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

by Martin Luther

Most justly condemnable, therefore, is our ingratitude. For if we believe God to be the efficient and final cause of all things, ought we not to wonder at his works, to be delighted with them, and to proclaim them always and everywhere? But how few are there who do this in truth and from the heart?

In vain therefore and absurd is the doctrine of Aristotle, that man and the sun beget man. We learn from this book a far different cause of propagation, the commanding Word of God which says to this and to that husband, Thy drop of blood shall on this occasion become a male, and on that occasion a female. But of this word reason knows nothing. Therefore reason can do nothing but invent trifles and absurdities concerning the causes of such mighty things. Medical professors, following the philosophers, have given us their various opinions concerning the propagation of mankind; and though reason may not be able to deny the justness of many of them, yet all of them put together cannot reach the great first cause. The Holy Spirit leads us far deeper than all the opinions of men, when it sets before us the Word of God, by which all things are created and conserved.

Hence the mighty reason why a man, and not an ox nor an ass, is generated by a drop of human blood, is the effectual power of the Word which was spoken by God at the creation of all things, "in the beginning." It is in divine truth therefore that Christ teaches us in the Lord's Prayer to call upon God as our Father, and that the Creed teaches us to confess God as our Creator. When we look back therefore to this first cause, then can we speak of all these things with pureness, with holiness and with joy. But if we leave out the first cause, we cannot even think of them without baseness and obscenity.

From this part of our sacred discussion we further behold the horrible nature of the fall and of original sin, in that the whole human race is sunk in ignorance of its very origin. We see male and female come together in marriage union. We see the female at her appointed time bring forth from a drop of masculine blood her infant into the light of heaven. These things, we repeat, are familiar to the sight and to the knowledge of all; and yet, if the Word teach and instruct thee not, thou knowest nothing of the marvelous work which is wrought and which thine eyes behold. This ignorance is abundantly proved by the vain disputations of philosophers, which we have just been contemplating. Is not this then a miserable ignorance and a horrible blindness?

Whereas, had Adam continued in his innocency, he would have found no need of instructing his posterity in their origin, even as there was no need of being himself instructed in the creation of his wife Eve, for the moment he saw her he knew that she was "bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh." And had the original innocence continued, the same knowledge of themselves would have existed in all the posterity of Adam. They would all have understood the great final and efficient Cause of which things we now know little or nothing more than the beasts of the field themselves.

Therefore to the ears of reason this is a most beautiful and pleasing fable which philosophers have with pleasure greatly misused, if they heard it and just as they heard it, especially those versed in the arts and wisdom of the Egyptians. But for us it is an inexpressibly precious wisdom that makes known to us the fable the world judges ridiculous; namely, that the genesis of the generation of man was constituted by the Word of God. For God takes the dust of the earth and says, "Let us make man!" Likewise afterwards he takes the rib of Adam and says, "Let us make a helpmeet for man." We will now consider the words themselves since we have referred sufficiently to the doctrine as it was necessary to do so.

Having thus discussed, as was necessary, the divine facts themselves, contained in the text before us, let us now consider the expressions used by the sacred historian in recording them.

Jehovah God, says Moses, caused to glide or fall upon Adam THARDEMAH, "a slumber" or a "deep sleep;" for the verb RADAM signifies "to fall asleep as those do who become drowsy unaware and nod the head." For there are various kinds and degrees of sleep. Some are heavy and profound, which are so deep as to be disturbed by no dreams. These are healthful, because they moisten the body, are beneficial to promote digestion, and are attended with no distress to the head. Others again are light, mingled as it were with wakefulness. In these latter, dreams are more frequent. They also, more or less, distress the head and are proofs of a weakness of body.

Moses says therefore that Adam was sunk into a profound sleep; so that stretched on the grassy earth, he breathed deeply, as those do who sleep well and sweetly. It was such a sleep that God, as Moses informs us, caused to fall upon Adam. And this is indeed a sleep truly divine, a most delightful gift of God, which comes down upon us like a dew from above, and softly pervades and irrorates the whole body.

When Adam therefore was thus fallen asleep, the Lord took out one of his ribs. The Hebrew word ZELA signifies, "the rib with the side." Wherefore my view of the passage is, that the Lord did not take the bare rib of Adam, but the rib clothed with the flesh, according to that very expression of Adam below, verse 23, "this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." And God, be it observed, did this by his Word. So that we are not to suppose that God used any cutting, after the manner of a surgeon. God said, out of this bone thus clothed with flesh, "Let there be woman!" and it was so. And God afterwards filled up the aperture in his side with flesh.