Jamin Bradley

God made Eve from Adam’s ṣēlāʿ, a Hebrew word meaning “side.” The image is one of a man split in half. Eve is not subservient or subordinate to Adam, rather, she is on the same exact level as him. She is his coequal, given to man as an ezer—the Hebrew word for “helper.” Being a helper does not subordinate Eve to Adam, as though she serves him meals while he plows the field, for even God is called an ezer in the Scriptures, and he is not subordinate to humanity. She carries the same Godly mission that he has been assigned.

This is the ultimate vision of men and women in the Bible: the two sexes working together to cultivate Heaven on Earth. There are no gender-based assignments. No cultural expectations. No one gender ruling it over the other. Each human, regardless of sex, simply does the work they are capable of to bring about God’s kingdom.

What throws off this vision? Disobedience. Rather than gain wisdom from God, the first man and woman eat from a forbidden tree of wisdom under the direction of a different god. With this forbidden wisdom, the man and woman make a startling discovery: they’re different. In shame, they hide their differences as a new world order of chaos comes about through their sin.

God explains to Adam and Eve how their disobedience has brought chaos to his good order. One of the themes he highlights is patriarchy, recognizing a new dynamic where men will rule over women. Nahum Sarna comments on this as a “deterioration in the human condition that resulted from defiance of divine will.” The following pages of Genesis (let alone the whole Bible) show how messed up this dynamic can get.

Unfortunately, most focus their biblical vision of gender and their treatment of women on the consequences of the fall rather than the vision of God’s good order, to which Jesus is returning us. But when we ground ourselves in Jesus instead of the fall, we see that God-in-flesh empowers women. Likewise, despite the many confusing gender statements of Paul, we see that he elevated women and did ministry alongside them all the time.