“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). “Male and female [unkeva] He created them” – this is one of the words that they changed for King Ptolemy:40When Ptolemy gathered seventy Sages to translate the Torah into Greek – the Septuagint (see Megilla 9a). There were several places where the Sages veered from translating literally in order to evade various problems.
“A male and his orifices [unkuvav] he created them.”41They made this change to avoid a seeming contradiction between this verse and another verse (Genesis 2:18), in which it appears that Adam was created alone, without a female. Rabbi Yehoshua bar Neḥemya in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak, and the Rabbis in the name of Rabbi Elazar say: He endowed him [Adam] with four features from the supernal realm and four features from the lower realm. [From the lower realm:] He eats and drinks as does an animal, procreates as does an animal, defecates as does an animal, and dies as does an animal.
From the supernal realm: He stands as do the ministering angels, speaks as do the ministering angels, has intelligence as do the ministering angels, and sees as do the ministering angels. But do animals not [also] see? This is bewildering. The difference is that this one [a human] has peripheral vision.
Rabbi Tifdai in the name of Rabbi Aḥa: The supernal beings were created in the [divine] image and likeness, but do not procreate, while the earthly beings [created before man] procreate but were not created in the [divine] image and likeness. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I will create him [Adam] in the [divine] image and likeness, [a trait] from the supernal realm, but he will procreate, [a trait] from the earthly realm.’
Rabbi Tifdai in the name of Rabbi Aḥa: The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘If I create him from the supernal realm, he will live and never die; if from the earthly realm, he will die and will not live. Rather, I will create him from [both] the supernal and from the earthly. If he sins he will die; if he does not sin he will live.’