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:
Comments
Post a Comment