"V. 18. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him (which may be before him).
But we may here inquire when God says, "It is not good that the 
man
should be alone," what is that "good" of which God is speaking, seeing
that Adam was righteous and had no need of the woman as we have, who
bear about with us our flesh all leprous with sin?
My reply is, that
God is speaking of a common "good," or the good of the species; not of
personal good. All personal good Adam already possessed. He enjoyed
perfect innocency.
He could not propagate his species by
generation. Adam was alone.
Nor had he as yet a companion for that
wonderful work of generation and the preservation of his species.
The
"good" therefore here divinely expressed, signifies the multiplying of
the human race.
Wherefore, in contemplating woman, we must
consider not only the place in domestic government which she fills,
but the remedy for sin, which God has made her to supply; as the
apostle Paul says, "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own
wife," 1 Cor. 7:2.
---Hence it follows that
if the woman had not been deceived by the serpent and had not sinned,
she would have been in all respects equal to Adam.
For her now being
subject to her husband is the punishment laid upon her of God since
sin and on account of sin; as are also all her other troubles and
perils, her labor and pain in bringing forth children, with an
infinite number of other sorrows.
---Woman therefore is not now what Eve
was at her creation. The condition of woman then was inconceivably
better and more excellent than now; she was then in no respect
whatever inferior to Adam, whether you consider the endowments of her
body or those of her mind."
Martin Luther
