Commentary on Genesis 2:18-24

Sara Koenig

It could very well be that the familiarity of this passage breeds contempt, or at least, a

desire to investigate the other lectionary texts for this Sunday!

Or, perhaps the content seems too narrowly focused to the topic of marriage. With different

marriage amendments passing in different states in America, perhaps these conversations feel

worn out, or even contentious. Yet though this text has obviously been used to discuss marriage

(after all, in the gospel reading for the day Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce), it is about

more than that -- it is a text which tells all people who God is, and what it means to be God's

people.

God is the first actor in this pericope: the selection begins with God. And God is the evaluator,

assessing the created world. Surprisingly -- amidst all the goodness of creation in the previous

chapter (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31) -- God evaluates as not good that the human should

be alone. Though many English translations express this as "it is not good that the man should be

alone," the Hebrew here is not the masculine ish, but the gender inclusive adam. Immediately

following the statement about the situation, that it is not good, God responds by declaring what God

will do to make things right: make for him a helper, as one next to him (2:18). As Phyllis Trible says,

"God the evaluator is God the rectifier."1

The description of the one God will make may be another reason to avoid this text, especially when

"helper" is understood as someone inferior, or a lesser partner in an enterprise. Indeed, the

meaning of a word follows the way it is used, which is bad news for this text because "helper" is

often used colloquially to refer to a less significant participant. Of course, most of us have heard

that ezer is used in the Hebrew most often to refer to God (e.g. Psalm 121:2), and it connotes

assistance from a superior. That this is tempered by "as one next to him," or knegd, suggests that

the overall image is mutuality and equality. However, we ought to be wary of using this text to

prescribe gender roles, and the larger context suggests that the person described is someone who

will alleviate the isolation -- the aloneness -- through connection.

After God's pronouncement in 2:18, God forms other creatures from the "ground,"

or adamah (2:19). The linguistic parallels between this and 2:7 would lead us to believe that these

creatures are corresponding to the human. God brings them to the human to see what he will name

them, but amidst all the beasts, all the birds of the air and the living ones of the field (2:20), he

cannot find a suitable helper. Certain English translations, like the KJV, translate the last clause of

2:20 passively, "there was not found," but the Hebrew is active. However, the identity of the subject

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who cannot find a helper is vague, with some interesting possibilities -- if the "he" refers to the

human, it gives Adam a lot of agency, freedom and responsibility to find a partner. If it refers to God,

it suggests that God is like a scientist who is testing out hypotheses to see what works best, and

that God -- powerful creator of all -- could not find a helper for the human amidst all the other

creatures.

However, immediately following, and without any conversation, God causes a "deep sleep" to fall on

the human. The word is somewhat unusual, occurring only a handful of times throughout the Old

Testament, either divinely sanctioned, or revelatory in some sense (e.g. Genesis 15:12). Perhaps

with some humor -- or at the very least, without any surprise -- the text then tells us that the human

slept. God the anesthesiologist then acts as a surgeon, taking one of the human's ribs and then

closing up the flesh. Then God makes, or "builds," a woman, whom he brings to the man. Thus,

God is also an architect, designing the woman from the rib, and then a matchmaker.2

The woman is not yet given a personal name, but is called woman, which both relates to the man

(he is the ish, she is the ishah), and differentiates her from him. The pericope concludes with the

formula about "leaving and cleaving," which again is quite well known. But it is helpful to note that it

is the man who is identified with his parents, and the woman stands alone, a contrast with certain

wedding practices! Moreover, in this final verse, procreation is not part of the picture. The two

become one flesh, but they are not "fruitful" yet, which may suggest that a sexual intimacy is valued

in and of itself, and not only as a means to reproduction. Thus, while this text begins with

loneliness, it ends with intimate companionship. And the one who facilitates that companionship is

God, acting in various roles and various ways throughout the text to bring about such a change.

1Phyllis Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978, p. 89.

2Ibid., 93.