MISREADINGS IN GENESIS 1-3: THE ROLE OF WOMAN(1)

This thought follows up to the previous one on our calling as ones made in the image of God and is important if not very “devotional.”  Despite clear biblical texts to the contrary, I still hear some church-people who talk of the subordinate role of women to men.  Genesis 1-3 addresses this issue.  In the narrative of Gen 1:1-2:3, when God states that he will make humanity in God’s image, God does so, male and female (1:26-28).  Both represent God.  That was “good” (Hebrew tov), which here ties in with order.

In the second narrative that begins at 2:4, when God desired for the man to have a “like-corresponding-to-him (kngd) helper” (‘zr), no existing creature would do (2:18-20).  Neither of the Hebrew terms in the quoted expression imply subordination: the first term has the notion of a proper counterpart, and the second, translated “helper,” is a term that may be used in reference to the divine aid of God (Psalm 121:1).  To provide such an entity for the man, God does not create (br’) new kind of being.  Rather, God extracts a section from the side of the man and forms (bnh) the women from it.  The point is that the woman is the exact same essence as the man and not a new kind of creature.  The man acknowledges this fact with a wordplay in Hebrew that works as well in English, "This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman' (isshah) for she was taken out of man (ish)" (Gen 2:23).  [The explanatory note about marriage in 2:24 (“that is why a man (ish) leaves…and is united to his woman (isshah), and they become one flesh”) is not about sexual intercourse, but about how the unity of the two complementary humans form a kinship entity.]

When one gets to the Chapter Three, after Eve’s and Adam’s act of disobedience, 3:16 is sometime used to defend the subordination of women, “And toward your husband [will be] your intent, but he should rule over you.”  This text does not command that husbands rule over their wives.  First, this statement presents the effect of a cause.  It is presented as a consequence of chaos encroaching on their relationship due to their rebellion toward God.  A major biblical principle of creation theology exhibited in Genesis 3, a principle particularly picked up by the prophets, is that when one defies the Creator of order, chaos returns and impedes the proper creational order.²  In Gen 3:16, chaos hinders the originally intended relational order between a husband and wife.  This resultant state is not the divine goal.  Those who seek to obey God and to bring order into chaos will work for a harmonious relationship, one in which male and female are both in the image of God and are both expected to bring order into the domains of the earth.

Second, although the Hebrew of 3:16 is rather vague and difficult to translate, a parallel text in wording, but not in implied tense and mood, regarding Cain and sin sheds light on 3:16: “And toward you [is] its [sin’s] desire (tshwqh), but you must rule over it” (4:7).  This parallel construction to 3:16 reveals that the word for “desire” (tshwqh) of the women in 3:16, which can have a positive connotation (Song of Sol 7:11, Eng. 7:10), is here something negative.  Like the negative “desire” of sin personified, it should be thwarted.  Due to this parallel text in 4:7, the NET translates our text, “You [the woman] will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you" (Gen. 3:16).  Moreover, this reading makes sense in light of the preceding event in which the woman succumbed to the temptation of the serpent and the man, instead of refusing her offer and thwarting sin, willingly followed.

Application:
In God’s creational order, males and females were made in the image of God to represent God.  In this creational order, the woman is of the same essence as the man and not a lesser or defective being (as in ancient Greek thought).  Together male and female complement one another.  Those who seek God should not take the consequential chaos of sin as a state to maintain.  Rather, as ones created in the image of God, they should strive to being order into that chaos.  Complementarily made men and women should work together to obey and serve their Creator.

Lord, once again I see that you want order and light, not chaos and darkness.  Guide me and your Church to bring order into chaos, particularly as we respect our complementary helpers.  Amen.
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1. This post of Dec. 5, 2024, was amended on Dec. 9, 2024 to address a comment asking for clarification.  In regard to the background on this post, see the previous posts, Nov. 22, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Background” and Dec. 5, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Our Calling: The “Image of God.”
2. This principle of sin causing the encroachment of chaos will be developed in a subsequent post.