A traditional reading of Genesis 2 - 3
(Quoted from: Phyllis Trible, God and the Rethoric of Sexuality.
Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1978, 73)
-
"A male God creates first man (2:7) and last woman (2:22);
first means superior and last means inferior or subordinate.
-
Woman is created for the sake of man: a helpmate to cure
his loneliness (2:18-23).
-
Contrary to nature, woman comes out of man; she is denied
even her natural function of birthing and that function is given to man
(2:21-22).
-
Woman is the rib of man, dependent upon him for life (2:21-22).
-
Taken out of man (2:23), woman has a derivative, not an autonomous,
existence.
-
Man names woman (2:230 and thus has power over her.
-
Man leaves his father's family in order to set up through
his wife another patriarchal unit (2:24).
-
Woman tempted man to disobey and thus she is repsonsible
for sin in the world (3:6); she is untrustworthy, gullible, and simpleminded.
-
Woman is cursed by pain in childbirth (3:16); pain in childbirth
is a more severe punishment than man's struggle with the soil; it signifies
that woman's sin is greater than man's.
-
Woman's desire for man (3:16) is God's way of keeping her
faithful and submissive to her husband.
-
God gives man the right to rule over woman (3:16)."