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Limitations of the subject.
Before examining the specific positions allotted to man and woman in the purpose of
God, it is necessary to be aware of the limitations imposed on the subject by at least two
factors.
(1) In God's original purpose for the earth, as far as it is possible to determine, it was
intended that there should be a woman for every man, so that it could be truly said of all
men:
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:
and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2: 24).
There seems every reason to suppose that there would have been a perfect balance in
numbers of men and women, so that what the Lord observed of Adam would be a true
observation of all men:
"It is not good that the man should be alone" (Gen. 2: 18),
and this would be remedied in the fulfillment of the "one flesh" of Gen. 2: 24. None of
this can of course be proved, since it is obviously not possible to be dogmatic about what
the situation would have been, had not sin entered, but any Scriptural indications that
there are at all points to such a balance as has been suggested above.
With the entrance of sin has come a certain disorder, instead of order, and as far as
God's earthly purpose is concerned at least, the one man, one woman, one flesh
conception has been spoilt so that not all married and others practiced polygamy. Some
aspects therefore, of the respective callings of man and woman could not be fulfilled in
the lives of those, who found themselves outside of this relationship.
As far as Israel was concerned, the production of a "seed" was of prime importance,
and a special calling of the woman therefore came to be motherhood, and this could not
lawfully be fulfilled outside of the marriage bond. (The levirate law concerning the
duties of a "husband's brother" was a special circumstance.) Just how far this has any
relation to the present dispensation must later be considered, but it can perhaps be already
appreciated that such considerations are likely to impose a limitation upon what can be
said (and put into practice) with respect to the man-woman relationship.
When, for example, the headship of the man is spoken of in I Cor. 11: 3, it is at least
possible (as suggested by 100: K. Barrett and others) that Paul in referring to the "man"
(aner), actually means the "husband" (aner is translated "husband" many times in the
N.T.). Hence the "woman" in the same context, would be the "wife".
". . . . . the head of a woman is her husband" (R.S.V.).