What is the context
of this passage?

Who wrote it?
When was it written?

What problem were the rabbis trying to solve?

Glossary

A brief history of
sex difference

Other references to people we might today call transgender and intersex in the Bible




How do these these texts inform trans, intersex, and genderqueer
issues today?

Questions for thought
and discussion

Further resources

  		 


God created the adam in God's image;
in the image of God [God] created him—
male and female [God] created them.

—Genesis 1:27


A note about gender in translating Hebrew


  


Rabbinic writings from the last 2000 years give us several interpretations of this verse:

The first human being was created wholly female and wholly male at the same time.
—Genesis Rabbah 8:1
(c. 400 CE)

The first human being was half male and half female, and was then split into two separate beings.
—Genesis Rabbah 8:1
(c. 400 CE)

The first human being was an infinite, genderless mass.
—Genesis Rabbah 8:1
(c. 400 CE)

A man was created on the sixth day, and later on a woman was created from his side.
—Rashi on Genesis 1:27
(c. 11th century)

Men, women, and every possibility in between were created simultaneously.
—Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig
(21st century)

The first human beings described in this verse were two rigidly defined binary sexes -- male and female.
—Rabbi Rebecca Alpert (21st century)