Ezer Kenegdo

What does it mean to be a “helper”?

When God created humankind male and female, in most versions it gives the impression that God created woman simply to be a helper to man. Is that so?

It’s an important question with all that is going on today, not only with regard to the role of women in the church and the home, but also with the rise of Islam in the West and its approach to women (about which feminists seem to be strangely silent).

Complementarians or patriarchalists (I write as someone who was a complementarian or patriarchalist) argue that it was God’s original intention for man to rule over woman based on the understanding that she was created to be his “helper”: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him” (Genesis 2:18).

George Knight III, who was an associate professor of New Testament and wrote a book on the role relationship of male and female, said, “It is simply the proper application of concepts and realities to affirm that if one human being is created to be the helper for another human being, the one who receives such help has a certain authority over the one who is his helper.”¹

Now, that might be the case in many respects when it comes to the use of the English word “helper”, the word used in most English versions of the Bible when referring to Adam’s need and the creation of Eve as a helper for him. Taken at face value, in such a context, a helper is someone who assists, as in the request, “Can you come and help me?” In other words, I know what I am about. I know what to do, but I need a bit of assistance here and there. In other words, we might say, a “helping hand”. Such an understanding suggests that the one making the request is somehow superior and has more knowledge and ability than the one being asked (of course a helper can be someone who is stronger than the one they are helping).

A PROBLEM

The problem with this way of thinking is that it does not reflect the intention of the original writer. The Hebrew words translated as “helper” in our English versions are ezer kenegdo and appear more than 20 times in the Old Testament, usually in reference to God and his saving, delivering, and enabling of his people (Ex 18:4; Deut 33:7, 26, 29; Psalm 20:2; 33:20; 70:5; 89:19; 115:9,10,11; 121:1,2; 124:8; 146:5; Hosea 13:9). Now it would be wrong to suggest that this means that God is somehow lesser than humanity because he is its “helper,” or “assistant,” or even that humanity has some kind of “authority” over God—that God was at humanity’s beck and call as and when needed—yet this would be the logical outworking of Knight’s statement.

It helps to know the meaning of a word, words, or phrase. Words change over time, and we need to be sure that the words we are using today reflect the original intention of the author. “Helper” today certainly carries with it the idea of an assistant, one who is there to fill in the gap in the ability of another to do something at any given time.

A BETTER TRANSLATION

According to Rabbi David Freedman, the Hebrew word used to describe woman’s help (ezer) arises from two Hebrew roots that mean “to rescue, to save” and “to be strong” (Archaeology Review (9 [1983]: 56–58); so he translates it as “power” or “strength”. Kenegdo means “one who stands in front of or opposite to” and translates as “one equal to him”. Therefore, it would be better to translate “ezer kenegdo” as “a power (or strength) equal to.”²

Eve, then, is not someone who is there simply to fill the gaps in Adam’s ability, to be his assistant or servant, but someone who corresponds to him in every way, a “strength equal to him.”³ Different versions translate it variously as “helper suitable for him” (NIV; NASB 2020 – which is still weak), “corresponding to him” (CSB), or “partner” (NRSV) – the Amplified has “balances him”, but that carries the wrong idea altogether if we think in the terms of checks and balances. The Lexham English Bible translates it as “I will make for him a helper as his counterpart” (italics in the original), whilst the International Standard Version takes it a step further and translates it as, “I will make the woman to be an authority corresponding to him.”

Eve, then, was a woman who was truly Adam’s equal. A true partner in life and service—as Rabbi Schlomo Riskin put it, “We cannot partner with a lesser being whom we subdue.”⁴

This means we cannot interpret ‘ezer kenegdo’ as if man were superior or stronger and the more equipped of the two, but he had some weak points that woman was created to make up for. She was not there to complete him; she would be a helper who fully corresponded to him, someone who was truly his equal. A co-regent with him in stewarding God’s purposes in the earth.

That doesn’t mean that men and women are the same or that there are no gender distinctions – there are. We bring different things to the table. We were made to truly complement one another.

EQUAL BUT UNEQUAL

All are equal before God, but all are not equally gifted, whether men or women. If we were all equal in our gifting, we wouldn’t need one another; that is how God set things up. Adam and Eve were both equal and unequal – equal in status but in need of each other.

When leadership, whether in the home, church or society, is modelled around one sex, we are not fulfilling the will of God in the creation and new creation mandate.

This blog is adapted from my books Headship: A False Doctrine or For Real? and Exploring the Role of Women in the Church, both available on Amazon.

1 George Knight, The New Testament Teaching on the Role Relationship of Male and Female (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977), 43.

2 David Freedman, Archaeology Review (9 [1983]: 56–58. Cited also in Women and the Church, Stanley J. Grenz and Denise Muir Kjesbo (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995), Kindle edition: ch. 5, subheading, “Woman as the Creation of God”, loc: 1953-1962, para. 35, “The debate over Genesis 2…”

3 Freeman, Women in the Church, loc: 1953-1962, para. 35.

4 Rabbi Schlomo Riskin, cited Skip Moen, “The Great Risk,”para. 6, https://skipmoen.com/2009/05/the-great-risk/