VALIANT WOMEN OF THE BIBLE DAY ONE: EVE

Mar 02, 2023 4:43 am

EVE: EZER KENEGDU

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The first woman named in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament is Eve. Her name means “life,” which seems appropriate since it’s through her body the first human baby is born. 


While many people believe Eve’s story is legend, others insist that she was indeed the very first woman—created by God’s own hand. I’ve lost track of the number of times I uncomfortably sat through a sermon or Sunday School lesson while the male leader shared how “hot” Eve must have been. The perfect woman. Naked. "A 10."


The speaker, clearing his throat quips, “Adam wakes up and exclaims, ‘WHOA-man!’” Men laugh. Women squirm. Can I get a witness?


🧼 SOAPBOX MOMENT:

This is NOT why we have the story of Eve’s creation twice recorded in Genesis—prosaically in chapter one, poetically in chapter two. When men indulge in public fantasizing about the naked woman in the garden, they are both missing the point of the story and body-shaming the women in their audience who will never be “perfect.” I think we can all agree that the creation story was not written for us to imagine what Adam and Eve looked like naked, right? Okay. Onward.


Eve’s story can be divided into four sections which fit neatly into the first four chapters of Genesis:

  • Chapter 1 - Image Bearer
  • Chapter 2 - Suitable Helper
  • Chapter 3 - Rule Breaker
  • Chapter 4 - Mother of All


CHAPTER 1: IMAGE BEARER

In the first creation story recorded in Genesis 1, humans are created on day six:

“So God created man in his own image,
   in the image of God created he him;
   male and female created he them.”
Genesis 1:27, KJV
~~~
“So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.”
  Genesis 1:27, NIV


⏸️ It's important that we pause here to take it all in.

 

When we start at the very beginning—a very good place to start—we observe that “human reality is one, and human wholeness emerges from the development of the whole of humanity, without the obstacles of preconceptions and stereotypes” (Wilson-Kastner, p. 20). In other words, there is no hierarchy. No patriarchy. Humanity is fundamentally one.

 

Here, there is no “other.”

 

God creates them. Blesses them. And instructs them to prosper, to be creative, to figure things out. To steward the planet and everything on it.

 

Here, there is only freedom. 

 

CHAPTER 2: SUITABLE HELPER

In the second chapter of Genesis, we have a more “zoomed-in” creation story. The narrative begins on day six when God creates ONE human from the dust of the ground breathing life into his nostrils.


”The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, '“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'”
Genesis 2:15-17 NIV


It is only after giving him these instructions that God gets busy trying to find a “suitable helper” for the man. In the same way God created him from the dust of the earth, out of the ground, He forms all the animals and birds of the sky…but no suitable helper is found. 😔


So God decides to form a new human—not from dust or dirt, but from his own side.


A lot has been read into the creation of the second human—that man is not complete without woman and vice versa—but this is not the point of this story. The material point is that the only suitable helper for the man was a woman made of the same substance. Not different. The same.


This sameness matches the first creation story in Genesis 1 where we observed unity in diversity. There was no difference in essence: They were both made in the image of God—male and female. And he blessed them both.


So, what does it mean that the woman was created to be a “suitable helper”? That phrase is a translation of the Hebrew words ezer and kenegdu which indicates a mutual partnership with no hierarchy.


"EZER" (HELPER)

The Hebrew word for "helper" used here is "ezer," which can also be translated as "companion" or "ally." It is appears 14 times in the Hebrew Scriptures—twice describing Eve, and twelve times describing God as deliverer and rescuer His people. When understood in this light, the term EZER implies fortitude. Capacity. Valor.


Jo Saxton, author of More than Enchanting and Ready to Rise, clarifies that an EZER is not someone limited to a role of assistant because they’re too weak to do anything greater, but rather someone who will show up and help “because they have the passion, power, and purpose to do so.”


This is really important: Ezer is used 14 times in the Old Testament. 12 times to describe God and twice to describe the woman: Eve.


"KENEGDU" (SUITABLE)

Although "kenegdu" is often translated “suitable,” the meaning of this term is more nuanced. paints Eve’s helping role as “one-half of a polarity." He describes the woman’s relationship to the man “as the south pole is to the north pole.” Does this change the way you understand Eve’s role as “suitable” helper”?


CHAPTER 3: RULE BREAKER

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for… drumroll please…


🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

The woman has a conversation with a talking serpent about the constraints imposed upon her—specifically regarding a certain tree in the middle of the garden. After weighing the pros and cons, she makes a decision of her own free will to take a bite of the fruit off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


Then she shares it with her man who just happens to be right there beside her.


Now, if you are willing, join me in setting aside centuries of theological debates about original sin, women as more gullible than men, increased pains in childbirth, etc.


Let’s take a look at some of the details we often gloss over or skip altogether. These are the things that make me go “Hmmmm.” 🤔


#1: God instructed THE MAN not to eat from the tree (Gen. 2:16).


Also, this actually happened BEFORE the woman was even created. Check it out! There is no record of this command ever being given to the woman anywhere in Scripture. I also want you to notice that she is not the one who God calls out for eating the forbidden fruit.

#2: The question, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” is directed only to THE MAN.


The “you” in this sentence is singular, not plural. God isn’t asking them, “Have y’all eaten from the tree of which I commanded y’all not to eat?” No. This question was not directed at both of them. God specifically asks the MAN if he disobeyed. Just him.


His response: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate" (Gen. 3:12)

#3: God then asks the woman a different question that is a bit more open-ended: “What is this that you have done?” Great question.


What exactly did the woman do that was so wrong? Was it talking to a serpent? Desiring wisdom? Biting into a piece of fruit she’d been forbidden by her husband to touch? Or was it something completely different?

 

Could it be that the woman’s sin was compelling her husband to do something he was directly commanded by God not to do—even though she knew God told him not to do it? Is it possible that one of the consequences of her action was to both desire her husband and be ruled by him—a man previously was her equal?

 

#4: The man and woman are each held responsible for their individual choices.

This story is basically about moral freedom and moral responsibility. “Its point is to show that we are all responsible for the choices we freely make—good or evil.” (Pagels, xxiii). The couple is responsible for the change in their status, lifestyle, and residence.


CHAPTER 4:   EVE: MOTHER OF ALL

It is only after this confrontation with God that the man finally names his ezer kenegdu, and this is the first time in the Bible where a person is given a proper name:

“The man named his wife Eve because
she was the mother of all living.”
Genesis 3:20, NRSV


It’s fascinating he gives her the name Eve, which means “life” BEFORE she’s ever conceived. But it makes sense since both the man and the woman were commanded to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28, NRSV).


The man somehow perceived that life would be born through his wife, so he gave her a name which foreshadowed her destiny. We’ll see this again when God changes Sarai’s name…but that’s a story for another day.


In Genesis 4, following their banishment from the garden of Eden, they make love, and Eve becomes pregnant.


“Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’”
Genesis 4:1, NRSV


Did you catch that? Eve’s pregnancy comes only AFTER God’s pronouncement that her desire would be for her husband. After their eyes were opened.


CONCLUSION

Eve. The first woman. She had a mind of her own. She was curious, inquisitive, and bold. She talked to a serpent and enticed a man to sin. Eve was a wife and mother, and she was heartbroken when one son murdered the other. She praised God when she bore a third son. 


That’s what we know about Eve.


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Photo Credits:

Photo of Woman by Autumn Goodman; background photo by Meg Amey. Both on Unsplash.


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