Note 5 — INTRODUCTION.

The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make him a help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning of ‏כְּנֶנְדּוֹ‎ is evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18, κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20, ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage of ‏כְּנֶנֶד‎, to express things exactly like one another.5 The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.