Ten Indications of Male Headship in Marriage Before the Fall
- The order.Adam was created first, then Eve (note the sequence in
Genesis 2:7 and 2:18-23). We may not think this is important today,
but it was important to the biblical readers, and the apostle Paul sees
it as important. He bases his argument for different roles in the
assembled New Testament church on the fact that Adam was created
prior to Eve. He says, “I permit no woman to teach or to have author-
ity over men.... For Adam was formed first, then Eve.. .” (1 Tim.
2:12-13). According to Scripture itself, then, the fact that Adam was
created first has implications not just for Adam and Eve themselves
but also for the relationships between men and women generally
throughout the church age.^13
2. The representation.Adam, not Eve, had a special role in repre-
senting the human race. Looking at the Genesis narrative, we find that
Eve sinned first, and then Adam sinned (Gen. 3:6: “she took of its fruit
and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate”). Since
Eve sinned first, we might expect the New Testament to say that we
inherit a sinful nature because of Eve’s sin, or that we are counted
guilty because of Eve’s sin. But this is not the case. In fact, it is just the
opposite. We read in the New Testament, “For as in Adamall die, so
also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). The New
Testament does not say, “as in Eve all die.. .”
This is further seen in the parallel between Adam and Christ,
where Paul views Christ as the “last Adam”:
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”;
the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.... The first man was
from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven....
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also
bear the image of the man of heaven (1 Cor. 15:45-49; see also
Rom. 5:12-21, where another relationship between Adam and
Christ is developed).It is unmistakable, then, that Adam had a leadership role in rep-
resenting the entire human race, a leadership role that Eve did not
have. Nor was it true that Adam and Eve togetherrepresented the
34 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES