MISSING RIB - B: 27th Sunday in OrdTime

First Reading: Gen 2:18-24 (October 3, 2021)

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner’” (Gen 2:18 NRSV).

Above, the NRSV uses the term “helper” as the one planned to be created by God to become Adam’s suitable partner in the Creation Story. The same translation is used by most English biblical versions (CSB, ESV, NABR, NASB, NKJV, NIV, NLT, WEB). For others, a similar sense is also impressed by the employment of the term “help” (ASV, BST, DRB, KJB, JPS). Only few versions render it completely in a different fashion with, for example, the use of the words “companion” (GNT, NET) and “woman” (ISV). The problem with the popularized translations “helper” and “help” is that it has the contemporary denotation of an assistant, a worker, an employee, or even a servant, who possesses a lesser social status than the one being helped. But such is not the idea of Genesis since equality, complementarity, and co-stewardship are clearly stressed in its narrative.

The Hebrew word used here is ezer, which literally means somebody who gives help or assistance (cf. HALOT). Often, this is attributed to God in reference to his providential care of the Israelites. This is clearly demonstrated by the Psalmist as he says, “But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help (ezer) and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!” (Psa 70:5) or “Our help (ezer) is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (124:8). This term can even connote God’s favorable alliance in times of disputes and persecutions as encountered in Moses’ prayer for Judah: “O Lord, give heed to Judah, and bring him to his people; strengthen his hands for him, and be a help (ezer) against his adversaries” (Deut 33:7). By and large, ezer does not simply mean helper, partner, or co-worker.

Rather, ezer is a person who sympathizes and is concerned of the well-being of another. It can even be an appellation for a savior, deliver, rescuer and protector, especially in the context of a catastrophe.

Along these lines, G. Wenham (New Bible Commentary) believes that ezer “would better be translated ‘helper matching him’, i.e. supplying what he lacks. She is his missing rib.” Indeed, in the Genesis Story, Eve was the companion of Adam through thick and thin, in their joys and sorrows: from their enjoyment of paradise to their banishment (Gen 3:23-24), and from their delight at the birth of their sons Cain and Abel (4:1-2) to their untimely loss (vv. 8, 16). Eve, thus, was not only Adam’s helper or assistant.

She was both his true soulmate and best friend, who was his steadfast warrior in fighting his fight and his loving partner in living his life.

The biblical detail of God taking out one of Adam’s ribs to form his ezer is beautifully explained by Matthew Henry, stating that Eve was “[n]ot made out his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” This point leads to the special union of man and woman in marriage that is etched in stone by the concluding remark of “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

What our reading accentuates is the need to deliberately assert that all genders are created equal by God. Nobody is inherently superior to another or is a mere helper of the dominant gender in a society.

All are complementary to one another and are called to be concerned and protective of everyone especially in times of turmoil as we experience in our current pandemic crisis.

- Rex Fortes, CM