Studies on the Women of the Bible - Introduction

by Davis W. Huckabee

Introduction

God has created all things, and we have many of these things detailed for us in the Book of Genesis. But of all the many wonderful and varied things that He has made for the good and convenience and help of man, can anyone think of a greater invention than that of Woman? It is this writer’s humble opinion that the greatest of all God’s inventions is that of the Woman. “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him,” (Gen. 2:18). And the details of this are given in the verses that follow, which will be considered in due time.

There are many mysteries about the human constitution and by far the majority of these were not even suspected until very recent times, nor has science even come close to exhausting this knowledge in our advanced and technological age. Indeed, much of modem science compounds human ignorance concerning the constitution of man. And this is especially so in regard to the interrelationship of the genders. Too often this ignorance is of the same nature as that of Professor Henry Higgins, who said of Eliza Doolittle, “Why can’t a woman think like a man?” The answer is, Because they are divinely constituted different from one another, even though they have a common origin. Men and women were never meant to be identical in constitution. God purpose­fully made the two genders radically different in several ways.

In regard to the two genders of mankind, some basic truths must be established. First, “man’ as used in the creation account is not a sexist designation, for the proper name Adam and “man” translate the same Hebrew word for a human being without regard to gender. Radical feminists, in their neuroticism, raise their hackles at every mention of the word “man” yet this is the Divine designation for both genders. “So God created man (Hebrew adam) in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them,” (Gen. 1:27). Different Hebrew words such as ish, enosh and adam, the most common ones, and other, less common words, describe the human being, depending upon the aspect of the individual being emphasized.

Second, ish is used commonly in regard to the marital relationship of a man to a woman, and the derivation of ‘woman” from this is shown in Genesis. 2:23. “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman (Hebrew isha ), because she was taken out of Man (Hebrew Ish).” The New Testament gives a commentary on this in 1 Corinthians 11:8-12. “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman is of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” Verse 10 relates to the length of the hair in each case as was established immediately before this, (vv. 3-7), and it is this that is given in place of a veil, as shown in verse 15, where the common word for substitution (Greek anti) is used. This is the same Greek word used in Matthew 20:28 of the Lord’s substitutionary death for His people. Will anyone dare say that His death was not sufficient, but that man must add something, as some say that an artificial covering must be added to the woman’s hair?

Nor was she called Woman because, as one bitter man observed, she would henceforth be a Woe to the man. Granted, some women fall into this class, but probably a lot oftener the man is a curse to the unfortunate woman that marries him more than she is to him. Creation of the first woman was an act of great goodness toward the man, as we read in verse 18, for God has committed Himself to make it so that marriage to a fitting woman obtains the favor of God, as we are told in Proverbs 18:22. “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord.”

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