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Eve

             The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” (Genesis2:18-23)

 

Let’s start with the “rib.” The note on the second mention says, “a part of the man’s side.” This doesn’t mean it wasn’t a rib. It just doesn’t mean it was. If you look online, you’ll find rants about this. Women are the source for men, they don’t come from men! We must not let men think for one second that women are in any way dependent on men (even for their initial existence)! To do so is to submit to the toxic patriarchy! Never mind that those who are so vocal about the idea constitute the toxic matriarchy. Or – perhaps we should take this to mind, because two of the toxic matriarchy’s weapons are “invisibility” (“It doesn’t exist, you don’t see it - in fact, your paranoia that it does exist and is a threat is proof of how toxic the patriarchy is!”) and victimization (“No, no, no, women aren’t a threat. We just want equality and fairness and you won’t give it to us, so we have no choice but to fight.”)

Rather than seeing this (and everything) through a political lens, let’s consider it as a mere historic record, sort of along the line of “I drank iced tea with my breakfast.”

But, returning to the text, some differences need to be noted. First, contrary to what some have claimed, Genesis 2 does not depict a second creation of man. It’s a literary device in which the topic of a previous section is examined more closely.  Next, everything else was created by the fiats, “Let there be…”, and without God’s self-talk about creating man in his own image. The third difference is that man is described as having been made from the dust of the earth. The fourth is that male and female were not created at the same time. The same day, but not at the same time. It should also be noted that this account is not told in strict chronological order. Pay attention to the verb tenses.

Before God made Eve, he had Adam name the animals, and in doing so, Adam realized the lack of any “suitable helper.” The Hebrew term for “helper” is Ezer (or Hezer) – pronounced “Ay-zer.”

The noun ezer is used twenty-one times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Twice it is used in the context of the woman in Eden. Three times it is used of people helping (or failing to help) in life-threatening situations. Sixteen times it is used in reference to God as a helper. (Scroll down [in the article online not here] to see every Bible verse that contains ezer.) These biblical texts are talking about a vital and powerful kind of help. Yet when ezer is applied to the woman, its meaning is usually diminished to fit with traditional and cultural views of women’s roles.[1]

            One comment I found but can’t find now was a meme that showed a woman either putting on or taking off a crested helmet of the sort a general might wear. This is the first place the term is used, and it is used of a woman, but it is also used many times to describes God in His relationship with man. Jesus was the greatest ezer who ever lived.

          All this is interesting, but there are other points that deserve to be mentioned. There’s no record of God showing the animals that they lacked a mate, then either creating or making that mate. God didn’t use Himself to reveal to Adam that he lacked an ezer.

          Why didn’t God just create man by fiat? Did God actually create the animals by fiat, or did He craft them of the dust as well, but (as C.S. Lewis would put it into Aslan’s mouth) “I tell no one any story but his own” ?[2] All we know is that today’s text tells us God did create man in two stages, first the man, then the rescuer or general/sergeant (depending on your perspective.)

          And, I couldn’t possibly end this any better than with this quote of Matthew Henry:




[2] Lewis, C. S. The Horse and His Boy, 1954

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