after that. There are two points being argued simultaneously here, in a typically complex and
238 The Literal Meaning of Genesis mind, a mind endowed with reason, with respect to which she too was made to the image of God.
But on account of their being joined in one, God made, it says, man to the image of God. And in case anyone should think it was only the spirit of man that was made, although it was only in the spirit that he was made to the image of God, he made him, it says, male andfemale (Gn 1 :27), to give us to understand that the body was also being made now. Again, in case anyone should suppose that it was made in such a way as to represent each sex in a single person, like those called hermaphrodites who are born occasionally, he shows that he put it in the singular on account of their beingjoined in one, and because the woman was made from the man, as will become clear later on when he begins to unfold more thoroughly what is said here in a nutshell; and that too is why he immediately continues in the plural, saying he made them and blessed them (Gn 1 :27-28). But as l have already said, we shall be inquiring more thoroughly about the creation of man in the passage of scripture that follows on this.
What "And thus it was made " refers to here
22, 35 . Now we have to note the fact that after saying, And thus it was made, he added straightaway, And God saw all the things that he had made, and behold they were very good. What is meant here is the actual right and provision given to the human species to take for food the fodder of the field and the fruits of trees.35 He referred and thus it was made, you see, to what started from the place where he says, and God said: Behold, l have given you seed-bearingfodder etc. The fact is, ifwe refer his saying and thus it was made to everything that has been said earlier, the consequence will be that we will have to admit that they had already increased and multiplied and filled the earth on the sixth day, though we find scripture itself testifying that this only happened after many years.36
For this reason, after the man had been given this right to eat, and had come to know it when God told him, it says and thus it was made—in the very fact, of
35. This is meant by the words and thus it was made, not by the words that were added straightaway after that. There are two points being argued simultaneously here, in a typically complex and allusive way. The first proceeds from the fact that whereas on previous days the v/ordsandthus it was made are followed in one form or another by a repetition of what God has said should be made—either by and God made, or by and the waters produced, and so on: and only then did we hear that God saw that it was good; here the intermediate "repetition" is omitted, that is, because the man being an intelligent creature belonging with the angels to the intelligent creation, immediately knew what God had said through an impression of the divine idea in the divine Wisdom. That is why he stresses that God's seeing the goodness of everything is mentioned straightaway after and thus it was made.'Vht second point being argued is that these words refer only to the right to eat, not to the actual eating: and certainly not to everything else mentioned in these verses, especially not to the blessing given. Increase and multiply andfill the earth. 36. See Genesis 5: and then for the process to be resumed after the flood, 10 and 1 1.