Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁸ Adonai, God, said, “It isn’t good that the person should be alone. I will make for him a companion suitable for helping him.” ¹⁹ So from the ground Adonai, God, formed every wild animal and every bird that flies in the air, and he brought them to the person to see what he would call them. Whatever the person would call each living creature, that was to be its name. (S: iii) ²⁰ So the person gave names to all the livestock, to the birds in the air and to every wild animal. But for Adam there was not found a companion suitable for helping him.

²¹ Then God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the person; and while he was sleeping, he took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he took it with flesh. ²² The rib which Adonai, God, had taken from the person, he made a woman-person; and he brought her to the man-person. ²³ The man-person said, “At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. She is to be called Woman ^[a], because she was taken out of Man ^[b].” ²⁴ This is why a man is to leave his father and mother and stick with his wife, and they are to be one flesh.

1 In days gone by, God spoke in many and varied ways to the Fathers through the prophets. ² But now, in the acharit-hayamim, he has spoken to us through his Son, to whom he has given ownership of everything and through whom he created the universe. ³ This Son is the radiance of the Sh’khinah, the very expression of God’s essence, upholding all that exists by his powerful word; and after he had, through himself, made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of HaG’dulah BaM’romim.^[a]

⁴ So he has become much better than angels, and the name God has given him is superior to theirs.

⁵ For it was not to angels that God subjected the ‘olam haba — which is what we are talking about. ⁶ And there is a place where someone has given this solemn testimony:

In subjecting everything to him, he left nothing unsubjected to him. However, at present, we don’t see everything subjected to him — at least, not yet. ⁹ But we do see Yeshua — who indeed was made for a little while lower than the angels — now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for all humanity. ¹⁰ For in bringing many sons to glory, it was only fitting that God, the Creator and Preserver of everything, should bring the Initiator of their deliverance to the goal through sufferings. ¹¹ For both Yeshua, who sets people apart for God, and the ones being set apart have a common origin — this is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers ¹² when he says,

² Some P’rushim came up and tried to trap him by asking him, “Does the Torah permit a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He replied, “What did Moshe command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moshe allowed a man to hand his wife a get and divorce her.”^{[a] 5} But Yeshua said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your hardheartedness. ⁶ However, at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.^{[b] 7} For this reason, a man should leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, ⁸ and the two are to become one flesh.^[c] Thus they are no longer two, but one. ⁹ So then, no one should break apart what God has joined together.” ¹⁰ When they were indoors once more, the talmidim asked him about this. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his wife; ¹² and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another man, she too commits adultery.”

¹³ People were bringing children to him so that he might touch them, but the talmidim rebuked those people. ¹⁴ However, when Yeshua saw it, he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ Yes! I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it!” ¹⁶ And he took them in his arms, laid his hands on them, and made a b’rakhah over them.