Woman

Woman in Scripture is presented from creation as the equal partner and counterpart of man: made from Adam's rib (Genesis 2:21–23), named ishshah (woman) because she was taken from ish (man), and designed as his "help meet" — a corresponding helper (Genesis 2:18). The fall narrative records the serpent's approach through Eve and the resulting judgment, which includes pain in childbearing and the marring of the relationship between man and woman (Genesis 3:16). Nevertheless, women occupy prominent roles throughout the biblical narrative: Deborah as judge and prophetess (Judges 4–5), Hannah as a model of faithful prayer (1 Samuel 1–2), Esther as deliverer of her people, and the prophets' imagery of faithful Israel as a woman. In the New Testament, women were among Jesus's most faithful disciples and the first witnesses to the resurrection. Paul affirms that in Christ "there is neither male nor female" as a statement of equal standing in salvation (Galatians 3:28), while maintaining ordered roles in marriage and corporate worship (1 Corinthians 11; Ephesians 5).