Almost everyone who refers to Genesis 2:18 using the King James Version or the ASV quotes, “And Jehovah God said, it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.” Then they pronounce “help” and “meet” as if it were one word, sometimes saying, “helpmate.” I have no particular objection to referring to a man’s wife as his helpmate, if she is such. Nor do I have any desire to deny that God wants a man’s wife to be a mate that is helpful. However, I confess that I am bothered a little when a person who claims to be able to give an adequate exegesis of God’s Word does not know that the word “meet” as used here simply means “suitable.”
It may not be quite as bad as a person who thinks Jesus said in Mark 7:27, “It is not meat [instead of meet] to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs,” but it is almost as bad. It is our judgment that almost any person can teach the Gospel plan of salvation, which is so simple that it is almost impossible to misunderstand without expert help. Yet, those of us who attempt to do more than write or speak about the simple facts, promises and commands of the Gospel, should at least be able to discover the meaning of a word before we attempt to explain it to some other person.
