The Sin of Adam

I’ve been reading the Bible again. Every now and again I decide to try and read the whole thing not just my favorite parts. I always pick up on new things when I do this, sometimes strange new ideas and other times, they force me to take a good hard look at myself.

This time through it, I keep noticing references to the Fall of Man, Adam’s Sin, and that all evil entered the world through Adam. The post-feminist era woman in me wants to give credit where it is due. Wasn’t it Eve who talked to the snake? Wasn’t it Eve who ate the proverbial apple? Wasn’t it Eve who tempted her husband into doing the same? And yet again and again the sin is given to Adam.

It seems strange to me, a child of the 70s, that he would be held accountable for her actions, and yet he was. His sin was the greater because he did all she did and he failed to protect her. God gave Adam the ultimate responsibility for Eve, and Adam failed.

How shocking this seems to modern sensibilities that a husband could be damned for the actions of his wife. I had never before grasped what it truly meant for a husband to be the head of his wife.

My own dear husband assumed the mantle of responsibility for me when we took our marriage vows. He vowed to love, honor and protect me. I guess that I had always assumed that he would protect me from some mysterious outsiders. Ride in like Zorro and save the day if it was ever required. It is really much more simple than that. His job is to protect me from myself and my own human and sinful nature. It is his job to help me to be a better person, a better Christian, a saint. This is the calling of a husband, to help his wife to find her path to sainthood.

So, I have reexamined my life yet again, this time with a new perspective. How do my thoughts and actions affect my dear loved one’s chances of Eternity? Am being the kind of person he could be proud of having been responsible for, or will I be his shame and damnation? These are the questions that I am asking myself, and making changes where necessary. I can live with the notion of failing on my own, but I’m not taking him with me.