Here is an good article by Peter Leithart about how woman “perfects” man. In an aside, Leithart speaks of how original creation was “imperfect” and “inglorious:” Creation is a series of speeches and actions to perfect the original imperfection and to glorify the relatively inglorious. In Genesis 1, ‘elohim lights, forms, and fills to transform the original tohu-w’bohu into a brightly-lit, ordered, teeming cosmos.

I must disagree with Leithart about original creation since no evidence exists that God ever did anything half-hearted or incomplete. Why was the first creation tohu-w’bohu (turned upside down)? It wasn’t because God made it imperfect at first, and then modified it so that the creation is now good. Rather, it’s best to see an angelic rebellion that caused the darkness and chaos with the 6-day creation as a re-creation where earth becomes habitable for humans- (Notice how the placement of the sun and moon on the fourth day were for marking the seasons and time keeping. This is obviously earth’s immediate environment which is this specific solar system during the six days and not the greater universe which occurred in Gen.1.1).

Prior to this re-creation the earth was dominated by dragons (dinosaurs) and cataclysms which is what the evidence in fossils and geology seem to support. Therefore, the bible and the earth’s physical record agree.

Yes, I have hijacked Leithart’s article to point out how necessary it is to regard everything that the text is saying. God allows a lack to show that He provides fulfillment. The creation of woman from man completed the lack of social relations for Adam. He recognized, in naming the animals, that none of the created beasts were suitable for his completeness. Since Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, he was made with a social component like his Creator. God the Father has always been a father which is a social relation. Likewise, The Son has always been a Son in His eternal generation from the Father. The Spirit’s procession from the Father is likewise eternal and completes the unity of the divine persons so that they are “one.” When Deuteronomy speaks of God as “one,” it uses the term echad which conveys a oneness of agreement and unity rather than a singularity of persons. There is a term in Hebrew denoting solitary existence but it was not used in the Shema of Dt. 6.4 which Jesus quoted in Mark. 12.29.

Contra Leithart, God allowed evil into the world to contrast it with His goodness. Experiential knowledge is real and has a greater impact than mere intellectual information. Experience, it seems, is the most thorough teacher. Additionally, God allowed darkness to show that He is the One to overcome it: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (Jn. 1.4-5 NIV).

Woman Is the Glory of Man | Peter J. Leithart | First Things