While we will say a little more about the reality of intersex conditions shortly, it is important to realise that all such DSDs, like every other kind of disorder, disease or disability, are an ‘after the Fall’ phenomenon, not part of the “very good” creation (Gen 1:31). Moreover, far from contradicting the teaching of either Genesis or Jesus, such conditions are normally, and rightly, classified as “medically identifiable deviations from the human binary sexual norm.”³⁸ In other words, male and female are not two extremes at either end of a broad continuum and, as we’ve already noted, the intersexed are not a third sex. From the beginning of creation, God made human beings male and female and either male or female, despite the difficulty we may have (on extremely rare occasions) of determining a person’s sex.³⁹

b) The relationship between sex and gender

The binary reality of human sexuality revealed in Genesis 1 is both emphasised and developed in Genesis 2. Here we move from humanity being described in terms of the adjectives ‘male’ (zakhar) and ‘female’ (neqevah) – which are not unique to humans but also apply to animals (e.g., Gen 6:19) – to the nouns ‘man’ (’ish) and ‘woman’ (’ishshah), as these are applied to Adam and Eve:

²⁴ Therefore a man (’ish) shall leave his father (’av) and his mother (’em) and hold fast to his wife (’ishshah), and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man (’adam) and his wife (’ishshah) were both naked and were not ashamed. (Gen 2:24-25)⁴⁰

The clear implication of this move from ‘male’ and ‘female’ (in Gen 1) to ‘man’ and ‘woman’ (in Gen 2), an implication everywhere confirmed as the biblical narrative unfolds, is that a person’s biological sex reveals and determines both their objective gender (what gender they, in fact, are) and certain key gender roles (should they be taken up). That is, human males grow into men (and potentially husbands and fathers) and human females grow into women (and potentially wives and mothers).⁴¹ Indeed it is this set of binary connections that makes human marriage possible. As Jesus again confirms, bringing Genesis 1 and 2 into the closest possible connection:

⁶“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, ⁸and the two shall become one flesh. (Mark 10:6-8a)

Furthermore, in fulfilment of God’s purpose that human beings should “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28), it is out of the “one flesh” union of husband and wife that children are (normally) conceived and brought into the world – children who perpetuate not only the sex and gender binary but the sex and gender connection. The Hebrew language of the Old Testament expresses this dual reality at every stage of personal development and in every station of life. For example:

• son (ben) and daughter (bat)
• boy (yeled) and girl (yalda)
• brother (’ach) and sister (’achot)
• young man (na‘ar) and young woman (na‘arah)
• bridegroom (chatan) and bride (kalla)
• father (’av) and mother (’em)
• father-in-law (cham) and mother-in-law (chamot)
• uncle (dod) and aunt (dodah)
• manservant (‘eved) and maidservant (’amah)
• prophet (navi’) and prophetess (nevi’ah)
• prince (sar) and princess (sarah)
• king (melek) and queen (malka)

In summary: a person’s biological sex reveals and determines their actual gender and certain potential gender roles.⁴² For example, only a male can truly be a son and truly become a father. Only a female can truly be a daughter and truly become a mother.⁴³ Furthermore, man and woman are not two poles at either end of a gender spectrum. Indeed, as we’ll see further shortly, there is simply no space in biblical anthropology – either before or after the Fall – for additional sexes and/or additional genders.