What It Means to be a Human Being

God is very funny sometimes.

I came across the following last night, while reading for my Systematic Theology II class:

To be a human being is to be directed towards one’s fellowmen. Again we go back to Genesis 1. Note the juxtaposition, in verse 27, of “in the image of God he created him” and “male and female he created them.” More than sexual differentiation is involved here, since this is found also in animals, and the Bible does not say that animals have been created in the image of God. What is being said in this verse is that the human person is not an isolated being who is complete in himself or herself, but that he or she is a being who needs the fellowship of others, who is not complete apart from others.

This point is made even more vividly in Genesis 2, which describes the creation of Eve: “the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’ ” (v.18). The Hebrew expression rendered “a helper suitable for him” is ezer kenego. Neged (the word translated “suitable for him”) means “corresponding to” or “answering to.” Literally, therefore, the expression means “a helper answering to him.” The words imply that woman complements man, supplements him, completes him, is strong where he may be weak, supplies his deficiencies and fills his needs. Man is therefore incomplete without woman. This holds for the woman as wellas for the man. Woman, too, is incomplete without the man; man supplements woman, complements her, fills her needs, is strong where she is weak.

Hoekema, Anthony A. Created in God’s Image. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994. (76-77)

Hoekema goes on to clarify that marriage reveals and illustrates more fully than any other human institution the polarity and inter-dependence of the man-woman relationship, whilst reiterating that it does not do so in an exclusive sense. For even the ideal man Jesus never married and there will be no marriage in the life to come.

Nevertheless, it is interesting… ironic even, to read this in one of my theology textbooks. What God is saying is clear as mud