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The Divine Origin of MarriageThe Watchtower—1956 | September 1
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Eve, with the female characteristics controlling in her, was likewise perfect, but she was one flesh with Adam. One flesh does not hurt itself; it does not fight itself. The living cells of the flesh combine together, hold together in various organs and tissues, according to the law of the great Organizer, Jehovah God. So it was to be with the two sexes, for they are in reality just one flesh. They were to complement each other, the one to supply to the other what the other felt it needed, and vice versa. God so organized the two sexes that they found their greatest happiness and contentment by co-operating together in doing the perfect will of their heavenly Father. The marriage of a woman from his very own bone and flesh to Adam would not result in odd children, overbalanced in any direction, showing unusual peculiarities or deformities. The man and woman were both perfect. Perfection united with perfection produces—perfection. A perfect son of Adam and Eve married to a perfect daughter of theirs would bring forth a perfect child.
21. In what ways was woman to be a helper and a complement, and why did Adam now look balanced?
21 That this was God’s will in dividing Adam and producing the sexes male and female God stated at the time he went ahead to produce a wife for Adam. God said: “I am going to make a helper for him, as a complement of him.” God did not say he was going to give Adam a boss, a head. Adam already had a head. His Creator God was his Head. He did not need another. A complement is not a head. In Hebrew or the language of God’s creation account the word for “complement” means that which is in front of one, in sight of one as if standing opposite. It is not something in opposition but is a counterpart, something that matches one, something that looks or goes suitably and properly with one, making a nice balance. The woman, and no lower animal female, was a satisfying match for Adam and so was a complement for him, especially as she had the bodily organs by which she could become the mother of his children. (Lev. 18:23) She could produce the eggs that would provide the bodies of his children, but only he as the head of the married couple could pass on the life sperm that would start life in her eggs. He was the first to have human life and his wife received her life by being made from his rib, and it was proper that he continue to be the transmitter of life to his children. The man had his function, the woman had her function, subordinate to him and dependent upon him. So according to God’s will the woman was to be her husband’s “helper,” and a helper is not a boss, dictator or commander. A helper takes orders and works with the one that takes on this help. The woman could now furnish a necessary help to Adam in carrying out God’s command to them to become many and fill all the earth with a perfect human family. Standing beside the lordly lion and his lioness or beside any mated pair of animals in Eden, Adam no longer looked one-sided, incomplete, for now his perfect mate, his wifely complement and helper, stood beside him. Everything matched. The sight was lovely. It was good in the Creator’s eyes.
22. (a) When did Adam first have relations with his wife, and what does this show as to when the first marriage was consummated? (b) In their perfection what was their attitude toward each other?
22 When Jehovah God brought this perfect woman to the awakened man in Eden and pronounced his blessing upon them and set their joint duties before them their marriage was consummated. It did not require any physical sexual union between them first to consummate their marriage. If that sexual connection were first necessary to make the marriage a real, valid, binding one, then Adam and his woman were never married in Eden. It is first after this couple found themselves outside of Eden some time later that, we read, “now Adam had intercourse with Eve his wife and she became pregnant. In time she gave birth to Cain.” (Gen. 4:1, NW) Adam and Eve knew that the purpose of the sexual connection was to bring forth children. So in their perfection and with perfect self-control and without shame at their nakedness and without feeling passion at the sight of each other’s unclothed body they refrained from having sexual union and conceiving children while in Eden. Nevertheless, they were fully married and were bound to cleave to each other lovingly in faithfulness. Jehovah God, the divine marriage-maker, had yoked them together. No creature could rightly put them apart.
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Marriage Under Imperfect ConditionsThe Watchtower—1956 | September 1
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Marriage Under Imperfect Conditions
1. What had God meant marriage to bring to man and to accomplish?
MARRIAGE has been put under much stress and strain by imperfection. Imperfection is due to sin. Sin is unrighteousness, disobedience to the perfect laws of Jehovah God. The marriage of Adam and Eve in Eden was a perfect one because it was performed by Jehovah God, all of whose activities are perfect, all of whose ways are justice. (Deut. 32:4, NW) The taking of a rib from Adam and along with it the female characteristics that were originally in him did not make him unhappy. God’s presentation of these things back to him in the form of a perfect woman for his wife ushered him into a happiness he had never known before. His wedding day in Eden was a most happy one. The marriage that it inaugurated was meant to be a continuously happy one and was to lead to the unspeakable happiness of being fruitful and bringing forth perfect children of their kind. God himself who had united them would be happy at all this, for thus his purpose in creating the earth would be fulfilled, to have it “inhabited.”—Gen. 1:26-28; Isa. 45:18.
2. (a) What interrupted the complete happiness of the first human pair? (b) How had Adam taught his wife, and by doing what would he show his love for God and her?
2 What, then, interrupted the complete
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