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

A DRAMATIC TURN

God stands above time. We do not—and that matters, because time shapes us. Think of pauses and rhythms in a conversation: their length, their presence or absence, can change the whole tone. They create anticipation, add meaning, even shift what is being said.

Time doesn’t always, or only, imply hierarchy—something the Master Himself consistently dismantled. The economy of His Kingdom is nothing like what we’re used to. You have to dig deep to even begin to grasp it, as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) makes clear. In that new order of things, the first will be last and the last first; the one who serves is the greatest. As Paul reminds us, the one who plants is not greater than the one who waters—it is God who gives the growth.

So let’s handle this theme with care. The matter of timing here is not insignificant. The particular order of creation allowed, as the narrative tells us—“no suitable helper was found for him”—for this to happen:

• the man experienced a “before,” life without the presence, companionship, contribution, and help of the woman;
• then a radically different “after,” beginning the moment she was brought to him.

He had a need, and she came to meet it—bringing what Adam himself could not produce. She was, as the Hebrew points out, a strong ally.

Like many before me, I see an undeniable upward progression in creation—culminating not with the man but with the woman. Just as “first” does not mean “superior,” neither does “last”—or else we fall into the same mistake.

Still, it would have to be explained how creation seems to rise up to man, and then “step backward” by adding the woman—that’s the impression left by many traditional interpretations.

The effect on Adam, though, was extraordinary: “This is now bone of my bones…” A declaration of equality within difference like no other!

What is required of Adam is not unilateral leadership, but care—toward someone precious, made of the same “stuff,” placed there to live as one flesh in every sense. He had just received a gift!