Does the Biblicle Genesis paint a negative picture of Women?

Question

I am not sexist but reading Genesis almost suggests without Eve we would better off.

Anyone else agree or disagree?

Answer 1

No.....

Women are just as important as men in Scripture.....especially in Genesis

Adam needed a suitable partner......to procreate.

Eve was deceived by the devil (serpent).....and then gave the fruit to her husband to eat. They both sinned and therefore brought about corruption to the world

Answer 2

No it doesn't, what Eve is described as is just part of the beginning. For the most part what Genesis is recording is the lifestyle and culture of the times. Thing were a lot different ten thousand years ago, they were a lot different seven thousand years ago, and four thousand years ago was very little in difference than it was two thousand years ago. That is when the last pages of the bible was written and is has remained the same, unchanged for the last two thousand years.
Literally a time capsule of cultures and civilizations.
It isn't that the books of the bible are teaching these things to do but it shows what not to do, as well as what is right to do and what it was like living in those days.
For instance; it is recorded over and over again and again of men and patriarchs with more than one wife. So misogynists take that as a good source to use for polygamy.
What the boys don't take into account is that it was a custom of those times, and every one of them recorded in the bible turned out disasterously!!!
Now what does that say? To me it tells me that God allowed the custom of the day, but He showed how poor the custom is, and we all know none of them worked out for the good. Is that not a good lesson?
As well, two thousand years ago they did not have what creature comforts we have these days. In order for a Hebrew to have what comforts we have in simple electricity, telephone, newspapers, plumbing, and infrastructure would have taken a house full of slaves to work for.
We flip a switch there is light. They had to search for a means to light a candle or a oil lamp. The lamp had to be filled the wicks trimmed etc.
We draw a hot bath. For them It would have taken an hour of labour to collect valuable wood, start a fire, then heat the water and carry buckets of hot water to the tub.
News travelled as fast as a man could walk. Today we know that huge towers of metal and glass are falling to the ground killing thousands, as it is happening!!! And we are thousands of miles from the catastrophe.
So ..taking all this into account, I don't think that Genesis is giving a negative picture at all. Just recording what it was like then.Although the times have changed the wisdom of God's sages haven't they endure for ever.

Answer 3

I have often wondered what if Eve was to have eaten a Banana or had a ham sandwich instead of been tempted by that rotten snake to eat that apple what a different world we would have today. Or if only God Jesus or some of the 12 disciples would have been female or some of the writers of the bible would have been female what a different place the would would be.

Answer 4

Genesis and most of the Bible tends to be very sexist. Lot's wife looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah and was turned to salt, but Lot offered his daughters for a gang-bang (true, trying to save his guests...) and nothing happened to him. There are some stories that are not so sexist though, such as Ruth and a few others.

If you expand the thought, it is not human females that received the "curse" but all female creatures - rather strange that dogs, cows, etc are all suffering for one sin.

Answer 5

Actually, Eve had the better excuse...Adam however, took the truely wussy man's way out and blamed her and even God by saying "this woman YOU made me...". The Bible in its entirety exhaults women and promotes for women in Biblical times to have rights they wouldn't have otherwise had and didn't have in other non Judeo cultures. The Genesis account of the Fall of Man simply shows the power of women but then how esteemed we are in the eyes of God as we are the bearer of children which are the most precious of all Gods creatures. He hates when they are slaughtered without cause and He hates when they are corrupted by evil. A woman devout and of a pure heart has a price above rubies and as in the Psalms and Song of Solomen shows...women are valuable to God. It is also interesting to note that sin need not have separated us from God...we are called to confess and turn from our sin and call upon the Blood of Christ to atone for our sins. In the garden they hid, they did not confess but blamed and they neither asked to be restored to the tree of life and even so, God's mercy was prevailant as He shed the blood of a pure creature to cloth their nakedness...So, its only by the non-believers perspective and lack of facts that would lead to the conclusion that without Eve we would be better off. It's obvious that God didn't think so...elsewise He would have taken her out. Love in Christ, ~J~

Answer 6

I've just been reading the Bible and, like you, the first thing that jumped out at me was the misogynistic nature of the book.
I find it especially interesting that women are CURSED with the agony of childbirth, not blessed with the gift of creating life,

"In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children"

It is also interesting how clear God is that women should know their place and remember that men run the show

"and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee"

If I didn't know better I'd be tempted to believe that the bible was written by a man with an ulterior motive.

Answer 7

Disagree.

Eve was tempted by Satan, and succumbed to that temptation. Adam also ate the fruit. Both disobeyed God's order, result of temptation or not, and therefore both sinned. No matter how you look at it, Adam had a choice, and he, too disobeyed God.

The question never should be "who sinned first," or "who sinned worst," but instead to understand that both sinned against God, and both were justly punished.

Answer 8

yes it does completely paint a negative picture of woman.reason simply men wrote the bible with there own selfish ideas in mind.in real life men and woman are responsible for sin.equally i say.Eve should not take all the blame of this on her shoulders,it is wrong i feel.

Answer 9

I agree with you. But I would like to acknowledge the hypocrisy of the idea that women are responsible for the first sin. Satan tempted Eve and I'm pretty sure Satan is a male figure.

Answer 10

I disagree.. Both of them sinned actually. Adam also sinned. He was there all along during the temptation yet he was just silent and let Eve do the talking. The commandment was given to him alone. Remember:

Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest FREELY eat:
Gen 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Gen 2:22 -- The creation of Eve.

This command was given to him before Eve was created. The command was not repeated to Eve which means that Adam was Eve's teacher at that time. Adam relayed the information to Eve about God's command.

Eve sinned also. She should have referred to Adam their conversation with the serpent. She would have respected Adam's authority knowing that it was he who has been commanded by God not to eat the fruit.

It's either Eve didn't listen carefully to what Adam taught, or Adm is not a good teacher.. We never know.. but the thing is, they both sinned...

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
Gen 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: (FREELY WAS GONE)
Gen 3:3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, NEITHER SHALL YE TOUCH IT, LEST YOU DIE. (ADDITION OF 'NEITHER SHALL YE TOUCH IT)
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Answer 11

Primoa, read your Genesis... there's no mention of gender equality in there.