At the heart of creation lies a mystery which is termed in Hebrew the basar ’echad or the “one-flesh union.” It appears initially in the second movement of the narrative of creation which describes, with theological precision, the exact relationship between man and woman. While sexual union is the privileged expression of this one-flesh union, it does not exhaust the meaning of this anthropological reality. Rather this course seeks to establish this term as a significant key to understanding both God and the nature of creation and salvation.
The narrative of creation (Gen. 1-3) is where the essential principles informing the created order will be unearthed, including the principle of havdil (separation), the Semitic cognitive category of corporate personality, and creation’s ordering towards worship. In these texts, the term basar ’echad emerges, providing us with an interpretive key which unfolds the essential meaning of the nature of man and of sexual union and gives us a clue as to the inner life of God. Herein, man’s gendered existence is shown to be intrinsically tied to the covenant between God and man, which will also illuminate the meaning of man’s liturgical existence.
We will explore the intrinsic link between these primordial texts and Eph. 5:32 (the Pauline great mystery). This latter text specifically unites both the Old Testament’s “one-flesh” reality with the New Testament Church and provides the lens by which the nature of the Church as Body and Christ as Head will be examined. This will include an in-depth look at Paul’s ecclesiology and soteriology. Primary texts will include Scripture, major commentaries (Westermann, Wenham, Cassuto, F. F. Bruce), von Balthasar, Miletic, Pedersen, Tertullian, Augustine and others.
