Also, the J writer shows that when man named the animals, he had control over them. God creating woman and presenting her to man shows equality; “but woman’s existence, psychologically and in the social order, is dependent on man” (The Jerome..). Woman is dependent on man because she was taken from his rib bone. This passage has often been used to substantiate the view that woman is inferior to man. This is certainly not the intent of the author (The Collegeville..). This creation is one of the most puzzling aspects of this passage. In the Sumerian language, “rib” and “life” are the same word (The Collegeville..). This information suggests how the woman and the rib are relatively connected. The actual “act of creation is a divine mystery” (The Collegeville..) that remains unsolved.I am in complete agreeance with the author’s opinion that woman is created as an equal partner. I think that the way she was presented to man as a helper and having a name already given to her from God, shows she is just as important. Although the fact remains that she is dependent on the man for her existence because she was taken from him. I pass this off as being a minor detail, though, at least for her equality to man, not in her creation and existence. This passage also makes me think about how things would have been different if Adam and Eve would not have been banished from the Garden of Eden. Would in today’s society woman be seen as equals? Would woman have had to have fought through the late 1800’s until the present for such simple rights as to vote? I believe if woman was thought of as an equal in the beginning when God created man and woman, that they should both still be equal partners as God intended....
