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Genesis 2:18

“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone
I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Commentary

“Not good” is a jarring contrast to Gen. 1:31; clearly, the situation here has not yet arrived to “very
good.” “I will make him” can also be translated “I will make for him,” which explains Paul’s statement
in 1 Cor. 11:9. In order to find the man a helper fit for him, God brings to him all the livestock, birds,
and beasts of the field. None of these, however, proves to be “fit for” the man. “Helper” (Hb. ‘ezer’) is
one who supplies strength in the area that is lacking in “the helped.” The term does not imply that the
helper is either stronger or weaker than the one helped. “Fit for him” or “matching him” (cf. ESV
footnote) is not the same as “like him”: a wife is not her husband’s clone but complements him.

Matthew 19:4–6

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man
shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer
two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Commentary

“What God has joined together” implies that marriage is not merely a human agreement but a
relationship in which God changes the status of a man and a woman from being single (they are no
longer two) to being married (one flesh). From the moment they are married, they are unified in a
mysterious way that belongs to no other human relationship, having all the God-given rights and
responsibilities of marriage that they did not have before. Being “one flesh” includes the sexual union of
a husband and wife (see Gen. 2:24), but it is more than that because it means that they have left their
parents’ household (“a man shall leave his father and his mother,” Gen. 2:24) and have established a
new family, such that their primary human loyalty is now to each other, before anyone else. Jesus
avoids the Pharisaic argument about reasons for divorce and goes back to the beginning of creation to
demonstrate God’s intention for the institution of marriage. It is to be a permanent bond between a
man and a woman that joins them into one new union that is consecrated by physical intercourse
(Gen. 2:24).

Colossians 3:18

“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.”

Commentary

Instead of telling wives to “obey” (Gk. hypakou ), as was typical in Roman households, Paul appeals to
ō
them to “submit” (Gk. hypotass ), based on his conviction that men have a God-given leadership role
ō
in the family. The term suggests an ordering of society in which wives should align themselves with