Reversing the Curse: Jesus Does Not Subjugate Women

For some time I have been researching the relationship of men and women within a marriage, church, and in the corporate world, and what I have found is quite astounding, even today as I continue my exegesis on the subject, I have realized that the subject matter regarding male domination and the subjugation of women (Patriarchy and Hierarchy) is actually mainstream, these are not just isolated incidences, this has become a universally recognized problem. In fact, many scholars and theologians refer to this as a tug-of-war among the sexes, and according to the Bible, this has been going on for some time, as we see in the Genesis account, more specifically Genesis chapter 3, after the fall of humanity. In Genesis 3:16, God, because the first human beings created disobeyed Him, Describes (not prescribes) that what He originally Designed as “Good, Very Good” regarding the Harmonious Relationship between His Creation man and woman, was corrupted because of sin.

A Marred Relationship, Restored: The Fall introduced Conflict where there was originally unity. However, many perspectives emphasize that this conflict is Not permanent, and that in theological terms, a relationship strives for “mutual” submission and cruciform Love.

REVERSING THE CURSE: In one of my recent teachings: “Reversing the Curse: Jesus Does Not Subjugate Women,” I share in my notes, (credited to Benjamin Cremer) the difference between a Christianity rooted in Patriarchy, where women are defined first and foremost my their ‘relationship’ to men, as opposed to a Christianity rooted in the Gospel of Jesus will see and treat Women first and foremost as Human Beings created in God’s image, Equal, and the importance of how we must understand the difference.

HIERARCHY: There is a way of reading Scripture that begins with hierarchy, and there is a way of reading scripture that begins with Goodness.

Hierarchy is a system where people or things are ranked in levels, from highest to lowest, based on status, authority, or importance, forming a structured order like a corporate ladder or a biological classification.

—If we begin in the wrong place, we will mistake the curse for God’s design.

Let’s dive in.

1. Adam Means Humanity.

In Book of Genesis 1, the Hebrew word “adam” is used. It is the same word translated “Adam” and “humanity.” English pivots between the individual Adam and the collective humanity, but the Hebrew does not. The text declares:

“So God created humanity (ha-adam) in God’s image… male and female God created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

—The word is the same.

—God does not first create a male as a complete and solitary ideal and then later decide to make a female as an afterthought. God creates humanity “adam” in the divine image. And this humanity is expressed as male and female together.

The image of God is not housed in maleness, it is borne by humanity, “both male and female.”

To translate and preach this passage as though “Adam” means a gendered man alone is to miss the narrative arc before it even begins.

2. It’s not a rib, it’s a “side,” it’s a “half.” (HALF MALE AND HALF FEMALE, BOTH MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD—ZERO PATRIARCHY—AND ZERO HIERARCHY.

In Genesis 2, we are told that God takes what English often translates as a “rib.” But the ⭐️Hebrew word “tsela” is used throughout the Old Testament to mean “side” or “half.” Like the side of the ark, the side of the temple, and the side of a structure.

The imagery is not of a spare bone plucked from a superior body. It is of one whole being divided into two corresponding sides.

HALF MALE AND HALF FEMALE, BOTH MADE IDENTICALLY IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

Humanity is formed. Then God takes from the human’s side and fashions woman. It is not good for “humanity” to be alone, without a distinctly other to be in relationship with.

—The poetic declaration that follows is NOT OWNERSHIP but recognition:

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”

—This is not Hierarchy. It is kinship.

The narrative is showing us shared substance, shared dignity, and shared image. “ACCORDING TO GENESIS 1:26-28, MEN AND WOMEN HAVE THE SAME STATUS, SAME AUTHORITY AND SAME PURPOSE”

**HALF MALE – HALF FEMALE, ONE HUMANITY

USE: 3. Hierarchy is named as a CURSE, Not a command.

The creation narrative in Book of Genesis 1–2 pulses with harmony: humanity with God, humanity with the earth and animals,

—HARMONY BETWEEN Man with Woman. Colossians 3:14, Put on Love, which binds us together in Perfect Harmony

THEN COMES RUPTURE:

A BREACH, A BREAKING OF HARMONY

—After the fall in Genesis 3, God describes one of the consequences of sin. To the woman, God says:

“Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)

Notice what this is:

—It is not a command.

—It is not a design.

—It is a description of the curse.

Just as toil, pain, and death are distortions of creation, so too is DOMINATION over others. We see this with Cain and Abel later on too.

When man is placed over woman, Scripture explicitly locates this in the fallout of sin. Hierarchy between the sexes enters the story as fracture, not as God’s blueprint.

Any theology that treats male rule as God’s ideal has begun its doctrine in Genesis 3 instead of Genesis 1.

4. Paul and the Restoration of Creation. (ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS)

The apostle Paul echoes the restoration of this original vision. In Epistle to the Galatians 3:28, he writes:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Paul is not erasing embodiment. He is announcing that the divisions that once structured power no longer define worth or status in Christ. He is pointing back to Genesis 1, to Shared image and Shared inheritance.

When Paul addresses marriage in Epistle to the Ephesians 5, he begins not with wives, but with everyone:

“Submit yourselves one to another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21) he is talking about Mutual Submission, NOT Women to Men.

In a Roman world structured by rigid patriarchal household codes, Paul reframes Authority through Christ’s self-giving Love. Husbands are commanded to LOVE AS Christ LOVES, Sacrificially, Self-givingly, unto death. The model is Not domination. It is Cruciform Love.

 The call subverts empire-shaped patriarchy by making power look like surrender;

This statement describes a theological or ethical approach that challenges rigid, hierarchical power structures (patriarchy) by adopting a method that appears weak, submissive, or “surrendered” to outside observers.

In essence, TRUE POWER and INFLUENCE are found in SACRIFICIAL LOVE, SERVICE, and HUMILITY, rather than in DOMINATION, COERCION , or CONTROL

 5. JESUS AND THE DIGNITY OF WOMEN:

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus speaks with women publicly, receives them as disciples, entrusts them with theological truth, and commissions them as witnesses to the resurrection, and the preaching of the Gospel. (See my article: All One in Christ Jesus)

JESUS DOES NOT SUBJUGATE WOMEN—HE RESTORES THEM! Jesus empowers women—He is “breaking the chains of patriarchal bondage.”

We See throughout scripture that Jesus did Not subjugate Women, quite the Opposite: He Restored them. Take the Woman who was caught in adultery, He demonstrated God’s unlimited Kindness and Mercy, He delivered her from her oppressors who were ready to stone her to death based on the Mosaic law, but Jesus demonstrated the Royal Law of Love; the Law of Christ in John 8:7, “When they kept on questioning Him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘let any one of you who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her…At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one Sir” she said, “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In this passage, Jesus stood up for her, notice that she was marginalized, as only she was dragged to Jesus for her indiscretion, but where was the man? Surely there was a man involved, and Jesus knew it, and not only that, every one of those with stones in hand were just as guilty for their own sins.

Jesus Never patronized women, not ever, in fact, the opposite is true, He empowered them; He treated them as equal, He gave them His Gifts (Ephesians 4) and in Genesis 1:26-28, we see God’s original Design, when He spoke and said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God he created them, then God Blessed them…”

According to Genesis 1:26-28 Men and Women have the Same Status, The Same Authority, and the Same Purpose.