Male and Female in Genesis

Male and Female

in Genesis

On several occasions writers in the New Testament refer back to Genesis when commenting on male and female relationships. For this present study we are concerned with how brothers and sisters in Christ should cooperate together in the ecclesia. It is sometimes argued that male leadership and female silence is taught as God’s intention from the beginning. What do the early chapters of Genesis say?

Genesis 1

Creation takes place in six days, culminating in the creation of human beings. The important verses for our study are:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

... And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.                                                                                 (Genesis 1:26-31)

Points of special relevance to our study are as follows:

(a) “Man” (“adam” in Hebrew) means mankind, i.e. both men and women.

(b) Both male and female are in the image of God. Whereas everything else in Genesis 1 was created simply by God saying “Let there be...” and it was so, for mankind it was different: mankind was to be in the image of God. First God announced His intention (verse 26), then He brought it to pass (verses 27-28).

(c) Authority of greater over lesser is clear throughout this chapter, in particular God’s authority over the elements of creation. Within creation God also assigns authority:

And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.                          (Genesis 1:16-18)

Mankind is placed in specific authority over the animals:

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”                                                    (Genesis 1:26)

This dominion by male and female over all creatures is stressed twice, in detail, as God’s intention. But despite the emphasis in this chapter on dominion and authority, no authority is given to one human being over another.

This is a surprise if authority by the man over the woman had been intended.

(d) Now that He had completed creation with mankind, God declared it not only “good” as He had done on the previous days, He pronounced His work “very good”.

To sum up our observations on Genesis so far: Chapter 1 shows God’s approval of the world He had created, presents both men and women as uniquely in His image, and allocates to them responsibility in managing the world and its resources. No differentiation in basic nature nor in roles between men and women is specified. Both are in the image of God[1] and both are placed in authority over other forms of life. There is no suggestion that the man is placed in authority over the woman, nor vice-versa.

Genesis 2

In this chapter a man (not mankind) is created first, placed in the garden of Eden “to till and keep it” and told that he can freely eat of every tree except for “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The account continues that it is not good for the man to be alone. Animals and birds are created, but none supplies suitable companionship. A woman is therefore formed from the man’s rib and she is a suitable companion because, as the man says:

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”

                                                                                          (Genesis 2:23)

The conclusion is drawn that this unity is the ground for marriage;

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.                                                                                                                                                                        (Genesis 2:24)

How are we to understand the relationship here between the first man and the first woman? Two conflicting arguments have been presented. Some people argue that this chapter teaches the subordination of the wife to the husband, and that this position is fundamentally built into the whole scheme of things. Others argue that no such subordination is implied but that subordination is one of the evil consequences of the fall.