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| <~~~BACK Paul later wrote that while Eve was clearly deceived, Adam disobeyed with full knowledge of his wrong-doing. Eve owns up to her mistake immediately, telling God in a straight forward manner exactly what happened: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Adam, on the other hand, refuses to accept blame for his own actions. God seems to take special note that it was Adam who personally received the warning not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and the verses describing Adam's curse are more extensive than those of Eve's. Humankind-both male and female-committed the first sin. The Bible calls woman man's "helper." Sounds pretty slave-like! The Hebrew word may be better translated as "strength" or "power," but even if the more common translation ("helper") is adhered to, God Himself is frequently described in the Bible as being man's helper. The New King James version translates the section: "There was not found a helper comparable to him," which could be better translated "a helper matching him." The role of man and woman was clearly defined when God created humans. Woman could inspire and edify man as no one else could. She could do many things better than he could. She had a tendency to look at life a little differently than he. The strength of the relationship between man and woman, as set out in the Bible, is that they are equal but different. Woman compliments man, and vice versa. The Bible consistently shows women as inferior. This is a myth. Sarah was a strong women who lived as an equal with her husband and is declared a great woman throughout the Bible. Tamar took her future into her own hands by bolding asserting her rights. Miriam was a spiritual leader of the ancient Hebrews. Ruth was a Godly woman who trusted God and led a blessed life. Deborah was one of the great leaders of Israel, and was so revered that her men wouldn't go into battle without her. When Jesus was resurrected, He revealed Himself first to a woman: Mary Magdelaine. Priscilla was a leader in the early Christian churches. Phebe also witnessed Christ and was a deacon in the early church. The list goes on and on. Yes, women who are not exactly good role models are included in the Bible. But there are at least as many men who are shown as evil, dumb, and/or immoral. The Bible doesn't try to G-rate life; it shows it just how it is-and that includes human flaws. A person could just as easily (and incorrectly) argue the opposite: Humans must have been God's crowning achievement. After all, more space is devoted to the creation of mankind than any other creation in Genesis. Therefore, it could be argued that since woman was God's last and "crowning" creation, she is superior to man. Nonetheless, any argument that tries to assert that one sex is superior to the other is non-Biblical. Notice, too, that as soon as Genesis mentions the dawn of human beings, it states boldly and clearly that God "created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." The Bible, then, is very clear that both men and women were created in God's likeness; man was not created more in God's likeness than woman. Both men and women were also given dominion over the earth, and Adam was given no more responsibility than Eve. Some people have suggested that because Eve was created out of Adam's rib (some translations say "side") woman is somehow-it's never clear just why-inferior to man. But the idea that woman was created from a piece of man just as easily symbolizes the idea that man is dependent upon woman. The first woman's very name (Eve) literally means "life;" the earliest language of Mesopotamia, Sumerian, has a word for "rib" that also means "life," hinting strongly not only at the dependence of man upon woman to give him literal life, but also to the sacred marriage union, where, according to the Bible, man and woman "become one." Finally, you might point your friend to this interesting article about where women would be without Jesus: http://www.truthwalk.com/archives/Archives%2099/122199.html (c) 2003 by Kristina Seleshanko. |
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