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Eve's Legacy in Creation
Genesis 1:26-27 describes Eve as created in the image of God. She is a representative of God, who, with Adam, was created to rule and fill the earth.
In Genesis 2, God creates the Garden of Eden as the Holy of Holies in His temple, which is the cosmos (see Walton in Bibliography below). This garden could have been the meeting place for God’s heavenly council of rulers in the spiritual realm and his human council of rulers over the earth (see Heiser).
When, God makes the human-male. He commissions the man, the human, to be a priestly representative, on God’s behalf, over all of creation (Genesis 2:15)).
But God looks at the man, who He has just created, and declares,
“It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18, NIV).
God decides to make for the man someone with whom he can partner in the task of being a priestly representative over the entire earth.
Eve's Legacy as an Ally
In most English translations, the Hebrew (‘ezer kenegdo) is translated as “helpmeet” (KJV, ASV), “helper suitable” (NIV, NASB, LSB), “helper fit” (ESV), or “helper corresponding” (CSB). However, a more accurate description of Eve would be an “indispensable ally.”
To discover more about various viewpoints on Eve as “helper,” join the Complementarian & Egalitarian Cohort on Patreon.
“Helper suitable” is actually not the best way to describe Eve or women in general. The connotations of the English word “helper” do not match the connotations of the Hebrew word “’ezer.”
If you are like those I’ve surveyed, you probably think of ”helper” as a secondary role or an assistant. Someone who is “the assistant to the general manager” bears a subordinate status.
A “helper” is not responsible for the work, they are just helping someone else doing the work. Typically, a “helper” is someone who has less experience, expertise, knowledge, or ownership of a project. They are often a lower social class and may even be a juvenile. Consider verbiage like “Mommy’s Little Helper,” or for a lower social class, think of the movie The Help (which highlighted the racist ways white women viewed their black employees).
Maybe when you think of “helper,” you consider a situation like when my husband’s best friend comes over to help him build a deck. His best friend may have more knowledge and expertise on how to build a deck than my husband, but he does not have ownership of that deck. It is our deck, it’s not the best friend’s deck. So, while the best friend has greater knowledge and expertise, he lacks ownership.
If one has equal ownership, equal knowledge, and equal expertise, then the word in English is not “helper.” We refer to such a person as a “partner” or “ally.” This is the picture that the Hebrew has for Eve.
Of the 27 times the Bible uses the Hebrew word “‘ezer” (“ally” or “helper”) outside of Genesis 2, “‘ezer” describes an action of God (19x) usually in a military context of rescuing or saving. The other few times “‘ezer” occurs it refers to a man’s name (5x), general assistance (2-3x), and a human army (1x).
These references no more describe a secondary or inherently subordinate role than a larger army rescuing and defending a smaller army is secondary or subordinate.
Part of the essence of womanhood, therefore, is an equal strength, protection, and ability to bring a task to completion.
Eve's Legacy as Indispensable
I’ve added “indispensable” to my rendering of “‘ezer kenegdo” because, in our modern context, help is often nice, but it’s not necessary. I like having help around the house. It would be great if someone would help me do the dishes! But are any of those things necessary? Not in the slightest. I can do it. Would I like help? Sure, it’s nice. It makes my life easier, but it’s not necessary.
However, consider the creation of Eve in Genesis 2. Woman is absolutely necessary. She is a necessary ally to partner with man in the task of being a priestly representative.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)
Those terms “work” and “take care of,” when used together, indicate a priestly function (see Walton) throughout the rest of Moses’ writings (the first five books of the Bible) and most of the Old Testament. In Genesis 2:15, God installs the man as a priestly representative in the Garden of Eden. He has a priestly function taking care of the Holy of Holies of God’s cosmic temple.
Yet God looks at the man and says that this job of being a priestly representative is too big for you to do alone. You can’t do it by yourself. You need an indispensable ally. You need someone equal to you to do this–someone “corresponding” to you. And so, God makes woman.
God Introduces Eve to Her Beloved
Imagine for a moment that you’re Eve. You just wake up.
God has taken the side of the man. He hasn’t taken Adam’s rib, nor has he split him in half. The Hebrew word “side” literally means “side”–like put the sticker on the “side” of the box. It’s a directional term indicating the side of a structure, a box (like the Ark of the Covenant), or a building. God has taken part of the side of the man and he has crafted a woman.
And she wakes up, she opens her eyes and she is in the Holy of Holies of the Cosmic Temple. There are flowering trees surrounding her. Rabbits hop slowly through the grass, and maybe a deer is foraging off to her right. She sits up, and gazing at her in absolute wonder is her man, from whom she was created. He bursts into joyous song:
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.” (Genesis 2:23, NIV)
She hears these words from Adam and her heart thrills. He is the one to whom she is connected. They intrinsically belong together as one flesh (Genesis 2:24). They are both naked and they feel no shame whatsoever.
Eve's Legacy is Shaped by the Serpent
However, the early days of bliss would not last. Genesis 3 introduces a new character.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” (Genesis 3:1, NIV)
Serpents in the ancient world were considered beings of chaos (EMBED IG POST) (see Walton and Heiser), often related to the sea. In Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) literature, gods like Baal or Marduk have to defeat the serpent of chaos.
So now there is a serpent in the garden. This is not a little garter snake or even a boa constrictor. Genesis 3’s serpent is most likely some sort of ANE dragon (see Heiser). Think: dragon—like a Chinese dragon. Think: the serpent in Revelation—the red serpent that wants to eat Mary (See Preston Sprinkle’s podcast).
There is also a possibility (see Heiser) that this serpent was at one time a throne guardian for God.
God’s Divine Counsel
Though a bit challenging to spot in Scripture, God has a divine counsel of spirit beings. At some point in creation, He made a spiritual realm filled with various spiritual beings: angels, seraphim, messengers, etc.
Some of the spirit beings rebelled against God and got kicked out of heaven. And now, one of them likely appears in the garden as the serpent (see Hieser).
Eve Talks with the Serpent
Eve is not surprised when the serpent/dragon starts speaking to her. No one’s surprised. You and I read Genesis 3 and think, “A snake is suddenly talking to Eve. Wouldn’t that be shocking?”
Consider the garden as the Holy of Holies of God—His meeting place with both His divine council of spirit beings (to whom He later gives power to rule over nations) and his human council (which is Adam and Eve). Eve may have been used to interacting with these spirit beings all the time. To her, seeing these spirit beings in perhaps various corporal forms was not unusual.
Eve, seeing a talking serpent, might think, “Okay, one of God’s messengers is here–somebody part of the divine council. That’s fine; this is normal. I’m going to have a conversation.”
But this conversation does not go the way she expects. The serpent immediately starts questioning her about the covenant that God gave to both her and Adam, before she was created.
“The Lord God, commanded the man and said, ’You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17, NIV)
Part of Eve's Legacy is Failure
So the serpent, this spirit being, questions Eve’s covenant with God.
“He said, ‘Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that’s in the middle of the garden. And you must not touch it or you will die.’ The serpent replies, ‘You will certainly not die. You know that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:4-4 NIV)
Eve pauses.
She knows she’s in the garden. She knows it is a beautiful place. She knows she has perfect communion with God and perfect communion with Adam.
But she hears what the serpent says, and perhaps she wonders about knowing good and evil. This is something the serpent knows about. This is something obviously God knows about. Did God fail to give His human representatives the same kind of knowledge He gave His spiritual representatives? Is God really good? Am I missing out on something?
“Then the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and it was also desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were open and they realized they were naked.” (Genesis, 3:6-7a, NIV)
We don’t know for sure what is going on in Eve’s thought process, nor her motivation. Scholars will give you answers. They’ll say she wanted knowledge; she didn’t trust God. Scripture does not tell us what is going on in her heart. The text describes her listening and seeing that the fruit is good, pleasing, and desirable for gaining wisdom. She wants that wisdom, so she takes and she eats.
Pain will be a Permeant Feature of Eve’s Legacy
Imagine that moment: You are in the garden. It is beautiful.
Feel in your body the memory of the most joyous moment you can imagine. Recall the delight and ecstasy, the lightness of your soul. You have no weight, no concerns. Just bliss.
That is where Eve is at. She’s just living in that space all the time because she’s in perfect communion with God and her husband.
And then she decides to disobey God. And the moment her teeth crunch into the fruit…. everything changes.
She eats the fruit, and hands it to Adam, who is with her. He takes a bite, and then they look at each other. They look down at themselves. They realize they’re naked.
They look and recoil.
The wonderful, light, and free feeling of joy is gone. It’s replaced by terror and shame.
They dive into the bushes to hide themselves.
Perhaps Eve and Adam peek out at each other, from separate bushes. How do they commune with one another? They’re naked. What’s going on?
In chapter two, Eve woke up to a face of ardent admiration, and now those same eyes glare at her with blame. Arms that once wrapped her up in safety now frantically sew leaves together to hide his shame. A shame that she cannot be a part of. Though she bears her own, she cannot understand his. She cannot connect with him. The connection that they had—that instant, beautiful, oneness of flesh—is now severed.
She cannot process the sorrow dragging her heart to the ground. She’s never felt it before. Sitting there hiding, trying to cover up what has happened, she is afraid.
God Enters Into their Pain with Questions
God’s voice echoes throughout the garden.
“The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’” (Genesis 3:8-10, NIV)
Eve is listening to this exchange. She hears the sorrow in God’s voice. What once felt near, is now far away. And, she’s afraid. She’s never been afraid of God before.
“And [the Lord] said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’” (Genesis 3:11, NIV)
In response to God’s anguished question, Eve hears her beloved, the one with whom she is one flesh, the one who is supposed to care for her, hold her, and partner with her. She hears him act as her enemy.
“The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me–she gave me some of the fruit from the tree and I ate it.’” (Genesis 3:12 NIV)
The voice that once sang over her with joyous celebration now points an accusing finger at her. “It’s her fault She did it. We are in this mess, and it is because of her.”
Now, remember the man ate just as willingly. He was not deceived or coerced into eating!
SIDE NOTE: Adam’s “passivity” and Eve’s “usurping of leadership”
There are many pastors and teachers who claim that Adam was being passive. They say that he didn’t do his manly duty of leadership and protection, and that’s why they’re in this mess. Likewise, the woman didn’t do her womanly duty of following and submitting to the man’s rule. She should have asked Adam to talk to the serpent, because a woman shouldn’t do that. But instead, she usurped his authority and took over the leadership, and that is why humanity fell into sin.
However, the text doesn’t say anything about Adam being passive or Eve being a usurper. We do not know what Adam was doing, except that he was there with her. He could have been cheering her on. He could have been agreeing with her. They could have even had a side conversation that’s not recorded (Scripture often leaves out small details and focuses on the main storyline). We don’t know. We simply know that she ate the fruit and he ate the fruit. They disobeyed. For the original audience, a woman handing food to a man is normal. They wouldn’t have seen those sorts of connotations in the text.
When one goes back before the eating of the fruit to discuss Adam failing to lead and Eve failing to follow, then, one implies that original sin didn’t start with their choice to eat the fruit. It really started when man was passive and didn’t lead, and when woman stepped up and didn’t follow. And it makes the issue of Genesis 3 a specific type of manhood and womanhood rather than what the text actually says.
Adam made a conscious choice to eat the fruit. He may have even let her eat first, out of chivalry or kindness. He may have let her eat the fruit first out of self-preservation to see if she would immediately die. However, we don’t know what he was thinking. It’s dangerous to assume their thoughts.
But we do know that he now turns on her. Adam made a conscious choice and, rather than taking responsibility, he blames Eve. And he even says to God, “The woman you put here with me.” So, not only does he blame the woman, he blames God. “You gave me the woman. She’s the one who did this. She gave me the fruit and I ate it.”
Now the moment the woman has been absolutely dreading, since her teeth pierced the skin of the fruit, has come. The LORD God looks down at her sobbing form. She doesn’t even know how to respond.
“Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me and I ate.’” (Genesis 3:13, NIV)
She points to the serpent, trying to explain the story. And and she admits that she ate and , that she is to blame.
God Curses the Serpent and the Ground
Gospel Hope for the Future
“And God says to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.’” (Genesis 3:14-15, NIV)
Eve tries to catch her breath as God’s curse on the serpent weighs down into her soul. The serpent stares at her—eyes seething with hatred and anger. From now on she and her children will never be safe. There is a powerful spiritual being with a personal vendetta against them. No woman will ever be safe.
And as Eve ponders, perhaps a tiny flicker of hope resurrects in her heart alongside the avalanche of terror—hope that one day, an offspring of hers will crush the head of the serpent. Maybe she straightens her shoulders a little bit and glares back at the serpent, as if to say, “Your end is coming. And I will have a hand in bringing you down.”
God’s Word for Eve
When God turns to her, Eve can’t meet his gaze.
“I will make your pains and childbearing very severe. With painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16, NIV) .
But, briefly, the historical interpretation of “her desire to be for her husband” through church history reveals several possibilities:
- She will need his protection.
- She will need his provision.
- She will need him to watch over her while she has children.
- She will have sexual desire for her husband.
Since God just told the woman that she’s going to have pain in childbirth, the desire in her heart for children must be greater than her fear of pain.
But pain in childbirth means there will be a child that comes from a woman, who will crush the serpent. The chaos dragon of old will have power no longer. His head will be crushed.
And Eve stares back at the serpent, clinging to that thread of hope. She was the first human to disbelieve God, but now she has a hope to hold on to.
The Curse on the Ground – God’s Word for Adam
“To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” ‘Cursed is the ground (the ‘adamah) because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground (‘adamah), since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return.”’ (Genesis 3:7-9, NIV)
God doesn’t actually ever curse Adam and Eve. He curses the serpent and he curses the ground. But for Adam and Eve, God spells out the results of their sin.
The result for the woman:
- The serpent has an extra special hatred for her. He’ll bring unimaginable suffering on womankind.
- Having children is going to be a painful experience in every way.
- She will have a desire for her husband that will motivate her to have children.
- Her husband will rule over her like a king, rather than partner with her as an equal.
This is where hierarchy comes into gender relationships. Because of the fall, man will rule over woman. This is why every culture in the world is primarily patriarchal.
The results for the man:
- Work is going to be hard and everything’s going to go wrong.
- Man’s work will not be fulfilling.
- You will physically die.
Now, humanity will have printers that aren’t working, fields that grow thorns, buildings fall on top of laborers, and so much more. People will go on battling futility until they finally become the ground from which they were made.
Eve’s Truest Legacy Hope for the Future
In response to the word from God, Adam turns to his wife. She might be waiting, wondering: “What is he going to say? He’s already blamed me. He said it’s my fault!”
But Adam was listening, too. He heard God’s promise and the hope. So Adam turns to his wife and names her Eve. This is a name recognizing her role and her status.
Think about how beautiful this is. She led humanity into sin. But now Adam looks at her and recognizes that there will be a seed from her that will crush the serpent.
“You will be the mother of all living.” He gives her a name that is the embodiment of hope. It is from you, Eve, that God’s promise will be fulfilled. This gift comes after their entire world falls apart.
“Then the Lord, God, made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21,NIV)
Such a beautiful picture! In 2 Corinthians 5:4, the Apostle Paul talks about how God clothes his people–that as new believers, we long not to be further unclothed but to be further clothed. And here God clothes them.
This had to be a moment of both sorrow and terror, as well as hope. Adam and Eve have walked with and, perhaps, befriended the animals in the garden. Now, God strikes one dead, skins it, and carefully crafts clothing for them.
Remove from your mind every single picture you’ve ever seen of the clothing of Adam and Eve. Most of the time in children’s storybook Bibles, you see Adam and Eve running from the garden in caveman-esque hides. Cobbled together, they look like something from a 20,000 year old cave painting.
No! That is not what these clothes were!
The God who just created the heavens and the earth, is now making a garment for Adam and Eve. This garment pictures how Jesus’ blood covers all our sin. Their clothing symbolizes that God is the only one who covers our shame. This clothing, I imagine, is the most supple, soft, beautiful, long-lasting decorative, ornamental leather you can ever imagine. Hope upon hope upon hope.
No Eternal Suffering
“And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’” (Genesis 3:22, NIV)
God is speaking here to His spiritual counsel of rulers. This is not an inter-conversation in the Trinity. That’s not what’s going on. Remember, this is the Holy of Holies, the meeting place between God, His spiritual counsel of angelic beings, and His human counsel.
“So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:23-24, NIV)
Adam and Eve were originally set in the garden to guard. They were priests. One of their roles was guarding. Now a cherubim, a spirit being, does it in their stead.
And, again, do not picture this scene like the children’s storybook Bibles: a thunderous God, wrathful towards Adam and Eve, casts them out of the garden (image).
This scene is full of mercy. God could not fathom a life for Adam and Eve where they would have to live forever as immortal beings broken by sin. Death is a mercy, because they can be redeemed and go into their eternal rest with God.
God sends them out of the Holy of Holies because He does not want them to exist in this sin, in this pain, in this brokenness of relationship, forever. He knows their pain.
The Need for the Incarnation
God’s heart is severed and breaking. He has already foreseen, foreknown, and planned that the only way to make this right is for Himself to die. The mystery of the incarnation is needed to make things right.
God looks at Adam and Eve and communicates, “I will carry this pain forever because I am outside time. And so, whereas a skinned knee for you is a moment, for me a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8). And since I carry my people’s pain alongside them, I will carry your pain forever. But I do not want you to live a life of pain forever. So I remove the opportunity for immortality from you, so that your pain continues to be bound by time.”
So God sends Adam and Eve out of the garden with hope. Hope that there will be a promised Child to someday defeat the chaos dragon who deceived them.
Eve Makes Sense of Her New Life
In chapter four, Adam and Eve are outside the garden trying to make sense of their new life.
“Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.’” (Genesis 4:1, NIV)
Most recountings of the story of Eve stop at the end of chapter three, with them being removed from the garden. No one considers Eve in chapter four when she’s processing all that’s transpired and how it is her fault. Do not miss the end of Eve’s story.
The first speech that happens after they are removed from the garden is from Eve. We never hear Adam talk again. The only thing we see Adam do is have sex with his wife—that’s the only thing he does from here on out.
In Genesis 4, Eve, however, speaks and she says, “With the help of the Lord, I’ve brought forth a man.” Even the commentators said this shows Eve’s renewed hope as she clings to God. She recognizes that she was only able to do this hard thing because of the Lord . And she names the child just as Adam named her.
In the ancient Near East, something was not fully created until it was named (See Walton). So God created and then he gave Adam the job of naming all the animals. Through this act, Adam showed his priestly representative nature by partnering with God in the finalizing of the creation of the animals. God made them, but Adam got to finalize that creation.
And so now, Eve finalizes the creation of this new human. She gives birth to a son and she names him Cain. And she recognizes she could do this because of God. Her heart reaches back to the Lord.
Though she was the one who ate the fruit, though she was the one who was deceived, though in many ways the dominoes started because of her, she is now the one to reach back to God. We don’t know what Adam did. We see nothing more of him in the story. But we see Eve speaking hope, speaking truth and clinging to the Lord.
Everything Breaks Again
Then Eve gives birth to Cain’s brother, Abel. You’re probably familiar with the story of Cain and Abel. Cain murders Abel. God speaks to Cain, and sends him out to wander.
Eve watches. Sorrow upon sorrow.
That happy, joyous feeling, that once was her entire being, is now fleeting. She might have briefly experienced it again as she looked at these babies and wondered, “Will one of these be the seed that will crush the head of the serpent? Will one of these be he who saves us?”
But then she watches. No, these will not be. The eldest’s murder of the youngest amplifies the pain she felt in the garden. The children she bore, nursed, and loved— slaughter each other in jealousy and rage.
I imagine Eve praying. How do I process this? How do I get through this–this burden, this pain? And it is my fault; I did it!
Let’s look at how she processes– how she gets through it.
Eve’s Legacy: Clinging to Hope Despite the Pain
“Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.’” (Genesis 4:25, NIV)
Seemingly after she endures a parents worst nightmare, Eve gives birth to a son. She named the son Seth. And, once again, this name is full of rich theological meaning. She’s the first human theologian outside the garden in Scripture. Eve once again sees God’s hand in her pain. And she recognizes her role in the midst of it, to breathe hope over her children.
“Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:26, NIV)
This verse describes official worship. Where did these boys learn to worship the Lord? Maybe it was their mother?
The audience of Genesis only sees Eve calling out to God in prayer after they are removed from the garden. Maybe Adam did as well. We don’t know. But the text describes Eve praying.
Conclusion
So, dear ones, as you walk away from our study of Eve and as you ponder her as a person, I want you to be able to reframe how you view Eve.
Yes, she helped bring sin into the world, but she is also a vehicle of redemption and hope.
Her very name, Eve, is a living image of God’s promise that the seed of the woman will crush the chaos serpent.
See her clinging to God after being removed from the garden.
See her prayers.
See her theology.
See her Hope.
Transforming Eve’s Legacy in Genesis Bibliography
David J.A. Clines, “What Does Eve Do to Help? And Other Irredeemably Androcentric Orientations in Genesis 1-3” What Does Eve Do to Help? and Other Readerly
Questions to the Old Testament (JSOTSup, 94; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), 25-48
[DOT] Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Eds. T. Desmond Alexander & David W. Baker
[HALOT] The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, eds. Ludwig Koehler et al.
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (1994)
Andreas J. Kostenberger & Margaret E. Kostenberger, God’s Design for Man and Woman: A Biblical-Theological Survey, (2014)
Temper Longman III, Genesis 1-25 Audio Lectures: 25 Lessons on History, Meaning, and Application, The Zondervan Beyond the Basics Video Series
A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, vol. 1A, The New American Commentary, 199–201.
Victor Matthews & Don Benjamin, Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East
Katie McCoy, “God Created Them, Male and Female” Southwestern Journal of Theology: https://swbtsv7.s3.amazonaws.com/media/Theology_Journal/63.2/SWJT-63-2-Web-03.pdf
NET Bible Notes: https://netbible.org/bible/Genesis+2
Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., “Male-Female Equality and Male Headship,” Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 1st edition, eds. John Piper & Wayne Grudem, (1991)
Sandra Richter, The Epic of Eden
L. Rosenzweig, “A Helper Equal to Him,” Jud 139 (1986): 277-80
Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version with Introduction and Notes, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Robert James Utley, How It All Began: Genesis 1–11, vol. Vol. 1A, Study Guide Commentary Series
Bruce K. Waltke and Cathi J. Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 88.
John Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate
———-, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible
Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, vol. 1, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987)