I Now Pronounce You Adam And Eve -- By: Judy Brown

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 13:4 (Fall 1999)
Article: I Now Pronounce You Adam And Eve
Author: Judy Brown


I Now Pronounce You Adam And Eve

A View Of Marriage Based On Creation And Re-Creation

Judy Brown

Judy L. Brown is Professor of Church Ministries at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. She also preaches, speaks, and conducts ministerial workshops. She holds an MA from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and an EdD from Nova University. Judy Brown is author of Women Ministers According to Scripture, available through the CBE Book Service.

In determining God s design and desire for male-female relationships, there is perhaps no portion of Scripture more weighty than the Creation account. Here we find a description of God’s original, perfect plan for Adam and Eve—the first man and woman and the first husband and wife.

What we find in Genesis 1 and 2 is gender equality. Adam and Eve are both made in God’s image. Both are assigned the identical tasks of filling and ruling the earth. It cannot be said that Adam’s “firstness” positions him above Eve because the text does not suggest this. One might just as well argue that Eve is superior because she was created last: After all, the creation order was moving upward rather than downward, and God’s tendency throughout the Old Testament was to override the special status claims of the firstborn. It also cannot be said that Eve’s creation from Adam positions women under the leadership of men unless we also conclude that men are under the leadership of dust!

The term translated “helpmeet” (KJV) or “helper suitable” (NIV) is oftentimes misrepresented as indicating an “Eve serves Adam” arrangement. However, the word translated “helper” is used 19 other times in the Old

Testament, never to refer to a lesser or weaker individual, but always of an equal or superior. (In 15 of the 19 instances, the term refers to God.) The term translated “suitable” means “corresponding to, counterpart to, equal to, matching.”

Thus, there is no hierarchical arrangement present in the Adam-Eve relationship of Genesis 1 and 2. What is present, however, is just the opposite—absolute equality between the first man and woman and the first husband and wife. If this is God’s creation design, then redemption will beckon us back to this divinely ordained ideal.

The Fall Account

Marital hierarchy does appear in Genesis: in chapter 3, the account of the Fall. It is one of several consequences of sin listed in verses 16-19. Each reverses r...

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