Put two books beside each other and the conversation changes. Reclaiming Eve, published in 2014 and co-written by Suzanne Burden, Carla Sunberg and Jamie Wright, approaches women through identity and calling. Faithful to the Call, published in 2022 and edited by Carla Sunberg, addresses women in ministry more directly and brings together biblical, historical, theological and practical material. I do not want to treat the second book as though it simply replaces the first. The difference in emphasis is more interesting than that.
One invites us to think about who women are and what God has called them to be. The other places the question of ministry much more openly on the table. That makes me want to step backward rather than forward. Before asking who should hold a ministry position, what does the Bible say about the woman herself? One assumption I need to test before I say anything about women is a very ordinary one: that I already know what the word helper means in Genesis 2:18.
I have heard that word often enough that it can pass almost unnoticed. The woman is the helper.
The man is the one being helped. The picture can seem settled before the Hebrew has even had a chance to speak.
Reclaiming Eve makes me slow down there.
The book, co-written by Suzanne Burden, Carla Sunberg and Jamie Wright, asks questions about women’s identity and calling. Its concern is not simply whether women can hold a particular office. It goes closer to the beginning of the story and asks what God intended for Eve
Genesis 2:18 is therefore more than a supporting verse. It is part of the foundation of the question. The Hebrew word ezer appears in the phrase ezer kenegdo.
The NET Bible notes that the English word helper can carry a subordinate connotation, while ezer itself does not require that meaning. The note also explains kenegdo through ideas such as corresponding to, matching or being suitable for him.
That does not mean every translation using helper is wrong. Nor does it mean one Hebrew word can settle every question about men, women and ministry. It means I have to be more careful about the assumptions I bring to the sentence.
That distinction matters because words can become familiar enough to stop receiving attention. Once that happens, a translation may begin doing theological work in our minds that the original sentence has not necessarily done.
The wider Bible will complicate the picture. Scripture gives us women who pray, prophesy, teach, serve and work alongside other believers. It also contains passages that have been understood as restricting women’s teaching or authority.
The Church of the Nazarene acknowledges both sides of that biblical discussion in its official explanation of women clergy.
So I want to begin smaller. Before asking what women may do in the church, I want to ask what Genesis actually says about the woman God gives to Adam. Perhaps the ancient word ezer has more to say than the English word helper allowed me to hear.
I began with an assumption that looked almost too ordinary to question: helper means helper, and helper naturally describes the person who stands underneath the person being helped. After looking more carefully at Genesis 2:18, I am not comfortable carrying that assumption forward.
That does not mean I have discovered a magic Hebrew word that settles Christian teaching about women. I have not. Ezer is not a shortcut around the rest of Scripture.
But it does mean that one familiar English association should not quietly become the foundation for a theology of women.
Genesis 1:27–28 already places male and female together within God’s image and God’s commission concerning creation. Genesis 2:18 then describes the woman as ezer kenegdo. The NET Bible notes that ezer itself does not require a subordinate role, while kenegdo contributes the idea of correspondence or suitability.
Read together, those words do not give me permission to imagine Eve as a lesser version of Adam.
Then the New Testament refuses to make the picture smaller. Acts 18:24–26 shows Priscilla and Aquila explaining the way of God more accurately to Apollos. Romans 16:1–7 places several women within Paul’s ministry relationships.
Acts 21:8–9 records Philip’s four daughters who prophesied. First Corinthians 12:4–7 describes different gifts and forms of service as coming from the same Spirit for the common good.
Still, I have to keep the difficult texts in view. First Timothy 2:11–12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 have been read as restrictions on women, and faithful Christians have not always reached the same conclusion about how those passages relate to the others. I should not pretend otherwise.
So the assumption I now want to test is larger than the meaning of one English word. Whenever I encounter a theological conclusion about women, I want to ask what picture of womanhood sits underneath it. Is that picture actually coming from Scripture, or has a familiar cultural assumption slipped into the reading?
That is why the ancient word still disturbs me. It has not answered every question. It has made one question impossible to ignore: Have I understood the woman before I decided what the woman may do?