Essential Redundancy

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23  NASB

Man – This is the first time in the Bible that the Hebrew word ish is used.  We commonly translate this word as “man.”  In fact, nearly every lexicon of the Bible suggests that this is the appropriate English equivalent and every English Bible adopts this translation.  But Rabbi David Stein points out that this translation is not correct.  He notes that in 74% of the 2174 occurrences of ish in the Bible, the word does not mean an individual with independent existence.  In other words, three out of four occurrences of this word do not fit our concept of “man.”  Our Western thinking assumes that “man” is the designation of some individual, some person who exists as an independent being in the world.  Our focus is entirely on the nature and character of this individual.  Our study of the behavioral sciences, of medicine, of economics all begin with the assumption of the individual human being.  But Stein makes it abundantly clear that this is not the biblical view.  Stein concludes that “the Bible does not treat adult males as ‘the measure of all things,’ despite the claims of many contemporary interpreters.”[1]  According to Stein’s analysis, ish primarily means either representation or affiliation.  In other words, I am a man because I am either the representation of another or I am connected with another or both.  I do not exist as an independent individual by myself.  According to Adam’s declaration, to be an man or a woman means to be in relationship.  That is where my identity comes from.    The translation “man” in the English Bible is a gross mistake since in our culture it implies that we mean a person, separate from all other persons.  But this isn’t the way Hebrew views ish.  In Hebrew ish means connection with another.  There is no existence without this connection.

It’s important to recognize that up to this verse the only word used to describe the creature God made is adam.  Man in relation to God alone is adam.  But man in relation to God alone is incomplete.  Adam requires ish.  Genesis 2:24, the paradigm verse about marriage, uses ish, not adam.  Man in community is ish.

The text tells us that ish is essentially related to God and to ishshah (woman).  The image of God – the representation of God – is found in the relationship of ish to YHWH.  The image of God is demonstrated in the world by the essential connection that ish has with ishshah.  Without these two relational elements, there is no ish.  In other words, unless I am acting as God’s representative and I am essentially connected to a community of others, I am not human.  I might be homo sapiens, a biological entity, but from a Hebraic perspective, I am not a human being.

Now we can understand the importance of the genealogies in the Scripture.  These are connections, the threads of community that are represented in my existence.  Without a genealogy, I am cut off, separated, no longer human.  This, of course, also shows us why being cut off from the covenant relationship with God is such a terrible threat.  To be cut off is to be without existence as human.

The Genesis verse implies both representation and affiliation.  First, man is made as the representative image of God. Then man is affiliated with his community counterpart, woman.  We have examined the fact that representation of God is not a function of attributes but rather a matter of actions.  God is YHWH, a verbal expression.  Man is to be this verbal expression in the world.  To act as God would act is to be ish.  Furthermore, we now realize that ish is not human without affiliation to a community.  The minimum (and therefore most essential) community is ish-ishshah.  Marriage is not simply the building block of Hebrew society.  It is the representation of God in the world.  It is what it means to be human in flesh and blood form.

Do we need to elaborate the startling implications of this correction to our concept of “man” in the Bible?  Do we see that we don’t exist in the biblical sense unless we are together?  To be one, as Yeshua prayed, is to be human.  Do we see that all of our cultural emphasis on individuality, separate existence, independence and the “will to power” that follows is opposed to the image of God in the world?  Do we recognize that division, dissension, factions and schisms are inhuman?  Can we acknowledge that our penchant for dividing ourselves from each other theologically is Satanic?  This helps us realize why unity was the heartfelt cry of Sha’ul.  Community makes us human.  Individuality undermines humanity.

We live in an inhuman world, surrounded by beings that celebrate their inhuman isolation.  Our world proclaims this independence as the hallmark of great men when the truth concerning this penchant for independence is really devastating.  We are becoming animals at faster and faster rates. “If you are only for yourself, you cease to be a real human being, and you become no longer a who, but a what.”[2]

“When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith in the world?” asked Yeshua.  We might also ask whether He will find any human beings.

Topical Index:  ish, man, Genesis 2:23