{"id":2202,"date":"2014-03-03T19:17:48","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T19:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/onscripture\/?p=2202"},"modified":"2014-03-03T19:17:48","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T19:17:48","slug":"2202","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/onscripture\/2014\/03\/2202\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By Greg Carey<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/code><\/p>\n

The legacy of Eve continues to permeate images of women in our society<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

What was that Eve all about?<\/p>\n

We could let the advertising industry tell us. Katie B. Edwards\u2019 recent book, Admen and Eve<\/a><\/em>, uncovers (that was a pun) several diverse, even contradictory uses Eve serves. Obviously, the Eve story provides a free opportunity to depict naked or nearly naked models coupled in kinky ways with men\u2014and with snakes. Eve, the temptress, overwhelms our resistance with \u201cforbidden fruit\u201d that ranges from alcoholic beverages to cars, shoes, and underwear. As temptress, Eve possesses more power than does poor Adam. According to Edwards, Eve almost always gazes directly into the camera while Adam, presumably undone by his partner\u2019s sexuality, looks off in the distance. This temptress, Eve, evokes a peculiar combination of feminine power and vulnerability. Men (and women) cannot resist her, but her value does not extend beyond her commoditization.<\/p>\n

Or we could listen to others, sometimes preachers and even politicians, who tell us the problem with Eve is her sexuality is dangerous. No new idea, this. The brilliant Jewish interpreter Philo explains the serpent approached Eve rather than Adam because women are naturally more influenced by their emotions than are men, who are more rational (On the Creation<\/em> 165). As the apocryphal wisdom book, Sirach, puts it, \u201cFrom a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die\u201d (25:24). First Timothy in the New Testament teaches that women should never exercise authority over men. After all, Adam was not deceived; Eve was, and she fell into transgression. Therefore, women may hope to attain salvation through childbearing (2:9-15).<\/p>\n

Like the advertising industry, this line of thought also lives in contradiction. Because of Eve, because their sexuality is so powerful, women must not be allowed to exercise public influence. In fact, they shouldn\u2019t even be trusted to govern their own bodies, much less households, churches, and societies. According to this script, preachers exhort women to dress modestly. (Searching \u201cmodesty\u201d<\/a> at a leading evangelical periodical, Christianity Today, <\/em>underscores this fascination with monitoring women\u2019s appearance.) Politically, the seductive Eve legitimates bizarre outbursts and public policy initiatives. A member of Congress wants to discriminate \u201clegitimate rape\u201d<\/a> from what, illegitimate rape? A state legislator and candidate for Congress states that he doesn\u2019t believe a man can rape his wife<\/a>. After all, \u201cwhen they\u2019re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she\u2019s in a nightie, and so forth\u2026.\u201d Several states<\/a> have entertained legislation that would require invasive ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. Eve\u2019s vagina is a dangerous place. It must be watched very, very carefully.<\/p>\n

But is Eve all about sex? Or might she want something else? Our popular imagination turns Eve into a receptacle for one set of our fantasies. Our fixation on Eve\u2019s sexuality causes us to overlook the story\u2019s major themes and what they might mean for our common life together. Indeed, biblical scholar, Ken Stone, shows that Genesis 2-3 has a lot more to say about food than it does about sex. Even if becoming \u201cone flesh\u201d is about sex, and maybe it\u2019s not, there\u2019s all kinds of references in the passage about what the first humans may or may not eat.<\/p>\n

The story tells us directly what Eve wants. She doesn\u2019t want to tempt Adam. And she doesn\u2019t want a snake curling suggestively around her body. Eve wants wisdom.<\/p>\n

And she gains wisdom.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s review some of the overlooked details in this story.<\/p>\n

First, God does not prohibit Eve from eating the fruit. God fills the garden of Eden with trees that bear fruit. Yet God sets apart one tree as forbidden. \u201cYou may freely eat of every tree in the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat\u201d (2:16-17, NRSV). God provides this instruction to Adam but not to Eve. She hadn\u2019t yet been created. Eve apparently hears this news from Adam (3:2-3).<\/p>\n

Second, the serpent doesn\u2019t really deceive Eve. Everything the serpent tells Eve turns out to be true. She does not die in the day that she eats the fruit, as God had warned Adam (2:17; 3:3-4). Instead, precisely what the serpent predicts comes to pass: \u201cyour eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil\u201d (3:5). Confronted by God, Eve does accuse the serpent of deceiving her (3:13), but God\u2019s own words confirm that the serpent was correct: \u201cSee, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever\u201d (3:22).<\/p>\n

And third, Eve eats the forbidden fruit in large part because it promises wisdom. She sees that it\u2019s \u201cgood for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,\u201d but she also discerns that \u201cthe tree was to be desired to make one wise\u201d (3:6). Having eaten the fruit, she now knows good from evil.<\/p>\n

By eating the forbidden fruit, Eve and Adam grow into human maturity. We may idealize their pre-transgression life in the garden. No pain, no fear, no sin, no alienation. But where the knowledge of good and evil is lacking, so is maturity. Growing in wisdom requires pain, risk, and the presence of sin.<\/p>\n

Imagine Eve before the fruit incident. How could she be honest if there were no benefit in lying? How could she demonstrate courage in the absence of danger and death? How could she express compassion in a world without suffering, pain, and injustice? Eve could not experience full adult humanity apart from the knowledge of good and evil.<\/p>\n

Most everybody loves baby hugs. Feeling an adult\u2019s warmth and calm, a little baby will just curl up into our shoulders and neck. It\u2019s a great feeling. As a parent, however, I much more valued my daughters\u2019 hugs when they were four, or nine, or fourteen, or eighteen. For as they grow up, they know more. Their hugs carry additional meaning, because my daughters now know my faults as well as my virtues. Out of their maturing wisdom, they choose to love me. And that makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

Eve\u2019s choice embodies all the complications of human maturity. Contrary to her representation at the hands of the advertisers and some preachers alike, Eve seeks wisdom, and she finds it. In her choice, we face life and mortality in all their complication.<\/p>\n

Questions for Discussion<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In what ways have you observed Eve\u2019s story being used against women?<\/li>\n
  2. Knowing what Eve loses when she eats the fruit, and knowing what she gains, would you eat the fruit if you were in her place?<\/li>\n
  3. Do you find it more helpful to think of Eve\u2019s story in terms of sexuality or of wisdom? Do we have to choose, and what\u2019s at stake if we do choose?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For Further Reading<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Edwards, Katie B. Admen and Eve: The Bible in Contemporary Advertising.<\/em> The Bible in the Modern World 48. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012.<\/p>\n

    Schearing, Linda S., and Valarie H. Ziegler. Enticed by Eden: How Western Culture Uses, Confuses, (and Sometimes Abuses) Adam and Eve<\/em>. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2013.<\/p>\n

    Trible, Phyllis. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality<\/em>. Overtures to Biblical Theology 2. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>Greg Carey, is the Professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, PA. His most recent book<\/em>, Sinners: Jesus and His Earliest Followers, pursues the role of transgression in early Christian identity. His research interests include apocalyptic literature, the Gospel of Luke, and literary and rhetorical interpretation of the New Testament, and he has appeared on the BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel. Greg lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his two daughters, where he actively volunteers in the local United Way. He is a native Alabamian and a graduate of Rhodes College, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Vanderbilt University (PhD, 1996). He enjoys golf, tennis, hiking, and crying over the Atlanta Braves. A layperson, Greg serves as Scholar in Residence at Lancaster\u2019s Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Obviously, the Eve story provides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":625,"featured_media":2036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,33,589,211,213,579,592,590],"class_list":["post-2202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-scripture","tag-gender","tag-greg-carey","tag-image","tag-media","tag-on-scripture-the-bible","tag-sexuality","tag-wisdom","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Scripture – The Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Greg Carey The legacy of Eve continues to permeate images of women in our society. What was that Eve all about? 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