As I go through this biblical analysis I want to say that my position on biblical femininity has changed over the past few years. I would have aligned more with feminist teaching but God has since reformed my position.
I would like to first state my presuppositions:
1. I believe that God's word (both OT and NT) is fully sufficient to govern the totality of life.
2. I believe that God's word is inerrant.
3. I believe that God is sovereign, immutable, and eternally faithful.
If we can't agree with these three presuppositions, than this analysis will be of little value.
Genesis 1:26-28
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 heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The first few things to notice are the whole purpose of man and woman in God’s creation. This has been called the dominion mandate and explains that man is superior to all the other creation because he is made in God’s image. It also is the first command to propagate even before God created man or woman.
Genesis 2:16-17
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God established the first moral law with clear consequences for disobedience. This command was given exclusively to Adam before The woman was formed. I will explain later why this is significant.
Genesis 2:18-25
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature,that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Many things can be noted about this passage of scripture regarding biblical femininity. This is the first time God was dissatisfied with His creation. Everything else was good or, in the case of mankind, very good. However, God knew man was not complete without woman. Another important feature is that woman was made from man. Thus, the two together form one complete being or one flesh.
Isn't is amazing that man broke into song when he saw his beautiful bride? This was, however, before the fall and before standards of modesty were necessary. This is because nakedness was shameless even glorious. God’s creation was the epitome of perfection.
If this were the end of the story then we would not need to study biblical femininity. Sadly, it is not.
Genesis 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
I mentioned earlier that God commanded Adam and not the woman regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is important because it shows that there was a communication gap between Adam and the woman. Notice the woman’s words and compare it to the command given to Adam.
The woman allowed Satan to sow seeds of doubt and dissatisfaction in her heart. She added “neither shall you touch it” which was not included within the command. And where was Adam during this discourse that would change the course of humanity? God tells us that he “was with her”. Wow!
Genesis 3:8-10
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
We also need to notice that after the fall, shame came along with the sin tainted creation. Adam and the woman were still together as before but now nakedness was shameful. This is the first principle behind the necessity of modesty for both sexes.
The second thing about these few verses is the call by God. Whom did he call? If God knew that the woman had sinned first, since He is omniscient, why didn’t He call her? Or did Adam sin first? The reason is because Adam was supposed to be her spiritual and physical protector and was ultimately responsible for her fall and his failure to protect her from satan. (This conclusion is not clear here but later is proven from other passages) We all know what happens next…
The curse:
Genesis 3:16-19
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The curse on the woman and the curse on the man drastically changed the relationship between men and women. Now, women will have a strong desire for their husband and to be married.
Second, God proclaimed a curse on both men and women that would greatly increase pain and suffering fulfilling their dominion purpose.
Third, as Ephesians echoes, the husband is the head of the wife. The other thing to notice is how God introduces the curse on men. “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife…” It is clear that Adam was supposed to be her spiritual protector but instead listened and also ate the forbidden fruit.
I think it is important to take inventory of what we have gleaned from Genesis regarding biblical femininity.
1. God created man and woman to have dominion over the created order
2. God created and designed men and women for the very purpose of propagation
3. Woman was created from man and to be a helper for man
4. God designed men to be incomplete and lonely without woman
5. Modesty standards were not applicable and purposeless before the fall
6. Woman was deceived first but God went straight to the man
7. Women will strongly desire their husband and he is ruler over her
8. The curse on woman greatly increased pain fulfilling her dominion purpose
9. God emphasized man’s irresponsibility and pathetic protection over his wife
10. God Himself introduced modesty through the act of clothing the man and woman
If God had only given us the first three chapters of Genesis, we shouldn’t have any problem understanding biblical femininity and masculinity. However, God chose to provide us with additional examples of Godly and ungodly image bearers throughout scripture.
By measuring these examples with God’s purposes for creating men and women, we can ascertain which examples exhibit true biblical femininity and masculinity.
