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The topic of One Flesh is one of the foundational teachings of most Christians. Since it is considered a foundational truth then it calls for further examination as to how we are to apply this truth to our lives.
In fact, the Scriptures has a lot to say about this topic even though it might not be obvious at first glance.
Jesus refers to this truth when He addressed the Pharisees, P’rushim, when they came to Him to ask about divorce, in Mark 10. Let’s look at his passage.
Mark 10:2-9 (CJB)*
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.”.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. 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. Thus they are no longer two, but one. 9. So then, no one should break apart what God has joined together.”
Jesus quotes from Genesis about how in the beginning Mankind was One Flesh, a Man, and a Woman. Check out Genesis:1
Genesis 1:26-30 (CJB)*
26. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”
27. So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
28. God blessed them: God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.”
29. Then God said, “Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit.
30. And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant.” And that is how it was.
When God created Mankind, He made them Male and Female. Yet they were One Flesh. This is a difficult concept to grasp but let’s look further in Chapter 2.
Genesis 2:18-25 (CJB)*
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.
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 [Hebrew: ishah], because she was taken out of Man [Hebrew: ish]”
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. 25. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.
So God said that it is not good for man to be alone. Hang on a minute won’t they made “Male and Female”? When God and Adam were there naming to the animals, we only see two and yet God said, “it is not good for Man to be alone”. Wasn’t’ the Woman there too? Well yes, they were there as On Flesh. Next, we see that not one of the animals was considered a Helper to Adam, so God put Adam to sleep and brought forth the Woman from within Adam. When Adam awoke, he said: - Verse:23 “She is to be called Woman [Hebrew: ishah], because she was taken out of Man [Hebrew: ish].”
God’s description of One Flesh is a Man and a Woman united together. Jesus says that this is how marriage is described, Mark 10:2-9, see above. We see God the Father and Jesus the Son agree on the basic understanding of what the term On Flesh means, but how does this fit in with what Paul says about believers in relation to this One Flesh.
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(CJB)*
The Complete Jewish Bible" used with permission.
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