The Helper

Various translations of Genesis 2:18 - 

The Lord God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

The Lord God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him."

And the Lord God said: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him."

Then Yhwh God said: It is not good, the man's being alone, let me make for him a helper matching him.

I didn't always like this passage. I'll give you one guess why...

Yup, helper. Um, excuse me? Is that all a woman is? Just someone created to serve men? I don't think so! God gave me a mind, too, and I can do a lot more than just be a slave to a man. Ugh.

Thankfully I've done some more reading and come to realize that this is not what the Bible means by helper. Of course, people have interpreted it as such, but it's much more! So let's take a moment to look at this phrase, shall we?

According to my study Bible's reading guide: "The term helper does not imply an inferior assistant but a genuine partner who comes to the aid of another. God is often called a "helper" for those in need (Ps 10, 14; 54, 4)."

That's better. I'm all about being a partner with my husband. And I was intrigued by the fact that God is also called a helper. In fact, this study was super helpful in explaining the term:

The English term "helper" is the translation of the Hebrew word 'ezer. This noun is found nineteen times in the Old Testament - fifteen of those occurrences refer to divine aid. That woman is "helper" ('ezer) to man, then, is not at all pejorative or degrading if this description is also used at other times to describe God himself. ...

In Genesis 2:18-25, God is revealing that humanity is not "complete" until the arrival of a "helper." This notion of woman as "helper" is far from belittling. John Paul II makes clear, it "should not be interpreted as meaning that the woman is man's servant - 'helper' is not the equivalent of 'servant'; the psalmist says to God: 'You are my help' (Ps 70:5; cf. Ps 115:9, 10, 11; Ps 118:7; Ps 146:5); rather the whole statement means that woman is able to collaborate with man because she complements him perfectly. Woman is another kind of 'ego' in their common humanity, which consists of male and female in perfectly equal dignity."

This sounded great! Just to be sure, I decided I needed to check for myself and look up every instance of 'ezer in the Bible. Then I remembered that I don't speak or read Hebrew, nor do I own a Hebrew Bible, nor do I have the time to go through one page by page. So naturally I turned to the great wide Web.

I found a list of every 'ezer instance on this page, where the guy noted that 'ezer is not a term that indicates inferiority or subordination - if that was the case, the Bible would be saying God was inferior to Israel. (We all know that's not the case.) He also stresses the complementarity of men and women.

One of the most interesting reflections on this word discussed how 'ezer is usually used in a military sense in the OT. She concludes that God made women to be warriors! Now that's more my style.

Woman was not created with the sole purpose of serving man. Men and women are equal in dignity - neither is superior or inferior. They are called to mutual submission (thank you, JPII). Both can be warriors, in a sense. And yet, men and women are different - they complement each other. They have different strengths. Perhaps they are both warriors, fighting the same battle, but with different techniques.

Thoughts?