Eve

Dominichino, The Rebuke of Adam and Eve, 1626

While scholars such as Phyllis Trible (1973) have attempted to depatriarchalize Biblical interpretations to somehow reconcile faith and feminism, most feminist scholars who write about Christianity or the Bible consider the religion to be irrevocably tied to patriarchal values. For them, the story of Eve is the story of the beginning of the patriarchy. According to the Genesis account of the creation of humanity, God created Adam out of dust, in the image of God, and gave him dominion over all living things. However, God decided that Adam needed a helper, and created Eve from Adam's rib. While the creation from a rib -- from Adam's own flesh, and from his side -- may seem to imply that the two would be equals, standing side by side, Eve was not given dominion over living things as Adam was. While she was alone in the Garden, she listened to the advice of a serpent, who told her that if she ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, she would become like God. She ate and then convinced Adam to eat as well. Because of this disobedience, the pair were banished from the Garden. They were also cursed to lives of pain and toil, and God told Eve that she would forever be ruled by her husband as punishment. By this curse, the Christian version of Eve sets up a religious basis for the patriarchal system. However, this story was manipulated by men to support the patriarchal system, and this manipulation has created our cultural image of Eve.

When the Christian church incorporated the Jewish Torah into their own Old Testament, they included mistranslations to support a patriarchal agenda. Biblical evidence for a "divinely-designed" patriarchy is not based on the Hebrew Bible. For example, the Hebrew word "ezer," which is translated as “helper” in the Christian version of Genesis does not mean “helper” in the sense of a subordinate, but rather should be translated more as “rescuer.” Also, many Biblical scholars contend that the Hebrew term "ha'adam," meaning "human" rather than "man," indicates that the first human was not a man, but a genderless human being (Kawashima, 46). Literary theorist Mieke Bal (1985) argues that even if Adam was created first, as a man, that does not automatically confer superiority. Bal also disagrees with the interpretation that Eve was deceived by the serpent, and in turn deceived Adam. According to Bal's close reading, both were fully aware of what they were doing and made a conscious choice to defy God.

This image of Eve as a deceiver can be seen in many ways throughout Judeo-Christian culture. In works of art such as Dominchino's The Rebuke of Adam and Eve (as seen at the beginning of this post), we see Adam placing the full blame for sin on Eve as if he was merely a helpless bystander. In literary works such as John Milton's Paradise Lost, she is flattered by the serpent, who comments on her great beauty and is then easily convinced to disobey God, suggesting that women are inherently vain and easily seduced. In popular culture, we see Eve in images of women such as Britney Spears, who appeared as a snake-wielding seductress during her 2001 performance of "I'm a Slave 4 U." While some consider her overtly sexual performance an example of a young woman embracing and taking control of her own sexuality, others argue that the lyrical suggestions of submissiveness and loss of control to a lover reinforce patriarchal ideals.

Britney Spears performs "I'm a Slave 4 U" at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.

In response to this patriarchal manipulation, I suggest that we reframe our image of Eve from a disobedient, rebellious woman who "made" Adam defy God to a story of a woman who dared to defy the origins of the patriarchy. A close reading of the Eve story in Genesis reveals several admirable qualities. Eve desired knowledge and truth and refused to be kept from knowledge by God's threats. Eve desired equality, and in eating the forbidden fruit, took an opportunity to gain that equality. She shared this knowledge and opportunity with Adam, encouraging him to make his own decisions about his actions. Eve is a woman who makes her own choices and defies society's expectations about who she should be. This reimagined Eve creates womanhood that is independent, knowledgeable, and brave.

References

Kawashima, Robert S. “A Revisionist Reading Revisited: On the Creation of Adam and Then Eve.” Vetus Testamentum, vol. 56, no. 1, 2006, pp. 46–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20503995. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.

Bal, Mieke. “Sexuality, Sin and Sorrow: The Emergence of the Female Character (A Reading of Genesis 1-3).” Poetics Today, vol. 6, no. 1/2, 1985, pp. 21–42. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1772119. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.

Trible, Phyllis. “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 41, no. 1, 1973, pp. 30–48. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1461386. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.

"Why Eve Wasn't a 'Helper'." YouTube, uploaded by magnify, 8 June 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vv-E3n1ZTs