The Assistant

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 face of 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 you voice in the garden, and I saw that I was naked and hid myself.” He said, “Who told that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” (Translation mine) We see that God speaks to Adam first. It is Adam to whom he gives the command, and later, while walking in the cool of the day calls out to the man, “Where art thou?” Later God will address the Ten Commandments to the Israelite, just as he did with Adam “Thou (masculine singular) shalt have no other gods before me,” “לֹֽא יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ.” We see that God gives pride of place to Adam. Adam was and is first and God respects this in both the Tanakh and Gospels and Epistles. At the same time, we also see that God loves a level playing field. Notice that God has a series of questions for Adam but with Eve it is simply, “What have you done?” God is short with Eve. Why? The answer lies with God’s intention for the woman. He creates her to be a help or “ezer” for the man. Only God is also called “ezer.” It’s a word that implies help in battle. The woman is God’s assistant Marine on behalf of the man. This is perhaps the reason that God is so short with Eve. Picture a janitor slaving away under your sink, something goes badly wrong and the janitor shouts to his assistant, “Give me the pipe wrench!” No please, no thank you because the assistant is the janitor’s right hand man. The woman was created to be God’s apprentice, his assistant when it comes to the man. We see later how Manoah’s wife reasons with him, setting his theology to rights, saving him from the imagination of his heart (Judges 13:22ff). She is but one example among many of what it means to be a "help suitable" for man in both the Tanakh and the Gospels and Epistles.