Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation

by Martin Luther

But we may here inquire when God says, "It is not good that the man should be alone," what is that "good" of which God is speaking, seeing that Adam was righteous and had no need of the woman as we have, who bear about with us our flesh all leprous with sin? My reply is, that God is speaking of a common "good," or the good of the species; not of personal good. All personal good Adam already possessed. He enjoyed perfect innocency. But the common good of which all other animals partook, he possessed not. He could not propagate his species by generation. Adam was alone. Nor had he as yet a companion for that wonderful work of generation and the preservation of his species. The "good" therefore here divinely expressed, signifies the multiplying of the human race. In the same manner also Adam, although innocent and righteous, did not as yet possess that high good to which he was created; namely, a spiritual and glorious immortality, to which he would have been translated of God in his appointed time, if he had continued in his innocency. The meaning of "good" therefore in the text is, that Adam being himself a most beautiful creature possessed, as far as his own person was concerned, everything he could require. But there was yet wanting to him one thing, the "good" of God's "blessing;" the generating and multiplying of his species; for he was alone.

Now, as nature is corrupted by sin, woman is necessary, not only for the multiplying of the human race but also for the companionship, help and protection of life. For domestic government needs the ministration of women. Nay, such is our wretchedness by the fall of Adam, that, to our shame and sorrow be it confessed, we have need of woman as a remedy against sin. Wherefore, in contemplating woman, we must consider not only the place in domestic government which she fills, but the remedy for sin, which God has made her to supply; as the apostle Paul says, "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife," 1 Cor. 7:2. And a certain master of divine sentiments also eloquently observes, "Marriage was instituted in paradise as a duty and an obedience to God; but since the fall it is a remedy also for sin." Wherefore we are obliged to adopt a union with this sex to avoid sin. This is indeed a sad and disgraceful confession to make; but it is the truth. For there are very few now who take unto themselves wives, purely as a duty of obedience to God; according to his original will in the creation of man as male and female!

Other animals however have no necessity of this kind. Therefore they as a rule come together once in the year only, and are contented with that intercourse, as if by this fact they said, "We come together as a duty to God!" But it is far different with men. They are compelled to have recourse to their union with wives in matrimony to avoid sin. Hence we generate and are born in the midst of sins on both sides. For our parents do not come together as a pure duty to God, but as a remedy also, for the sake of avoiding sin.

And yet it is by means of this very remedy and by this very miserable state of things, that God fulfils his original blessing pronounced upon male and female when he created them. And thus men, though in sin and with sin, generate and are generated. But this would not have been the case in paradise, had man continued in the innocency of his original creation. Generation in that state would have been a most holy yielding of obedience to God, utterly free from that impure lust which now exists. And children would have been born in original righteousness and rectitude. They would have known God immediately at their birth, without any instruction or admonition. They would have spoken of his holy name, praised him and given him thanks.

But all these glorious things are now lost. Yet it is profitable to us to think upon them deeply, that we may hold fast some sense of the real state in which we now are; namely, under all the effects of original sin; and that we may rightly contemplate also the original condition of Adam, a state of perfect righteousness, which state we hope again to enjoy in all its blessedness at the "restitution of all things," Acts 3:21.

With respect to the divine expression, "Let us make," I have already observed that Eve was created, as well as Adam, by a peculiar counsel of God, in order that it might be manifest that she was a partaker with him of a better and an immortal life; a hope not possessed by any of the other living creatures, who live a natural life only without any hope of an eternal life.

That which the Latin renders "like him" in this passage, is in the Hebrew, "which may be before him." God, by this expression also, distinguishes the human female from the females of all other living creatures, which are not always "before" their mates. But woman was expressly created that she might be "before" her husband always and everywhere. Even as the emperor also calls the life of married persons "an individual life." Whereas the brute female requires her mate only once in the whole year, and after she has conceived she returns to her own kind and takes care of herself. Of her young, which were brought forth at any previous time, she takes no care whatever. She does not cohabit with her mate always.

The nature of marriage among mankind however is utterly different. There the woman is married by the man that she may be "before him" always and may cohabit with him as one flesh. And if Adam had remained in his state of innocency, this individual life or cohabitation of man and wife would have been most sweet and delightful. The embrace itself also would have been most holy and reverential, and worshipful of God. There would have existed none of that impurity and shame arising from sin, which now exists.

Is not this fallen state of man most awful to contemplate! For in its holy reality there was nothing more excellent, nothing more admirable in all nature, than the fulfilment of the divine law of generation. It was an act of obedience to God, the highest which man could perform next to praising and lauding his glorious name, which obedience Adam and Eve rendered unto God in as much holiness and freedom from all sin as when they were engaged in acts of praise and adoration. The fulfilment of this law of nature and of God indeed still continues. But how wretched are these present remnants of the original innocency! How horribly deformed by sin, pollution and baseness of every description. All these things are deplorable evidences of nature's original sin.

For the great and glorious ends of creation there was need of the woman as a helpmeet for man. For man alone could not generate; nor could the woman generate alone. As the apostle says, neither the man nor the woman "had power over their own bodies" for that high end. Hence the loftiest praises of each sex are, that the male is the father and the woman the mother of the generation of mankind. The wife in this high sense also is that helpmeet of the husband. But, as we have repeatedly said, if we look at the state of originally-created innocency, the generation of man has lost all its excellency, its pure delight, its holiness and its worshipful obedience to God.