What Genesis Teaches About a Woman's Purpose
by Dr. Carmen Joy Imes
You know you were made for more. You sense the pull toward full participation in meaningful work. You long to bring your whole self to it: ideas and inspiration, time and talents, energy and effort.
That impulse is God-given.
It’s biblical.
The Human Job Description
From the very beginning, God made it clear that all humans—women and men alike—were made for more (Gen. 1:26-28). Unlike animals who simply eat, make babies, and die, humans are appointed as God’s image, an exalted identity that entails benevolent rulership over creation. Humans are to “fill the earth and subdue it.” By multiplying and expanding, we push back disorder to make space for flourishing. By ruling, we ensure that humans and animals have the resources needed to thrive.
Genesis 2 offers a more detailed picture of human rulership, narrowing its focus to the man and woman’s shared responsibility in the garden God made. As a professor of Old Testament studies, what I find most striking about these accounts is the absence of hierarchy between humans. Men and women are appointed to rule, but the object of their rule is creation, not one another.
God assigned the task of caring for the garden to the human he placed there, but immediately concluded that his solitary state was incomplete. He needed an ally to carry out this work – someone with essential similarities to himself.
A Woman’s Place
Enter woman—not as a “helper” in the sense of an office assistant, housekeeper, or minion to man’s superhero, but as ‘ēzer. The Hebrew word ‘ēzer in Gen. 2:18 never takes on these other assumptions elsewhere in Scripture. Rather, when taking a look at the use of ‘ēzer in a fuller Biblical context, she is an ally corresponding to him. Unlike the animals, the woman is like him, able to provide companionship, accountability, and essential partnership.
No one is meant to work or lead alone. Instead of viewing one another with suspicion or jealousy, or leveraging power to coerce or exploit, we are invited to partner with one another to get the job done.
Hierarchy, the Bible, and the Spirit
This has sadly not been the norm in the church throughout history. The church has often centered its vision of gender roles on Gen. 3:16, which describes hierarchy between men and women. Those who have taught this fail to explain why we would make the consequence of the Fall a pattern to emulate. Didn’t Jesus come to reverse the curse and usher us into God’s beloved community? Paul describes this community as consisting of heirs to Abraham’s promise, children of God who are clothed with Christ and therefore are no longer subject to divisions such as Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female (Gal. 3:26-29). Has this vision been drowned out by 1 Tim. 2:12? Is it canceled by 1 Cor. 14:34?
No. As the prophet Joel made clear, when God pours out his Spirit “your sons and daughters will prophesy” (Joel 2:28). The release of the Spirit results in the empowerment of both men and women. Don’t miss this! To prophesy—to declare the Word of God to the people of God—is a task belonging to men as well as women. To the extent that we silence women, we risk quenching the Spirit and missing out on God’s word to us.
God’s design and destiny for women is to participate fully alongside their brothers in work empowered by the Spirit. When Paul writes to emerging churches, he lists a variety of spiritual gifts meant to equip believers for ministry. He does not restrict any of these gifts by gender. When Paul sends greetings to the church in passages like Romans 16, he identifies dozens of women as his coworkers in gospel ministry—women like Phoebe, a deacon who leverages her resources on behalf of the church and undertakes a risky journey to deliver Paul’s letter to Rome (Rom. 16:1), women like Priscilla, a house church leader who trains other leaders (Rom. 16:3; Acts 18; 1 Cor. 16:19), and women like Junia, an apostle imprisoned for her role in spreading the gospel (Rom. 16:7). Their participation was essential to the strengthening of the church.
Our participation is essential to the strengthening of the church.
As women, we are the image of God, destined for full inclusion and full participation in the family of faith. When we embrace this identity we experience the joy of alignment with God’s calling and the responsibility of its stewardship. We were made for this!
DR. CARMEN JOY IMES
Dr. Carmen Joy Imes is associate professor of Old Testament at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and the author of Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters (IVP) and Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. She blogs at carmenjoyimes.blogspot.com and releases weekly Torah Tuesday videos on her YouTube channel. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
