I cannot believe that a woman is a second-class citizen of the Kingdom. Rather, I believe there are a few things about God’s nature which we do not fully understand. (Is that an understatement or what?!) I believe that there are dominant male characteristics to God’s nature, as well as subordinate female characteristics, which tend to be hidden by their very nature, so that we know very little about them. I believe that Adam was given similar characteristics, both dominant male and subordinate female, so that he was fully in God’s image as male and female (1:26) before God separated Him into Adam and Eve (in 2:22).

The separation is unique in the creation story. Everything except man, God made in pairs from nothing, by the word of His power. But He made man from the dust of the ground, and breathed Himself (the Breath of Life, His own Spirit) into the man, and thus “man became a living soul.” (2:7) Herein is a problem. Adam, in the very image of God, was created with a dominant (male) nature, yet he must learn to be submissive, subordinate to God Himself. Thus the characteristics which he needs to learn are hidden, obscured by their very nature. Now, God did not want Adam to become another Lucifer, to try to be god over the earth in defiance of the one true God. To solve this problem God separated Adam – into Adam and Eve.

I believe that this was a “trinity” separation: physical, mental / emotional, and spiritual. (Please bear in mind that this is just speculation — God does not tell us how He did it.) This theory says that Adam wound up with most of the dominant male characteristics, and his “female” side was to a great degree removed, leaving him incomplete. Eve wound up with those previously hidden submissive female characteristics as dominant within her, leaving her also lacking in wholeness. Thus a man can only be wholly in God’s image when he, “…shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they both shall become one flesh.” (2:24).

A clue which tends to back up this theory is contained in the word translated “rib,” which God took out of Adam to make Eve. It comes from a word which also means chamber or womb, implying that God also removed the female plumbing from Adam and gave it to Eve. Thus the physical differences between man and woman may be a result of the separation, and not an aspect of our being in God’s image. In other words, Eve’s physical differences do not make her any less in the image of God than Adam, for both of them wound up missing something.

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