Queer Readings of Adam's Androgyny

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Following feminist interpretations of the biblical creation accounts, I have discussed Adam as an androgynous creature and the division of the double-faced first human. Within rabbinic literature two Jewish traditions are found that are based on Plato’s unique, strange myth of the circle-men in his work Symposium: Firstly, it was imagined that the first human combined both genders in himself. Queer readers, if they associate themselves in one way or another with androgyny, can find themselves as parts of the creation, made by G*d who can also be conceived as androgynous. Secondly, it was suggested that two persons were created in one. This was illustrated by the double-faced image of the first human who finally was divided. A queer reading questions a heterosexist view of the origin of the gender difference based on rabbinic interpretations of the ideas of the creation in relation to the division of the double-faced first human. Already at the beginning of the 20th century the godlikeness of the “homosexual” was asserted by a feminist writer in connection with Gen 1:27 in the first creation account. I provide a queer rereading of this verse from the Bible referring to a rabbi of today and interpret the creation of humankind in a queer-inclusive way.

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