Category Archives: Women

Singular and plural in Genesis 3

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One of the problems with studying the Bible in English is that most translations don’t differentiate between singular “you” and plural “you.” One place where that becomes very noticeable is Genesis 3. As we start looking at this chapter, I want to present the text (from the HCSB) with clarification as to who is being addressed in each verse. That’s a start to understanding this chapter. Reflect on this, then we’ll continue our discussion in the next post:

3

1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You (Eve and Adam) can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You (Eve and Adam) must not eat it or touch it, or you (Eve and Adam) will die.’”

4 “No! You (Eve and Adam) will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your (Eve and Adam) eyes will be opened and you (Eve and Adam) will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you (Adam)?”

10 And he said, “I heard You (God) in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

11 Then He asked, “Who told you (Adam) that you (Adam) were naked? Did you (Adam) eat from the tree that I commanded you (Adam) not to eat from?”

12 Then the man replied, “The woman You (God) gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you (Eve) have done?”

And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”

14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you (serpent) have done this,
you (serpent) are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You (serpent) will move on your (serpent) belly
and eat dust all the days of your (serpent) life.
15 I will put hostility between you (serpent) and the woman,
and between your (serpent) seed and her seed.
He will strike your (serpent) head,
and you (serpent) will strike his heel.
16 He said to the woman:

I will intensify your (Eve) labor pains;
you (Eve) will bear children in anguish.
Your (Eve) desire will be for your (Eve) husband,
yet he will rule over you (Eve).
17 And He said to Adam, “Because you (Adam) listened to your (Adam) wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you (Adam), ‘Do not eat (singular verb) from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you (Adam).
You (Adam) will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your (Adam) life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you (Adam),
and you (Adam) will eat the plants of the field.
19 You (Adam) will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you (Adam) return to the ground,
since you (Adam) were taken from it.
For you (Adam) are dust,
and you (Adam) will return to dust.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

22 The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved. (Parenthetical statements added by Tim Archer)

Genesis 2 related to discussions of men and women in the church

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It’s not easy for me to know what to do with the creation account in Genesis 2, partly because of how Paul uses it in 1 Timothy 2. That passage in Timothy becomes complicated since it has become one of the main focal points of the battle over gender in our churches. I’ll discuss Paul’s words later, but want to focus on Genesis 2.

Adam is created first, then Eve. As I said, Paul finds significance in that; because he does, it’s hard for me to say that there is no importance there. Yet I don’t want to overplay that, for the animals were created before Eve as well. Hopefully no one would argue that animals therefore have more value or more authority than women.

As for God making a helper for Adam, a few comments:

  • Remember that “help meet” in the KJV is a noun followed by an adjective. “Meet,” as an adjective means “precisely adapted to a particular situation, need, or circumstance” according to Merriam-Webster. People often referred to the woman as a “help meet” without knowing what they are saying.
  • The word for “help” in Hebrew is a word that is most often applied to God in the Old Testament. It in no way implies inferiority.
  • Man’s problem was being alone. God’s solution for that was woman.

I find Genesis 3 to have much more to say to the discussion of men and women in the church. I’ll take that up next. For now, what observations would you want to make about Genesis 2. (And no, I’m not going through the Bible chapter by chapter on this; it’s just that the first chapters of Genesis are quite important when discussing men and women)

We were made by God

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A good place to start the discussion about men and women in the church is Genesis 1. Let’s look at a few verses:

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.” (Genesis 1:26–30)

Don’t let the designation “man” confuse the question here; in these verses, the term refers to humankind. Verse 27 makes that clear: “God created man… male and female he created them.” I have heard people claim that the male alone was made in God’s image. This verse does not support that; Genesis 5 specifically says that the term “man” refers to male and female:

“When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.’”” (Genesis 5:1–2)

What I do see here is that God’s intention was that there be two genders. This post isn’t designed to be about LGBTQ issues; if you feel you need to bring them up, that’s fine, but I won’t engage in that discussion at this time. Our being male or female is not an accident of evolution nor a coincidence of birth. It’s an essential part of God’s design.

When I was born, God put certain traits in me. I was born with abilities for some things and weaknesses in other areas. (Which explains why some girls were chosen before I was during elementary P.E. class)

I was also born male. I’m one of three children. Two girls and a boy. I don’t think it’s accident, nor chance that they are who they are and I am who I am.

I was talented academically. I wanted to be good at sports, but instead I was good at learning. I’m a natural ham. I can be shy in one-on-one conversations (and despise using the phone!), but I’m more than comfortable being the one in the spotlight. Hand me a telephone to call a stranger, and I freeze up. Hand me a microphone in front of ten thousand people, and I’m more than ready to speak.

These things are part of me. I see those talents as being something I was born with. They help in some ways and hinder in others. My gender is equally a part of me. God made me a certain way, and he looks at that as he presents ministry opportunities to me.

For me, that’s where the conversation begins. Not ends. But begins.

Let’s give Huldah her due… and just that

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Woman with Bible

Huldah has become a new heroic figure to those promoting full egalitarianism. Frankly, I think that by overemphasizing this minor character from the Old Testament, they’re actually hurting their case.

I was in a couple of discussions lately where I saw this. One was where someone on Facebook asked what was some basic general Bible knowledge that we should expect of our adults; the other was a discussion of key points from the Old Testament that should be taught.

In both cases, Huldah was mentioned.

Huldah is an interesting case. If you aren’t familiar with her story, you can look in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. These are the accounts of the temple reforms under King Josiah. When those restoring the temple found the book of the Law, they weren’t sure what they had. So they took it to an expert. That expert was Huldah, the prophetess.

For those who say that God never uses women, that can be problematic. So Huldah’s story is definitely an interesting footnote in the Josiah story. The Josiah story is an important one in the Old Testament, so that gives Huldah’s participation some importance.

7 verses worth in 2 Kings. 7 verses in 2 Chronicles. While you can’t measure everything by the length of stories, there is some indication of significance there. Or lack of it.

At a time when God’s people were in disarray, where the Law had been lost among the leadership, a woman took a leading role. She speaks to canon, stating whether or not something is legitimately God’s Word; I think she’s the first person to do that.

She deserves a minor place in our telling of the Bible story. She shouldn’t be left out. She shouldn’t be pushed to the forefront. Unless, of course, you’re trying to push an agenda.

Proof texts, women judges, and pushing our own agendas

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The Old Testament character Deborah is a hero to many who want to expand the role of women in the church. In many ways, she has become to feminist groups what Nadab and Abihu are to legalists; each group uses these stories in ways that the Bible doesn’t, just to promote a certain agenda.

The Bible never points back to Deborah, neither for good nor for bad. When her time is remembered, she isn’t mentioned; Barak is. (1 Samuel 12:11; Hebrews 11:32) That’s really, really significant… and never mentioned by those using Deborah for their own means.

There is no evidence that anyone in Bible times saw Deborah as setting a precedent that should be followed. There don’t seem to have been any female judges after this. When the monarchy is established, the female rulers are not selected by God and are uniformly bad. There’s no clamoring in the book of Acts to name a woman to replace Judas. When there is a problem with food distribution regarding women in the church, men are named to oversee the effort; Acts 6 would be the logical time for the church to embrace the “obvious teachings” about women, but it doesn’t happen.

The book of Judges depicts a chaotic time in the history of Israel; the chief description of the atmosphere is “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Judges is full of stories where God works through this chaos, using unlikely people in unlikely ways.

I don’t believe that Balaam’s donkey presents a case for animals participating in our assemblies. I don’t think the witch of Endor appears to lead us to change the Bible’s stance on sorcery. I don’t believe Rahab’s story teaches anything about the acceptability of prostitution, nor does Samson’s frequenting a prostitute justify our doing the same.

If you want to pick out proof texts from the Bible to support a certain agenda, it’s easily done. But just because it’s easy doesn’t make it right.

image courtesy yoministry.com