Confessions of a "Home Depot Dropout" - Part 3 of 5

Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2007 at 09:15

Do you see it?  As Stasi Eldredge eloquently points out in Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul, the Genesis account holds such rich treasures for us!  The essence and purpose of a woman is unveiled here in the story of Eve’s creation.  Woman is the crown of creation –the most intricate, amazing, and dazzling creation on earth!  She, too, bears the imago Dei, the image of God.  But Eve bears the image in a uniquely feminine way that only she can share and be.  God wanted to reveal something about himself, so He gave us Eve.  What can we learn from her?  Think about it.  When you are with a woman, ask yourself, what is she telling me about God?  (Another book’s worth of responses.)

But don’t stop there. 

Have you been taught, as I was for over 40 years—that Woman was created to be a “helper”?  Have you ever felt a twinge at that unfortunate rendering? 

Hebrew scholar Robert Alter, who’s spent years translating Genesis, says that this phrase is “notoriously difficult to translate.”  Various attempts in English include “helper” or “companion” or the notorious “help meet.”

Why are these translations so… dull?  Bland, colorless, flat?  A “help meet”?  A “helper”?  A spatula is a helper.  Kenmore, Amana and Whirlpool are “helpers.”  A “companion”?  A dog is a companion.  Is that all Eve is?

Hardly.  When God creates Eve, he calls her an ezer kenegdo.  “It is not good for the man to be alone, I shall make him (an ezer kenegdo).”  Do you see it now?  “Help meet” is an inarticulate, incomplete rendering of ezer kenegdo.  Alter is getting close when he translates the concept as “sustainer beside him.”

As John and Stasi Eldredge note, “The word ezer is used only 20 other places in the entire OT.  In every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately.  (See Deut. 33:26, 29; Ps. 121:1-2; Ps. 20:1-2; Ps. 33:20; Ps. 115:9-11).  Most of the contexts are life and death, and God is your only hope.  Your ezer.  If He’s not there with you—you’re toast.  A better translation therefore of ezer would be lifesaver.  Kenedgo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart.”

          “Helper” vs. “life saver, sustainer”?  That’s like using a dust mote to describe the Grand Canyon.

-- Stay tuned for part IV --