Acts 16:9, The First He-She?
During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
//Paul, traveling around preaching Jesus, one day received a vision of a “man of Macedonia” calling him there. Paul concluded that God wanted him to preach in Macedonia, and he set off on a journey there.
But when Paul arrived, he found no man at all! He went “to the river,” where he expected to find Christians gathered to pray, and instead he found a cluster of women. Immediately recognizing the women as the reason for his visit, Paul sat down with them and began to teach.
One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
Lydia invited Paul and his companions to stay at her house, and the Lord “opened her heart.” The “man of Macedonia” turned out to be a woman! Well, dreams can be a little hazy!
Actually, in non-Biblical Jewish mysticism, the first he/she turned out to be Adam and Eve. God made the first person hermaphroditic, the legend goes, but, when its loneliness ensued, split the first person in two, and made them made and female. This is a Midrash on Gen 1:26-27, where it says twice that first God made “adama,” the person “of the earth,” then, two lines down in v.27, says “male and female he created them.” So, the legend goes, first male and female were one, then split later.
I believe you got me on that one!