The element of hierarchy in Genesis 1-3 is very complicated so I will try my best to explain every little detail. Lets start at the beginning. In Genesis 1 God created everything from day one to day six. However, God was not happy, so he said in Genesis 1:26-28,
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
God created man. In the hierarchy, God would be in command and Adam (the man he created) is below him because God created him. In Genesis 2:20-25,
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adamg] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribsh] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the ribi] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Woman named Eve is in the same level of hierarchy as Adam because they are both human and they are both of one flesh. In Genesis 3:1-7,
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The serpent, we do not know what level of hierarchy it is until Genesis 3:14-15,
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspringj] and hers;
he will crushk] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
The serpent is below man and woman. My dad made an advent book called An Advent For The Cosmos. That book explains this essay but on a whole new scale! I recommend it as a must read book.