Dear Eve
This is the first letter I am going to write in this
project and so I guess a bit of explanation will be required. I have a blog called
learning from Hagar and Co but too little of it has been learning. To try and
remedy this a bit and because I want to develop my study of the bible and
people like you I am going to be exploring different people I encounter in the
bible by writing them letters.
These letters will contain my questions and thoughts. I’m
also going to try and include an image which seems to fit with your story so
you can see we associate with you.
As I say Eve yours is the first one and it is one I begin
writing with some trepidation. You see there is a problem I have with you which
I don’t with most other biblical characters. I don’t know if you’re real. Your
story is the creation story and I am certain that that happened somewhat
differently to how ancient storytellers have recorded it. I also know what is
written about you comes from the combining of different creation myths from
different cultures. Yet…..I want you to be real. I want you to have existed in
some form and your story to be based upon a real person who’s reputation was
such your story got passed down orally by different cultures before it was then
written and refined by editors with their own agendas.
I like the idea in Genesis 1:27& 28 that you were
part of God’s creation of human kind where all were made in his image and
blessed by God to be fruitful and to multiply.
I wonder what exactly God said to you about looking after
the earth and all that was in it. I imagine that it was a more in-depth conversation
than we have recorded and he was more caring than the tone of these verses can
sometimes suggest to our generation.
The description of your coming into being in Gen 2 and
the verses around it are a real problem for me. Not because of what they say as
much as what others have done with them. Gen 2: 22 – 24 have been much misused
I think. I hold on to the Gen 1 version of you coming into being where you were
created equal rather than a subordinate creature made out of Adam’s rib. I think
it’s great you had a man to share your life with. Only thing is now people take
those words and focus on the male and female bit too much and I know too many
people who get hurt by that. Not your fault I know…..I guess you’d probably be
dead angry if you knew how people were misusing your story for hate when your
life is a symbol of so much which is good as well as a warning….well we’ll get
to that later.
I love the idea you were naked but not ashamed. To me it
shows that you were created to be confident and free, just as you were.
But then we get to the garden. I’d love to know what it
looked like. I’m sure it was more amazing than anything I could ever imagine. But
then there is the incidence with the fruit. The first recorded wrong choice we
have if we’re taking the books of the bible chronologically in the order we
have presented to us rather than the order they were written.
Why did you make that choice? What exactly happened then?
It’s too complex for me to even start getting my head around in many ways. But
I guess it shows a key part of what it means to be human, we have a free will
and have the freedom to make bad choices as well as good ones.
We often associate apples with the fruit you ate,
although your story in the bible gives no indication of that. That’s why I
include it as an image today, although I know that like so much we lay on top
of the text the apple is associated with you only because it is easier for
people to connect with than some random fruit.
I don’t quite get the nakedness thing and why suddenly
that becomes bad. I mean if everything in the garden was good before we got
evil and you were naked then surely being naked was ok. But….you recognise it
as bad. I guess that it is probably symbolic of shame and lack of self esteem
entering the world with evil. We still struggle with all sorts of body image
problems today and debates about what is good and what is not.
I have to admit when I see your conversation in the
garden with God after you ate from the fruit and recognise your nakedness I
find it both tragic and hilarious. It was tragic that God becomes angry and
feels the need to punish you for a bad choice but at the same time it is kind
of funny how you start shifting the blame around.
I know this is passage is about showing people choices
have consequences and bad choices can have lasting impacts as well as trying to
provide explanations to primitive societies about natural phenomena but I still
struggle with it. You see childbirth and period pain seem to come from this as
do the fact work for many is hard. It also makes patriarchy biblical when it
says “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you”.
I really struggle with that because I don’t see God like
that. I can’t come to terms with this vengeful being who endorses patriarchy as
a punishment for a wrong choice. It doesn’t fit with the God I know or the God
who I see working through women as well as men in the Old as well as the New
Testament of the bible. Rather it seems to fit with the political agendas of
those who seek to justify the oppression of women.
I like the way your name means the mother of all who live
and the picture of God making garments for you, perhaps teaching you how to sew
enabling you to share those skills with others. As God sends you from the
garden to prevent further pain coming and to protect you from more bad choices
I just see sorrow, yet a sorrow deeply rooted in God’s love for you.
I think this letter is becoming a little long and so I
shall stop here. They have put chapters in our bible and finishing here is convenient
as it takes us to the end of Genesis chapter three.
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