'helpmate' used 4x in Bible--2x for God, 1x for a mil pwr, 1x for woman

[bobbieinok]

http://www.katonahpresbyterian.org/content/view/141/27

"Women have often been the victims of poor scriptural interpretation. In the first chapter of Genesis it says that God created woman as a “helpmate,” which some interpreters have insisted means that a woman should be subservient. Yet the Hebrew word for “helpmate” is only used four times in the Bible: once for woman, once for an ally of equal or greater military power and twice for God where God is (sic) describes God's relationship with Israel, surely not an expression that connotes subservience or inferiority."

I read a similar statement years ago in an article by a feminist theologian. Later I asked a woman OT Hebrew scholar and a woman Hebrew teacher if this were true; they both said yes. (BTW, they both taught at a very conservative Christian college.)

[Warpy]

1. And the KJV used "handmaiden" as a synonym for "woman."

Sexist language has been increased with every single translation in a book that started out sexist as hell.

[bryant69]

2. I'm not suer you got the OPs point

But I suspect that you are coming from a different place.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Kagemusha]

3. So what, the proper translation is "ally"?

Speaking as a trilingual person involved in professional translation.

[bobbieinok]

5. VERY STRONG ally......what I understood when I 1st read the statement

years ago was....

'Here woman is said to be as strong and as important as GOD!!!!!!'

From what I remember of the article, the Hebrew word used these 4 times is ONLY translated 'helpmate', which has subordinate connotations, when it is used in Genesis to refer to woman. When it is used in reference to God (or to an important military ally), the word is translated NOT as helpmate but as something very strong and powerful. (I have been unable to find the article I read years ago, so I cannot say what the Hebrew word was translated as the other 3 times. It is NOT translated as <wishy-washy> 'helpmate'.)

[sam sarrha]

4. sexism is institutional in herding cultures,in agricultural cultures where

a digging stick is used women have equality and are equal.. because a digging stick can be used by a pregnant woman up untill the baby is born.. in cultures with Nomadism or a plow a woman is looked down on , sometimes to the point of not even being sentient.even soul-less, only a hollow shell used to bring male children into the world..

[bobbieinok]

6. your comment doesn't apply here IF what I remember abt the use

of the Hebrew word is correct, ie, the Jews were a nomadic society originally, but in Genesis woman is set on the same level as God

I don't remember much about my anthropology course readings, but don't many contend that agricultural societies are potentially much more sexist than herding ones?? Didn't Marx/Engels claim that it is only with land to be inherited that males need/want to sequester women in order to be sure that the 'true' children inherit??.....I'm just asking: these points are what I remember hearing/reading years ago.

[Berry Cool]

7. I thought the actual term translated as "help meet,"

i.e., a "help" who is "worthy" of or "fit" for the man. I.e., his equal.

[sam sarrha]

9. Genesis is from the Sumerian Creation stories from about 10,000BC

the jews used some of the parts of it, their culture really had nothing to do with the sumerians who had little to nothing to do with them and were long gone.. thus the disparity of the Sumerian creation story and reality of Jewish culture.. in other words Genesis is a story from a different culture in a different time..as is lots of the old testament.

[Igel]

8. I've always wondered what translation people were using.

My KJV reads 'help meet', which is, of course, a noun followed by an adjective. The adjective required the preposition 'for', if it was going to take a complement. "Help mete" is not a compound noun. Maybe it's because I was reading Chaucer and older varieties of English before I chanced upon the KJV when I was 15, but 'meet' never confused me.

'Helpmate', to my knowledge, is a folk etymology because people couldn't deal with an archaism and the OED was too expensive. "Helpmate" just ain't there. It's a fiction. A myth. A candidate for snopes.com that can neither be taken seriously, nor allow those taking it seriously to be taken seriously.

From the (obviously) more intelligible New KJV: Gen. 2:18 reads 'And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” ' OK, now I expect everybody to read great meaning into 'helpercomparable'. "Hey, Wayne, that's a great little helpercomparable you got there!"

I have to assume that the 'comparable' or 'meet' is taken from the word 'knegdu' 'like, over against, corresponding to'. Sorry; I don't feel like trusting the DU server to properly handle Hebrew fonts, so it's transliteration.

Exegesis is a fine art; much low-level word-specific exegesis of archaic texts reads far more into the text than native speakers at the time would have gotten out of it or plausibly intended. The noun just means 'helper'. 'Aide', if you want complete formal paralelism. And variance in its semantics, like with all natural language, follow context.