Calvin Synod Herald, 1982 (82. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1982-10-01 / 5. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 4 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA DR. EVA M. FABIAN BACK TO BASICS THE WOMAN QUESTION Both scholarly and every-day theological discourses usually start the woman-question at “the beginning,” and go right back to the creation story of the Book of Genesis. Prejudice can find and read into these accounts proofs for supporting both the superiority of man — as it has happened several times down the ages — and that of women — as some frustrated and angry representatives of the sex have been doing it for quite some time. However, careful reading can find weighty arguments in both accounts supporting the original equality of the sexes. 1. PRIESTLY ACCOUNT a) Created Male and Female. The first (P) account states that HUMANITY was created MALE and FEMALE. “God created MAN... MALE and FEMALE he created THEM" (Gen. 1:27). “When God created MAN... MALE and FEMALE he created them, and blessed and named them MAN when they were created” (Gen. 5:1-2). Thus “sexuality is a fundamental part of creation” but “one sex is not elavated above the other” (Otwell, p. 15). b) Both created in the image of God. God’s declaration “Let us make MAN (mankind, humanity)” is immediately followed by the specification “in our image, after our likeness (v. 26). This statement is reinforced just prior to another specification when the creative action itself takes place “So God created MAN in his own image, in the image of God created him, MALE and FEMALE he created THEM (v. 27). BOTH MALE and FEMALE God created in His own image and likeness. c) Both receive stewardship. Man as created male and female and in God’s own image equally received the stewardship of dominion over the earth. The employment of plural personal pronoun referring to MAN when used as “mankind” is also significant from the point of view of man’s dominion over creation. “Let us make MAN (generic, singular) in our image, after our likeness, and let THEM (specific, plural) have dominion over... all the earth, etc.” (Gen. 1:26). In the act of creation, the persons indicated by the third person plural THEM, are identified as male and female, then the record continues and uses THEM with reference to the already identified male and female MAN saying, “and God blessed THEM and God said to THEM...” (v. 28), markedly to BOTH of THEM! and they receive the stewardship of dominion over the earth just as it was expressed in the divine intention (v. 26). “God did not invest man with dominion until woman stood by his side. Not until then did He pronounce His benediction and place the scepter in their hands. Thenceforth they were to be joint rulers over every living thing... Adam acknowledges this co-regency. After his transgression he said: ‘The woman thou gavest to be with me’ — not, ‘the woman Thou gavest to me’.” (Starr, p. 21.) “So in summary we have here a view of male and female created together in the image of God, created together and equally for dominion, created last at the consummation of creation, and pronounced ‘very good’” (Sakenfeld, p. 224.). 2. YAHWIST ACCOUNT a) Created second. The second (J) account of creation in Gen. 2-3 has ever been regarded as the infallible proof for the inferiority of woman based on the “order of creation.” The argument goes like this. Premises: Man was created first, woman was created second; first is superior to second, second is inferior to first. Conclusion: man is superior to woman, woman is inferior to man, period. “It is argued that priority of Adam’s creation would indicate superiority. Such argument is a boomerang. This is not only the teaching of the Scripture, but it is also the testimony of science. The lower orders first. Each successive creative act brought forth higher. The fact that Eve was formed after Adam would argue, if anything, superiority. If priority of creation is a proof of superiority, the monkey has advantage over man, for the monkey was on the scene first” (Starr, p. 22.). Also in case of the inferiority of either sex, God would have provided for the deterioration of the race right from the beginning. If a superior being weds an inferior one, the law of heredity works in the direction of the future imparement, retrogression and final extinction of the race since the offspring of such a misalliance would be inferior to the superior parent and therefore each succeeding generation would sink lower and lower on the scale of existence. Woman is not a secondary inferior being because she was create second; it is rather the woman who brings the process of creation to completion. She appears in the scene as the revelation of man’s being, neither inferior nor superior to him but as his equal. The domination of man over woman was not an originally intended order of creation. It belongs to the realm of chaos caused by the fall. “The last is also the first where beginnings and endings are parallel... The creation of man first and woman last constitutes a ring composition whereby the two creatures are parallel” (Trible, Depat. p. 36.). b) The rib. “Due to the pre-eminence of the Adamic creation story,... no portion of the human skeleton has generated more literary consideration than the rib” (Phipps, p. 263.). The “rib”-argument has assumed three forms down the centuries, an androcentric, a gynocentric and an egalitarian. The androcentric interpretation portrays woman as a divine afterthought, fashioned from an insignificant hidden part of the masculine body — in order that she should be modest and subordinate. The gynocentric understanding views woman as a revised, perfected copy of humanity, the culmination and crowning of creation. Advocates for the superiority of woman also says that while man was created out of the “dust of the ground” (Gen. 2:7) that is, from an inorganic material, woman was from an organic substance — the rib — therefore she is superior. The egalitarian standpoint understands the rib passage to teach that both man and woman share the same nature and dignity, “The rib symbolized equal status simply because it is not a ‘foot-bone’ or a ‘back-bone’ — both of which represent inferiority. It is a ‘side-bone’ thereby making woman equal to man” (Phipps, p. 271.). The Hebrew term translated as “rib” in Gen. 2:21 occurs more than forty times in the OT and it is generally rendered as “side” (cf. Jer. 20:10, 2 Sam. 16:13), and only once, in the solitary occasion of the creation of Eve, is translated as “rib.” The egalitarian interpretation has reliable internal evidence in favor. “Woman should no more be called Adam’s rib than man should be called earth’s mud, for God directly created man from the passive earth and woman from the dormant man” (Phipps, p. 271). The point is that in both cases it is God who creates with the exclusion of any other agent. c) Helper. God’s pronouncement in the J account (Gen. 2:18) is also often used as a proof for the inferior and subordinate status of woman. The original Hebrew word for “helper” occurs twenty-some times in the OT; with rare exceptions it is used for somebody superior to that who is helped, and in more than three quarters of the cases “helper” refers to God Himself (cf. Ex. 18:4, Ps. 27:9, 94:17,116:5, etc.). We may even say that God is the par excellence help or helper of those in need and despair. His declaration, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper for him” (Gen. 2:18) may also imply that man alone was not equal to carry the responsibility of stewardship to be granted to him. Therefore, arguing from the
