Question 1

How does the Bible incorporate women in the original creation?

Accepted Answer

Genesis 1:26-27Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.Genesis 5:1-2This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them “human.”In God’s summary statement about the unique place of humans in the created order, he declared both woman and man as bearers of God’s image. As individuals man and woman carry certain aspects of God’s image. As a oneness created in marriage, their union carries further aspects of God’s image. Together they are held responsible to “reign” over creation as managers and keepers.Genesis 2:15-18The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”In the background details of God’s creation of humans, God began by making Adam and gave him the role of caretaker over the rest of creation. But in the first instance of God reporting something being “not good” about the universe, he declared the necessity of a helper for Adam. None of the other creatures God had already populated the world with could adequately fill that role. God made the woman as “just right” to complete the human design. Note in the sequence of these events that Adam received the instruction about free access to all the trees in the garden except one. He was responsible for conveying this instruction to Eve.Genesis 2:20-25He [the man] gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.While God made the man from mud and his breath (Genesis 2:7), he fashioned Eve using a part of Adam as a starting point. From that moment on, every other human child has been born through a woman. This is made possible by the oneness that marriage brings to a man and a woman.Matthew 19:4-6“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”Jesus confirmed the creation of the man and woman as God’s original plan and the foundation of marriage—that unique connection between God’s image bearers that makes them one. This union enables them to create life together.

Question 2

In what ways did the fall of humanity affect women?

Accepted Answer

Genesis 3:1-7The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.Eve’s response to the serpent regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil indicates that Adam did an inadequate job of conveying to her the importance of willingly abstaining from that fruit. One can imagine his saying something like, “See the tree over there? God doesn’t want us to eat from that one. So don’t even touch it.” But note that he was near enough to join Eve in eating the fruit once she had picked and eaten it.Genesis 3:11-13“Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”No sooner had humanity fallen than the blame game began. Instead of taking responsibility for their failure to obey God’s command, Adam blamed his wife while taking a swipe at God as the one who had given him the woman. Eve, in turn, blamed the serpent. Both humans exhibited their broken human nature by refusing to accept responsibility and repent for their sin.Genesis 3:16-19Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”God described two ongoing consequences that would characterize the experience of women throughout history: the various pains of childbirth and the temptation to control their husbands. The equality of the man and woman both being God’s image bearers and team mates in tending the world became twisted into the continual temptation to control or to rule each other harshly. The perfect world God created only lasted two chapters in the Bible’s account. The rest of the Bible records God’s painstaking plan to set things right again while the world continues to struggle with the effects of the fall.

Women