Such a view pits the Bible against itself. There is no reason to assume that a contradiction exists between Genesis 1 and 2. Moses, the author of Genesis, obviously saw the two accounts as complementary, not contradictory, or he would not have put them together.

When one recognizes the different purposes of chapters one and two, the apparent tension resolves. Chapter one portrays man and woman in relation to God . Here both are equal, for both are created in the image of God and both are subordinate to God. Chapter two portrays man and woman in relation to one another , and reveals a functional subordination of woman to man.

Jacques Doukhan, a professor of Old Testament at the SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University, has shown in his doctoral dissertation that Genesis 1 and 2 are not contradictory but complementary. The principle of equality in being and subordination in function not only resolves the apparent tension between Genesis 1 and 2 but also explains why women are presented in the Bible as equal to men in personhood and yet subordinate to men in certain roles.

- <a href="http://www.adventistsaffirm.org/article.php?id=25" target="_blank">Adventist Affirm</a>, Answers to Questions about Women's Ordination - Ordination of Women and the Old Testament