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| The Bible and Gender |
| There are many views about gender roles and the nature of men and women according to the Bible. My attempt here is to explore what the scriptures say and test the traditional views. At Creation In any study about God's intent for life, I like to start in Genesis. God made both man and woman "in his image" to take care of and rule over the earth: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; then let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and over cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' God created man in his own image; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27 The first distinctions between the two are shown in the way they were created, which is highlighted in Genesis 2. First, God created man from the ground: "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." -Gen 2:7 Next, the man was given a purpose and a command about his boundaries: "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to keep and cultivate it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Gen 2:15-17 Finally, God makes female from male: "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him. .... So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Gen 2:18-23 I believe that some things about the nature of man and woman can be seen here. First, about the male. He was formed first, out of the ground, and was told to work the ground. He also was the first to be given boundaries. Eating from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" was the one thing that was off limits. Man was the source of his "helper," whom he named "woman." This brings us to the nature of the female. She was made second, from man, and called a "helper" by God. I found Old Testament usage of this word to be incredibly interesting because it is much more than it's face value. Almost every occurance of that hebrew word in the Old Testament refers to God, and in a protective sense. An example is "I life my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord..." (psalm 121:1,2). Other occurances of that specific Hebrew word, "ezer" (Strong's number 5828) are Ex. 18:4, Deut. 33:7, 33:29, Psalm 20:2, 33:20, 70:5, 146:5. This specific type of "help" is almost exclusively used to mean strength and shield, military protection, deliverer and usually in reference to God. This sense must be the part of the image of God meant to be shown by the female. In the short version, here are the characteristics of man and woman: Creation: Man -Created by God, from the ground, to take care of it. Woman- Created by God, from Man, to take care of him. Image of God: Man- In the image of God, called simply "Adam," mankind. He is like God in that the source of woman's life and, because his name means "mankind," represents both male and female. Woman- In the image of God, called a "helper," protector. She is like God in the sense that she is a protector and shield for Man. Shared characteristics: -Both are mankind and were given authority to rule over the earth -Both make up part of the image of God -Walked in close relationship with God, naked and without shame. The Fall and the Aftermath: The fall of mankind was after creation, when man disobeyed God and sin entered the world. First, you see an animal speaking to the woman about God's boundaries. After she talks about the forbidden tree and how if they eat, they will die; the serpent misleads her about the result of disobedience, making it look desirable: "You will not surely die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'" -Gen 3:4-5 She is decieved and her logic begins to lead her into trouble: "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." Then she gives fruit to her husband and he disobeys as well: "She aslo gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Suddenly both feel shame, cover their bodies, and hide from God. God then speaks to them and tells them what will happen as a result of sin. This account is in Genesis 3. In short, these are the gender distinctions at the fall and the curse: Temptation and sin: Woman: Believed lies told by another, trusted the promise of another who told her to go against God. Made a decision out of disobedience to God and trust of her own logic. Man: Listened to his wife instead of obeying God. He did nothing while his wife was being decieved, then followed suit when she sinned. Response to sin: Both: -covered their physical bodies in because of the shame they suddenly felt. -Hid from God -Were confused about the reason for the shame they felt, believed it was "nakedness." Man: -Initial shame came to both him and his wife only after his disobedience -Told God they hid "because they were naked." Knew something was wrong but was confused about what the problem was. -Confessed his sin but blamed the woman and God for it. Woman: -Confessed sin but blamed the serpent, the one who decieved her. -Her deception and false logic encouraged her husband to sin as well God's response: -Cleared up the confusion by asking Adam if he disobeyed God's original command. -Covered both people to take away the shame they felt -Gave the consequences in the earth of their sin. As a result of the break form God that was made, a curse came to the earth. God told them the consequences individually. One part of the serpents's curse is interesting: "So the Lord God said to the serpent,'because you have done this, .......And I will put an emnity between you and the woman, and between you offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel." "To the woman he said: 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." "To Adam he said, ' Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants o fthe field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat you food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will retutrn." -Gen 3:14-20 This statement by God has commonly been called the "curse of sin." God gave different predictions for each individual party, the devil (who's voice came through a serpent), man and woman. Several parts are interesting for the subject of gender The devil: -the "emnity" between him and the female, her "seed" and his. Her "Seed" would crush his head. Woman: -Pain and suffering associated with motherhood -Desire for her husband -Being ruled over by her husband Man: -Ground cursed -Food would come fron the ground, but only through his "painful toil" and by the "sweat of his brow." -Death, mankind would return to the ground Both curses carried over to both genders, and their children and decendants. Common between the curse brought by the man and woman: -Each had suffering and "painful toil" for good results, his was to get food from the ground, her's was bearing children. -Both brought a different form of death to mankind, from the woman's sin came being "ruled over" by another human being, from the man came returning to the ground. Both would ultimately be ruled over by their source, that they were sent to take care of. Promise that came as a result, God's grace and protection: -Shame brought in was covered by God -Messiah, savior- the "Seed" of the woman was promised to crush the enemy's power The curses brought into the world manifested on earth through things like physical death, disease, natural disasters, and toil and suffering. Other difficulties came as parenthood being a painful burden, and people being ruled over by other people like tyranny and oppression. The people were forbidden by God to freely eat from the "tree of life" on their own, so the only hope was through God's "Seed." (WORK IN PROGRESS, MORE LATER....) |
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| Key Points: -Male is like a representative of both male and female, and is the source of life for the female. His curse had to do with work. He would labor and toil to make a living from the ground, his source, then return to be subject to it, in death. -Female is called a helper by God, which means protector and shield, someone who fights for another, usually in a military context. Her curse is pain and toil of motherhood, and desiring and at the same time being subjected to her source, man. |
| Page 1: Gender at Creation and the Fall Page 2: Gender relations later, how God dealt with men and women. Also New Testament gender relations including commands by Jesus and Apostle Paul Page 3: Over all |