I was reading a theology book this week by a scholar for whom I have immense respect. I really value this man’s work, and am so glad that he is, now later in his life, positioned to do what he is doing. This modern, reverent, orthodox yet creative theologian was expounding on the early chapters of Genesis. Of course, then, the topic of gender came up.
This great thinker made a good point about the commissions God gave to mankind in the beginning, stated in Genesis 1:28. After the kind Creator blesses “man,” He commissions. The theologian described the commission as two-fold: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” as one, and “and subdue it” as another. I prefer seeing the original human commission as quadruple, understanding the being fruitful, the multiplying, the filling and the subduing as each with its own focus and important distinctions. But, no need to quibble. Speaking of a double commission is fine.
The teacher then brought together the statements of Genesis 2:18, 20, that it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone, with that original double commission of Genesis 1:28. He pointed out that Adam could not fulfill the first commission without Eve. He could not “multiply” without Eve bearing him children. It was an important point about the gift that women have, to bear children, as paramount for God’s purposes in the world.
But, in making this point, he relates and builds upon another author’s statement that Adam could have done the other commission without a partner. Taking dominion does not require another, except that full dominion taking, of the whole earth and all of its aspects, requires more than one person, so that needs multiplying, and so again, the woman.
I appreciate his emphasis on the value of life-giving, which the feminine brings to God’s purposes. Our day sorely needs this corrective. We need to hold up child-birthing and -rearing as the exalted God pleasing pursuit that it is. But my teacher misspoke here.
In fact, for both (or all four) commissions it was “not good for the man to be alone.” I must argue that Adam needed Eve for the subduing as well as the multiplying. While God called in Genesis 2 the one man to dominion-taking in the Garden of Eden, and he began to do it, Adam could not finish the job by himself.
I have seen in church life how we need the feminine for certain movements of the work. When they are not there, the work suffers. I am not for minimizing gender such that women should play all parts, or take away from what God calls only men to do, especially in apprehending the mission. But, in that mission, a woman’s voice needs heeding, a woman’s perspective needs place.
I certainly see it in my life and service to God. I could not take the small dominion that I take in teaching and ministry without my wife. And, at certain times I depend on my Christian sisters’ input.
This all explains why, when we come to the New Testament and Christ begins to build His church, women play a big role in those “re-created,” both for Christ’s multiplying and His subduing. Luke gives us a curious detail in his account of the instant when the church in Jerusalem took off. There was a moment when the Christian church exploded and became a “multitude,” changing from a sectarian group into a movement. The Holy Spirit made that movement moment in Acts 5. And Luke, though he doesn’t have to, gives us a significant descriptor:
And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women…
—Acts 5:14
Why add that detail, that it was both men and women? Because in the new kingdom, in the new commission, both are indispensable.