Reclaiming Eve: Women's History 2000 presentation by Sunshine for Women

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Reclaiming Eve
Summary
Sunshine for Women (Sunny)

As a grand finale for Women's History Month 2000, I intended on listing many of the insights feminists have had into the creation story over the centuries and developing a table (caution: the table is slow to load) to indicate which feminists used which arguments. Then, I intended on using these tools to develop my own insightful, analytical, scholarly, and only somewhat dry and boring commentary on the creation story. Well, I created the list and the table, but when it came time to write my own commentary, complete with my own unique insights into the creation story, I ran into problems. And the more I tried to fix it, the worse it got. So you will have to be satisfied with my own humble contribution to this ageless debate. By the way, I firmly believe that men and women were created equal, no matter what the Bible says. So with that, here is my own commentary on the creation story in Genesis. Feel free to share it with all of your fundie friends.

Sunny

PS. I hope you have enjoyed this presentation for Women's History Month 2000. Take pride in being a woman.

PPS. I finished my WHM 2000 presentation some time ago. Since then, three items have come to light.

One of our eagle-eyed readers noted that I have forgotten a work that very much belongs on "Reclaiming Eve" - The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvior (and, of course, Mary Daly's The Church and the Second Sex and Beyond God the Father). My apologies for the oversight.
On the page for Christine de Pizan, I referred to a book by Alcuin Blamires, Woman Defamed, Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts, Claredon Press, Oxford, 1992. I have since read other chapters than the one on de Pizan. Had I read them before I wrote my WHM 2000 presentation, I would have added two or three works which Blamires discusses. Blamires has done a wonderful job in uncovering a few defenses of women that were written before de Pizan's time. Indeed, he speculates that she may have been familiar with the contents of some of the works.
Lenka Vytlacilova, who writes the items for the Czech Feminist Trailblazers page, sent me the following prayer which she uncovered.
Harken, O Eve, Mother of us all, greatest and grandest of women: you who have been maligned all down the ages, know at last that one of your daughters blesses you and proclaims your choice good. To you, oh Eve, we owe it that we are as gods, and as children playing in the garden - that we know the good and evil and are not left in ignorance and lust. Man had stayed ever in an uninquiring place, but to you was given strength to grasp the apple, to proclaim that woman at least prefers wisdom and the wilderness to idle lasciviousness in Eden.
Hionnor Morten, From a Nurse´s Note-Book, London, 1899, str. 152-3 quoted in str. 1 Independent Women (Martha Vicinus)

Arguments of Various Authors

Although only one creation is generally referred to, there are in reality two distinct creation stories in Genesis. The generally ignored story is found in Genesis 1, before the more commonly discussed story in Genesis 3. In Gen 1 man and woman both created in God's image at the same time and are equal.
According to Genesis 1, God is both male and female. The dual nature of God as male and female is evidence of early Hebrew polytheism.
Some commentators use the order of creation to proclaim man superior to woman because man was created before woman. If the order of creation is used to determine the superiority of the species, then woman, God's crowning glory, must be as much above man is as man is above the beasts who were formed before him. Man cannot be considered superior to woman without the beasts being considered superior to man.
Adam was created in a field; Eve was created in paradise.
Adam was created from dirt; Eve was created from the most sanctified material possible, Adam's rib.
Eve was created from Adam's rib to stand by his side, not from his foot to be trod on by him or from his head to rule over him.
God alone forms woman from Adam's rib, Adam has nothing to do with creation of woman.
Eve means "life", Adam means "earth" or "dirt", etymology of the words woman, Eve, etc.
Adam was a rough draft
Adam was commanded to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. Eve was not given a similar injunction to leave her father and mother.
God rested after creating woman because she could not imagine a superior being to Eve which it would be possible to create.
God pronounced all of her creation to be good. If someone insults woman who God declared to be "good", then they are also blasphemously insulting to God.
Eve was created as a "helper" for Adam, Adam needed helper because he was imperfect. The same word is used for Eve helping Adam as for God helping Adam.
Adam and Eve were married by the most holy of priests, God. Hence, marriage is good.
Adam, not Eve, was commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Adam sinned in knowledge, Eve in ignorance.
Eve was tricked by wily supernatural serpent, not by mere mortal as Adam was deceived. Eve entered into a discussion with the serpent about the morality of her actions. After all, she had received a second-hand report from Adam that God did not want them to eat of the tree of knowledge. Being assured that Adam was mistaken, Eve ate of the fruit. Adam was not concerned with the theological implications of his actions.
Eve was seduced by promise of Knowledge of Good and Evil, a laudable goal. Adam's motivation for eating of the forbidden fruit is unrecorded.
Adam does not stop Eve from eating of the forbidden fruit. If Adam truly believed that they were both forbidden from eating the fruit, he should have tried to stop her.
Adam was superior to Eve, therefore more is expected of him. Because they sinned in the same way and because more is expected of Adam due to his superiority, Adam's sin was greater than Eve's.
Adam tries to push the responsibility for the entire fruit incident off on God by blaming God for creating Eve. When that doesn't work, Adam tries to escape responsibility for the incident by blaming Eve. When God asks Eve for the story, she tells him the truth.
Eve could not compel Adam to sin since he had free will. Hence, Adam must accept the responsibility for his own actions.
Woman, not man, "crushed the head of the serpent"; God put enmity between woman's offspring and the offspring of the serpent.
Eve was "punished" only with pain during child-birth while Adam punished with taking on all of the world's work. Eve's "punishment" could really be considered a blessing.
When God refers to woman's future subordination to man, Good is making a prediction, not a curse.
Mary gave to the world much more than Eve took away. Indeed, God wanted Eve to eat of the fruit so that God could send Jesus into the world as our redeemer.
The most commonly used English texts are bad translations. Various authors comment on various inaccuracies of the various translations and on the meaning of words in the original languages.
Higher biblical criticism claims the story is just a myth, an allegory, not true representation of history.

Eve

Sunshine for Women

2000

Adam, not being satisfied with running an entire planet populated with millions of varieies of other creatures, a planet which God created just for him to run as he saw fit, went whining to God about being lonely and overworked. As a gesture of good-will and in an attempt to placate Adam, God set about creating another companion especially suited for Adam, a creature who would help Adam get through life while She was busy tending to her creations on other planets, just as God herself was Adam's constant helpmate. After somehow managing to populate an entire planet without creating a being who satisfied Adam and wanting very much to finally make a creature who met with Adam's approval, God decided to fashion only this creature, who was sure to be Her supreme creation, in the finest of locations, Paradise. Believing that perhaps Adam would be more content with this creation if he could claim part of the credit for the final product and wanting Adam to vicariously experience the birth-giving process, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. Knowing that the quality of the finished product is strongly correlated with the quality of the raw materials, instead of using common clay, dirt, and dung as she had when she created Adam, God selected the finest material available, Adam's sanctified rib, to use as the raw material from which she fashioned her newest creation. Pleased with her new creation, she permitted Adam (which is Hebrew for earth- or dirt- man) to name this marvelous new creation Life (which in Hebrew is Eve). Knowing that Adam would always need the help and guidance of her newest creation, God commanded Adam to leave his father and mother and to cleave unto his wife, indicating that a matriarchal society is Her conception of the ideal society. God married the earth-man and Life and they became flesh of one flesh, HER. (Silly men, some men actually think that God commanded Adam to leave his family and cleave unto his wife and her family and then they became flesh of one flesh, him. Aren't they silly little gooses?) Thereafter God saw that her work was truly good, that she was truly finished with creation, and she rested from her labors.

In the most egregious instances of blasphemy imaginable, some of Adam's sons dispute with God herself about the fundamental goodness of a creation that God herself deemed to be good. Traditionally excoriated for her role in the Christian story of creation, using a totally outrageous interpretation of the Christian Holy Bible, Eve was blamed by theologians for centuries for bringing sin and death into the world. Using this story to explain why women are subordinated to men, in an interpretation of the Bible that can only be construed as a masculinist wet-dream of biblical proportions, Eve, the first woman, in turn, passes her guilt onto all future women.

In truth, the story shows that Eve was beguiled by a "wily serpent" into eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, a very laudable goal. After debating the moral and theological implications of the serpent's suggestion, Eve dives into the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil with gusto. But let us back up in our story. Before creating Eve, God forbid Adam from eating of this fruit because She understood that Adam was a hopeless case when it came to matters of morality and would always lack good judgment. To remedy Adam's weakness, She wanted Adam to always obey Eve who was to be blessed with the knowledge of good and evil. Some versions of the story claim that Adam passed God's command along to Eve. Nonetheless, God wanted Eve to eat of the fruit of knowledge. Disguising herself as a serpent, the good and merciful God herself beguiled Eve into eating the fruit which was forbidden to Adam. When Eve offered the forbidden fruit to Adam, weak-willed Adam, unable to withstand Eve's allurements (as opposed to the beguilement of a wily supernatural demi-god), in deliberate disobedience to the words which God personally spoke to him, and not motivated as was Eve to become a moral being, nonetheless joins Eve in eating the fruit which was forbidden to him. Adam, having done nothing to discourage Eve from her conduct, after refusing to take responsibility for his actions and trying to push the blame for the incident off, first onto God herself, then onto Eve, is cursed by God to earn his daily food by the sweat of his brow and was driven from Paradise for his transgressions. Because Eve aspired to become a truly moral being, God blessed Eve by allowing her to bear children periodically. Out of the goodness of her heart and for Adam's sake, Eve joined Adam in his banishment, even being willing to share in the labors of the world, even though God herself punished Adam and Adam alone with being given all of the world's work. Remember Eve was blessed only with child-birth, not child care, homemaking, housekeeping, dish-washing, clothes washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, farming, or any other tasks, just child-birth. Wanting to spare Adam's feelings by not making Her favoritism toward Eve too obvious and wanting to give Adam a "taste of his own medicine" by forcing the blame for the entire incident off unto the serpent, God hid from Adam the knowledge that She had temporarily inhabited the body of the serpent. And, as a further reward for Eve's conduct in attempting to become a more moral being, God assured her that God Herself would place enmity between Eve (and her descendants) and the nasty serpent and that she and her offspring would "crush the head of the serpent," virtually demanding that Eve take the lead in all matters requiring good judgment - religion, philosophy, politics, family life, the economic sphere. Perhaps if Adam had eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge with more gusto, God would have rewarded him, too. Arise, woman, and take the place that God has ordained for you from time immemorial.

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last updated February 2000