08.18.08
Adam and Eve and Their Creation
Genesis 1: 26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him: male and female He created them.
Genesis 5: 1-2 This the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
The word man in Hebrew is “adam” and means: “mankind or a human being.”
The masculine nature of the male and feminine nature of the female are created in the likeness and image of God. The masculine and feminine natures first existed in God.
Mankind or Adam at his creation was made in the exact likeness and image of God. In his exact likeness to God Adam held not only masculine nature but also the feminine nature. Man was NOT created before woman. Woman existed IN Adam at creation.
Both the masculine and feminine nature existed first in God.
To say God only possesses the male nature and possess none of the feminine nature fails to examine what God says of Himself. He says He is El Shaddai, which means “the many breasted one”!!
El-Shaddai:
El Shaddai, traditionally interpreted as the Almighty, may be interpreted as the Breasted One from the Hebrew word shad, meaning breast.
The Hebrew word shaddai comes from the root word ‘breast’. Literally translated it would mean ‘many-breasted one’.
El Shaddai occurs 48 times in the Old Testament. The word El Shaddai has many connotations to it, one of them is Almighty. Many Bible translations choose to bring out Almighty as the primary emphasis of the word El-Shaddai. To do so ignores the other connotations of the word El Shaddai, one of which is The Breasted One – taken from the meaning of Shaddai which means mountain or breast, sustenance, satisfaction, & sufficiency.
El points to the power of God Himself. Shaddai is derived from the word shad meaning breast, which implies that Shaddai signifies one who nourishes, supplies, and satisfies. It is God as El who helps, but it is God as Shaddai who abundantly blesses with all manner of blessings.
Shaddai refers to God completely nourishing, satisfying, and supplying His people with all their needs as a mother would her child. Connected with the word for God, El, this denotes a God who freely gives nourishment and blessing, He is our sustainer.
Women and the female nature were not an afterthought by God.
Genesis 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Of all that was created by God only ‘man’ (in whom both the male and female nature dwelled) was spoken of as not being good by God. To remedy what was not good – “man’ as one being – God would separate Adam into two separate beings. One would hold the male nature and one would hold the female nature. What was once one being would be two separate individual beings.
Genesis 2:23 The man 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.”
God did not create Eve out of dust because she already existed IN Adam. Eve was taken OUT of Adam.
When God took the woman Eve OUT from Adam He left the masculine nature of the male in Adam and brought forth the female nature of woman in the bodily form of Eve.
The ONE flesh of the original creation ‘Adam’ was now two separate beings – Adam and Eve.
God did not take Eve from Adam’s side as a being who was inferior to the male. Eve was equal with Adam while she dwelled in Adam. Eve was still an equal being with Adam when she was taken out from his side.
Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
For what reason do husband and wife become one flesh — for the reason that ‘man’ first existed as one being and in marriage the two beings are rejoined together again as one.
Man and woman began as one – were separated into two individual beings – and are rejoined as one in marriage.
The New Testament also gives verification.
Matthew 19:4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created (them) from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
The man shall ‘be joined’ to his wife. The Greek word translated as be joined mean: “to adhere to / be joined together / be made ONE”.
When men and women marry the TWO separated beings are rejoined together to become ONE FLESH.
When the husband and wife are joined together as one flesh they are returned to the one flesh Adam and Eve dwelled as in their original creation.
It is for ‘this cause’ – Adam and Eve being created as one flesh in the beginning – that man and woman are joined together as one flesh when they marry.
The Hebrew word translated as ‘one’ has the meaning of not only “one” but also of “first”. Man and woman in marriage are joined together in the likeness of the first flesh – Adam and Eve dwelling together in one flesh!
Verse 6 says, “Consequently, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
The Hebrew word translated as ‘two’ has the meaning not only of “two” but it also means “twain”.
Twain means to be separated. Consequently man and woman are no longer separated, but are rejoined as one flesh. Consequently they are no longer separated, but are rejoined as they were in the first flesh.
In marriage what God once separated is no longer separated but is rejoined by God and made again to be one flesh as it was in the beginning at its creation
In the beginning man and woman shared equal roles of dominion.
In Genesis 1: 26 and Genesis 1: 28, God made no distinction between male and female when He gave THEM the AUTHORITY to RULE over the earth.
Genesis 1:26 … Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over …
Genesis 1: 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Scripture records dominion over the earth being given to both of Adam and Eve and NOT to Adam alone.
God gave the authority to RULE the earth to them. God’s plan has always been for male and female to rule and have authority together. From the very creation of man and woman God’s purpose was for the male and female to work as equals and together have authority and dominion over the earth.
Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Adam by stating that Eve was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh was not defining her purpose or signifying his leadership over Eve. He was simply stating a fact – Eve had been taken from inside of him and was now a separate being. The one flesh of
‘Adam’ had now become two separate beings of Adam and Eve.
Woman was made by God as a “helper suitable” for man.
The Hebrew words translated as ‘helper suitable’ is “ezer” which defines “one who has something to offer the one who is in need of aid or is helpless”.
“Ezer” is a powerful word which is used by God in reference to Himself in the Old Testament. God is referred to as an ‘ezer’ in Exodus 18:4, Duet.33:7,26,29, Psalms 33:20, Psalm 70:5, Psalms 115:9-11, Psalms 121: 1-2, Psalms 124:8, Psalms 146:5.
An ‘ezer’ is not a position of subordination or submission. God Himself as an ‘ezer’ is certainly not in subordination of in submission to any.
‘Ezer’ or ‘Help’ used in the context of the creation of Eve does NOT place Eve in a weaker or secondary position, just as it does NOT place God in a weaker or secondary position when used of His coming to our aid and our help.
To interpret the word Ezer as placing women in positions of servant hood and being secondary to man would also require you to place God in a secondary or servant position to man. God refers to Himself as an Ezer numerous times as He came to the aid of Israel.
The word ‘ezer’ is just one portion of the Hebrew phrase used to describe the woman God took out of the side of Adam. In the original Hebrew manuscripts the word ‘ezer’ does not stand alone but is coupled with the preposition ‘ke’ and the adjective ‘neged’.
The Hebrew preposition ‘ke’ denotes the meaning of “according to what is in front of” or “corresponding to.” The Hebrew word ‘neged’ means “what is conspicuous or in front.”
A literal translation of ‘ezer kenegdo is “like his counterpart, corresponding to him” and should be translated as “a power equal to him.”
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon translates the meaning of ‘keneged’ as “equal and adequate to himself.”
Eve as a ‘ezer keneged’ was created as an equal and adequate help to Adam.
Eve was NOT a lesser or secondary creation. Women are not lesser or secondary creations of God.
The Bible teaches men and women are equal in all things. From their very beginning when man and woman were created by God He created them as equals – giving them equal authority and power to rule and have dominion over all His creation.
I find that God did NOT create woman as a lesser or subservient creation. Woman was created by God totally equal with man.
God’s true order has always been equality!!!
God has not changed His purpose for creating woman!! God placed the first woman Eve in a position of rule, leadership, in a position of authority alongside the man. Woman was not created under, below or less than the man – woman was created by God to walk alongside and share the rule of all creation with man.
