But woman as a sex had existed in Eden previous to this period of the narrative. In the first chapter of Genesis, where the creation of Adam is spoken of, it is said that "God created Adam in his own image; in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." And this was before man was placed in Eden. For it appears that after men were made, they were elevated, male and female, into the Eden state, and placed in the garden of the Lord. So it was not a wife that was now presented to man. The men of that Church had already each his own. Nor, evidently, could it have been, as a symbol, an affection for the Lord for the first time embodied in those people's lives. They had eaten of the tree of life, and love was already inscribed on their inmost hearts. It was something added to the Eden state. It was an affection that did not originally belong there. As all was made perfect at the planting of Eden, anything added to it must have been slight indeed, and not known as such, but still the first step on the downward path.
We read, indeed, that God said, "It is not good that man should be alone," or, according to a closer rendering of the original Hebrew, "It is not good to man that he should be alone." The implication is, that to man, in his then condition, this being alone did not seem to be a good thing. He began to want something that as yet he did not
