Origin Story #14.3 of 21:

And she ate …and he ate. (Gn 3:6)

It’s a mutual decision to eat of the forbidden fruit. Adam has no objections. Adam is a go. Our culture, especially those who guard our deepest values of equity and equality, claims our story is sexist because it blames the woman for this calamity. I suppose if you looked for sexism in our story you could find it; or, claim that you found it.

However, a careful and maybe a more sympathetic reading, reveals how the story breaks with patriarchal structures. We saw it in that first “Therefore”: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife.” Patriarchy is not allowed to define marriage. The home is freed to be built on the mutuality of the man and the woman. Or, further back in our story, modern folks aren’t happy about the man being created first and then the woman. One could fuss, I suppose. However, Saint Augustine reminded the church many centuries ago, long before our modern sensibilities, that the woman was not taken from Adam’s feet that she should be his slave; but rather, she was taken from Adam’s side that they should live together as partners.

At first glance the Apostle seems to make a sexist interpretation: “Adam was not the one deceived, it was the woman…” (1Tm 2:11-15). Nevertheless, in the very next breath the Apostle affirms woman’s remarkable role as child bearer—she brings forth life. As we shall see, the woman’s life giving power will require Adam to come up with a new name for her—a bigger, more breathtaking name than “woman”. Her new name will bring to mind her life giving power.

In the Bible stories that follow, women play dynamic roles: We can’t think of Abraham without thinking of Sarah; and, we can’t think of Isaac without thinking of Rebekah; and, we can’t think of Jacob without thinking again of his cleaver mother Rebekah whose subversion of patriarchal authority, brings us, through her conniving, Jacob as the son or Promise rather than Esau, the Patriarch’s choice (Gn 27). To our surprise, God sides with Rebekah. It turns out to be a matriarchal story. Women, like Rebekah, Tamar and Ruth make a way that leads to the Promise—to that day when a remarkable young woman, about the age of Anna or Priscilla or Abby, will say, “Let it be with me according to your Word” (Lk 2:38).