It’s an honor to have you as a reader. I’ve covered this material both as an ebook and a series of blog posts. The ebook, “Buried Talents” is posted at http://oneinjesus.info/books-by-jay-guin/buried-talents/. The series, which is very nearly the same material, is indexed at http://oneinjesus.info/index-under-construction/theology-church-of-christ-issues/buried-talents-studies-in-the-role-of-women/. The series has the advantage of being a little more recent and each post has extensive comments where the readers ask questions and I and others respond.

May God bless you in his work among our sisters in Uganda.

Readers,

Mrs. Bisangwa is the founder of Rhema Ministries in Uganda, a non-denominational, Christian ministry supporting women in that nation. http://rhemaministriesltd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81%3Afew-words-from-the-founder&Itemid=1.

God has given me the task of expounding on the biblical concept of women’s rights in a very difficult cultural mindset. As such, I am looking for all possible answers and literature on the whole gender equality issue! I have refused to be boxed in believing concepts simple because some pastor interpreted the bible wrongs! So I appreciate these discussions!

God bless you,

Beat

I’m glad this was helpful for you. The entire series is available at http://oneinjesus.info/index-under-construction/buried-talents-studies-in-the-role-of-women/

South Africa

I agree. Wives must be true to their purpose given them in God’s creation. This is the essence, I think, of Paul’s point regarding the order of creation: wives may not do things that violate their purpose as suitable complements.

Clearly, a complement may be the more important or less important of the two parts of the whole under consideration.

And therefore we cannot conclude from Genesis 2:18 whether or not woman is supposed to submit to man. The question is not answered either way.

But Genesis 2 does clearly teach that woman was made *for* man. God made Adam. Then God observed that it was not good for Adam to be alone. None of the animals could satisfactorily meet Adam’s need. For that reason, God made Eve. So Eve was made *for* Adam, as Paul states in 1 Cor 11:9.

Paul also refers to the order of creation in 2 Tim 2:11-14. In verses 11-12 he says that woman is not to have authority over man, but rather she is to be in submission. The first reason he gives for that is that Adam was created before Eve. Perhaps implicit in that is what was said in 1 Cor 11:9 , and what is clear from the creation story– that Eve was created *for* Adam, to meet a need of Adam’s. Adam existed first, had a need, and that need was met when God created Eve.

The problem for us, as I’ve mentioned before, is that kenegdo is a Biblical singleton. ‘ezer kenegdo is the only time this word appears in the Hebrew Bible. So we must look to other literature to find its meaning. Alan has previously noted my preference for the rabbinic understanding of kenegdo as “equal”. If anyone finds any other meanings in either Hebrew literature or the cognate Ancient Near Eastern languages, I would love to know about them. I want to get to the bottom of this issue as much as possible.

Because if the creation narrative does not bestow authority upon the male, then when Paul refers to creation, he is not doing so to assert authority, and we must investigate more thoroughly to learn what he IS asserting.