2022/02/14

26. Father and Mother

The first two chapters of Genesis tells us what is in man's unconscious realm. Human beings have almost fulfilled the following command of God here: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth" (Genesis 1:28). Today, we know well that man was created in the image of God from our surpassing speed of evolution and influence over other creatures. But it is also clear that human beings are still just a speck of the universe before the threats of nature and the wonders of the cosmos. We have always understood the things before us as far as we could think of them and have realized what we understood. And out of that need, we have tried to figure out the bodily functioning of living things so that we can use the information also for our own needs. The findings of the research of man's behaviour of intake and excretion of food, which has significantly changed as we have broken away from the natural food chain, has been widely communicated and studied by the public as a subject of overcoming disease and death. However, when it comes to the human reproductive function, despite the progress made in research, the diversity of gender-related elements and the disparity of conditions in many fields hinder us from reaching a common understanding, leading to all sorts of serious problems. For Christians, their faith is tested. Therefore, we need to start by examining the following statement in Genesis, the first description of the human reproductive function: "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame" (Genesis 2:24-25). This phrase seems to describe a usual human reproductive activity. However, given the back and forth of the text, the word "father and mother" inserted here is supposed to refer to God. The phrase was placed there to indicate that God is the father and mother to man. Jesus announced the name of God as "Father." John’s Gospel suggested the Word was "Mother."¹ As discussed above, the human reproductive function has its origin in the fact that "God is the father and mother for human beings." We will discuss this topic next time too.

Reference: 1. John 1:1-4 

Maria K. M.