He knew his wife

Based on pages 39-42 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.”  Genesis 4:1, ESV

They become the proud creators of new life.  But this new life is created in the community of human beings and death that is characterized by obsessive desire.   Creation and Fall, p. 145,  Bonhoeffer

JPII begins to wrap up his talks on “original man” by addressing a text that is actually about “historical man” – i.e. man after the fall.  Why does he do so?  There at least three reasons:

1.      The Hebrew word translated “knew” is a comprehensive word that “synthesizes the whole density of the biblical text analyzed so far” (TOB, p 80).  The Hebrew word “yada” signifies intimate knowledge and hence sexual possession.  However, when used for sexual intercourse (as here) is signifies legitimate possession.  The person is received, in their totality, as a gift.  In conjugal love, husband and wife come to a new and definitive understanding of the human body and the human person.   

2.     As the text indicates, the man and woman come to know each other in the “third” – the child that is conceived in their sexual union.  Eve’s naming speech puns on the verb qanah, “have produced” and qayin, “Cain.”  Eve, upon the producing of the third human being, imagines herself as a partner of God in creation.  In the act of procreation, man and woman image God in a particular way.  Through their biblical knowledge, man and woman image forth the eternal generation of the Trinity: The Father begets the Son and bestows the Spirit. 

3.     Though Genesis Four begins the narrative of “historical man” there is continuity between chapters 1-3 and 4 ff.   Even in a fallen state, man and woman echo the divine image in their knowledge of each other, in the act of procreation (love issuing in a third) and in the generative ability of the human race to persists and continue despite death.  This “knowledge generation cycle” will be the subject of our next talk on June 17^th.      

Questions for Discussion

1.    What does the Bible suggest about “knowledge” by using the word in this particular context?  How do modern notions of knowledge differ with it?

2. In what ways do our children amplify our “knowledge” of one another (husband to wife and wife to husband) as well as amplify our knowledge of the world?