Re-interpret Eve - Book of Genesis

Biblical Eve: The First Bad Girl

The creation story of the first man and woman begins in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament and there are two stories!

Genesis 1:27, the first creation story states:

God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea the birds of the air, and all the living things.

In the second chapter of Genesis, there is another story offering a different version.

Gen. 2:7 states:

The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. …

Gen. 2: 18 states: The Lord said: ‘It is not good for man to be alone’ and so God put Adam to sleep, removed one of his ribs and created Eve, the first woman.

Adam and Eve lived in paradise, the Garden of Eden, where they enjoyed the fruits of God’s fine creation.

Chapter 3 begins with the fall of Adam and Eve, who disobeyed the Lord’s command not to eat the fruit of a tree situated in the middle of the garden. Regarding the tree, God said: “You shall not eat of it or even touch it, lest you die”. As the story tells us, a serpent, a most cunning reptilian, convinces Eve that she can eat the fruit of that tree and not die but rather when you eat of the fruit your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.”

As we know, Eve tasted the fruit and gave some to Adam and lo and behold, their eyes were opened for they then realized that they were naked, felt shame, and sewed fig leaves together to make loincloths for themselves.

When confronted by the Lord, Adam claims that Eve gave him the fruit so he ate it and Eve, in turn, claimed the serpent tricked her so she ate it too.

At that point, God pronounces punishments for all three: the serpent, Eve, and Adam.

To the Serpent: Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures;

On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity [hostility] between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; they will strike at your head while you strike at their heels.

To Eve: I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing: in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband and he shall be your master.

To Adam: because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed be the ground because of you!

In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life!

Thorns and thistles, shall it bring forth to you as you eat of the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground from which you were taken for you are dirt and to dirt you shall return.

Adam and Eve now possessed knowledge of good and evil, not like god, but as mere beings: exiled from paradise to experiences of mortal suffering and death. A literal reading suggests that in chapter 2, Adam and Eve only experienced the innocent pleasures reaped from Paradise until the moment when they made a free choice to eat the fruit of the tree. Then they suddenly became aware of evil as well as good. Without committing the error how would they have understood that even in paradise, evil lurks?

The Old Testament writings were held to be divinely inspired and accepted by ancient theologians as the “Word of God” And interestingly, ancient theologians interpreted Genesis 1 and 2 as indicating that first man and woman in a state of physical purity and intellectual innocence in paradise. In Gen. 3, however, Adam and Eve lost that state of purity and innocence after committing the first sin. Yet, the ancient sages placed the brunt of the blame upon Eve, whose apparent sin “created the fall for all of mankind.”

According to Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion, Princeton University has done extensive research upon theological interpretations of the fall. In her book, Adam, Eve and the Serpent, she writes:

Although originally created equal with man regarding her rational soul, woman’s formation from Adam’s rib established her as the ‘weaker part of the human couple.’ Being closely connected with bodily passion, woman although created to be man’s helper, became his temptress and led him into disaster. The Genesis account describes the result: God himself reinforced the husband’s authority over his wife, placing divine sanction upon the social, legal and economic machinery of male domination.

Further, according to Pamela Norris, author of Eve: A Biography:

There are other ways of interpreting the story of Adam and Eve. It be a myth about the birth of human consciousness, or the beginning of time or of history. Until Eve tasted the fruit from the tree with knowledge of good and evil and shared it with her husband, she and Adam were ignorant of their human condition. Once they had tasted the forbidden fruit, they became committed to a life of human responsibility; not being, but doing, with all the pain and pleasure – of consciousness. …

Research by Pagel and Norris indicates that a few ancient sages interpreted the creation story allegorically in which they focused on humanity’s endowment of free will and choice and its implications for the human condition: we can choose to do good or evil; suffering is part of life, and individuals must try to obey the Lord.

Yet such an explanation reflects the voice of a minority of theologians for Norris says:

Again, and again, commentators have returned to the central act in humanity’s loss of Paradise: Eve and Adam tasting of the forbidden fruit. In their attempts to understand the implications of ‘man’s first disobedience,’ theologians developed a definition of Eve that became the blueprint for any ‘woman,’ an explanation of her character and possibilities that was applied indiscriminately to all women and embraced a wide range of ideas about female nature.

According to Norris, “Jewish writers were the first to blame Eve for a specifically sexual ‘Fall’ – but what is astonishing is the potency and longevity of the [Christian Church] Fathers contribution” that followed in the first four centuries of the common era and after.

Norris writes: Even today, ideas about male and female sexuality and the balance of power between the sexes derive from, one might say have been contaminated by, the prescriptions for human behavior formulated in the first centuries after Christ’s death.

Further, “To this day, Eve is synonymous with Woman, and her characteristics are assumed to be paradigmatic for her daughters. Eve/Woman stands accused of vanity, moral weakness and sexual frailty, while Adam/Man’s role in the transaction can be summarized by the familiar defense: ‘She led him on.’

Historically similar interpretative themes appear in art and literature during the middle ages and after. More importantly, the concept that Eve’s moral and intellectual weaknesses are inherited by her daughters (meaning all women) becomes a perception inculcated from Western monotheistic religions into society-at-large.

� Genesis:1-3. New American Bible. Memorial Bibles International, Inc., Nashville: 1976.

� Genesis: 3: 2-6

�Genesis: 3: 14-19.

�Pagels, Elaine. Adam, Eve and the Serpent. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc, 1988, p. 114.

�Norris, Pamela. Eve: A Biography. New York: New York University Press, 1998, p. 4.

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