Marriage and creation

Jesus’ quotations from Genesis 1-2 in Matthew 19:4-5 resemble the pattern in a number of days of creation. On some days, God spoke and made, or made something by speaking. But there are occasions when God first made something and then spoke to it. He made the dry land appear, and then spoke and caused plants to come up on the ground and begin to produce fruit. God created the great monsters in the deep and every swarming thing in the sea, and then spoke to them and blessed them to be fruitful. He does the same in the creation of man. He deliberates about making man, then makes him male and female, and then speaks to bless them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

Jesus keeps the same sequence: Making then speaking, but he puts together passages from Genesis 1-2. God made male and female, and then speaks to them to be united into one. The implication is that marriage is a product of God’s making and speaking; marriage is a new creation.