Genesis 2:23 - Exposition

And Adam said. Either as being possessed, while in a sinless state, of a power of intuitive perception which has been lost through the fall, or as speaking under Divine inspiration ( vide Matthew 19:4-6 ). This now. Literally, this tread, step, or stroke, meaning either this time, looking back to the previous review of the animal creation, as if he wished to say, At last one has come who is suitable to be my partner (Calvin); or, less probably, looking forward to the ordinary mode of woman's production, this time she is supernaturally formed (Bush). "The thrice repeated this is characteristic. It vividly points to the woman on whom, in joyful astonishment, the man's eye now rests with the full power of first love" (Delitzsch). Instinctively he recognizes her relation to himself. Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh . The language is expressive at once of woman's derivation from man ( γυνη Ì ε ̓ ξ α ̓ νδρο ì ς , 1 Corinthians 11:8 , 1 Corinthians 11:12 ) and likeness to man. The first of these implies her subordination or subjection to man, or man's headship over woman ( 1 Corinthians 11:3 ), which Adam immediately proceeds to assert by assigning to her a name; the second is embodied in the name which she receives. She (literally, to this) shall be called Woman ( isha , i.e. maness, from ish , man. Cf. Greek, α ̓ νδρι ì ς (Symmachus), from α ̓ νη ì ρ ; Latin, virago, virae (old Latin), from vir ; English, woman (womb-man, Anglo-Saxon), from man; German, manninn , from mann ; Sanscrit, hart , from nara ; Ethiopic, beesith , from beesi ), because she (this) was taken from Man . Ish , the name given by Adam to himself in contradistinction to his spouse, is interpreted as significant of man's authority (Gesenius), or of his social nature (Meier); but its exact etymology is involved in obscurity. Its relation to Adham is the same as that of vir to homo and α ̓ νη ì ρ to α ̓ ì νθρωπος .