Genesis 2:18-24 (Year B, Proper 22; 18 Pentecost)

For Genesis 2:18-24 in the NRSV, click here. However, do check out Fox's translation in the Schocken Bible, especially the man's exclamation upon first seeing the woman: "This-time, she-is-it!" You gotta love it.

One of the neatest terms in the text (see Genesis 2:18, 20) is כנגדו, meaning that the woman is created as partner, proper companion, fitting counterpart, one who is just right. The Hebrew makes clear the complementarity and parity of the two, male and female, ruling out subordination for women in Eden's ideal state.

Just as neat are the nuances of the closely juxtaposed word עזר, for which the KJV gives the awful rendering "help meet." Alter's translation gives us a better rendering: "a sustainer beside him." R. E. Friedman gives us another good alternative translation: "a strength corresponding to him." As these renderings bring out, the Hebrew suggests that the woman is not an auxiliary or a subordinate to the man, but one who actively intervenes for her partner (cf. Psalm 121), one who is the true strength of her partner (cf. the parallelism of terms in Psalm 46:2).