Genesis ii, 21-25.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he
slept; and be took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof.
22 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman,
and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed.
As the account of the creation in the first chapter is in harmony with
science, common sense, and the experience of mankind in natural laws,
the inquiry naturally arises, why should there be two contradictory
accounts in the same book, of the same event? It is fair to infer that
the second version, which is found in some form in the different
religions of all nations, is a mere allegory, symbolizing some
mysterious conception of a highly imaginative editor.
The first account dignifies woman as an important factor in the
creation, equal in power and glory with man. The second makes her a
mere afterthought. The world in good running order without her. The
only reason for her advent being the solitude of man.
There is something sublime in bringing order out of chaos; light out
of darkness; giving each planet its place in the solar system; oceans
and lands their limits; wholly inconsistent with a petty surgical
operation, to find material for the mother of the race. It is on this
allegory that all the enemies of women rest their battering rams, to
prove her inferiority. Accepting the view that man was prior in the
creation, some Scriptural writers say that as the woman was of the man,
therefore, her position should be one of subjection. Grant it, then as
the historical fact is reversed in our day, and the man is now of the
woman, shall his place be one of subjection?
The equal position declared in the first account must prove more
satisfactory to both sexes; created alike in the image of God--The
Heavenly Mother and Father.
Thus, the Old Testament, "in the beginning," proclaims the
simultaneous creation of man and woman, the eternity and equality of
sex; and the New Testament echoes back through the centuries the
individual sovereignty of woman growing out of this natural fact. Paul,
in speaking of equality as the very soul and essence of Christianity,
said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
With this recognition of the feminine element in the Godhead in the Old
Testament, and this declaration of the equality of the sexes in the
New, we may well wonder at the contemptible status woman occupies in
the Christian Church of to-day.
All the commentators and publicists writing on woman's position, go
through an immense amount of fine-spun metaphysical speculations, to
prove her subordination in harmony with the Creator's original design.
It is evident that some wily writer, seeing the perfect equality of
man and woman in the first chapter, felt it important for the dignity
and dominion of man to effect woman's subordination in some way. To do
this a spirit of evil must be introduced, which at once proved itself
stronger than the spirit of good, and man's supremacy was based on the
downfall of all that had just been pronounced very good. This spirit of
evil evidently existed before the supposed fall of man, hence woman was
not the origin of sin as so often asserted.
E. C. S.
In v. 23 Adam proclaims the eternal oneness of the happy pair, "This
is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh;" no hint of her
subordination. How could men, admitting these words to be divine
revelation, ever have preached the subjection of woman!
Next comes the naming of the mother of the race. "She shall be called
Woman," in the ancient form of the word Womb-man. She was man and more
than man because of her maternity.
The assertion of the supremacy of the woman in the marriage relation
is contained in v. 24: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother and cleave unto his wife." Nothing is said of the headship of
man, but he is commanded to make her the head of the household, the
home, a rule followed for centuries under the Matriarchate.
L. D. B.