Violet Voices

22
July
2006

Women’s History, part 3

Okay, I think this is the final post on responding to Camy’s post from a week ago. I’m sure she had no idea she’d hit one of my hot buttons. The question is, from a Biblical viewpoint, why does it seem that Satan has a special hatred for women, based on the history of violence and oppression women have suffered? My response continues here:

When the first female was deceived about who God was and chose to rebel, and when the first male stood by and willingly participated in that rebellion, their perfect community and partnership was shattered. In the male’s attempt to justify himself, after God calls them into accountability, he blames the female. That’s the first sign in the Genesis chapter 3 story that their relationship has been forever altered. He went from singing her praises in chapter 2 to disparaging her to their Creator in chapter 3.

A lot of people refer to the consequences of this rebellion describe in Genesis chapter 3 as the “curses” that God placed on men and women. Read carefully–God never did actually curse either one. He cursed the serpent and the ground. In fact, the phrasing of His words to the woman are actually not a punishment or a curse at all. What is usually translated “I will” (as in “I will put enmity between you and the woman”) can also be translated “there will be.” I believe God is simply stating what is going to happen because of this terrible rebellion.

In Genesis 3, verse 16, God is warning the woman of what the consequences will be because of what has happened. Because the community between the man and woman has been destroyed, the woman is now in a vulnerable state. The man will seize power and rule over her, and yet she will long for the oneness they used to share. This combination will prove to be devestating to her.

Additionally, God states that there will be a particular enmity between the woman and the serpent (who represents Satan in the story). Considering that most Bible scholars interpret verse 15, the seed of woman that will crush the serpent’s head, to be a reference to the Messiah, God is actually giving the woman a lead role in the salvation of the world. If you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, verse 15 is even more significant because at the time Genesis was written, women were not believed to even have “seed.” They were seen as the fertile ground that the man’s seed was sown in. But here God specifically says that the One who would crush the serpent would come from the seed of the woman–no reference at all to the man.

Now, imagine that you are the man or the serpent, standing there listening to God dole out these judgments. He’s just cursed the serpent. And pretty soon, He is telling the man “because of YOU, I’m cursing the ground, so good luck on that potato crop this year.” But no word of a curse to the woman. In fact, He’s giving her a pretty nifty promise, and seems to be telling her, “Unfortunately, these other two yahoos are going to make your life damn miserable, so watch out.”

THAT seems to me to be a much more compelling reason from the Bible story as to why the history of women is so tragic. Jesus Christ was born of a woman. The promise of the salvation of humanity was given first to a woman. The One who will ultimately destroy Satan revealed Himself in the seed of a woman. You think that might be enough reason for Satan to have some extra malevolence toward that particular gender? And why the male was only too willing to go along with mistreating and oppressing his mate? I very much doubt the woman’s beauty had anything to do with it. It goes so much deeper than that.

Now this is my explanation based on the Biblical account in Genesis. I’m not saying I necessarily take this as a literal event, though it could well be. It could also be a story based in the folk memory of the ancient Israelite culture. But I believe that the Bible’s stories are there for a reason, to present us with truths that go beyond mere historicity. And the truth is that humanity’s rejection of God destroyed our community with each other, and that is what has precipitated the horrific abuses and oppression people have heaped on each other. Thankfully, God become a human and provided a way to repair that rift between us and Him, and us and each other. But that’s a post for another time, I suppose.

Here is an additional article about the Genesis story of creation. I draw much of my understanding of this Bible story from the same writings of Katharine Bushnell mentioned in the article.