First doesn’t mean best
There is no partnership without equals
I recently read a Medium story by Justyce Rain Gould titled, What Is A Woman…In The Bible? Justyce writes:
God created Eve as “a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18)…The term ‘helper’ (Hebrew ezer) does not indicate a lesser role or status, but rather function. She was to be his complement.
I was reminded of my own reading about ‘ezer in a book called, Why Not Women? A Fresh Look at Scripture on Women in Missions, Ministry, and Leadership by Loren Cunningham and David Joel Hamilton.
In this book, David Hamilton breaks down the Hebrew phrase translated “a helper suitable” — ‘ezer keneged, describing ‘ezer as a powerful word in the Hebrew (the first e in keneged is actually a superscript ‘e’ in the book, which I have found is not possible to do on Medium).
Two examples are used to indicate the kind of helper that Eve was to be for Adam — the kind of helper you needed when you were a child and had a math problem, or were having trouble with a bully at school.
That is, you needed a helper who knew more than you about math, not someone who knew less than you. With a bully, you needed someone bigger and stronger than you, not someone smaller and weaker.
To quote David Hamilton:
That is exactly what this Hebrew word ‘ezer means. A helper is not a subservient peon but a more capable, more powerful, more intelligent ally.
Just quoting what the man says!
David also quotes Ruth A. Tucker:
The one who helps is the one who has something to offer the one who is helpless or needs help…
David then moves on to the second part of the phrase, keneged which he points out is an adjective:
God qualified the powerful word ‘ezer with the adjective keneged, which means “equal”. He made for Adam an equal helper:
David quotes Spencer, Beyond the Curse:
“Woman was made not to serve Adam, but to serve with Adam.”
(Bold added)
The confirmation that God sees men and women as equals is welcome to so many. It resonates with the cry of our souls for truth, and for justice and mercy.
Our God of love, who is faithful and just, considers men and women to be equal in value. God intended men and women to serve side by side, not for men to take the ‘boss’ role and women a ‘personal assistant’ role:
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1: 28 (Bold added)
There are countless aspects regarding women in scripture that are covered in the book, Why Not Women? Some of these involve translation of words, words missed out in translation, punctuation added by educated guess when translating to English, the correct meaning of the original words, and understanding that Paul sometimes organized his arguments in patterns called chiasms!
Reading the entire book more than once has helped me realize that translating languages is more complicated than I knew, and meaning can be altered in many ways. It has caused me to be less inclined to certainty and more open to mystery and to depend more surely on the goodness, compassion, and faithfulness of God. He knows all, where we do not, nor ever will.
Holding fast to beliefs born of ignorance can cause so much unnecessary pain to people, in this case to women, and often to their children too. Sometimes these erroneous beliefs persist over the ensuing centuries if not millennia. David quotes a saying of the rabbis regarding the simple, and long-held belief that men are superior to women because Adam was created before Eve. It is found under a subheading, First Doesn’t Mean Best:
“If a man’s mind becomes [too] proud, he may be reminded that the gnats preceded him in the order of creation.”
God’s design for humankind, both men and women, is what gives us all value, not our order in creation.
Read more of Sharon Roberts-Radic’s stories:
Sharon Roberts-Radic is grateful for life, freedom, mercy, and Jesus.
