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THE PLACE OF WOMEN - PART 1
The Perspective From Creation
By William R. Cunningham
May 14, 2000
Introduction
Every 2nd Sunday in May is designated as Mother’s day. Though I began this lesson with that not in mind, it has turned out quite expedient nonetheless. This lesson is not particularly about mothers since it encompasses all women. However, it is fitting nevertheless such that all women, mother’s or not, would know the truth of God’s purpose and intent for them.
It is taught in many churches that basically women are inferior to men and therefore are restricted to certain activities. For example, it is taught that women cannot be pastors in a church. It is taught that women cannot preach from a pulpit but must stand at the podium. It is taught that the wife must obey the husband and yield to his wishes. Many other such things are taught in the church that basically degrade the women of the world and the Christian faith.
Does the Bible indeed teach us that women are inferior? Does the Bible restrict women from serving in certain capacities in the church, i.e., that they cannot be pastors or church leaders? Is a woman bound to do whatever her husband wants according to the Bible? What is the purpose of women and what are their roles in life? These and other questions are the topic of this study. We are going to examine from a scriptural perspective the place of women in life.
I should explain that this study will be highly inductive. I am not going to relay religious teachings to you. Instead, I am going to gather data (information) about the various concerns pertaining to women and then I will draw conclusions based on the reasonable, rational and non-dogmatic analysis of that data.
I pray that men will gather an understanding of women and their God given roles. I pray that women will understand their place in human existence and be loosed (as T.D. Jakes would say) from the bondage placed on them by men. I only ask that you proceed through this study with an objective mind. I have discovered that some people are so indoctrinated with their church teaching (good or bad) that they are closed to any other input, which may in some cases edify them further or bring about correction. Again proceed objectively and analyze the information for yourself and see if you come to the same conclusions. I would really like to hear from you if you do or if you don’t agree with my conclusions.
Purpose and Intent From The Creation
The first thing that I would like to do is to examine the information given to us in the creation account in Genesis. From this we can learn a lot about the purpose of women, the roles of women, and God’s intent for women.
Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV) Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Let’s look at these verses very carefully. The first thing that you might notice is that God refers to Himself in plural. He says, "Let Us…" He then says that He (plural) will make man in his own image and again He uses the plural, "in Our Likeness." The next thing you will notice is that he refers to man in the plural sense by saying, "let them…" The point to notice here is that God refers to Himself in the plural and He refers to man in the plural sense.
The "us" cannot refer to the angels that are present with God because man is made in the image of God alone, not also that of the angels. What is the image of God in man? The traditional view is that God’s image is certain moral, ethical, and intellectual abilities. A more recent view, based on Hebrew grammar and the knowledge of the ancient Near East, interprets the phrase as meaning "Let us make man as our image" (the Hebrew preposition in this phrase can be translated as). In ancient times an emperor might command statues of himself to be placed in remote parts of his empire. These symbols would declare that these areas were under his power and reign. So God placed humankind as living symbols of Himself on earth to represent His reign. This interpretation fits well with the command that follows—to reign over all that God has made.
Now in verse 27 you will notice that it says again that God create man in His image, which is plural. The scripture then concludes by saying that God created man as male and female (plural sense), which is the image of God. So God created man as male and female and man (the male and female as one) were in the image of God.
"According to Our likeness" This phrase draws attention to the preceding figure of speech. Since God is Spirit, there can be no "image" or "likeness" of Him in the normal sense of these words. Indeed, image-making was later strongly prohibited because of the clear ties that has with idolatry (see Ex. 20:4–6). We may not make images of God for He has already done so! We are His images; it is we who are in His likeness. This is the reason God values people so much: we are made to reflect His majesty on earth. The phrase "have dominion" means to rule as God’s regent. That is, people are to rule as God would—wisely and prudently—over all that God has made (fish, birds, cattle, and so on).
What does this tell us? First off it implies that both the male and the female man was in the image of God. However, it is not that the male was in the image of God independently and the female was independently in the image of God. The two formed one unit, which God called man, and the two together were in the image of God.
MAN or Adam?
You will notice in the Creation Narrative that the name Adam is not used until much later in Chapter two. Instead the word man is used. Consider the following scripture.
Genesis 2:18-19 (KJV) And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
The word man used in verse eighteen is the same Hebrew word Adam used in verse nineteen. The word man comes from the Hebrew word adam (pronounced aw-dawm), which means ruddy, that is, a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.), person. This is the same word Adam that is used in verse nineteen and beyond. The point here is that the word Adam is not a name; rather it is a title, namely a human being. God created adam, that is, humans, and he created them male and female. Consider the following verse.
Genesis 5:1-2 (KJV) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Here again we see the use of the word adam and man (the New King James Version of the Bible uses the word "mankind" instead of adam). Now there is a shifting towards identifying the man as well as categorizing him. In other words, his name will be Adam. Also note that Adam was in the form of female and male. This doesn’t mean that adam the human was bisexual. It merely means that there was a female human and a male human however; they both were called humans (adam). For example, we see a tiger and simply say "tiger." We don’t specify whether it is a male of female unless there is a real need to know. There is a male tiger and a female tiger but both are called tiger. The same applies to humans. There is a male human and a female human and both are called humans (man, adam, mankind).
The Gender Debate
I would like to digress a moment and discuss the topic of gender in literature. I remember some time ago that there was a big issue regarding the use of the word man in literature. It was said that this degraded women in some way. I agree that women should not be degraded in any way because of there sex. However, challenging the use of the word man in literature is both unnecessary and in my opinion shows a severe lack of knowledge of the context of the word (though sometimes the word man may have been used to identify male).
The word man means human beings. It identifies the species of animal called homo sapiens, i.e., man. The word man in itself does not mean male. So the word mankind or man is not degrading or excluding women in any way. Since many do not know the proper meaning of the word man, then they become offended unnecessarily. This is because they have interpreted the word man to mean male exclusively, which it correctly does not.
Who Had Dominion?
Genesis 1:28 (NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
God blessed both the male and the female and they both were to multiply and have dominion over God’s creation. We see that they (male and female) were supposed to multiply and fill the earth with other humans. Her we see a major purpose in the different sexes, namely to reproduce. Two males or two females cannot reproduce. This same fact exists in all of the animal and plant kingdoms.
Notice that there is no mention of the male having dominion over the female or vice versa. Humans held dominion over all God created. If God intended for the male to have dominion over the female, then surely it would have been stated as the purpose and design of God. It isn’t. As a matter of fact, it is specifically stated that they both were to have dominion over God’s creation.
Superiority
Are men superior to women? The male species of human have more muscle mass then females. The male species of humans tend to be larger then the females. Since human males (I will call men) have more muscle mass then the females (henceforth women), then men tend to be stronger then women. This is probably the most readily visible difference between men and women. Men tend to think differently then women. Women tend to be more in tuned with their emotions. This doesn’t mean that women have more emotions then men. It only means that they are more in tuned with their emotions and therefore can express it more freely then men. Men tend not to know how they feel and therefore don’t know what to make or how to express the feelings they have.
OK. I’m sure you know that there are many differences between men and women. However, do these differences imply that men are superior to women? No they do not! This is because God did not design men to be superior to women. Any superiority that men have over women is established by men and obtained by force and deception. I know of many women that believe they are inferior to men. They believe the lies that they are told in church about submitting to their husbands, not teaching, etc. They don’t realize that this inferiority that they have accepted does not come from God. However, this superiority complex is forced upon women since men typically have the power.
Women have to fight probably twice as hard for the same pay for the same job. She has more to prove as an engineer, doctor, lawyer, pastor, etc. Why? She has to work extra hard simply because she is female and nothing else. When we break it down like this I’m sure you see how silly and derogatory this is to women. No. The inferiority of women to men is not God ordained. It is a lie that has been passed down from generation to generation.
So men are not superior to women or are women superior to men. God is superior to all. Men and women were designed to compliment each other. Adam (the male) was alone until the woman was created. She was created from Adam to identify and so that they could be interdependent. Men come from women and God created the woman from the man (male).
There is an argument for male superiority that is derived from the fact that the male was created before the female. This gives, so they say, men a higher order than the woman, which suggests that the woman is inferior. However, this doesn’t hold since man (human) was the last on God’s creation agenda. This reasoning would mean that the animals and plants had a higher standing then humans since they were created prior to humans! Since Jesus suggests that we are more important to God then the grass and birds (Matthew 6), then this reasoning doesn’t hold.
Purpose
Now let’s move more into the scriptures that suggest the purpose of the male and the female.
Genesis 2:18 (NKJV) And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."
The word "man" here is the same word used for Adam. It means basically a human being. From the context however we see that this human was a male. Now things get pretty interesting here. The LORD says that it isn’t good that the man be alone. The word "alone" is derived from a Hebrew word ba�dad, which means to divide, that is, (reflexively) be solitary:—alone. The specific Hebrew word for alone is bad and it means properly separation; by implication a part of the body, branch of a tree; as adverb, apart, only, besides (From the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible). In general it was not good for the man to be all by himself. The interesting thing is what God does next.
All One—NOT!
I would like to take this opportunity to point something out because of a teaching that I once heard, which did make sense at the time. The fact that Adam was alone does not mean that he was both male and female. This would not be consistent with the biblical text. The text suggests that Adam was a male human and that God created a female human from his flesh, which we will discuss shortly. It is true that men and women are made of the same material, chemicals, and emotional capacity. However, this doesn’t mean that Adam was both male and female.
This teaching was derived from the etymology of the word alone. It was said that it derived from an Old English phrase "all one". Therefore, alone was simply the phrase "all one" put together making the word alone. This does sound logical and reasonable. However, the biblical text does not suggest this. Also, the word alone used in the Bible goes back a lot farther then Old English. Therefore, we have to look at the original Hebrew word to understand its meaning, which we previously did.
Genesis 2:19-20 (NKJV) Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
There are two ways to interpret this situation. The first is that God brought the animals to Adam to see if Adam’s solitude would be eliminated. In other words, God wanted to see if the animals would cure his being alone. The second interpretation is that this incidence was not designed to cure Adam’s being alone. It was simply another step in the creation implementation of God. Even the animals have their place in the purpose of humans. The second seems more reasonable when we consider that God knows what he is doing (omniscience) and that he therefore doesn’t need to experiment for knowledge.
Genesis 2:21-22 (NKJV) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
We notice the strange cloning process that God used to create the woman from the rib (or side) of the man. The word rib comes from a Hebrew word, which means a rib (as curved), literally (of the body) or figuratively (of a door, that is, leaf); hence a side, literally (of a person) or figuratively (of an object).
I believe that it is very significant for God to create the woman from the man and that reason closely relates to the purpose and relationship of the man and the woman. That reason can be found in Adam’s response when God presented him with the woman. Notice that the Bible does not say that Adam was presented the woman to see what he would call her. She was simply presented to the man.
Now what if the woman was created from the dust of the earth as everything else was? If that were so then there would be a reasonable argument for subordination, though it wouldn’t stand. The woman was taken from man because God intended for man and woman to be compatible and complimentary. They were also interdependent. Men need women and women need men. The fact that the woman was formed from the man suggests that God intended for the male and female to have an intimate and bonding relationship and dependence on each other.
Genesis 2:23-24 (NKJV) And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
The phrase "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" means that Eve was made of the same substance as Adam (the male) was. God created two persons out of one being.
Verse twenty-four applies God’s design to marriage. The husband is to leave his father and mother to be bound to his wife forming one flesh or one being. See my study on marriage for much more information about this.
Notice that nothing is said about the woman’s relationship to her parents. This doesn’t mean that she stays with her parents as the husband joins her. It is more probable, according to Gilbert Bilezikian’s "Beyond Sex Roles," that the woman was the stable entity in the process. The man left his parents to cling to the bride. Note that it was the husband that added his life to her life and not the other way around as it is practiced today. God presented the woman to the man and the man clings to his wife. This suggests that God intended for the two to come together to form one flesh. Nothing is said about one dominating the other or of subordination. Recall that both were to have dominion over God’s creation.
Initial Findings From Creation
Our initial findings are that God created men and women and neither is superior to the other. In the beginning, God created the women to be a helper (companion) to the man since he was alone without her. She complimented him. Without her he was not complete and without him she had no purpose. So the man and woman were and are interdependent. We need each other in one way or another.
We find that God had a purpose for women and that purpose was not to be subject to man but to God. God created both men and women (used loosely here to mean male and female) for his own purposes and in that purpose each had a specific calling. The man was in the image of God in that he was created first. The woman was also created in the image of God since she was formed from the same "stuff" as the man was. Her being formed from the man suggests that both were to be interdependent on each other and not mutually exclusive, which would have been if she was created from the ground as the man was.
From the beginning we notice no hint of women inferiority or male supremacy. The male and the female are equal in every way except for their purpose, which influences the way men and women respectively think and operate. All of the teachings of male/female relationship must be viewed in light of what we learned from the creation narrative. However, as we will discover in the next lesson, the God ordained relationship between men and women became corrupt because of sin and thus the fall.