Blurred Gender Lines Part 3

When God created two genders through Adam and Eve, there is no exact description of what the physical appearance of these first two individuals looked like.   No one can say whether they were fair skinned or dark, blue eyed or brown, or even what was the color of their hair.  Its is only known that God created them as two distinct genders with all the distinct physical attributes that still define those two genders today.  That being said, there are a few things which can be assumed about these two people that have little to do with their gender identities.  For instance they would have been physically fit as they were created perfect.  They would have had no physical deformities or scars because sin had not influenced their bodies in anyway at Creation.  They would have been mentally and morally ignorant of all the current gender confusion, because, in their world, there was only one man and one woman and they were literally the definition of the two distinctive genders and satisfied with those limitations.  Thus when it comes to their gender identities we simply know that they were given the physical attributes that define male and female gender identities.

However, when it comes to the farther reaching qualities of masculinity and femininity, no one can really say much about Adam and Eve regarding these terms.  It is known that Adam was obviously created the definition of masculine as Eve was of the feminine, but, it is not clear what those roles actually looked like.  This is partially because our current culture usually define masculine and feminine based upon personal and cultural perceptions and not solely upon the biblical definitions and examples.  In the Roman world, athletics were solely male participant events and thus in the Roman mind true masculinity was defined by male prowess in those events.  While it is safe to assume that Adam was “athletic,” because he was created physically perfect, it is also safe to assume that Eve, based upon her created perfection, was also “athletic” as well.  Thus defining the masculinity and femininity of the genders cannot be based solely upon those type of physical capabilities.

Conversely, emotions are seen as being feminine or masculine.  Crying, for instance, is often classified as a feminine emotion and because of this there are some who seek to train their sons to withhold their tears because, “real men don’t cry.”  Yet one need only look as far as the pages of Scripture to find the Lord Jesus Christ sharing His broken heart in John 11:35 as he literally wept over the circumstances of Lazarus’ death.  Peter, God’s preacher on the day of Pentecost, wept bitterly in conviction upon seeing his failure of denying Jesus in Matthew 26:75.  In Revelation 5:4 John’s heart is emotionally broken when he thinks no one is worthy to open the book before him and thus he “wept much.”   These examples show that one cannot define masculine or feminine based solely upon culturally defined emotional definitions as all emotions were created by God for both genders.  One must realize that God is the Author of all emotions and can find Him showing every emotion humankind can display, especially since humanity is created in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26).