The Gender Dance
By Chris Bruno | November 18, 2008
The synchronicity of their steps and the playful determination in their eyes reveal both oneness and distinctness of being. The two dancers float buoyantly around the floor, he gently yet firmly guiding their movement, she illuminating and filling the motion with captivating sensuality. Both man and woman co-create beauty, strength, passion and tenderness as they engage in the dance. Alone, the dance has no existence. Isolated, it has no form. It is in the coming together, in the mutuality of movement and purpose, that fills the space with splendor and writes the story of Edenic union.
In the opening chapters of Genesis, the writer of the creation narrative provides us with an interesting archetype of gender. Throughout the first days, each animal receives its unique identity, indicated by the words “after its kind,” as well as the command to multiply. Biologically, we know that in order to “fill the earth” animals were created with complementary anatomies that would bring forth offspring. However, it is not until the creation of mankind in Genesis 1:27 that we receive the delineation of “male and female,” and this only subsequent to the crowning pinnacle of receiving God’s own image. In this brilliant narrative, the author of the creation account separates maleness and femaleness from mere anatomical bestowings, and sets them apart in direct linkage with the imago dei, the image of God. As a result, though physical similarities may exist between a man and a lion, and between a woman and lioness, masculinity and femininity reside fully and solely within the image-bearing natures of human man and human woman. Gender, therefore, is not indicated by physical anatomy, but rather by the unique image-bearing gifted separately yet complementarily to men and women.
Unpacking the origins of man and woman, Genesis 2 enlightens us further on the nature of gender. Prior to the establishment of the garden, God forms man. This word “form,” transliterated as yatsar, is the same word used in reference to the creation of the beasts and the birds. God, in essence, takes raw materials and, with the mastery of a potter, shapes them into the being named Adam. He then takes this being and subsequently places him in the garden called Eden. Adam is formed in the outback, then placed into the garden.
After no suitable counterpart is found for Adam from among all of God’s creatures, God removes a portion of the already-formed man, and from it fashions woman. This verb, transliterated as banah, is used throughout the book of Genesis, and is typically translated “build.” Interestingly God does not “form” Eve, but “builds” her. He takes that which is already created from Adam’s being and builds from it that which will complement, complete and help Adam. This verb banah is used repeatedly in the Old Testament in reference to building homes, cities and the like. In reference to Eve, then, it is as if God takes the essence of man and builds or fashions from it a dwelling place for masculinity to be “at home.” The relationship between Adam and Eve, between the masculine and the feminine, represent both the raw creation as well as its place of dwelling. A man without a home is lost. A woman without an indweller is lonely.
Marriage, therefore, in the first chapters of Genesis, is the culmination of meaning for the fullness of the image of God. In this covenantal union between man and woman, the imago dei has both the ruling, rough and raw nature of Adam combined with the beauty, building and bosom of Eve. Gender remains not as an indicator of distinction between man and woman, as is often assumed, but rather as a sign of the fullness of God’s great image implanted in the human race. Two sides of the same coin, though imprinted with different images, make up the coin itself. There is no separation of one side from the other, and neither side contains more value. Both are necessary, both are complementary, and both bear a necessary image. Ultimate Edenic marriage, though now marred irreparably by the fall, finds poetic proclamation in Adam’s song: “bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” The two are one, designed to be one, and hold and fulfill the other.
By design, gender is more about the dance than we imagine it could be. And marriage is more about the image bearing than we dare to dream. The fullness of masculinity combined with the fullness of femininity display the grandeur of God more than anything else in all creation. It is a dance of love between man and woman, but far more between God and His creation.
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Well said, Chris. Excellent article!
I love this analysis of (Godly) gender dance. Thanks.