What Happened to Us in Eden? - Psychology of the FallSample

WE DON´T HAVE TO CHOOSE

Just as we don’t have to choose between being equal or different—because in light of the Creation accounts we are both—we also don’t have to pick one Genesis narrative over the other.

• We’ve been given both to learn from.
• They are equal where they are equal,
• and complementary (and therefore distinct) where they are distinct.

It may feel tempting to ignore one of them—or certain aspects of them—depending on the position someone wants to defend about the relationship between men and women. But that only happens when a person tries to force the text to fit their own perspective, instead of letting God speak through His Word.

If we approach the text with reverence and the fear of the Lord, we simply can’t do that.

From the first account, we see two human beings living in what looks like full complementary equality:

• distinct in their complementarity (biologically obvious in many ways),
• but made of the same “stuff,” as the text itself makes clear,
• fully bearing God’s image and likeness in both,
• relating to one another as equals,
• and jointly carrying out the assignment God had given them over creation.

Up to this point, nothing suggests hierarchy or unilateral leadership—only interpretations drawn from certain elements of the second account. Neither do we see roles being imposed.

That complementarity within equality was meant to enable them to fulfill the calling God had placed directly in their hands:

• to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (as was commanded to the rest of living creatures),
• but with the unique addition of subduing and ruling creation—something no other creature was asked to do.
• They were to carry this out according to what God Himself provided, in the specific order, timing, place, and circumstances in which He entrusted resources and gifts—gifts given to him as man, to her as woman, and to each of them as individuals with distinct talents, capacities, and personalities that allowed them to help one another in what the other lacked, regardless of gender.

It reminds me of the man in Jesus’ parable who entrusted three servants with talents according to their ability, expecting them to put those talents to work and bring back the fruit of their labor. But we’ll talk more about that soon.