Old Testament InterpretationAnswered

In Genesis 2:18, does 'helper' (ezer) imply subservience, and should it be translated 'rescuer' instead?

TL;DR

Robert Sungenis answers that ezer means help or helper and should not be changed to rescuer, and that it does not in itself imply subservience, since about ninety percent of its uses refer to God. He holds that Eve was made because Adam was alone and could not fulfil the command to multiply, and that the order of authority in marriage is one of role, not of worth.

A viewer references an online speaker who argues that in Genesis 2:18 the word translated 'helper,' the Hebrew ezer, implies subservience and is a poor translation, claiming ezer really means 'rescuer' and that John Knox influenced translations to insert 'helper' to keep women submissive.

Answer

The Hebrew word ezer is used seventy-five to eighty times in the Old Testament and is almost always translated 'help' or 'helper,' in both noun and verb forms, so trying to swap it for 'rescuer' is just twisting the text. And here is the decisive point: about ninety percent of the uses of ezer refer to God as the helper, as in the Psalms where God is 'my help.' God is certainly not subservient to man, so the word 'helper' cannot carry the note of subservience this man is trying to force into it; the whole idea that 'helper' implies submission is nonsense. Then look at the context. God says he will make Adam a helper suitable for him precisely because the previous verse says Adam was alone, and Genesis 1:28 had already commanded him to be fruitful and multiply, which he cannot do without a woman; he was close to the animals he had named but could not mate with them, so God makes a female. So on the foundational level she is his helper for that, and everything else follows: when children come, she bears the primary burden of caring for them while the man provides. The roles cannot be reversed without society falling apart, which is what we see today. None of this makes the woman inferior in dignity; Scripture is clear that in submission there is an order of authority, not a difference of worth, and refusing that order is the root of much of our social breakdown.

Answered by Dr. Robert Sungenis

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