Many people criticize the Bible—and those who follow it—for making women subservient to men.
This is not a conclusion I reach when I read the Bible. I see the Bible—and those who truly follow it—as elevating the plight of women to the place they were created to be: equal to men.
Consider in Genesis where God says to Eve that Adam will rule over her. This is not God’s created order or a command. This is an outcome.
Adam and Eve disregard God’s way and decide to do things their way. As a result, they can no longer stay in the idyllic paradise he made for them; they have to leave. Because of their actions, life would be different.
One of the changes is that men would attempt to elevate themselves over women.
This was not God’s intent, but rather the result of human action.
In the beginning—in the first two chapters of the Bible—man and women are implicitly equal. That is how God creates them to be. Then man and women get greedy and want more; they mess up the order God intended.
Their actions change God’s balance and one of the outcomes is gender inequality and strife. It isn’t what God wanted, but it is what human beings got when they did things their way.
[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Genesis 3-5 and today’s post is on Genesis 3:16.]
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Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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