3

SAYING THAT GENESIS

IS WRONG

Some evangelical feminists deny the authority

or truthfulness of Genesis 1–3

Some evangelical feminists deny the authority or truthfulness of

Genesis 1–3. One example of this is found in the writings of Rebecca
Groothuis. Groothuis is a freelance writer and editor from the Denver,
Colorado, area, and she is on the board of reference of the evangelical
feminist organization Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE).
Groothuis claims that the Hebrew language of the Old Testament
reflects a wrongful patriarchy. She says,

We should note that the ancient Hebrew language was an expression of

patriarchal culture. We cannot conclude, simply because the Bible was

written under divine inspiration, that the languages in which the Bible

was written were themselves created under divine inspiration. These lan-

guages were as male centered as the cultures they reflected and by which

they were created. The fact that certain words in a language can be used

to refer either to a male human or to humans in general reflects cultural

concepts of gender; it says nothing about God’s view of gender.^1

Groothuis uses this statement to answer Raymond C. Ortlund’s claim
that male headship is hinted at when God calls the human race by the

(^1) Rebecca Groothuis, Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1997), 124.