For centuries, traditional interpretations of Genesis 1-3 cast Eve quite negatively. By virtue of her creation from the side of Adam, Eve was considered a lesser human being, a secondary and inferior model whose created purpose was to attend to Adam’s needs, support his pursuits, and bear his children. Eve’s inferior creation was confirmed, interpreters suggested, by her disobedience in eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree and plunging the world into sin. In that moment, she put on full display her fickleness and moral feebleness, demonstrating clearly that the woman was made of inferior stock. Because Adam […]
