Sermon Tone Analysis

Thursday August 18, 2005

Genesis: Genesis 2:18-22-The Creation of the Woman

Lesson # 12

Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 2:18.

This evening we will be studying Genesis 2:18-25.

Genesis 2:18-25 records for us the creation of the woman and the construction of her physical body from Adam’s physical body in order to provide for Adam a partner who would help in ruling over every living creature as well as to populate the earth and rule over it.

Remember, Genesis 2 gives us more details concerning the sixth day of restoration, which is recorded in Genesis 1:24-31.

In Genesis 2:18-25, Moses gives us more information regarding the creation of Adam and the Woman and in particular the formation of their biological life, Adam’s from the dust of the ground and the woman’s from the biological life of Adam.

Also, in Genesis 2:18-25, we have recorded for us the Lord establishing the institution of marriage.

Genesis 2:18, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’”

Corrected translation of Genesis 2:18, “Next, the Lord God said, ‘it is not good for the man to be alone, I will form out of existing material for his benefit a helper as his counterpart.”

“Not good” does “not” mean that it was evil that Adam was alone but rather it means that he was not complete in the sense that he did not have companionship with someone who was of his own species.

In the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal, sharing the same nature and share perfect and perpetual fellowship with one another.

Among the angels, there is companionship since there is more than one angel.

In the animal kingdom, each species of living creature has both a male and female counterpart.

Yet, Adam was the only category of living creatures that did not have companionship and among all of God’s creatures with the exception of the angels (there are no male and female sexes among the angels), did not have a female counterpart.

“I will make” is the verb `asah (hC*u*), which means, “to produce out of existing material.”

The Lord would produce the physical body of the woman from a portion of Adam’s side.

“Helper” is the noun `ezer (rz#u@) (pronounced ay-zer), which indicates that the woman was designed to be Adam’s “partner” in accomplishing the task that he was given by the Lord to populate the earth with human beings and to rule over each and every creature and the earth itself (cf.

Gen. 1:26, 28).

Genesis 2:19, “Out of the ground the LORD God formed (yatsar, “to produce from existing material”) every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.”

Corrected translation of Genesis 2:19, “Consequently, the Lord God constructed from the ground each and every creature of the field as well as each and every bird of the air.

Then, He brought them to the man in order to see what name he would designate to them.

Consequently, whatever name the man designated to these living creatures that was its name.”

As with the soul of Adam, the soul of marine and animal life and the birds were bara, “created out of nothing or non-existing material.”

The “physical bodies” of animal and marine life and the birds as well as mankind was yatsar, “to form out of existing material,” namely, the earth.

The same elements found in the earth are found in the physical bodies of animal, marine and bird life as well as the physical body of human beings.

The verb bara in Genesis 1:21 indicates that the soul of marine and animal life and the birds was created out of non-existing material whereas the verb yatsar in Genesis 1:24 and 2:19 and the verb `asah in Genesis 1:25 indicates that the physical bodies of marine and animal life and the birds were produced out of existing material, namely, the earth.

Genesis 1:21, “Next, God created out of nothing (bara) the great reptiles.

Also, He created out of nothing each and every living creature: those, which crawl, those, which the waters teem with, each of them according to their own species.

Also, He created out of nothing each and every winged bird according to their own species and then God observed that it was perfect.”

Genesis 1:24, “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth (yatsa) living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind’; and it was so.”

Genesis 1:25, “God produced (`asah) the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 2:20, “The man gave names to all the cattle (behemah, “domestic animals”), and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast (chayyath, “wild animals”) of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

Corrected translation of Genesis 2:20, “Thus, the man designated names to each and every domestic animal and to the birds of the air and to each and every wild animal of the field but for man there was not found a helper as his counterpart.”

By designating names to each and every living creature on the land and in the air, Adam was exercising the delegated authority that the Lord had given him.

To the Hebrew mind, giving a name to something involves giving a designation that is expressive of its character and nature.

The names that Adam designated to each and every living creature were appropriate and accurate description of each creature.

The fact that the Lord brought each and every living creature to Adam in order to give them names was the Lord’s way of revealing to Adam his need since Adam would see that all these living creatures came in pairs, male and female and yet he did not have a female counterpart.

As one after another of the animals passed before Adam, no doubt in pairs male and female, he could not help but be impressed with his own uniqueness.

He would discern that he was superior in ability but also he would see he was very much alone.

Adam would find that he had nothing in common with the animals and that there was none like him and thus none of the animals could provide fellowship for him or companionship.

Adam, of all God’s creatures, was really alone and the Lord said that this was not good or beneficial to Adam since Adam was a social being that was created in the image and likeness of God who is a social being since God is three persons who have the same divine essence.

Therefore, the Lord set out to create a suitable companion for him that would be a perfect complement to him and would help him rule over the works of God’s hands.

Genesis 2:21, “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.”

Corrected translation of Genesis 2:21, “Then, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, thus he slept and He surgically removed a portion of his side and then He closed up the place with flesh.”

The Lord administered a divine anesthetic to Adam, which caused him to be unconscious enabling the Lord to surgically remove “not” a rib but a portion of his side.

“One of his ribs”: (1) Number `echadh (dj*a#), “portion” (2) Preposition min (im!), “from” (3) Feminine plural form of the noun tsela` (ul*x@), “side” (4) 3rd person masculine singular pronomial suffix, which functions as a possessive pronoun meaning, “his.”

The noun tsela means, “side” and does not refer to a rib of Adam although the word does imply that the bone of a rib was taken from him by the Lord.

In Genesis 2:21, the noun tsela refers to the side of Adam’s torso indicating that the Lord did not simply take out a rib but rather He removed a portion of Adam’s side, which would include skin, flesh, blood, nerves and of course bone.

In Genesis 2:21, the number `echadh is used as an indefinite article meaning “a portion of something,” thus the Lord built the physical body of the woman from a “portion” of the side of Adam’s torso.

Genesis 2:22, “The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”

Corrected translation of Genesis 2:22, “Then, the Lord God built up into a woman this portion of his side, which He had surgically removed from the man.

Then, He brought her to the man.”

“Fashioned” is the verb banah (hn*B*), which means, “to build” indicating that the Lord “constructed” the physical body of the woman from the biological life of Adam.

Like Adam, the woman’s soul was modeled after the image of God, which is indicated by the use of the verb `asah in Genesis 1:26.

Genesis 1:26, “Next, God decreed let Us model man in Our image, according to Our likeness.

Consequently, they will rule over the fish in the various bodies of water and over the birds in the earth’s atmosphere and over the animal kingdom and over the entire earth and over each and every creeper-crawler, those which crawl upon the earth.”

Like Adam, the woman’s soul was created out of nothing, which is indicated by the use of the Hebrew verb bara in Genesis 1:27.

Genesis 1:27, “Consequently, God created out of nothing the essence of man in His own image.

In the image of God, He created him out of nothing.

Male and female, He created them out of nothing.”

The fact that the soul of Adam and the woman were both created out of nothing indicates that the woman was not intellectually inferior to Adam but rather she was his equal and a perfect complement to him.

The woman was not merely an extension of the man but possessed her own individuality since her soul was also created out of nothing in the image of God.

She was unique like Adam and unlike the animals, had the capacity to be a companion to Adam and provide fellowship for him that was not only beneficial to him but also to her.

Together, the man and the woman were unique in God’s creation and were a dynamic couple superior to all of God’s creatures on planet earth and were designed to rule together over the earth.

Notice also, that Adam was created first and then Eve thus constituting a divine order between the sexes meaning that the man was designed to be the authority over the woman even though she was his equal.

1 Timothy 2:12, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”

1 Timothy 2:13, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.”

Principle: You are not “inferior” to authority by submitting to authority and you are not “superior” to those under your authority by being in a position of authority.

1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 11:2, “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.”

1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 11:4, “Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.”

1 Corinthians 11:5, “But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.”

1 Corinthians 11:6, “For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head (symbol of husband’s authority).”

1 Corinthians 11:7, “For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.”

1 Corinthians 11:8, “For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man.”

1 Corinthians 11:9, “for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.”

1 Corinthians 11:10, “Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.”

1 Corinthians 11:11, “However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.”

1 Corinthians 11:12, “For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.”