Recently, I began a serious study of the Bible and, being a devout follower of Christ, and being female, I became concerned about Paul's comments in Timothy, siting Adam and Eve as the basis for his views about women. I offer my insights: Throughout the ages, the story of Adam and Eve has served to justify a husband’s ‘rule’ over a wife and the selection of men over women as spiritual leaders; in effect, establishing a kind of spiritually-based discrimination. In Genesis 1:27–28, I read with keen interest how God created man and woman: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them’. Genesis 1:31 documents the timing of this event: ‘And the evening and the morning were the sixth day’. Yet, Genesis 2 states that sometime after the seventh day of rest ‘there was not a man to till the ground’ and God created man ‘from the dust of the ground’ and woman from Adam’s rib. In Timothy 2:12–14 Apostle Paul says, ‘But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over a man, for Adam was first formed, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression’. Firstly, Genesis 1 and 2 can be summed up quite simply—God created male and female at the same moment on the sixth day, followed by the seventh day of rest. God did not rest until he had created everything. Under the influence of Darkness, man skewed the translation of Adam and Eve and then added Paul’s personal views from his writings to Timothy to support and reinforce the illusion. What is more, Timothy 2:14 holds Eve as being deceived only when Genesis 3:6 clearly states that Eve was with her husband at the time the serpent tempted her—another sign of a skewed interpretation. The story of Adam and Eve simply serves as a cautionary tale, nothing more. Jesus never mentioned Adam and Eve in his teachings. Clearly, if Jesus considered such a teaching important to his ministry, he would have mentioned it. Interestingly, in John 4:7–29 Jesus chose a woman to carry out the important task of telling the Samaritans that Christ had come. Even Jesus questioned interpretations of scripture in his day, particularly regarding circumcision as a requirement for salvation and divorce. For example, in Matthew 19:8 Jesus says, ‘Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so’. Jesus opened a door for using higher discernment when interpreting scripture. Like all sacred texts, the Bible offers a foundation upon which to build a relationship with God, eliciting personal revelation, rather than justifying negative human conditions of fear, conflict and discrimination.
Recently, I began a serious study of the Bible and, being a devout follower of Christ, and being female, I became concerned about Paul's comments in Timothy, siting Adam and Eve as the basis for his views about women. I offer my insights:
ReplyDeleteThroughout the ages, the story of Adam and Eve has served to justify a husband’s ‘rule’ over a wife and the selection of men over women as spiritual leaders; in effect, establishing a kind of spiritually-based discrimination. In Genesis 1:27–28, I read with keen interest how God created man and woman: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them’. Genesis 1:31 documents the timing of this event: ‘And the evening and the morning were the sixth day’. Yet, Genesis 2 states that sometime after the seventh day of rest ‘there was not a man to till the ground’ and God created man ‘from the dust of the ground’ and woman from Adam’s rib. In Timothy 2:12–14 Apostle Paul says, ‘But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over a man, for Adam was first formed, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression’. Firstly, Genesis 1 and 2 can be summed up quite simply—God created male and female at the same moment on the sixth day, followed by the seventh day of rest. God did not rest until he had created everything. Under the influence of Darkness, man skewed the translation of Adam and Eve and then added Paul’s personal views from his writings to Timothy to support and reinforce the illusion. What is more, Timothy 2:14 holds Eve as being deceived only when Genesis 3:6 clearly states that Eve was with her husband at the time the serpent tempted her—another sign of a skewed interpretation. The story of Adam and Eve simply serves as a cautionary tale, nothing more. Jesus never mentioned Adam and Eve in his teachings. Clearly, if Jesus considered such a teaching important to his ministry, he would have mentioned it. Interestingly, in John 4:7–29 Jesus chose a woman to carry out the important task of telling the Samaritans that Christ had come. Even Jesus questioned interpretations of scripture in his day, particularly regarding circumcision as a requirement for salvation and divorce. For example, in Matthew 19:8 Jesus says, ‘Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so’. Jesus opened a door for using higher discernment when interpreting scripture. Like all sacred texts, the Bible offers a foundation upon which to build a relationship with God, eliciting personal revelation, rather than justifying negative human conditions of fear, conflict and discrimination.