The Restoration of Our True Identity: Genesis 2:21-22

Knowing our true God-given identity—who we are—should not be a secret.  It is foundational to self-awareness, self-understanding, life purpose and goals. Knowing who we are, whether we are single or married, helps us determine what we do with our day, our week, and our lives. It can shape the purpose of our life, our marriage, the method we use in parenting, and help determine the goals we seek to achieve in discipling men and women.

One of the best kept secrets about our original God-given identity and purpose as human beings is buried out of sight in the English Bible versions of Genesis 2:21-22.

Here, Moses provides us with three clues about who we were meant to be.  Let’s uncover those three clues buried in our English translations and discover our true identity.

When God built the woman from the man, the Hebrew Bible states:

“And LORD God caused a deep slumber on the human. And he slept, and He took one of his SIDES and CLOSED UP the flesh. Then the LORD God BUILT the SIDE he had taken from the human into a woman and He brought her to the human.” Gen. 2:21-22

SIDES, CLOSED UP, and BUILT. Each an architectural term and are conspicuously used in describing the making of the woman. This is unusual and striking. We’d expect the author to use medical or anatomical terms. Instead, he uses Hebrew words associated with the construction of a building.

These three Hebrew construction terms are clues that help us define our identity.

The Hebrew word SIDE (מִצַּלְעֹתָ֔יו , “rib,” as some translations render it) used here is the same term used to refer to the side of the Tabernacle, the side of the Ark of the Covenant, and the side of the Temple throughout the Old Testament.[1] The Tabernacle in the wilderness, the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel’s Temple, had two different sides and were the holy dwelling places of Israel’s God. The Genesis author intentionally used this construction term side to identify the part of Adam that God used to build Eve.

But are there more clues? Read on.

The familiar word CLOSED UP (Gen 2:21) has been assumed to be a medical term, such as used by a surgeon to suture up a wound in the body. That assumption is quite normal. After all, Adam has just experienced a type of surgery. Suturing up his wounded side would be a normal procedure.

But our assumptions need to be examined. In fact, the Hebrew term CLOSED UP (וַיִּסְגֹּ֥ר) is also from the world of construction, and refers to closing the door to a building or closing the gate to a city.[2] So, after God removed one of Adam’s sides, He then closed the door to Adam’s temple-body. Sure sounds like Adam’s identity is a building of some sort, right? He is composed of a SIDE of a building and he also comes with a door like a building.

There’s a third clue. Let’s examine it.

At this juncture, we might expect Moses to again use verbs like “create” or “make” to describe the formation of the woman. This has been the case in Genesis 1-2 up to now. But once again, our expectations are incorrect.  

Moses inserts a third clue into the story. He uses a construction term—BUILT (וַיִּבֶן֩) to depict what God was actually doing when he formed the woman from Adam’s side. He BUILT/CONSTRUCTED a woman using Adam’s SIDE. Let’s see the process in a glance:

So, the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man and he slept. While he slept, he took part of the man’s SIDE and CLOSED the place with flesh. Then the LORD God BUILT a woman from the SIDE he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man. Genesis 2:21-22

What were we meant to learn about our identity? The author is teaching us that Adam is one SIDE of a temple and Eve is the second SIDE. Together as two SIDES, man and woman form a completed Temple, a dwelling place of God. God’s image—His visible representation on earth—is composed of male and female (Genesis 1:27). That visible representation of God on earth includes the element of worship and holiness—we are temples of God, dwelling places of the Creator.

These three temple terms—SIDE, CLOSE, BUILT—help us to understand our God-given identity. We were created as His temples. Together as equals, man and woman combine two sides, a completed temple, designed intentionally by the Creator to be a dwelling place to worship Him, mutually devoted to His glory.

In Christ, our original identity as temples is restored:

“Don’t you (plural, male and female) know that you yourselves are God’s TEMPLE and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor 3:16).

“Don’t you know that your body is a TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Cor. 6:19)?

“We are TEMPLES of the living God.” (2 Cor. 6:16).  

If you are a follower of Jesus by faith, then your true identity has been restored to its original design. You are a temple of the LORD God, a temple with hands and feet—mobile temples. As parents, you are raising temples to fulfill their true identities. As disciplers, you are pointing men and women to actualize their true identity.

And when we meet a fellow believer in Christ, regardless of socio-economic level, color, age, gender, political preference, or national origin, we meet a human with staggering value, immense dignity, a fellow temple of God worthy of our reverence, care and respect. 

We don’t go to a temple or to a church on Sundays to worship. We exist as temples, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to worship the triune God and bring glory to Him by means of our bodies.

The best kept secret about our true identity in Christ should no longer be a secret.

Thank you for reading.

NOTES:

[1] See Ex 26:12,14,26; 37:3,5; 1 Kings 6:5-6, 15-16; Ezek. 41:5.

[2] See Gen 19:6, 10; Joshua 2:7; Nehemiah 6:10; Ezek 46:12.