I’ve created a FREE Printable PDF Bible Study for you to dive into the topic of the purpose and role of a Godly wife in the Bible, following our Torah reading for this week in Bereshit (Genesis).
If you’d like to read my notes on our role as a Godly wife (as a Torah observant Christian woman), according to this week’s Torah portion, read on!
And if you’d like to learn more about the purpose of a woman or the purpose of a wife, read this article!
The Role of a Godly Wife in the Bible
After YHVH states His purpose in creating a wife for man is for companionship, He states the nature, or the role, of the wife in saying, “I will make him a help meet for him.”
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.
Genesis 2:18
Woman was created as a help meet for intimate companionship. The function and role is for achieving the purpose.
As a Godly wife acts in her Biblical role as a help meet to her husband, she enables companionship between the two of them to flourish.
What Does it Mean to be a Help Meet?
The words for “help meet” can literally be translated as “helper opposite,’ or ‘helper comparable.”
Being “opposite,” or “comparable” indicates being equal and complementary in value, intelligence, and capabilities.
In fact, “help meet,” implies that the wife brings a balance of strengths to her husband’s weaknesses; otherwise, she would not be a “helper,” now would she?
But do not assume that because a wife is strong in one area that the husband must be weak in that same way, or vice versa. For example, a man and woman may have similar strength in a skill, but the ‘weakness’ of the man is that he cannot do ‘it’ alone, and the ‘strength’ the woman provides is teamwork in that area.
Being a helper can come in as many diverse forms as there are diverse men.
Helping our husbands as a Godly wife may mean being an extra set of hands, working alongside our husbands, toward a common goal.
Helping may mean we are managing one area of our life together while he manages another.
It may mean being a brainstorming partner, sharing knowledge, differing perspectives, or other considerations that perhaps he didn’t know or didn’t consider himself.
And helping our husbands can look a multitude of other ways, too!
Being a helper to our husbands is being a team with our husbands, participating in a venture together.
The Order of Creation Illustrates Headship
The order of creation is significant in that it illustrates a role of headship and a role of helper.
According to the detailed creation account in Genesis 2, man was created first and given the commandment to work and tend the Garden. He was also commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These commandments were not given to woman (even after her creation).
Man was given the responsibility of the Garden and had the authority to care for it as it needed and as he deemed necessary. Man was responsible for ensuring that not only he— but eventually, his wife— did not partake of the forbidden tree. Additionally, man was given the responsibility and authority among the animals, in that the animals were brought to him, and he named them (Genesis 2:19-20).
Man’s role of leadership was established before the creation of woman. When his wife was created, she was created as his helper in the work and Truth with which he had been specifically entrusted.
Furthermore, woman was brought to the man, not man to the woman.
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Genesis 2:22
Even today, traditional marriage ceremonies reflect this concept of a father and mother bringing their daughter to the man, showing trust that their daughter is in his care and protection.
Head and Helper are Equal
Once again, the narrative shows how this difference of roles between man and wife is not a difference of value or worth.
After man was created, he searched through all animal kind for one equal, or one comparable to him, and none was found.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.
Genesis 2:19-20
In man’s search for his equal, his ‘opposite,’ there wasn’t any animal created that could so perfectly fit and join with man. That is, none was found equal to him until YHVH created woman from man.
It is an important distinction to make that, although woman was created after animal kind, she is the same—but different— as man, in that she comes from man, whereas animal kind is different altogether from man, except in that YHVH is Creator of us all.
Additionally, as Bereshit (Genesis) chapter 1 explicitly states, both male and female were given dominion over animal kind.
Marriage is a One Flesh Union
Together, man and wife live and build a life, a union as one flesh.
The first woman is literally created with and built upon the flesh and bones of man.
YHVH created (Hebrew: bara) mankind male and female (Genesis 1:27).
He formed, fashioned, or creatively designed (Hebrew: yasar) man from the ground (Genesis 2:27).
And when He made woman, He built upon or rebuilt (Hebrew: banah) from the rib of man (Genesis 2:22).
This is why Adam said woman is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…. Because she was taken out of man.”
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Genesis 2:23-24
The two become exclusive; the woman is brought to the man, and the man leaves his father and mother to cleave to his wife. In marriage, what was separated at creation is now rejoined together as one flesh.
Gospel Link: Ephesians 5:29-32
In Conclusion
Man and wife are to have the most intimate companionship that can exist on this earth between any two people.
They accomplish this companionship with one another by acting within their Biblical roles— he as head, and she as his help meet— as they build a life together and work toward common purposes.
To read the first part of this study about the purpose of a woman and wife, click here!
Shalom!
Raquel
Women Living Torah 