Abstract
Along with Gen 1:27, Gen 2:24 stands in support of Jesus' response to his fellow jewish interlocutors about divorce according to the anecdote preserved in Mark 10:2-9 and Matt 19:3-9. Genesis 2:24 also serves Paul's argument against illicit sexual relations in 1 Cor 6:12-20 within a broader context which also cites Jesus' teaching about divorce, and will serve the author of Ephesians metaphorically to depict the union between Christ and the church (Eph 5:31). In the anecdote the oneness motif serves to underline permanence and in Paul's argument it serves to underline severance from previous oneness. The present study will explore the extent to which both usages may inform each other's interpretation, including whether the flipside of arguing oneness is arguing severance of prior relations and so potentially providing a rationale for Matthew's version of the divorce logion and perhaps indicating what might have been also the original assumption of the saying on the lips of the historical Jesus.