This post is a very bare skeleton of a particular idea I've been trying to flesh out. But nonetheless, I wanted to get it out. So here it is, for your consideration and deliberation.
My second semester Sophomore year, I took a class with Dr. Bauman on John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost and other (rather controversial) books. One particular night, we discussed Milton's ideas on marriage, divorce, and polygamy. And aside from the fact that I disagree with pretty much everything that he argues for, our discussion led to a very interesting topic: At what point does Adam and Eve's relationship count as "marriage"? Because in his defense of Biblical divorce, Milton says that Christ points to the Edenic paradigm as the grounds for defining what marriage is; yet through all of our discussions, we barely arrived at a "satisfactory" definition of it, paraphrasedly that it is a relationship between a man and a woman with the intention of alleviating the loneliness that Adam had in the Garden pre-Eve and providing him with a suitable help-meet. However, we didn't go much further than that. Anyway. Without recapping all of the (*ahem*heretical) ideas that Milton proposed and we argued, no one was quite able to arrive at a definite idea of when to consider Adam and Eve married and how their "marriage" (if it actually existed, according to a non-definition?) alleviated Adam's loneliness, and what was this loneliness? How do we now know what to look for in a spouse to alleviate these feelings? Is there a process to follow in order to find a good spouse or to know if she's suitable? Was there a "wedding" or "marriage" type of ceremony in Eden?
Well. All of this to say that I think God DID present us with a process by which we're able to identify not only a spouse but a marriage, particularly one in Eden. I discussed it (briefly) with Dr. Bauman during the break in class, and he said that he agrees with me and would consider it a fair interpretation of the text. It goes as follows:
• Realization
• Discovery/Joy
• Identification
• Institution
• Consummation
In Genesis 2, Adam first REALIZES his loneliness when God has him name all the animals with the intention of showing Adam that he has no mate among the beasts. A man today has to do the same thing: realize that he is incomplete without a suitable helpmeet. (Let's not forget that yes, God had to show Adam that he was alone; Adam didn't come to this conclusion by himself. See God: "IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE.")
After creating Eve, Adam saw her (DISCOVERY: "This one at last!") and responds JOYFULLY--not with just any joy, but with Lewisian, godly joy, joy that reflects God's glory and praises him for his blessings, as Lewis describes proper Christian joy. Adam then proceeds to IDENTIFY her, as he named the rest of the animals ("Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man"), but not only identifying her as a woman, but as his only suitable helpmeet among a world of unsuitable creatures. But he continues to identify her as his (technical) inferior, that because he was created first, given the mandate from God, because she was created for him and not him for her, he has some sort of superiority, some kind of headship over her; all of this is contained in her being made out of his rib, implying that she was created for him (also, touching on Milton's beliefs on polygamy, I think the fact that God only took one rib and not several means that God only intended one wife, not several).
Moving on: The next verse: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, (INSTITUTION: Adam leaving his "own family's institution" and coming into his own manhood under God and over his own wife, creating another family institution), and they shall be one flesh" (CONSUMMATION: Adam and Eve become communally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically one, solidifying their covenant and completing the "marriage" process). The very next verse is God's precedent for every future pastor and priest: "And they were both naked, the MAN AND HIS WIFE, and were not ashamed. Boom. God's declaration of them as a "married" couple. It doesn't happen as soon as Adam is created; Adam had to work for Eve, realize his loneliness, and discover the joy that comes only from God, because only God can fulfill our simultaneous needs and desires, as Eve was for Adam.
