Sunday, September 4, 2011

...Or Should We Say the Help Is a Woman? (Genesis 2)




The following is an unedited draft of Chapter 2 from my first book
"When Dogmas Die - The Return of Biblical Equality"



After Genesis 3:16 was returned to its original position as a description of the consequence of sin at the end of the twentieth century, Genesis 2:18-24 became the only source for the woman’s subjection. But because Genesis 1:26-27 clearly teaches equality, Ortlund suggests that a paradox exists in the creation account in his essay Male-Female Equality and Male Headship [found in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, ed. Piper and Grudem].

There is a paradox in the creation account. While Genesis 1 teaches the equality of the sexes as God’s image-bearers and vice-rulers on the earth, Genesis 2 adds another complex dimension to Biblical manhood and womanhood. The paradox is this: God created male and female in His image equally, but He also made the male the head and the female the helper.[1]

Since Ortlund’s theology depends on this paradox, we must consider whether a paradox is a viable method of finding the truth. According to Philosopher George Berkley, one resorts to a paradox to correct an error in one’s thinking.

But no sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow the light of a superior principle, to reason, mediate [sic], and reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples spring up in our minds concerning those things which before we seemed fully to comprehend. Prejudices and errors of sense do from all parts discover themselves to our view; and, endeavoring to correct these by reason, we are insensibly drawn into uncouth paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistencies, which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in speculation. [2]  

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