Matthew Henry was a laborer of extraordinary zeal—both in the pulpit and in his study. Noted as the leading evangelical minister of his generation, “his talent for preaching was matched by willingness to preach whenever requested.”[1] His legacy is communicated through his lengthy commentary on the whole Bible.[2] In these comments on the creation of Eve he highlights her dignity and status. Amid contemporary confusion over human identity and marital relations, Henry’s counsel deserves careful consideration.
Yet man being made last of the creatures, as the best and most excellent of all, Eve’s being made after Adam, and out of him, puts an honour upon that sex, as the glory of the man, 1 Co. 11:7. If man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation. The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined, one remove further from the earth.
That Adam slept while his wife was in making, that no room might be left to imagine that he had herein directed the Spirit of the Lord, or been his counsellor, Isa 40:13. He had been made sensible of his want of a meet help; but, God having undertaken to provide him one, he does not afflict himself with any care about it, but lies down and sleeps sweetly, as one that had cast all his care on God, with a cheerful resignation of himself and all his affairs to his Maker’s will and wisdom. Jehovah-jireh, let the Lord provide when and whom he pleases. If we graciously rest in God, God will graciously work for us and work all for good . . .
The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.[3]
[1] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. Matthew Henry.
[2] Henry completed Genesis through Acts, ministerial colleagues completed Romans to Revelation based on his notes and sermons.
[3] Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 10 (column 1).