversed (1 Cor 11:12a). But the ultimately significant fact is the origin that all things have in common (1 Cor 11:12b).