The Misconception Of Eve
No other woman, real or imagined, has, in my opinion, received as much criticism for all of our issues as Eve.
Eve c. 1130 Stone (originally on the door lintel of the former north transept portal of the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare in Autun)
Musée Rolin, Autun by Gislbertus. Source
No other woman, real or imagined, has, in my opinion, received as much criticism for all of our issues as Eve. We understand being held accountable for everything as African women, but Eve takes the cup. She has an impressive lineup of crimes against humanity; the originator of sin, death, labour pains, domestic violence(man will rule over you), sexual desire, and shame.
"Abu Hurrairah reported Allah's Messenger as saying: Had it not been for Eve, woman would have never acted unfaithfully towards her husband." (Hadith 3471, Volume 8).
According to the religious scripts, Adam was created by God, from dust. God breathed into him and put him in the garden of Eden. After a while, God decided it was not good for man to be alone. Man did not even know he was lonely. God just decided so without Adam’s consent, he put him to sleep and created a woman from his rib.
The creation of Eve, according to Rabbi Joshua, is that: "God deliberated from what member He would create woman, and He reasoned with Himself thus: I must not create her from Adam's head, for she would be a proud person, and hold her head high. If I create her from the eye, then she will wish to pry into all things; if from the ear, she will wish to hear all things; if from the mouth, she will talk much; if from the heart, she will envy people; if from the hand, she will desire to take all things; if from the feet, she will be a gadabout. Therefore, I will create her from the member which is hid, that is the rib, which is not even seen when man is naked." Eve. (2022, December 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve
Adam woke up, found this creature, and gave her a name. Woman. And then went about his life as usual. Remember when Adam was created, he was told not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge because if he did, he would know what is good and what is evil and then he would die. (Adam was afraid of knowledge and it still shows in some of his sons). When Eve was created, I guess all the men assumed she would just know because there is no documentation of Adam or God telling her about this tree.
Life must have been pretty boring for Eve in the garden of Eden. The man she was created for was going on with life as usual; naming animals and watering plants. So they did not have a sexual relationship. There is no record of the union being consummated at that time. So Eve was not a wife, technically. God said he had created a helper, a companion. Earlier, he created male and female of every other thing and commanded them to fill the earth, but that was before he created Adam so it is the other animals who had been given the go-ahead to procreate. As for Adam and his helper, they were naked and not aware. Adam did not seem to appreciate this naked woman’s body parts otherwise they would have known what to do with each other instead of going from tree to tree eating fruits.
One day, Eve encounters a third talking entity aside from Adam and God. What is not clear to me is if she spent a lot of time with this serpent until they found a way to communicate with each other or if all the animals could communicate with the humans in this mysterious garden. Nevertheless, Adam could not have been spending much time with Eve for her to find a friend who challenged all she knew about this tree and God. The serpent gave Eve the information God had been hiding from them. “4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
Eve eats the fruit from the tree and all she had been told comes to pass. She knew the truth. It must have felt good so she decided to give the other human. And once Adam ate it, the first thing he noticed was that they were naked! I think Adam became a man that very day.
After a while, God came looking for his friend, Adam. He did not find him where he always found him, with his wildlife. You see Adam had discovered something else. Eve. And what he could do with her. They were hiding in the bushes. God called out, Adam, where are you? Adam quickly looked for leaves to cover their nakedness. That is how God knew they had eaten the fruit. They had discovered each other's nakedness.
God asked Adam if he ‘ate of the fruit’ and the man decided to be a coward.
"It is the woman that you gave me!"
Imagine what Eve must have felt. You have just 'known' a man and now he throws you under the bus. As if he had no will or say. This is why for centuries women have been accused of being witches; making men do things against their wishes. When in reality, most would rather be lazy when it comes to thinking then, afterward, blame a woman when questioned about a decision or choice.
Eve, in Christian art, is most usually portrayed as the temptress of Adam, and often during the Renaissance the serpent in the Garden is portrayed as having a woman's face identical to that of Eve. She was also compared with the Greco-Roman myth of Pandora who was responsible for bringing evil into the world. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve
Consider for a minute that in the heat of the moment God blurted out that Eve would experience labour pains because now, she was pregnant. It was not a curse but information spilled amidst accusations, counter-accusations, and disappointment.
We should be more appreciative of Eve if the creation story is true because without her eating that fruit, we would not exist today. Even though science does not make provision for any existence whether she consumed the fruit or not. Committing the proverbial sin allowed for procreation and the discovery of mysteries associated with a man and a woman coming together.
`Abdu'l-Bahá describes Eve as a symbol of the soul and as containing divine mysteries. The Baháʼí Faith claims the account of Eve in previous Abrahamic traditions is metaphorical.
Adam, man, really should take more responsibility for how things turned out. The Bible says in Genesis 3:22-23: 22 ¶ And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
There was another tree that had they eaten from, they would have lived forever. Adam was in that garden longer. After eating from the tree of knowledge, that idiot should have run straight to the tree of life.
'A man is merely spoiled by his vices while a woman is soiled by hers.~ Sara Collins
On a more serious note though, religion has been problematic to women because those who interpret it whether self-appointed or are under the impression that they have been chosen have been men who either do not like women, (those are in the majority), or men who refuse to or lack the intelligence to contextualize ancient texts. This has led to gross violation of women’s rights because even after thousands of years, we still refuse to look at these scriptures and perhaps think deeper. And women still leave the interpretation to men instead of getting involved.
“A man writes to separate himself from the common history. A woman writes to join it.”~ Sara Collins
Interesting.